No Jumping to Conclusions

Hello!

My name is Buddy. I'm a dog, but I'm also a detective.

I used to solve mysteries with my old human, Kayla. Now I solve them by myself.

Here is a list of mysteries I've solved:

* The Case of the Missing Boy

* The Case of the Mixed-Up Mutts

Those were easy cases to solve. I'm working on another case that is much harder to solve. I call it the Case of the Missing Family.

I'm a pretty lucky dog. I have both an old family and a new family. The people in my new family are:

* Connor Mom

They are not missing. They're inside that house over there. It's nighttime, so they're asleep. I love my new family, but I can't help wondering what happened to my old family. My old family is the family that is missing.

The people in my old family are:

* Kayla

* Dad

* Mom

Sometimes when my new family is asleep, I come outside, lie down under the stars, and gaze at my old family's house. My old family used to live in the house behind this one, but they haven't been there in a long time. There is a sign in their front yard. It says: For Rent. That means:

* My old family isn't coming back to Four Lakes.

* A new family will move into their house.

I know where the mom from my old family is. She's in a place called the National Guard. She's been there for eleventy-hundred-thousand days. I don't know what happened to Kayla and Dad. That is the mystery.

If you want to solve a mystery, you should make a list of things you know and things you don't know. That will help you make a plan so you can solve the case.

Here is what I know:

* Kayla and Dad left me at Barker Bob's.

* They said they were going to visit Grandma in Springtown and that they would be back in one week.

* They never came back.

* There was a tornado in Springtown.

Here is what I don't know:

* Are Kayla and Dad at Grandma's house?

* Did the tornado hit Grandma's house?

* Are Kayla and Dad okay?

I don't have a plan for finding out the things I don't know, but I am trying to make one. Sometimes it's hard to make plans when you have a family to take care of.

"BUDDY? ARE YOU THERE?" Mouse calls. Mouse is the biggest, loudest dog on our street. He is my best friend who is not human.

"I'm here," I say.

There is one house between my house and Mouse's house. We can't see each other, but we can hear each other. We like to catch up every night after our people are asleep.

"YOU'RE QUIET TONIGHT," Mouse calls to me. "ARE YOU THINKING ABOUT YOUR OLD FAMILY AGAIN?"

Mouse thinks I think about my old family too much. He thinks I should stop worrying about my old family and pay more attention to my new family. It's hard to do that when I don't know what happened to my old family.

"I only think about my old family at night," I tell Mouse. "After my new family is asleep. I just wish I knew what happened to them. I wish I could solve this case."

"BUDDY," he says in a tired voice. "I THINK YOU KNOW WHAT HAPPENED TO THEM."

Mouse thinks Kayla and Dad are ... I can't say it. It's too bad a word to say out loud. It's too bad a word to even think inside my head.

Mouse thinks that Kayla and Dad are that word because Kayla's Uncle Marty came and took me to the P-O-U-N-D. He says Uncle Marty would not have done that unless Kayla and Dad were ... that word.

I know Kayla and Dad aren't ... that word. Here is how I know:

* Just because a tornado went through the town where they were visiting doesn't mean they got caught in it.

* Just because they haven't come back home and their house is For Rent doesn't mean they are ... that word.

* If Kayla and Dad are ... that word, someone would have told Mom and she would have come home from the National Guard. She hasn't come home so they can't be ... that word.

* A dog always knows if his human is ... that word. You don't even have to be there. You can sense it. I'm NOT sensing it.

There could be eleventy-twelve reasons why Kayla and Dad never came back from Springtown. There could be eleventy-ten reasons why their house is For Rent. I just don't know what those other reasons are yet.

If I thought Kayla and Dad were ... that word, then I would be Jumping to Conclusions. Jumping to Conclusions is kind of like jumping on the couch. It can get you in a whole mess of trouble. It's also not a good way to solve a mystery.

Mouse changes the subject. "WHAT DID YOU DO TODAY, BUDDY?"

"Mom and I practiced for our test," I say.

Mom is going to be the new principal at Connor's school. That means she is going to be the alpha human there. When school starts, she wants to bring me to school with her. She wants me to be a therapy dog. That means I get to make friends with all the kids at the school. I LOVE making new friends. It's my favorite thing!

But before I can go to school with Mom, we have to take a test. It's called the Pet Partners Team Evaluation. If we pass the Pet Partners Team Evaluation, Mom and I will be a registered therapy dog team.

"WHAT DID YOU DO TO PRACTICE FOR THE TEST?" Mouse asks.

"Lots of things," I say. "Mom practiced telling me to sit, stay, and lie down. She's pretty good at that."

"WHAT ELSE?"

"We went to the dog park and practiced walking past other dogs."

"WHY DID YOU DO THAT?" Mouse asks.

"I don't know. It's something we have to do for the test. We have to walk past other dogs without talking to them. Even if they talk to us first."

"THAT SEEMS A LITTLE RUDE," Mouse says.

I agree. Isn't the whole point of being a therapy dog to make new friends?

"DID YOU DO ANYTHING ELSE TODAY?" Mouse asks.

All of a sudden a light comes on in Kayla's house.

I hear Mouse call my name, but I can't answer. I can't take my eyes off that light. If no one is home over there, then why did a light come on?

"BUDDY?" Mouse says. Louder this time. "WHAT'S THE MATTER?"

"There's a light on at my old house," I say. It's the light in the kitchen. The kitchen is the most important room in a house. It's where all the food is.

Another light blinks on. It's the hall light upstairs. Then one more light blinks on: the light in Kayla's room!

Now I am going a little bit crazy inside myself.

"Mouse!" I cry. "I think my people are back!"

Kayla's Secret Notebook

I push my way through the dark bushes that line the fence between our yard and the Deerbergs' yard next door. There's a secret tunnel back here. I dug it myself eleventy five nights ago.

Connor and Mom don't know about this tunnel.

I jump down into the hole and claw my way under the fence. The only light comes from the moon.

Ow! My collar snags on the bottom of the fence.

I jerk and pull, and one of the tags on my collar comes loose. It drops into...