001Hi everybody. My name is Katherine Row. I am the former assistant principal at Medv Elementary School and the upcoming assistant principal at Laurel Park Middle School. And today I will be reading um chapters 31 through 35 of Dogtown to you. I hope you are enjoying this book so far. Chapter 31, Reading Buddy Row. Reading Buddy Row had spacious pens, good AC in the summer, and central heat in the winter. It was the nicest section of Dog Town. Every dog wanted to be there, but earning a spot on Reading Buddy Row wasn't easy. Dancing, prancing, howling, growling, or sleeping during story time were all big no nos. Dogs like Buster couldn't sit still. They wanted to play ball. Other dogs were kicked out for snoring, growling at the villains, or covering their eyes during the scary
002parts. The kids understood what we were doing, but the grown-ups did not. Geraldine and I like to bark to warn the heroes where the villain was hiding. We weren't exactly booted out of reading buddies, but we weren't exactly ass back either. Metal dogs didn't have these problems. Metal dogs sat like fence posts while the kids read to them. There's the picture. Chapter 32. Quinn. Mr. Mr. Molinari was our favorite teacher. He had a biscuit for every dog and a kind word for every student. He understood reading buddies really well. So almost all of the kids in Mr. Molinari's class found a reading buddy right away. Often they picked a Jack Russell Terrier named Bear. Bear had an earnest listening expression. Ears perked, eyes wide, tail wagging. The kids adored him. I watched Bear to see
003how it was done, but I could not get the hang of it. The big dogs were also good reading buddies. Some of them anyway. Get a couple of newies and a mast stiff in there. And you need a gas mask. You know what I'm saying? Anywh who, there was this one kid, Quinn, who couldn't find a book or read or a dog to read it to. Quinn had hair combed in a direction hair was not meant to go and glasses that sat crooked on his head. His left shoe was generally untied, and he wore the same shirt every time we saw him. It had a picture of a star on it. Quinn would go up and down reading Buddy Rose, searching for a dog. Then he'd take out every book in every basket, searching for
004a story, but he could find neither. By the end of the hour, he'd be sitting in the corner all by himself. Since I was still hopeful management would give me another try at reading buddies, I hopped over to him and gave him a good sniff. He smelled terrific, like buttered toast with a touch of toothpaste. A smell like that and you'll go far in life. I took an immediate liking to him, so I dug through the book basket until I found a book about toast. I dragged it over to him, then settled back to hear the story. But Quinn didn't touch the book. This was not the one. Then I got another brainstorm. Quinn's shirt had a star on it. I hopped over I hopped to every basket until I found a book on the
005solar system. Yeah, I had it now. I'm so clever sometimes. But Quinn had no more interest in the book about the solar system than he had in the book about Toast. Clearly, it was time to deploy my secret weapon. H I wonder what it's going to be. Chapter 33. The three-legged show. I did my act. I tripod juggle. The tripod juggle. The hug and snuggle. A dog plays dead. A ball on my head. And a one paw spin just for Quinn. But I was wasting my time. Quinn couldn't have cared less. About then, management stepped in. Someone from the local news had shown up. And there was Quinn, sitting all by himself. It was a public relations disaster. Management walked Quinn past all the available dogs, but Quinn had no use for any of them.
006When Mr. Molinari saw what was going on, he said, "Leave Quinn be. He'll figure it out." Chapter 34. Butter toast with toothpaste. Quinn didn't figure it out. Week after week, he roamed from one end of the main building to the other. I kept an eye on him. It had been a long time since I'd gotten a whiff of buttered toast. And buttered toast with toothpaste. Couldn't get better than that. I wanted Quinn to like me. I wanted him to pick me. So, I tried to figure out what was going on with him. There were kids who didn't like reading buddies because they didn't like dogs or our reading buddies were too easy or they didn't get enough recess that day. But Quinn wasn't like any of these kids. Quinn was searching for something. I just
007didn't know what the picture. Chapter 35. Wandering. Then one day, Quinn's wandering took him down to the basement. Buster saw him first. He wagged his tail so hard it banged the pin. Two Scotties named Phil and Liil fell all over each other in a frenzy of excitement. Bill the Beagle whipped around in circles. Shag the sheep dog jumped up, banging his big paws on the fence, which sent great clouds of white hair drifting like snow to the ground. Quinn walked by all of them. But then at cage 92, he slowed down. Metalhead. Metalhead didn't wag his tail. He didn't stick his nose through the fence or dance on his hind legs. He didn't even look up. Quinn stared at him, rocking from foot to foot. Then he sat down. All he needed was a book.
008The problem was reading buddies didn't go to the basement, so there weren't any book baskets in there. For me to go all the way up to the main building, grab a book between my teeth, and hop back down to the basement would take too long. Reading buddies would be over by then.