Marie turned away and began whispering to Claudette. Berlioz started playing one of his jazz tunes while a crowd of animals gathered around to watch and dance.
Then Toulouse spied his painting in the corner. It was still sitting unfinished on the easel, with that big pink smudge that was supposed to be a flower.
“I must be good for something else around here,” he muttered to himself.
He heard Nadine and Leon bickering behind him.
“I like your ideas for ingredients,” Nadine said. “But where will we find them here in Paris?”
“And you have a great plan for the decorations,” Leon added. “But we’re not exactly artists.”
Toulouse’s ears perked up, and he slowly approached the puppies.
“Ahem…” he said, his whiskers twitching nervously. “I think I can help you with both of those problems.”
“What do you mean?” Nadine asked.
Toulouse took a deep breath, then smiled.“Let me join your Dog Biscuit Bake-Off team and you’ll find out.”
[Картинка: img_13]
Two brown puppies chased an orange kitten down a Paris sidewalk, weaving in and out of the afternoon bustle of cars, wagons, and horse-drawn carriages.
At least, that was what it looked like. But the dogs weren’t chasing the cat. Toulouse was leading his new friends to his third most favorite place in the city: the Luxembourg Gardens.
(His first favorite place was home, of course, and second was the Paw-tisserie.)
“Whenever I need inspiration for a painting, I come here!” Toulouse called to Nadine and Leon. “Being outside helps me think, so maybe it’ll help us brainstorm for the Bake-Off.”
The puppies caught up with Toulouse as they rounded the corner into the park. It was a typical day at the Luxembourg Gardens: people walking in pairs or groups or sitting on blankets in the sun. A woman pushed a baby carriage past them.
Leon shook his head, his long basset hound ears brushing the ground.“I’ll never understand why humans can’t carry their young in their mouths, like dogs and cats do. They must be so lazy.”
Toulouse laughed.“I’ve never thought of it that way! There’s a lot I don’t understand about humans, but at least they’re interesting. Come on. There’s so much I want to show you.”
He started running along the path, but when he looked back, Nadine and Leon were no longer right behind him. Instead, they’d raced off in another direction, yipping with excitement.
[Картинка: img_14]
“Hey, guys!” Toulouse shouted. “My mama says you’re supposed to stay on the—”
The puppies, headed straight for a thicket of bushes that was separated from the path by a little fence, were too far away to hear him. Toulouse had often seen those bushes and wandered over to investigate, but he had always been too nervous to go past the fence.
“It’s okay to explore a bit, darling,” his mama, Duchess, always said. “But be careful and listen to your whiskers: they’ll tell you if something’s not safe.”
Now Nadine was jumping over the fence and Leon was crawling under it.
When he reached the other side, Leon called,“Here, kitty, kitty! Are you coming or not?”
Toulouse stood very still for a moment. His whiskers seemed to be saying,You’ll be fine as long as you stay with the puppies. He took a deep breath and ran under the fence as fast as he could. He followed Nadine and Leon into the bushes. There, it was cool and dark, like a little secret cave.
“You’re right, Toulouse,” Nadine said. “The parkis fun. Show us the best hiding spots in here.”
“H-h-hiding spots?” Toulouse stammered.
“Yes. Where do you go when you want to jump out suddenly and bark at something?” Leon asked. “Or, I mean,meow?”
“I don’t usually—”
“We’re here to get inspiration for the Bake-Off, remember?” Nadine reminded Leon.
“You and Toulouse can work on that part,” Leon said to Nadine, giving her a little kick with a back leg. “You’re better at that brainstorming stuff anyway. I’m the chaser and fetcher.”
Toulouse tilted his head.“That sounds like me and my brother and sister. We each have something we’re really good at.”
“Yup,” Nadine said. “Leon’s been teaching me how to run faster, and I show him how to calm down enough to do some thinking.”
“Really?” Toulouse asked with surprise. “You don’t just stick to your own jobs?”
Leon exclaimed,“Of course not! It would be boring to do only one thing all the time.” He spotted a branch above his head, then reached out and grabbed it with both paws. “You have tobranch out, get it?”
“We both wanted to get better at finding hiding spots,” Nadine told Toulouse, “so we took lessons from our dads.”
“Should we give you some tips?” Leon asked, and Toulouse nodded. “Well, first you get as low as you can to the ground. Then you keep climbing over roots and under branches.…”
“Go as far as you can into the bushes,” Nadine continued, “until you find a place where the leaves are so thick nobody would ever see you in there. But also not so thick that you can’t see out. Then, you watch.”
“Like this,” Leon said, and motioned for Toulouse and Nadine to follow him farther into the web of branches. They scrambled over some and scooted under others, their bellies almost touching the ground.
Finally, Leon stopped in what seemed like the deepest spot inside the thicket.“This is the perfect spot. Gather in close.”
They huddled together in the space, which was just big enough for the three of them. The wall of leaves had a tiny gap in the middle, like a window for them to peek out.
[Картинка: img_15]
“Pretty cool, eh?” Nadine said, nudging Toulouse.
Toulouse breathed deep and took it all in. The smell of dirt and greenery whirled around him, and the air felt heavier. People in the park were going about their business, with no idea that there were two puppies and a kitten watching them from a secret hideaway.
“Super cool,” Toulouse said with a sigh. “I wish I could come here and paint.”
“Hey, let’s be quiet for a few seconds,” Nadine whispered. “This is a good thinking place.”
After just a moment of silence, Leon said impatiently,“I don’t hear any ideas, but I do hear a wagon coming.”
“How can you tell it’s a wagon?” Toulouse asked.
Nadine and Leon explained what to listen for: the way the wheels squeaked, how fast they squeaked, and the kind of noise they made on the dirt of the park path.
“I’ve never been good at reading sounds that way,” Toulouse said. “But I’mgreat at reading colors and shapes.”
“What do you mean?” Leon asked, frowning.
Toulouse pointed with his paw to a woman sitting on a nearby bench, reading a book.
“See her dress?” Toulouse asked. “It’s dark blue. That’s a serious color. And the curve of her back as she’s bending over the book, like she wants to dive into the pages? It’s human body-speak forI’m thinking hard. So I bet she’s sad about something.”
Leon and Nadine both stared at Toulouse, their puppy noses twitching.
“I know, it sounds weird,” Toulouse admitted, pawing at the dirt with his front claws. “Berlioz and Marie are always making fun of me for stuff like that.”
“No!” Nadine said. “It’s not weird at all. It’s neat that you know so much about colors and shapes. That’ll really help us make a treat that will win the Bake-Off!”
Toulouse smiled with surprise.“Thanks! So…what else do you country puppies like to do outdoors?”
Nadine and Leon exchanged glances.“It rained last night,” Nadine said to Leon.
“I was thinking the same thing,” Leon said back.
“MUD BATH!” they both exclaimed.
“Follow us,” Nadine said to Toulouse. After they squirmed out of their hiding bush, all three friends took off across a lawn of green grass toward an area filled with tall trees. Nadine and Leon kept their noses close to the ground, sniffing for something.