On the Dog Read Free

curled up in the shade. Harley’s sigh rumbled below them like an underground train.
    Judy and Andrew sat down at the edge of the dog-hair forest.
    “So how do we get un-shrunk?” Judy asked.
    “We set the Atom Sucker to UN-SHRINK, ” said Andrew. “We have eight hours from when I turned it on.”
    “What happens if we don’t get back in eight hours?” asked Judy.
    Andrew looked away. “Um … the Atom Sucker might kind of … explode.”

A PLAN?
    “What?”
Judy yelled.
    “Don’t worry,” said Andrew. “Thudd, what time did I turn on the Atom Sucker?”
    meep …
“12:01,” said Thudd.
    “So all we have to do is set it to UN-SHRINK before 8:01,” Andrew said.
    meep …
“Now 12:31,” said Thudd. “Only 7 hours, 30 minutes left.”
    “Cheese Louise!” said Judy. “We’d better come up with a plan!”
    meep …
“Purple button!” said Thudd, pointing to the middle of his chest.
    “A purple button is
not
a plan,” said Judy.
    meep …
“Purple button send signal to Uncle Al,” said Thudd.
    “I think Uncle Al is setting up a telescope to look into space,” said Andrew. “I sure hope he can get our signal.”
    Thudd pressed his purple button. It blinked three times.
    “How will we know if the signal reaches Uncle Al?” asked Judy.
    meep …
“Not know,” said Thudd. “Purple button never pressed before.”
    “Well, we’d better not sit around waiting for Uncle Al to come get us,” said Judy. “We need to get off the dog, across the field, and onto the Atom Sucker.”
    Judy got up and looked around. “I don’t see the helicopter,” she said.
    “It got shrunk right after you did,” said Andrew.
    Judy snapped her fingers. “That’s it! Ifwe can find the helicopter, I can fly it!”
    “We all ended up on Harley,” said Andrew. “Maybe the helicopter is on Harley too!”
    “Let’s hike to the top of Harley’s head,” said Judy. “Maybe we can spot the helicopter from up there.”
    Andrew looked up. A long, furry slope led from the tip of Harley’s nose to the brown mountain of Harley’s head.
    “Okay,” said Andrew. “It’s time to climb!”
    Andrew took a step into the dog-hair forest.

    “Oops!” Andrew yelped. His feet slid out from under him. “It’s slippery!”
    Judy crouched down to look at the bottom of a dog hair.
    “All the hairs are growing out of these big round pits in Harley’s skin,” said Judy. “They’re like trees growing in pots. And the pits are full of oil. Eew! I can really smell that doggie smell!”
    meep …
“Hair pit called follicle,” said Thudd. “Follicle make oil. Oil protect skin and hair. No oil, skin crack. Hair break. But when oil get old, oil get stinky. Like bad milk. That why dog smell good after bath. Stinky oil get washed away.”

    Judy pulled Andrew back to his feet. They started hiking up Harley’s nose. The dog hairs curved over them like the trunks of giant palm trees. Sunlight flickered down through the hairs to Harley’s skin.
    Harley’s skin was covered with stuff that looked like torn-up tissue paper. Pieces floated into the air as Andrew and Judy shuffled along.

    “What
is
this stuff?” Andrew asked.
    meep …
“Skin flakes,” Thudd said. “Old skin peel off animals. Millions and millions of flakes every day. Drewd and Oody make skin flakes, too!”
    “Maybe Andrew does,” said Judy. “But
I
don’t.”
    meep …
“Dust mostly skin flakes,” said Thudd.
    Judy laughed. “So those piles of dust in Andrew’s room are really piles of Andrew?”
    “Yoop!” said Thudd. “Know what eat skin flakes?”
    “A vacuum cleaner!” said Andrew.
    meep …
“Dust mites!” said Thudd, pointing to a picture on his face screen. “Tiny bugs. Live in rugs. On sheets. On clothes. Dust mites love skin flakes like Drewd love pizza!”
    Up ahead, Andrew saw a huge brown dome.

    “It’s Harley’s eyelid!” said Andrew. “We’re halfway there.”
    Harley’s skin was warm, and the hike past Harley’s eye