Field of the Dogs

This is the 14th of the 15-chapter "Field of the Dogs," a children's story of a young boy and his dog as they adjust to a new home and family in Vermont.

CHAPTER 14: FRIENDS AND FEARS

SO FAR: Wes and Josh manage to scare the River Gang away but not before Manch is hurt. At the vet's, they hear what sounds like a fight.

"OK," the voice from the back room yelled, "OK! So he can just come home to die, then. I'm not putting him away. Suppose somebody took a notion to put me down that time I lost three fingers in a mower? Jeezum Crow, Doc. This dog is at least as tough as me!"

The yelling voice cracked then, as though the speaker might burst into tears any moment.

There was a soothing reply in a woman's voice, the words of which were too soft to make out. Josh and Wes looked at each other. Wes nodded. "It's old Jake Tidwell fighting for Ace."

"Who's the woman?"

"The vet, dummy. Dr. Walters."

Before too long a tall, leathery-skinned man emerged from the back carrying a huge yellow dog in his arms, followed by a tired looking young woman in a none-too-clean white coat. Wes jumped to his feet. Josh started up, but a whimper from Manch stopped him. Ace raised his head a painful inch off his master's arm and gave a weak wag of his tail.

The old man's face softened. "These fellers friends?"

"Yeah," said Josh. "Friends. I hope he makes it."

"Yours too," Jake Tidwell said as Wes opened the door for the old man to go out.

"Help him get Ace into his truck, will you, Wes?" the vet called out. "Looks like I got my hands full in here." She shook her head. "What's going on here? Has every dog in the county gone crazy? I just treated a weimaraner for fight wounds a couple of days ago."

Josh carried Manch into the back and laid him gently down on the metal table. The vet let out a low sigh as she examined him. "Doesn't this little guy know to pick on someone his own size?"

"He's going to be all right, isn't he?" Josh asked.

The vet sighed. "I hope so. Punctures, you see. Pretty deep. Your biggest worry here is infection. If you can keep 'em clean, they ought to heal up all right. Can you do that?"

Josh nodded. He could do anything. He had to.

"Bring him back next week. Or earlier if he doesn't seem to be getting better."

"OK. And ma'am," he hardly dared ask, "will Ace make it?"

"I wouldn't have given him a nickel's chance last night. Today - who knows?"

Josh called his mom and asked her to send Greg to pick them up. She got all worried on the phone, but he would only tell her that Manch had been in a fight and they were at the vet's. No, no, Josh wasn't hurt. He didn't mention the gun. He couldn't. How was he going to sneak it back into the house?

"They'll kill me," he said to Wes as they waited for Greg to come, "when they find out I took the gun."

"Act sincere," Wes advised. "It's the old George-Washington-and- the-cherry-tr routine. Parents are suckers for sincere."

But Josh was not convinced.

Greg didn't glance at Wes or the gun as he entered the waiting room. He came at once to Manch and inspected all his wounds. "How could this happen?" he asked Josh. "The poor thing."

"He was trying to protect me," Josh said. "These dogs from those houses down by the river ..."

"Flatlanders," Wes said contemptuously, forgetting for the moment that that was one of his favorite names for Josh. "Soon as they move to Vermont, they buy these huge dogs - without a flea's notion how to train 'em. They're letting these idiot dogs just run wild. ..."

The vet nodded. "This is the third injured dog I've treated in as many days. Of course Ace was hit, but, still, something funny is going on around here."

"Well, I guess we'd better get this poor old fellow home," Greg said. "You all right carrying him, Josh?"

"Yessir." He got up carefully. Wes followed, trying to keep the gun out of Greg's sight as he walked. But when they got to the door, Greg stopped to hold it for the boys.

"What the hey? Where did that gun come from?" This was it.

He was going to get it now. Greg would kill him.

NEXT WEEK: Beyond the Field of the Dogs

Copyright 1998 Katherine Paterson. Art copyright 1998 Emily Arnold McCully. Reprinted by permission of Breakfast Serials

STUDY QUESTIONS

Chapter 14

1. Would Wes or Greg or the vet believe Josh if he told them that the dogs talk? Would you believe him?

2. Will Manch be OK? Will Ace be OK?

3. Is Josh responsible for what happened to Manch?

4. If you were Greg, how would you handle the problem of the gun?

- Questions and teachers guide compiled by Jan McDonald and Cathy Foutch for the Pikes Peak Council of the International Reading Association.

Copyright 1999
Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning Company. All rights Reserved.