Rosco the Rascal at the St. Patrick's Day Parade - A Free Preview

Rosco the Rascal at the St. Patrick's Day Parade

Illustrations by Ros Webb. Cover art by Josh Addessi.

This Wattpad entry contains the first few chapters of a full book by the same name, available for purchase online in Kindle, paperback, and hardcover. You can find the whole book and others in the series at amazon.com/author/shanagorian. This book is also available to libraries nationwide (USA) so please request that your library offer it if they don't already :) 

Thank you, Shana Gorian

CHAPTER ONE

Bad Dog, Jack

"Grrr..." the pint-sized Jack Russell terrier growled. "Ruff, ruff!"

Sparks, a polite young pug, wasn't sure why this disagreeable dog was barking at him, but he didn't like it. He hadn't done a thing to upset him. And he hadn't come all the way to the big city to march in the St. Patrick's Day Parade just to be hassled by a bad-tempered pup.

"Arf arf!" Sparks barked back. Sparks tugged on his leash—he wanted to get away from this irritating dog.

Second grader Mandy McKendrick held onto Sparks' leash tightly, trying to put some distance between Sparks and the unfriendly terrier.

"Ruff, ruff!" This time the little terrier lunged forward, sinking his sharp teeth into Sparks' ear.

"Oh my goodness!" cried Mandy as Sparks yelped in pain. She squatted down to place a protective hand over Sparks' head, glaring at the terrier's owner, who hadn't been paying attention to his dog. "Excuse me? Can you watch your dog, please? He just bit my dog's ear!"

Taking the terrier by the collar, the boy began to holler at the dog. "Not again! Bad dog, Jack!"

Mandy reached down to examine Sparks' ear, loosening her grip on his leash. The ear wasn't bleeding, but Sparks wasn't about to wait around for another attack. He tugged on his leash again. This time, it slipped from Mandy's hands. Sparks broke into a run, leash trailing behind.

"Wait! Sparks, come back here!" Mandy cried, chasing after him.

But Sparks was afraid, and he was quick! Although he was just a little dog, he scurried around long legs and under other leashes faster than Mandy could hope to do. In a few seconds, she had lost sight of him completely.

Oh no!

Now what?

Mandywasn't too surprised that something had already gone wrong today. Things hadnot been going her way for the last several days. In fact, Mandy's luck had beendownright bad all week. Still, she never thought for a second that it would bethis bad—that she'd lose Sparks!