I wanted to remind Howie that Chester’s definition of reality was not necessarily a match for Webster’s, but I was feeling a little too carsick at the moment to do anything more than groan.
I groaned the rest of the way to Chateau Bow-Wow.
At first glance, the place looked as I remembered it: a large, creepy house high on a hill with a compound of cages behind it. The compound was surrounded by a tall wooden fence. There was a gate in the fence and a sign on the gate welcoming us. I noticed the sign had been changed. It used to read
A SPECIAL BOARDING HOUSE FOR SPECIAL CATS AND
dogs. Now cats and dogs had been replaced by PETS. I wondered at the change. Noticing that change brought other changes to my attention. The house and the cages had been repainted. There were some new shrubs here and there in the compound and the rickety wooden fence had been reinforced by a metal one.
Something more than paint and shrubs was different though. I couldn’t put my paw on it, but there was something missing.
Shortly after the Monroes left, Chester, Howie, and I found ourselves standing in the center of the
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compound in the midday sun. The air was as still as a puppy who’s just chewed a hole in the carpet and hears her master’s key in the door.
Howie looked around in awe. “So this is where I was born,” he said. I followed his gaze as he turned to take it all in. The grassy compound was surrounded on three sides by seemingly empty cages— I made a mental note to tell Howie that at Chateau Bow-Wow “cages” are called “bungalows”—behind which stood the wood-and-metal fence. The fourth wall of the compound was actually the back wall of the house with an extension of fence going out from one corner. There was a door in the wall leading into Dr. Greenbriar’s office and a gate in the fence leading outside.
It was incredibly quiet.
“Must be siesta time,” Chester quipped.
I nodded in agreement.
Howie sniffed the air. “Maybe we’re the only ones here.”
That’s when it hit me. The big difference in Chateau Bow-Wow was that our friends weren’t there. Max, Louise, Georgette, Taxi, Howard and Heather, even crazy Lyle—they had been what had made Chateau Bow-Wow so, shall we say, unique. I couldn’t imagine the place without them.
A lump was forming in my throat when all at once I heard a familiar voice call out, “Harold! Chester! And oh, my gosh, is that little Howie?”
I turned. There at the door to the office stood Jill,
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an old friend. She flung her arms open wide and ran toward us, tripping on a tree root. Another girl followed on the first girl’s heels.
Jill gave me a big hug around the neck as I licked her face.
“Do you two know each other?” Howie asked, and he added, “Just a hunch.”
“This is Jill,” I told him. “She works here. Last time, there was another helper, a real clown named Harrison, but I don’t think—”
“Oh, it’s so good to see you guys,” Jill squealed. “I just got to work and Dr. Greenbriar said you were here. I’m his assistant now, isn’t that neat? Of course, Harrison… you remember Harrison.”
Chester rolled his eyes.
“Well, Harrison has started his own comic book company, so I’ve taken his job for the summer. And Daisy helps me.” She nodded at the other girl.
Daisy looked like a daisy. She had this big, open face and wild, yellow hair. She was also what we pets call a “gusher.”
“Ooooo,” she crooned, grabbing Howie and squeezing him so tight his eyes bulged, “you are sooo cute. I could just eat you up, little puppy.
Howie licked Daisy, which only made her giggle and gush some more. “You’re just as cute as the dickens,” she said. “How about if I call you Dickens?”
“How about if she calls me a cab?” Chester muttered, “I want outta here.”
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Glancing at the fence, I thought, Not much chance of anybody getting out of this place.
“Daisy,” I heard Jill say then, “I’m afraid you’re going to have to put Howie down for now.”
“Aw, do I have to?”
” ‘Fraid so. We really need to finish getting the bungalows ready for these guys.”
Daisy nuzzled Howie’s nose. “Goodbye, Dickens,” she said. “Hug ya later, okay?”
She put Howie gently back on the ground and the two girls walked away. Howie couldn’t take his eyes off Daisy. “She’s cute,” he said with a sigh. “Gee, Uncle Harold, is this what they call puppy love?”
Before I could answer, Chester shook his head and started to walk away. “Dogs,” he muttered.
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As if on cue, two dogs poked their heads out from behind one of the far bungalows. “Hallo!” shouted the smaller one. “I’m Linda!”
“And I’m Bob!” shouted the other. “Care to join us for a little barbecue?”
BARBECUE-FLAVORED dog biscuits sat propped against the back of what we came to realize was Bob’s bungalow. Bob was a cocker spaniel in a Mets cap; his friend Linda was a West Highland white terrier bedecked in a knotted yellow bandanna.
“Don’t you just love barbecue?” Linda asked. “Bob and I say we don’t know how we get through each winter without it.”
“Well, but then there’s sushi,” said Bob.
I nodded politely. I wasn’t aware of any raw fish-flavored dog biscuits on the market, but I kept my ignorance to myself.
“The kids insisted that we be allowed to keep our barbecue biscuits,” Linda went on. “That nasty Dr. Greenbriar didn’t want to let us. He said something silly about a balanced diet, but the kids told him that they were paying the bill and they would decide what a balanced diet was.”
“Where’re you folks from?” Bob asked.
“Centerville,” I told him.
“Oh, it’s so sweet there,” Linda said. “Quaint. Charming. We’re from Upper Centerville.” I could have guessed. “We have a pool. Of course, we have
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to be careful not to fall in, don’t we, Bob?” Bob nodded. “Do you have a pool?”
“We did,” Howie said, “until I bit it and the air came out.”
Bob and Linda smiled politely as if Howie were just too quaint for words.
“So,” Chester said. It was his first word since we’d joined the two dogs. Well, not his first word exactly. He had said, “Not if my life depended on it,” when they’d asked him if he’d care for a barbecue-flavored dog biscuit. “So,” he repeated, “are we it? Is anybody else staying here?”
Bob and Linda looked at each other, their brows furrowed.
“Let me put it this way,” Bob said at last, “we’re the only normal ones.”
“Really,” said Linda. “You won’t believe the riffraff. There are these two cats.” She looked at Chester and scrunched up her face as if her dog biscuit had stayed on the barbecue too long. “Trust me,” she said. “You don’t want to know them. And then there’s this character they call ‘The Weasel.’”
“Why’s that?” Chester asked.
“I expect it’s because he’s a weasel,” said Bob. Turning to Linda, he said, “Don’t forget the parrot, hon.”
“Oh, that bird!” Linda said, fluttering her eyelashes. “Squawk, squawk, squawk, all day long. Thank heavens they cover it up at night. And then there’s this strange dog.”
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“Size of a horse,” said Bob. “And talk about moody. Sheesh. I told him he should lighten up, try deep breathing, get a hobby.”
Linda nodded. “Most depressed dog I ever saw,” she said. “Oh, if the kids only knew the kind of place they were leaving us.”
“This is the longest the kids have been away from us,” Bob explained. “They send us postcards, but we can’t help but worry.”
“Here, let me show you,” Linda said. She pulled a card out from behind the biscuit bag. On the front was a picture of a long stretch of sandy beach. On the back were these words: