One beautiful, sunny Saturday morning, Tatum, a 10- year-old, dirty blonde-haired girl woke up to the sound of Chickadees chirping and a chipmunk chattering in the tree outside her bedroom window. When she sat up, she noticed her Beagle, Bailey, was laying on the edge of her bed. "Bailey wake up!" The dog didn't move. " Bailey!" she said a little louder. Bailey still didn't move so Tatum grabbed her teddy bear, Bumble, jumped out of bed and put on her fuzzy bunny

slippers. She headed to the edge of her bed and whispered into his ear "Bailey, wake up sleepyhead." In a split second Bailey was awake and gazing up at her with his big brown puppy dog eyes. He sat up, jumped off the bed and started to bark. Tatum knew that was a sign he was hungry. " Come on," she said and started down the stairs with Bailey only a few inches away. She went into the kitchen, opened up a new bag of dog food, scooped some into his bowl and poured some water from the fridge into his water dish. Bailey gobbled up the food and quickly lapped up the water. Tatum knew Bailey was still small but he never turned down the chance to eat a good meal.

Later that morning, Tatum was heading outside to bring Bailey on a walk around the park. Bailey loved taking walks because he knew that meant he could chase squirrels and chipmunks. As they walked down the sidewalk Tatum was taking in the brisk winter air. Although there was no snow on the ground yet, Tatum was excited for the winter. It was her favorite season. She always loved to make snow angels, build snowmen

and whenever Tatum threw a snowball in the air Bailey would jump up and catch it in his mouth. "Woof! Woof! Woof! Woof!" Tatum's thoughts where interrupted. She realized Bailey was going out of control and struggled to keep the leash in her hand. All of a sudden Tatum saw three squirrels at the trunk of Mrs.Potts' big oak tree. "Oooh, stop bugging those squirrels Bailey!" said Tatum. "You know the're just going to go up the tree." Tatum kept her grip on the leash and was heading in the direction of the park. One minute later, the three squirrels scurried up the oak. Tatum remembered a shortcut to the park she had found a week ago when they were at the park and it began to rain. They were

heading home when Tatum saw a path leading straight to their street, Maple Tree Crescent. Tatum knew they were getting close so she kept her eye out for any openings in the bush.

There it was... the path. Tatum said to Bailey " Come on Bailey! We're going to take the shortcut again." Bailey accepted her command and turned in the direction of the path. "Woof! Woof! Woof! Woof! Woof! Woof!" Tatum stopped and looked in the direction Bailey was barking. "Another squirrel! Are you kidding? Bailey I told you at home, you can't chase squirrels until we get to the park." she said. Bailey stopped barking but it was still hard to get him to

move. When they got to the park, Tatum played fetch with Bailey. Every time they went to the park, Bailey would find a stick he hid the last time and would get Tatum to throw it for him. Yet what he looked forward to the most was chasing squirrels. Just as they were leaving, Bailey saw another squirrel and bolted off into the bushes. Tatum grabbed their stuff and ran as fast as she could trying to catch up to him. "Bailey! Slow down!" she yelled. Bailey didn't stop. He went faster, and faster. As fast as his little legs could carry him. Tatum was getting tired and she started to slow down but at the same second the squirrel scurried up a huge Spruce tree. Bailey stopped at the bottom of the tree and was

barking like crazy. "Bailey calm down" Tatum said to him in soothing words. About half a minute later, Bailey stopped barking and Tatum could hear faint noises that sounded like meows. "Do you hear that, Boy," she questioned? Tatum could see the look in his eye and knew he was listening. Bailey slowly headed further into the bush with Tatum following.