Murphy Read online

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  Also by Susan Hughes

  Bailey

  Riley

  Copyright © 2014 by Susan Hughes

  Cover and internal design © 2016 by Sourcebooks, Inc.

  Series design and illustrations by Jeanine Murch

  Cover image © lucianna gerghi/iStockphoto

  Internal illustrations by Bill King

  Sourcebooks and the colophon are registered trademarks of Sourcebooks, Inc.

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means including information storage and retrieval systems—except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews—without permission in writing from its publisher, Sourcebooks, Inc.

  The characters and events portrayed in this book are fictitious and are used fictitiously. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental and not intended by the author.

  Published by Sourcebooks Jabberwocky, an imprint of Sourcebooks, Inc.

  P.O. Box 4410, Naperville, Illinois 60567–4410

  (630) 961–3900

  Fax: (630) 961–2168

  www.sourcebooks.com

  Originally published as Murphy Helps Out in 2014 in Canada by Scholastic Canada Ltd.

  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

  Names: Hughes, Susan, 1960- author. | Murch, Jeanine Henderson, illustrator.

  Title: Murphy / Susan Hughes ; illustrations by Jeanine Henderson Murch.

  Other titles: Murphy helps out

  Description: Naperville, lllinois : Sourcebooks Jabberwocky, [2016] | Series: Puppy pals ; 3 | “Originally published as Murphy Helps Out in 2014 in Canada by Scholastic Canada Ltd.” | Summary: Kat’s new friend Grace and her best friend Maya learn to be friends, while the three girls help a lost cocker spaniel find her way back home.

  Identifiers: LCCN 2015044673 | (13 : alk. paper)

  Subjects: | CYAC: Dogs--Fiction. | Animals--Infancy--Fiction. | Friendship--Fiction.

  Classification: LCC PZ7.H87396 Mu 2016 | DDC [E] 2 23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2015044673

  For sweet Evany Logue

  CONTENTS

  Front Cover

  Title Page

  Copyright

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  About the Author

  A Sneak Peek at Bijou

  Back Cover

  Puppies were scampering across the grass. There must have been over twenty of them!

  Some puppies were brown, some were black, and some were brown with white spots. Some puppies had perky ears, and some had floppy ears. Some had big, wide paws; some had little, dainty paws. All the puppies had sparkling eyes and wagging tails.

  Kat was in her classroom, sitting at her desk.

  Her eyes were closed. She was having her favorite puppy daydream.

  Her mother and father smile at her.

  “Of course you can have a puppy, Kat,” her mother says.

  Her father sweeps out his arm. “Have any one you want!”

  Kat smiles too. She looks at all the puppies, and she tries to choose. The little red Irish setter puppy gazing up at her with the dark-brown eyes? The black-and-white dalmatian puppy tumbling across the grass? The adorable wheaten terrier pup with the brown face and the black muzzle?

  Suddenly the bell rang. School was over for the day, and the dream ended. But that was okay. Kat had puppy plans this afternoon.

  “Let’s go!” Kat said to Grace, who was at the desk next to hers. The girls jumped out of their seats, grabbed their things, and made a beeline for the classroom door. But before they reached it, they heard their teacher’s voice.

  “Katherine, Grace, where are you off to in such a hurry?” Ms. Mitchell stood at the front of the classroom. She was smiling.

  Kat liked her fourth-grade teacher a lot. For one thing, Ms. Mitchell knew how much Kat loved puppies—and her teacher liked puppies too.

  “You won’t believe it, Ms. Mitchell!” said Kat. “Remember how I told you my aunt opened up a dog-grooming salon? We get to help her with a puppy today!”

  Ms. Mitchell smiled. “How wonderful!”

  “Her business is doing really well,” explained Kat. “She thought it would take some time to get going, but she was swamped with customers all last week. So she asked Maya and me to help out after school. Did you know that Grace loves puppies, just like me?”

  “I had an idea that she might,” Ms. Mitchell confessed, her brown eyes sparkling.

  Grace chimed in, “When Kat found out, she asked me to help out at Tails Up! too!”

  Grace was new to the town of Orchard Valley. She was slim with brown eyes. Grace often wore her long red hair in braids. She reminded Kat of Anne of Green Gables.

  It had taken a few days, but Kat and Grace had become friends. Not best friends, like Kat and Maya—they did almost everything together. Maya liked to tease Kat and make her laugh. She said, “You love puppies, but your name is Kat? That’s crazy!” In return, Kat helped Maya with school projects and told her silly jokes. They had been in the same class since kindergarten, but not this year.

  But now Kat had a new friend: Grace. And Maya had agreed to try to be friends with Grace too, even though the girls didn’t know each other at all and they didn’t seem to have much in common. Grace was quiet. Maya wasn’t. Grace had trouble saying how she felt about things. Maya did not.

  Kat was keeping her fingers crossed that her two friends—her best friend and her new friend—would get along. This was the first time they were going to hang out together. They were going to Tails Up! together, and Kat had invited both girls to come over for dinner after. Maya had been to Kat’s house at least a million times, but it would be Grace’s very first time.

  “Well, how lovely!” Ms. Mitchell looked pleased. “Any puppy would be very lucky to have you three looking after him. Have fun, girls!”

  Kat and Grace hurried out of the school and across the playground. They stopped to look for Maya. They were all walking to Tails Up! together.

  “Sorry I’m late.” Maya ran up, trying to catch her breath. “Okay, let’s go. But just tell me one thing: did I miss the answer to the joke?”

  “Oh, right, the joke!” Grace said, grinning. She rolled her eyes. Every morning, Kat told a joke. Today it was, “Why are dalmatians not good at hide-and-seek?” As usual, she made her friends wait forever before she told them the answer.

  “So tell us, Kat-Nip,” Maya demanded. “Answer.”

  “Are you sure?” Kat teased. “You don’t want to guess again?”

  “Oh, please. Put us out of our misery,” Maya said. “Right, Grace?”

  “Right!” Grace chimed in.

  “Here goes: dalmatians aren’t good at hide-and-seek because they’re always spotted!” Kat said.

  “Agh!” moaned Grace and Maya.

  “Worst joke ever!” Maya complained happily, as they all rushed toward Tails Up!

  The waiting room was packed, just as it had been every afternoon since Tails Up! opened. Today, a red-haired woman sat with a perky Yorkshire terrier on her lap. Another woman was weighing her schnauzer on the doggy scale. A big man sat with a collie lying at his feet. The dog was panting nervously. Another man, thin and fidgety, sat alone on a chair. He wore black glasses. His long legs were crossed, and one foot was bouncing.

  There was no one behind the front counter. Aunt Jenn hadn’t hired a receptionist yet.

  The girls stood along the wall, waiting patiently. Grace took a dog magazine from the rack and began reading. Maya elbowed Kat. She jerked her head toward the man sitting alone. “Greyhound. Totally,” she whispered. It was one of the girls’ favorite games. They saw a person and named the dog breed he or she most resembled.

  Kat giggled and nodded. Yes. A greyhound. Absolutely.

  A few minutes later, Aunt Jenn came out of the grooming room. She wore her pink grooming coat, and her brown hair was pulled back in a ponytail. She cuddled a skinny whippet in her arms.

  “Oh, you sweet gal,” she cooed to the dog. “Having those toenails clipped wasn’t so bad, was it? You don’t need to be so nervous next time.”

  She handed the dog to the skinny man.

  Kat and Maya looked at each other and smiled. “Close!” Kat said to her friend. The man’s dog wasn’t a greyhound, but Maya hadn’t been far off.

  Grace looked puzzled. “Tell you later,” Kat promised.

  “Did it go all right? You’re sure my Milly is fine?” the man asked, his nose twitching. Clutching Milly in one arm, he pushed at his glasses once, twice. His Adam’s apple bobbed in his throat as he swallowed.

  “Oh, yes.” Aunt Jenn gave the man’s arm a reassuring pat. “She calmed right down once I started.”

 
“Yes. Yes. Of course.” The man cleared his throat again. “Not sure why she gets so nervous about things. Well, thank you. Good-bye then.”

  Aunt Jenn greeted the three girls with a happy smile and waved them into her office. Inside there were two large grooming tables and two stand dryers. Along the walls were tables holding baskets of grooming brushes, clippers, shavers, shampoo bottles, and other equipment.

  Aunt Jenn closed the door, sank down into her chair, and blew out a sigh.

  “This is the first time I’ve sat down all day!” she said. “People have been dropping by with their dogs since I opened my door this morning. And the phone has been ringing off the hook!”

  Just then, the phone out in the waiting room began ringing. “Isn’t it great?” Aunt Jenn punched her fist in the air.

  The girls laughed.

  “So, Kitty-Kat,” said Aunt Jenn, using her special name for Kat. “I’m relieved that you and your pals can help me out again this week. But are you sure you have enough time? I don’t want your parents getting angry with me because you aren’t doing your schoolwork!”

  “We have lots of time,” said Kat firmly. “We can be here every day after school this week. Right, Grace? Maya?”

  “Right,” Maya agreed.

  Grace nodded. She pulled on the end of one of her braids.

  “Wonderful. So, let me tell you about this week’s puppy.” Aunt Jenn popped a piece of gum in her mouth. “Murphy is a three-month-old Shetland sheepdog, or sheltie. Because they are sheepdogs, they have a bit of a herding instinct. That means they like to chase and, well, herd things. They aren’t big dogs. They are friendly, loyal, and gentle. Murphy’s owner, Brad, is away visiting his ill grandmother. He told me that Murphy needs lots of exercise. He likes to run and play.” Aunt Jenn lifted her eyebrows. She blew a pink bubble with her gum. “So, what do you think, girls?”

  “We’d love to walk him, Aunt Jenn,” Kat said excitedly.

  “Perfect,” said Aunt Jenn, jumping up. “Let me introduce you!” Adjusting her hair into a new, neater ponytail, she led the way back into the waiting room.

  The woman with the Yorkshire terrier stood up. “Are we next?” she asked. The Yorkie yipped.

  “In a moment, Mrs. Potts and Pixie,” said Aunt Jenn with a smile.

  Mrs. Potts sat down, grumbling, and Pixie yipped again.

  “Are you sure you wouldn’t like to leave your dogs with me until I can get to them?” Aunt Jenn asked the two other customers with dogs. “Really, I have a nice big area where they can wait for their appointments.”

  The man with the collie shook his head. “No thanks. I prefer to wait.”

  “What about Max?” asked Aunt Jenn. The woman with the schnauzer glanced at her watch and agreed. She promised to return in two hours.

  Aunt Jenn asked Maya to take Max’s leash. Then they all went into the doggy day care room in the back. It was large, with four dog kennels in a row along one wall. There was also a large fenced-in area, like a playpen.

  “That’s where Max can go,” Aunt Jenn said.

  Maya led the dog into the pen and unclipped his leash. She stepped back out and closed the gate behind her. Max ran to the water bowl and drank. Then, wagging his tail, he sniffed around the edges of the fence, and finally lay down on the dog bed. In a moment he was asleep.

  In the meantime, Kat had spotted Murphy. And Murphy had spotted them!

  The girls and Aunt Jenn hurried over to his kennel to say hello.

  “What a sweet little guy!” cooed Grace.

  “He’s adorable,” said Kat.

  The sheltie pup wagged his tail so hard, his whole body wiggled.

  “His coat is such a beautiful color,” said Maya.

  “Yes,” agreed Aunt Jenn. “And it will stay beautiful even as it changes. Sheltie coats start off light and they darken as the pups grow up.”

  Murphy was a lovely golden color, with a light covering of black on top. He had a white chest and collar. Each of his paws was tipped in white. His nose was black, his tail was black, and his eyes were dark brown. His ears were tipped down.

  “Murphy! How are you, boy?” asked Kat. “What a sweetheart!”

  Murphy wagged and wiggled some more.

  “Now, like most shelties, this little guy might be a little shy with you girls. His owner said he takes his time to get to know people,” Aunt Jenn said. She opened the door to the kennel. “Here, lift him out, Kat.”

  Carefully, Kat scooped up the puppy. Murphy squirmed happily in her arms. He poked his nose against Kat’s face, then licked her cheek.

  He smelled so lovely! Kat stroked his head and then scratched behind his ears.

  “Okay, clearly a match made in heaven. Now I must give a brush-and-cut to the very patient Pixie,” Aunt Jenn joked. She blew another pink bubble with her gum. “Girls, I’ll see you later.”

  Once the door was closed, Kat held Murphy for a few more minutes, breathing in his sweet puppy smell. Then, reluctantly, she set him down.

  The excited puppy raced over to the fenced-in area where Max slept. Murphy wagged his tail, waiting for Max to wake up and play with him. But Max just yawned and didn’t open his eyes.

  Murphy wagged his tail again and then began exploring the room, sniffing the bags of dog food, the other kennels, and the closed door.

  The girls watched, entranced. Then Maya said, “Hey, what about us, Murphy? We want to say hi too!” She crouched down and put out her hand. “Come here, boy!”

  The sheltie pup stopped. He cocked his head inquisitively.

  “Come on, boy!” Maya said encouragingly.

  Hesitantly, Murphy began trotting toward her. But as he got close, he changed his mind. He veered away, toward Kat, but his paws slipped on the tiled floor. He skidded sideways, then scrambled back onto his feet, ran to Kat, and hid between her legs. Once safe, he peered out at Maya and Grace.

  Maya burst out laughing and Grace smiled.

  “You don’t have to be shy of us,” Grace said softly. “We’re your friends.”

  Murphy gave his tail one small wag. The girls laughed again.

  “I guess he’s a little clingy to me because I was the first one of us to pick him up,” said Kat.

  She bent down and clipped the leash to Murphy’s collar. “Okay, tough guy,” Kat said with a grin. “Time for the park!”

  The girls left the clinic through the back door. Kat was surprised that the puppy was so good on the leash. He didn’t wander onto lawns to sniff trees. He didn’t lie down in puddles. Instead he seemed to like staying close to Kat. He bounded along beside her, his nose up, his tail high.

  Just being with Murphy gave Kat such a feeling of happiness. Looking at the adorable puppy made her smile!

  As Kat walked ahead with the pup, she listened to Grace and Maya chatting behind her.

  “I read that shelties are protective. They bark a lot to warn their family of intruders, unless they’re trained not to,” Maya said.

  “Our farm dog, Bella, was a mutt,” Grace said. “We never knew what breeds were in her, but we thought that there might have been a bit of sheltie. And maybe a dash of husky and a pinch of hound. We always joked that Bella was like a secret recipe!”

  Maya didn’t say anything for a moment. Then she said, “There are so many great dog breeds. I keep changing my mind about which one I like best.” She yanked at Kat’s hair. “It drives Kat-Nip crazy!”

  Kat turned around, and Maya made a funny face at her.

  “I’m not sure what my favorite breed is,” Grace said. “We never even talked about getting a dog or what breed we wanted. Bella just showed up on our farm one day.”

  “Really?” asked Kat. She wanted to hear more about Bella, but Maya interrupted. “One week, I like pugs best,” said Maya. It was like she hadn’t even heard what Grace was saying. She went on, “Another week, I like rottweilers. This week, I would choose a…a Lhasa apso, I think. Do you know what those are?”

  Grace began to answer, but Maya didn’t give her a chance. “Lhasa apsos are smallish dogs. They have beautiful long hair that sweeps along the ground when they walk. They have long ears and long bangs. They are like one big hairdo!”