Prince for a Princess (2 page)

“One is definitely enough!” her mother said.

“So I
can
have one?” Christina asked.

Her parents nodded. Christina squealed.

“Princess, you go and play with the dogs and let us talk,” her father said.

Christina raced over to the dogs. Her parents watched as she ran and played with them all.

“The first thing you have to know about racing greyhounds is that they have no experience being pets,” Bert said.

“So there are problems with them?” Christina's mother asked.

He laughed. “If you're looking for a dog that doesn't do anything wrong, go to a toy store and get your girl a stuffed one.”

Christina's parents grinned. Their daughter's room was filled with stuffed dogs.

“These dogs have spent their entire lives in a kennel, so being in a home is new to them. There are things they need to be taught, things all of you have to be taught.”

The greyhounds were so big and moved so fast, but they were gentle with Christina. It was amazing to see the little girl in the middle of them.

“Do they need a lot of exercise?” Christina's father asked.

“They love to run, but they love to sleep even more,” Bert said. “Greyhounds are the world's fastest moving couch potatoes.”

“They're a little big for our couch,” Christina's mother said.

Bert laughed. “Maybe you need bigger furniture. Or, at least, you will need to put a big doggie bed on the floor.” He smiled. “Although all bets are off as to where a dog will sleep when you leave him home alone. They do like comfy furniture.”

“There are so many of them. How will we choose the right dog?” Christina's father asked.

“You don't understand,” Bert said. “You don't choose the dog. The dog chooses you.”

Bert pointed. Christina was standing off to the side with a dog. He was white and brown and
very
big—maybe the biggest dog of them all. He was almost the same height as Christina. He looked into her eyes as she scratched him behind the ear.

“I heard you call your daughter Princess,” Bert said.

“Her name is Christina, but we call her Princess sometimes,” her father said.

“Well, then it seems right that she and that dog belong together,” he said. “His name is Prince.”

“A Prince for a Princess,” her mother said. “That does seem right.”

Christina's family was now a family of four.

Chapter Three

Christina's father parked in the driveway.

“We're home, Prince, we're home!” Christina said.

She jumped out of the car, raced to open the back of the
SUV
and reached in for Prince's leash. The big dog jumped down, landing right beside her. She led him, skipping and prancing, up the walkway. Christina ran up the stairs. But Prince skidded to a stop at the bottom.

“Oh, I forgot. You don't know about stairs,” she said.

That was one of the things Bert had explained. Racing greyhounds live a flat life. They have to be trained to climb stairs because they have never used them before.

Christina walked down the stairs and wrapped her arms around his neck. “It's all right, Prince. I'll teach you.”

“Should we help?” her father whispered.

Christina's mother shook her head. “It's her dog. Let her do it.”

Christina remembered what Bert had told them about showing Prince how to climb stairs. She held onto his collar with one hand. With the other, she took one of his front paws and carefully placed it on the first step. She pulled his body up. Then she reached over and placed his other front paw on the next step. She repeated this action over and over, until the two of them were standing together on the porch. Christina smiled, and it looked as if Prince was smiling too.

Christina opened the front door of the house and led Prince inside. “Welcome to our home. Your
new
home,” she said.

Chapter Four

“Christina, we have to leave for school right now!” her mother yelled up the stairs.

“We'll be right down!”

Christina ran down the stairs with Prince behind her. In the last three weeks, he'd become an expert at stairs. But going down was still harder for him than going up. Sometimes he picked up so much speed he almost bumped into the wall at the bottom.

Christina snapped on Prince's leash. Her mother grabbed Christina's backpack. Every morning the three of them walked to school together. At the end of the day, Prince and Christina's mother returned to walk her home.

Christina and Prince had an agreement. He didn't pull her, and she didn't pull him. She always gave him time to stop and smell the bushes, trees and grass. Prince loved to explore his world with his nose. In his life as a racing dog, there had never been time for it. He had been a champion racer. But even champions live a life of dirt, gravel, cages, cement and kennels.

Christina, her mother and Prince set off. The school wasn't far. It took them twenty minutes to walk two blocks. They didn't just stop for Prince to smell and explore. They also stopped to talk to people along the way. There was something about the sight of a big dog and a small girl together that made people stop to chat. Christina's mother found herself smiling as she watched her daughter skip and Prince prance.

Prince was so big he could have easily pulled Christina off her feet. But he never did. Their agreement worked. She never pulled him, and he never pulled her.

Prince stopped at a hedge. He pressed his nose into the leaves and sniffed loudly.

“I like it when he does that,” Christina said. “He's making up for lost time, when all he had to smell was dirt.”

When they reached the schoolyard, Prince stopped at the gate. Christina handed the leash to her mother and grabbed her backpack. She gave her mother and Prince a big hug.

“You have a good day,” her mother said.

“I will. You two have a good day too. See you later.”

Her mother and Prince watched until Christina found her friends. Then they turned toward home. Christina's mother stopped for Prince to smell a post on the way back. She had an agreement with Prince too.

Chapter Five

“Time to get ready for bed, Princess,” her father said.

“Five more minutes?” she asked.

“You already had ten more minutes. It's time.”

Christina got up off the couch. As she stood, Prince stood too.

Her mother laughed. “That is one big shadow you have there.”

“Shadow?” Christina asked.

“He goes everywhere you go, like a shadow,” her mother said.

Christina smiled and wrapped her arms around Prince's neck. He
rooed
. His
roo
sounded like a cat purring and made her smile. “Come on, you big shadow, it's time for bed.”

Prince followed Christina out of the room. Big dog footsteps thumped up the stairs.

“That dog
is
like her shadow,” her father said. “He follows her everywhere.”

“And when she's at school, he follows me around all day.”