eBook
Available on Compatible NOOK devices, the free NOOK App and in My Digital Library.
Related collections and offers
Overview
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9781490718071 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Trafford Publishing |
| Publication date: | 12/18/2013 |
| Sold by: | Barnes & Noble |
| Format: | eBook |
| Pages: | 32 |
| File size: | 3 MB |
Read an Excerpt
Inspector Ace and Sergeant Bubba
By Mavis E. Smith, Donnie Obina
Trafford Publishing
Copyright © 2014 Mavis E. SmithAll rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-4907-1808-8
CHAPTER 1
One night, after everyone had gone to bed, Ace heard a strange noise in his backyard. He woke his master, Mr. Cody Drummond, tugging at his arm as he lay in bed snoring, and told Cody he wanted to go out. Cody grumbled as he stumbled down the hall, half-asleep, opened the patio doors, and let Ace out.
If he had waited to see why Ace wanted to investigate, he would have been very, very surprised.
Ace cautiously moved into the shadows of some shrubs and waited until his eyes adjusted to the darkness. Again he heard the strange noise, a low, eerie, screechy, scratchy sound. Then he saw a shadow near the fence, a very big shadow. What Ace saw trying to climb the apple tree was unbelievable. It was a cat. The biggest cat Ace had ever seen. Three times as big as that fat cat from across the road. And it didn't meow or spit—it snarled, baring its teeth and showing fangs at the sides of its mouth. Its furry coat was striped with brown and cream.
Ace was a very brave German Shepherd dog, quite fearless in most situations, but he wasn't quite sure what to do about this furry huge brown-and-cream cat. Ace pondered his next move.
"Yeah," he said to himself, "I know just the man for the job: my best friend, Bubba."
Ace's big furry feet barely made a sound as he climbed up onto Ms. Emily Fontaine's back porch. Ace reached the puppy door and gave Bubba the signal: one paw knock, two whimpers, and a soft yelp. Ace cocked his head to one side to listen. He heard Bubba coming down the hall. He had been sleeping with his mistress, all tucked up in bed. Bubba crawled through the puppy door and onto the porch, where Ace was waiting for him.
Bubba yawned. "What's up, Inspector?"
"I heard an unusual noise, so when Cody let me out, I went to investigate. I've only seen the shadow of the thing, but it's big, and I thought you might want to investigate with me. Sh-sh-sh, can you hear it scratching now?"
Ace and Bubba perked up their ears to hear better. Bubba moved his little body to the edge of the porch. He stuck his head straight out, closed his tiny brown eyes, and set his nose to work. The wind ruffled over his head and through his long fine strands of fur. His nose wiggled with excitement from all the smells he sensed in the air.
Of course, there was Ace, his best buddy dog, and Mrs. Grady's rabbit had been through the garden today, and he smelled the squirrels that lived in the big oak tree. There was the awful smell of the paint thinner Ms. Emily had left in the garage—whew! But it was really too cold to stand there with the wind blowing. It was just too cold to keep on sniffing.
"Sorry, Ace, I don't smell anything unusual yet. Where did you say this thing was?"
"Come on over to my place, Bubba," Inspector Ace said, "and I'll show you."
The glow from the streetlight wasn't very bright, and the moon was hiding behind the clouds. But Mr. Moon knew that Inspector Ace and Sergeant Bubba needed his help, so he came out from behind the clouds and lit up the backyard. Bubba could hardly believe what he saw.
"Ace, my friend, I know what that is."
"W-w-what?" stuttered Ace. "What is it, and how do you know?"
"It's a baby tiger cub, Ace. I know it is. I saw it last night."
"You saw it last night! Where did you see that fat cat, and where were you last night?"
"Ace, it isn't a fat cat. I told you, it's a baby tiger cub. I saw it on television when I was watching with Ms. Emily." Bubba loved to sit on Ms. Emily's lap as she watched television. He especially liked the shows about cats and dogs, but he didn't care too much for the news.
"That baby tiger cub has escaped from the circus."
"You don't say," said Ace.
"Yes, I do say," said Bubba.
Ace believed his little friend then, but there were times when Bubba did exaggerate a bit. He always seemed to think everything was so big and so dangerous. But maybe that was because Bubba was only fifteen inches high. Ace sat down to think. OK! So it was a tiger cub that had escaped from the circus.
"So what do you think we should do, Bubba?"
"I think we should round him up, Ace—that's what I think we should do—and take him back to the circus."
"Round him up. Just how do we do that?"
"Well, you should know, Ace. You are a shepherd dog, aren't you?"
Inspector Ace and Sergeant Bubba sat together on the porch in the light of the moon and pondered their next move.
In the distance, they could hear the rumbling of a train as it came closer to pass along the tracks at the top of their road. But there was another sound, and as the train sounds got farther and farther away, Ace and Bubba realized what the other sound was. The milk truck was making its early morning deliveries. They heard it stop at Mrs. Hardy's. They heard it and smelled it too, and they weren't the only ones with an acute sense of smell. The baby tiger cub was sniffing the air. He made a yowwll sound, jumped to the ground, and padded right past Inspector Ace and Sergeant Bubba as though they weren't even there.
"Come on, let's follow," Bubba said.
The little tiger cub was very fast for his size. He was just a baby after all. He padded along on his soft feet, nose in the air, following the scent of the milk truck. He was hoping he could catch up with the milk truck for a drink of milk. He had really missed his mother since yesterday and was very tired and thirsty. But the milkman, Ian James, had finished his rounds for the day and was driving fast to get back to the dairy and home for breakfast. The milkman picked up speed, the tiger cub picked up speed, Ace picked up speed, but little Bubba could find no more speed in his tiny legs.
The milkman, Ian James, reached the end of Kent Street, turned down Lima Street, then took a shortcut through the alley. As the procession turned into the alley, Bubba remembered something.
"Oh my! Oh my! Oh my!" panted Bubba. "Now we're in trouble."
"Why?" asked Inspector Ace.
"Alley cats," panted Bubba, "alley cats."
Ace stopped dead in his tracks at those dreaded words. He had met a cat once. He only wanted to play, and he woofed to say hello. That cat spat right in his face and boxed him on the nose. He had bad scratches that really hurt, but they were better now.
"You're right, Sergeant Bubba," he said to his pal. "We are in real trouble."
The milk truck was disappearing at the end of the alley. The tiger cub had stopped trying to catch up because it had found a Dumpster. The Dumpster smelled pretty good—at least to a tiger cub. Inspector Ace and Sergeant Bubba watched as the cub jumped up and down, trying to get into the Dumpster.
"If it gets in there, we may never get it out," said Inspector Ace. "Let's go get it."
They had both forgotten about the alley cats, and they bounded forward to stop the little cub from jumping into the Dumpster. Too late! The baby cub plopped over the side of the Dumpster and disappeared. It scrambled around in there and began to enjoy someone's leftover pizza.
"Oh my! Oh my! Oh my!" said Bubba. That was his favorite expression. "Now what do we do?"
Ace was wondering what to do, but as he looked around, he didn't like what he saw. Alley cats—so many alley cats.
Now, Inspector Ace and Sergeant Bubba know that alley cats are the biggest, baddest, and meanest of all cats. They are very unfriendly, especially to dogs, and as Ace looked down the alley, there were seven mean cats moving closer to them, snarling and spitting.
"Come on, Ace, let's try to get the tiger cub out of that Dumpster."
(Continues...)
Excerpted from Inspector Ace and Sergeant Bubba by Mavis E. Smith, Donnie Obina. Copyright © 2014 Mavis E. Smith. Excerpted by permission of Trafford Publishing.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.