The Mystery at the Dog Show (5 page)

A man came running by, leading a big white poodle on a leash. “Look! Look what someone has done to my beautiful Curly!” he shrieked.

“Oh, look,” gasped Violet. “Poor dog!”

Curly's beautiful, curly white coat had been shaved into ragged stripes.

A dog show official came hurrying up with a security guard. The security guard began to ask the man questions while the official tried to calm him down.

“I don't know
when
it happened,” the man said. “I took Curly to have a little touch-up grooming, just after he won the poodle competition. Then I got a message that I had a phone call. But when I got to the information booth, there was no one on the phone. I was on my way back when I met my groomer going to the information booth. He said
he'd
gotten an urgent message to meet me there. I told him I never sent such a message. When we got back, we found Curly on the grooming table — like
this
!”

“Have you noticed any suspicious characters hanging around your dog?” asked the security guard.

“There's a suspicious character!” Henry nudged Jessie. Sure enough, there was the man they had seen near the basset hound's kennel. As they watched, the man disappeared into the crowd.

“No,” moaned Curly's owner. “I didn't notice anyone suspicious. “Oh, this is awful. Now Curly's chances of winning the Best in Show are ruined.
Ruined
!”

“Look, Mrs. DeCicco,” cried Benny, as Mrs. DeCicco passed nearby. “Look at Curly!”

But Mrs. DeCicco didn't seem to hear Benny or notice the poodle. She walked right by, as if she didn't want to be connected to the incident in any way.

“That's odd,” said Jessie. But before she could say anything else, Grandfather said, “We'd better go find the Teagues and Sunny.”

By the time the Aldens joined them, the Teagues had already heard about what had happened. Sunny was lying in her kennel, which had a big blue ribbon fastened to it, eating a dog biscuit and looking unconcerned. But Mrs. Teague and Caryn were plainly shocked.

“Who would do such an awful thing?” asked Caryn.

“And why?” asked Henry.

“Maybe it was a joke,” Benny suggested. He added, “A
bad
joke.”

“Whoever did it was a bad person, Benny,” said Jessie. “But I don't think it was a joke.”

“Maybe someone did it to eliminate the competition. You know, if Curly can't compete, maybe someone else has a better chance of winning,” said Violet.

Henry nodded. “Yes! Maybe the person whose poodle came in second did it. That makes them first now, doesn't it?”

“I'm not sure.” Caryn frowned. “But the poodle who came in second, the reserve champion, is owned by a very honest woman. I'm sure she would never do something like that. She's a good person, and she loves dogs.”

“That's true,” Mrs. Teague said. She shook her head and sighed. “Oh, well. I suppose on the bright side of things, Curly will get a little vacation now while his coat grows back. He's been a show dog for a long time and has won almost everything a dog can win. Maybe he'll like getting to stay at home and enjoy a different life.”

The Alden children exchanged glances. They were all remembering the couple they had overheard arguing the first day of the show. And they were all wondering if shaving Curly was the sort of thing someone would do because they believed dogs shouldn't be in dog shows.

“Could it have been that woman who was arguing that her dog Zonker should be allowed to quit being a show dog?” asked Jessie aloud.

“Or Mr. Burger?” suggested Violet. “He's such a mean man.”

“He can't be all mean, can he?” asked Henry. “Or how could he have a dog as nice as Plum?”

Jessie lowered her voice. “What if it was Mrs. DeCicco? She really needs to win badly. And she was
right there
.”

“I can't believe Mrs. DeCicco would do something like that!” exclaimed Violet.

“Time to go,” said Grandfather Alden. He turned to Mrs. Teague. “But we'll be back tomorrow to see Sunny win again!”

“Is the Best Dog in Show contest tomorrow, Grandfather?” asked Benny as they left the Greenfield Center.

“No, that's the night after tomorrow, Benny,” Grandfather explained. “Remember when Caryn said that all the breeds of dogs are divided into seven different groups?”

Benny looked puzzled.

“Sunny is in the Sporting Dog group, remember?” Jessie said.

“Y-yes.” Benny still looked as puzzled as he sounded.

“Well, tomorrow Sunny will compete against the other sporting dogs to see who is the very best sporting dog.”

“Oh,” said Benny. “I think I see … when Sunny wins tomorrow, will she be the best sporting dog at the dog show?”

“Yes, Benny!” Henry said. “Then, the next night, the best dog in each group — Herding, Sporting, Working, Terrier, Hound, Non-sporting and Toy — will compete to see who is the best dog in the
whole
show.”

“Okay,” said Benny. He gave a little skip. “Can we come see Sunny win tomorrow night and the next night, too?”

Grandfather Alden laughed, but before he could answer, they saw Plum and his owner again.

“Oh, look,” said Violet. “Plum won the blue ribbon!”

Sure enough, Mr. Burger was holding a blue ribbon and looking very pleased.

“Congratulations!” called Jessie.

“Thank you!” said Mr. Burger. Then he saw who had said it, and his smile froze. He turned on his heel and marched Plum in the other direction.

Watching them go, Violet shook her head. “I don't like Mr. Burger very much. But
Plum
is a nice dog.”

CHAPTER 7

A Surprise for Sunny

I
want to make a surprise for Sunny,” announced Benny the next morning after the Aldens and the Teagues had finished breakfast and Grandfather had taken the Teagues on a tour of Greenfield. Benny and his brother and two sisters had gone to their boxcar. Violet and Henry were sweeping it out and dusting it while Jessie and Benny oiled a squeaky hinge on the boxcar door and fixed a rickety leg on the table.

“A surprise, Benny? What kind of a surprise?” asked Violet.

“Something special for when Sunny wins the whole show,” Benny told her. He frowned, thinking hard. “Maybe a chocolate cake.”

Henry laughed and shook his head. “Sunny might like chocolate cake, Benny, but I don't think it would be very good for her.”

“Oh, yes,” said Benny. “I remember Mrs. Teague telling us that chocolate could make dogs very, very sick.” His eyes widened at the awful thought of not being able to eat chocolate.

Violet had been thinking hard, too. Suddenly she clapped her hands together. “I know! We could make a flag for Sunny, or a banner, to wave at the show for her when she wins!”

Benny clapped his hands together, too. “Yes! A beautiful,
big
banner!”

Violet reached up and pulled a shoebox off one of the shelves in the boxcar. “We still have paints in here from the time we made signs for our helper service,” she said. She studied the contents of the box thoughtfully and said, “But not enough to make a really
great
banner.”

“Well, we're almost finished here,” said Henry. “As soon as we do, let's ride our bicycles into town and get some more art supplies.”

“Good idea,” said Jessie. She checked the leg on the table one last time to make sure that it wasn't loose anymore and then stood up. “We can get a long roll of paper for the banner.”

“We need some way to hold it up, too,” said Violet. “Maybe a stick or pole — sort of like a short flagpole — at each end, so we can raise it up high.”

Henry added, “Yes, and we could roll the banner up from each end, then. That would make it easy to carry without tearing it.”

“I get to hold one end of the banner, don't I?” demanded Benny.

“You and I will hold one end, Benny, and Violet and Jessie can hold the other,” answered Henry.

“Okay,” Benny agreed.

As quickly as they could, the Aldens finished their work in the boxcar. Soon they were on their bicycles riding into town to get supplies to make a banner for Sunny.

In the art supply store, they found just the right roll of paper for making a long banner. Benny picked out some gold paint for writing Sunny's name on the banner. “It sort of matches her coat,” he explained.

But they couldn't find poles to attach to the ends of the banner.

“Why don't you try the hardware store,” suggested the owner of the art supply store. “Maybe a yardstick would be just the thing.”

“A yardstick! That might work. Thank you,” said Henry.

Carrying their supplies, the Aldens went into the hardware store. Inside, they found all kinds of sticks and poles, flat and round, used for building things. “This is great,” said Jessie holding up a thin, smooth, round wooden pole that was almost as long as she was tall. “It's called a
dowel.
I wonder what it is used for?”

“I don't know, but look at this green pole. It's used for staking up tomatoes and peas and beans in gardens,” said Henry.

“Both of those would work,” said Violet.

“Here are the yardsticks!” cried Benny. He held up two yardsticks, with the flat sides marked out into feet and inches. “Why are they called yardsticks?”

“Because they are three feet long. That's a yard,” explained Violet.

“Oh,” said Benny. He waved the sticks. “I like these. Let's use the yardsticks.”

“It would probably be easier to attach the banners to the flat sides of the yardstick,” said Jessie, putting the dowels down reluctantly.

“True,” said Henry. “Yardsticks it is, Benny.”

“Good.” Still holding the yardsticks up high, Benny led the way down the aisle to the cash register. But at the end of the aisle he stopped and pointed one of the yardsticks in front of him. “Look,” he whispered loudly. “There's the polka-dot woman! The one with the dog named Zonker!”

Sure enough, ahead of them at the counter was the woman who owned Zonker. Today she was wearing a black-and-white spotted jumpsuit. But Zonker wasn't with her. Instead, she was lifting a small black-and-white spotted cat out of a battered cat carrier held together with tape and wire, and into a new heavy-duty plastic carrier. “Thank goodness you had one of these,” she said. “Spike was about to tear up his old one! We always travel with him, you know. He and our dog, Zonker, are best friends.”

The hardware store owner smiled. “You got the last one. Looks like it's time to order some new ones.”

“Thank you again,” said the woman, picking up the cat carrier and carrying it out of the store. The cat inside poked his paw out and began batting at the latch. “Oh, no you don't Spike,” they heard her say as she pushed the hardware store door open. “That's a special latch. It's catproof!”

“Wow,” said Benny. “A cat and a dog are
best
friends. Did you hear that?”

“It is funny, isn't it,” said Jessie as they made their way to the counter and paid for the two yardsticks. “Most dogs don't like cats, and most cats don't like dogs.”

“I guess some cats — and some dogs — are different,” said Henry, laughing.

They went back to the boxcar and unrolled the paper carefully.

“Let's draw a picture of Sunny,” said Benny. “And Watch.”

Watch stood with his paws on the edge of the boxcar door, watching them.

“We can do Sunny at one end and Watch at the other,” agreed Violet.

“What do we write on the banner, Benny?” asked Jessie.

“Hooray for Sunny!” answered Benny promptly.

“Good,” said Henry. “It will look great!”

Working together, they carefully drew pictures of Sunny and Watch. Then, as Violet and Benny painted the pictures, Henry and Jessie wrote in big, bright letters,
Hooray for Sunny!
At last they were finished. They all stepped back to admire their work.

“It looks just like Sunny. And Watch, too,” said Henry.

“I know,” said Benny proudly.