Read Online Welcome to Dog Beach by Lisa Greenwald - Free Book Online

her, and then jumps up a little bit more so that he can see inside the stroller. He starts panting and wagging his tail furiously and licking the lady’s face. And she’s so excited to see him, but I think she’s trying to stay quiet too, since the babies are sleeping.
    Bennett starts telling the story of how he found Oscar but stops himself when he notices the stroller.
    Then all three of us are just standing there in silence, but our smiles are speaking louder than our voices ever could. It’s like that whole “a picture is worth a thousand words” thing, except it’s not a picture, it’s the real thing.
    The lady puts a finger to her lips in the universal
shh
sign and motions for us to follow her inside. She leaves the jumbo stroller out on the porch. If that’s not a sign that Seagate is the safest place in the whole world, I don’t know what is.
    Oscar runs inside like it’s the happiest day of his life, and we follow behind. Inside on the couch we find a sleeping man. I’m guessing he’s the father of the babies. The TV is still on, and he’s holding the remote as if he’s about to change the channel, but he’s totally asleep.
    It’s the kind of funny picture you’d see posted online for everyone to email to their friends, only I don’t think I should be the one to take it.
    The lady exhales and fills Oscar’s water bowl, and he runs over.
    â€œWe gave him water,” I say. “Don’t worry.”
    â€œI’m not worried.” She grins at us. “I’m just so grateful that you found him. Please sit down. Can I get you a drink? Please tell me how you found him.”
    Bennett starts the story again. “I was waiting for my brother at his swim lesson, and then I saw Oscar roaming around. I recognized him from the picture and also because there aren’t many dogs on Seagate with brown fur everywhere except their stomachs and their paws.” Oscar walksover to us, and Bennett starts petting him. Then Oscar sits on the floor between us and we’re both petting him. He has soft fur—wiry and silky—and it seems to fall out all over the place. His owner must spend all day vacuuming.
    â€œSo I checked his collar,” Bennett continues, “and it was definitely him. I had to stop at Remy’s first, though, because Remy was the one who really started everyone on this mission to find your dog.”
    The lady raises her eyebrows. “You’re Remy?” she asks.
    I nod.
    â€œWow. You are one special girl,” the lady says. “And let me just say that Oscar doesn’t respond this way to just everyone. He seems to really like you guys.”
    â€œThanks. He’s an awesome dog.” I smile. “This is Bennett. Did we already say that?”
    I crack up and realize that I’m feeling kind of nervous all of a sudden, though I don’t know why.
    â€œI’m Dawn Ramirez,” she says. “The exhausted, sleeping man on the couch is my husband, Mateo. And Oscar is my first baby. I don’t even know how he got out. Maybe he’s feeling neglected. We have triplets—you probably noticed.” She laughs and then takes a deep breath. “And it’s pretty crazy. All I can say is, thank you guys so, so much for finding him.”
    â€œYou’re welcome,” I say. “It was all Bennett.”
    â€œIt was pretty much all Remy,” he says, hitting me gently on the arm. “If you didn’t mention it, I wouldn’t have paid attention.”
    â€œWell, I’m giving you both the reward,” she says. She leaves the room for a minute and then comes back with two envelopes. One for Bennett and one for me.
    She sits down at the table and asks us if we want ice cream. While she’s dishing it out into bowls from the to-go containers from Sundae Best, we hear screaming. Really loud baby screaming. It’s coming in surprisingly clear,