One night, Spanky ran to the
door to greet his human friends. 
They had been gone a long time. He always missed
his friends when they went away.
Sometimes he would sit on the chair looking out the
window, waiting for them to come back.
Today, the man carried a little bag.
What was in it?
Milk bones? Pizza?
Spanky loved milk bones and pizza.
Maybe it was a new dog collar.
Spanky ran to his friends. He jumped
up in the air. He knew they would catch him and rub his ears. He loved to have his ears
rubbed.
The woman caught him and talked to
him.
"We've got a surprise for you,
Spanky. You'll never guess what we have."
Spanky looked at the bag the man
held. He sniffed it.
He could smell something.
He sniffed again and leaned closer
to the bag.
What was it? It was alive.
It was an animal.
Spanky jumped down and ran around in
circles. He didn't care what it was. He was just so happy his friends were home again.
Besides, it didn't smell like pizza or milk bones.
His friends sat on the floor and
called him. Spanky sat down and watched them. He wasn't going anywhere near that bag.
The man opened the bag and talked to
the thing inside.
Spanky didn't like the way the man
talked to the bag. The man usually talked to Spanky that way.
Spanky moved closer to the bag and
watched the man.
The man lifted something from the
bag. Spanky could smell it better, now, and he stood up, lifted his tail and stared at it.
It was furry, like Spanky.
It had ears, tiny ears, not like
Spanky's wonderful big ears.
It had a tiny tail.
It had little black eyes and and a
black nose.
Spanky moved even closer and
stretched his neck as far as he could. He sniffed the thing.
What was it? He'd never smelled this
animal before.
Just then, the animal moved and Spanky jumped back,
turned around and ran away.
Whatever it was, he didn't like it.