The bloodhound puppy sat down and planted her oversized paws firmly on the ground.“Attention, everyone at the Purrfect Paw-tisserie! We’re looking for the three kittens who were catnapped from Paris by their evil butler! Are they here?”
The kittens exchanged nervous glances. Who were these strange puppies, and why were they looking for Berlioz, Marie, and Toulouse?
[Картинка: img_6]
Toulouse and Berlioz raced across the caf? and into the kitchen, then huddled with their sister behind the pastry case.
Marie turned to their canine friend Pierre.“Do you know those dogs?”
Pierre shook his head.“Bah! No. If I did, I’m sure I’d remember that howl.”
“One of us should find out what they want,” Berlioz said. “Marie, you’re good at that kind of thing.”
Marie thought about it for a moment, swishing her tail.“That’s true. Iam a bit…gutsier than you two.”
Toulouse bopped Marie on her ear.“Gutsy? I’ll show you gutsy—”
“Hello?” The bloodhound puppy’s voice echoed through the Paw-tisserie. “Three kittens? This is their caf?, isn’t it?”
Before Marie could speak up, Toulouse summoned his courage, puffed up his fur, and stepped out in front of the pastry case.
“Hello,” he said, trying to make his voice sound deeper. “I’m Toulouse, one of the kittens you’re looking for. Can I help you?”
The puppy raised one eyebrow and stared at Toulouse with big dark eyes.
Toulouse stared back, not blinking. He swallowed hard.Gulp.
Then the puppy broke out into a toothy grin.“Leon, we found them!”
The two dogs bounded toward Toulouse in a flash of fur and wagging tails. The basset hound sniffed Toulouse’s left ear, then the right. The bloodhound ruffled the fur on Toulouse’s head with one big paw.
[Картинка: img_7]
“We’re mighty pleased to meet you,” the bloodhound puppy told Toulouse. “I’m Nadine.”
“Leon here,” the basset hound announced, then carefully looked Toulouse up and down. “You’re acat. I’ve never gotten this close to a cat before.”
“You smell funny,” Nadine added.
“Hey, don’t be rude,” Leon scolded her, then turned back to Toulouse. “We’ve come a long way to meet you and the rest of your litter. All the way from the countryside, in fact.”
Nadine took a look around the caf?, which had fallen silent since they’d walked in. All the animals were watching.
When Nadine spotted Toulouse’s painting in the corner, she moved toward it. “Well, gosh-a-golly. That looks just like the riverbank where we live. And is that supposed to be a water lily?”
“Yes!” Toulouse replied. “You recognize all that?”
“Of course,” Nadine replied. “That’s where you and your family ended up the night you were catnapped. Right?”
“How did you know?” Toulouse asked with surprise.
Leon chimed in:“My dad, Lafayette, and Nadine’s papa, Napoleon, found the basket you were sleeping in when the butler drove you into the country. Not too long after, we saw a newspaper that reported the story. We put two and two together.”
“Don’t you mean one and one?” Nadine asked.
“It’s just anexpression, smarty-paws,” Leon said, rolling his eyes.
“I’ll finish the story,” Nadine announced. “So last month, we were out looking for scraps at a farm.…Early morning is the best time for that, because…Wait, that’s not important. At the farm, we met some geese who’d just come back from Paris. They told us all about the catnapped kittens opening a creature caf?. Said it was the most special place they’d seen in the whole city!”
“We just had to meet you all and see it for ourselves,” Leon added. “But where are the other kittens?”
“Hello!” Marie said as she marched out from behind the pastry case. “I’m Marie. Welcome to the Purrfect Paw-tisserie.”
After a moment, Berlioz crept out, too.“Hi, I’m Berlioz,” he muttered.
“And I’m their friend Claudette,” their puppy pal said as she joined the group.
Nadine looked at Toulouse, then Marie, then Berlioz.“So it’s true? There’s just three of you?”
“What happened to the rest of your litter?” Leon added.
“Leon!” Nadine exclaimed. “Remember, our papas told us to mind our manners when we got to Paris.”
Toulouse puffed up his chest again.“We’ve always been a litter of three.”
“Wow,” Leon said, then paused to scratch behind one ear with a hind leg. “I’m the oldest often.”
“Me too,” Nadine added proudly.
Claudette nodded.“That’s the way it is with some puppies. My litter was five, but we all got adopted by different families.”
“Only five?” Leon echoed. “And now you’re alone?”
When Marie saw the hurt look on Claudette’s face, she said, “Right now we’re all together! If you’ve come all the way from the countryside, we should make it worth the trip. Have a seat and we’ll bring you a tray of treats!”
The kittens took the dogs to the biggest table in the caf?, the blue one in the sunny corner.
Nadine and Leon hung back, circling Claudette and trying to sniff her.
“So…you live with a human family?” Leon asked her. “Doesn’t that get boring?”
“I love my family,” Claudette said. “And I never get bored. They take me everywhere! They have a big car and let me hang my head out the window.”
“That’s my favorite part, too,” Leon said. “I’ve ridden in so many cars. Trucks, too! And wagons. And carriages.”
“Madame has a carriage,” Toulouse chimed in. “They’re bumpy, but fun.”
“And our friend Frou Frou the horse lets me ride on her hat,” Berlioz added.
“Can’t be as much fun as the sidecar of a motorcycle,” Nadine said. “That was the best thing ever.”
Leon nodded.“We’re really good at sneaking onto human moving machines without anyone seeing.”
“We did that once!” Toulouse said. “When we were catnapped.”
“Then you know how exciting it is,” Nadine said with a sneaky smile. Then she turned to Claudette and asked, “Hey, how many human thingamajigs have you chewed up? I’ve ruined three pairs of slippers, a boot, a suitcase, an old umbrella…”
“I destroyed ahuuuuuuge rubber ball!” Leon exclaimed.
Claudette looked down at the floor.“I don’t chew up human things. That’s naughty.”
Nadine raised one eyebrow and glanced at Leon. Leon did the same thing back to Nadine.
“But I, um, do other cool things,” Claudette offered, perking up her ears. “I can smell a stick of salami from the other side of the house!”
Nadine’s eyes widened. “Wow, is that it? I have quite the sniffing record. Iam a bloodhound, after all.”
Marie glared at Nadine for a moment before announcing,“Claudette? Boys? I need to talk to you about a really important, um, problem with the, uh, oven.”
She pulled Claudette, Berlioz, and Toulouse into a huddle on the other side of the caf?.
“Those puppies are really rude,” Marie whispered.
“They’re just being competitive,” Toulouse said. “Maybe because they have so many brothers and sisters, they’re always trying to feel special.”
“But they’re makingus feelbad,” Claudette added. “Whatever anyone says, they’ll just come back with some way they’re better.”
“It is kind of annoying,” Berlioz agreed, “even if they don’t mean to be.”
“It does seem like they turn everything into a contest,” Toulouse said. “But what’s so bad about that? Contests are fun.”
“Hmmm,” Marie said, her eyes lighting up with an idea. “You know what? If they want a contest, we can give them a contest. I’ll be right back.”
With that, she scampered off to the kitchen.
[Картинка: img_8]
Fifteen minutes later, everyone in the caf? had gathered around two tables. Claudette sat at one, while Nadine and Leon sat at another.