Legend of the Ghost Dog by Elizabeth Cody Kimmel

took my arm.
    â€œTee, there is no owner,” she said.
    â€œHow can you possibly know that?” I asked.
    â€œDidn’t you feel it?” she asked. “Don’t you see?”
    I stared at my new friend, waiting, realizing as she began to speak that I already knew.
    â€œThat wasn’t anybody’s lost dog. That was Shadow.”

Caspian dropped to the ground after Daddy hit him with the stick, like everything had gone out of him, like he remembered where he was and who he was again.
    Silla and I tried to go to Caspian, but Daddy wouldn’t let us. Finally he let Vernon, one of our best dog handlers, treat Caspian’s wound. Then Daddy made Vernon lock Caspian up in a pen by himself. If Silla had not been crying and begging so hard, I think Daddy would have been done with Caspian right there and then. Jim was badly bitten, and my father believed that a dog who had bitten a human once could never be trusted to work a team with other dogs or humans.
    But Caspian was our heart dog. Silla and I loved him as fiercely as we loved each other. And Daddy would listen if Silla begged him for something very hard. He loved her more than he loved the rest of us, and she wasthe youngest and the prettiest so we all loved her too and didn’t mind. Because Silla pleaded, Daddy let Caspian stay in the kennel. After his wound healed, Caspian was even let back with the other pups. Caspian grew into a fine, powerful young dog.
    Still, Silla and I both knew that Daddy never trusted him, especially around Silla, who had always been small and fragile, prone to terrible chest colds and other ailments that often made it difficult for her to breathe. She was delicate, it was true. But Caspian would never have hurt her. He would not have hurt anyone. Though I could not prove it, I believe it was Caspian who saved the pups that night. Vernon had found the tracks of a single wolf circling the kennel. Silla and I believed that the wind blew open the unlatched door to the pups’ pen and the wolf crept in during the night. Then, we were sure, Caspian had charged that wolf to lead it away from his terrified brothers and sisters.
    Of this we had no proof, but it was what we felt. It was what we read on the wind. It was what we knew in our hearts had happened that night.

Jack was standing in the hallway when we came through the front door. His hair was poking out in three distinct directions, and the imprint of his pillow was still clear on one side of his face.
    â€œWhere were you?” he asked sleepily.
    â€œJust taking Henry for a little walk,” I said, trying to disguise the huffing and puffing I was doing after the fast march all the way back to the house.
    â€œWhat do you look so weird for, then?” Jack asked.
    â€œWho’s calling who weird?” Quin said, stepping around to stand next to me and giving my brother a long, appraising look. “Let’s see — Batman pajamas, wind-tunnel hair, a drool trail on both sides of the mouth — I’m thinking you’re the one that looks weird.”
    Jack’s mouth hung open, and he seemed frankly astonishedto see Quin standing there. He decided to pretend she did not exist.
    â€œDo we have Cap’n Crunch?” he asked me.
    â€œWe had two boxes yesterday, and no one else in this house would actually eat the stuff,” I said.
    â€œâ€™Cause you’re stupidy-dumb,” Jack told me, darting toward the kitchen.
    â€œStupidy-dumb, huh? Impressive vocabulary,” Quin said. “How proud you must be, Tee.”
    I grinned at her.
    â€œYou have no idea,” I replied. Lowering my voice, I added, “I don’t think he realized we were gone.”
    I heard the sound of a spoon and a plastic bowl hitting the kitchen floor and bouncing. I rolled my eyes.
    â€œLet me just go get him set up with his cereal,” I said. “My room’s right in there — we can hang out. I’ll get us some