yard and keep an eye on him so he doesn’t run away?”

Warren slapped his daughter across the face. As she began to cry in pain, he said, “How dare you oppose your father! If I say that Dingo should be tied up, then Dingo should be tied up. Now go to your room!”

Sandy ran back inside, crying. Warren grinned evilly at Dingo. “Hello, boy,” he said. “You’re going to make me a fortune, so don’t go running off, now!”

Dingo growled at the man. He didn’t know what Warren was going to do to him, but he didn’t trust him and knew that it was probably something bad.

Warren walked away, laughing. Dingo lay down and thought about his new owners. Sandy was nice. In ways, she reminded him of Jason. However, Warren seemed like the exact opposite. When the man was near, Dingo felt a chill go down his body.

Suddenly Dingo’s thoughts were interrupted when a loud crash disturbed the quiet neighborhood. He looked up and saw that a dog had been inside a trash can, spying on him. Now the trash can had tipped over, bringing the dog down with it. Dingo recognized the stranger as the dog that had tried to talk to him when he was walking through Anchorage earlier. “Hi,” he said. “Who are you?”

The dog walked over to him with a proud look on its face. “My name is Liko Ria,” it said. Dingo realized that he had been correct in guessing that it was female. “What is yours?”

“I am Dingo Balto,” Dingo replied. “I just moved here from…”

“Yes, I know-Nome,” Liko said. When she saw that Dingo was shocked to see that she possessed such knowledge, she said, “Hey, word travels fast here. I probably knew who your new owner was before you did.” Dingo realized that he wouldn’t be very surprised if what she had just said was true.

“So, do you want to have a tour of the city?” Liko asked. Dingo motioned at the rope that restricted him from running away. “Oh, don’t worry about that,” Liko said. “I’ve bitten through ropes twice the size of that before.”

Dingo watched in wonder as Liko gnawed through the rope tied to his neck. Soon the rope lay limp on the ground, and Dingo was free. “Thanks,” he said. “Let’s go!”

Dingo and Liko were soon running through the streets of Anchorage, with Liko pointing out different people and places.

“That’s Sprinter,” she said, pointing a dog that looked friendly. “He definitely lives up to his name! He’s the fastest dog in the whole city. I’m glad that he’s on our side, not theirs.”

Dingo was puzzled about the last thing Liko had said, but after she pointed out a few more dogs, he realized what she was talking about. In Anchorage, there were two groups of dogs: one was a friendly bunch, but the other was a group of bullies. Liko was part of the friendly group, and so was Sprinter. Dingo expected that they would also accept him into their group.

The other group was led by a huge dog named Seno. From what Dingo had heard about him, Seno made Tair look like an angel. Dingo decided that his stay in Anchorage would probably be a lot more enjoyable if he stayed away from Seno.

Dingo was also puzzled about something else. He was expecting many dogs in Anchorage, but he had only seen a handful on the streets of the city. Where were the others? Had he made a mistake in assuming that there were a lot of dogs in Anchorage?

Liko soon provided the answer for his question. At one point during the day, she led him down an alley. After making sure that no one saw them, she crawled into a hole underneath a building. Dingo followed her.

Dingo soon found himself in a small, crowded place with a lot of dogs lying down or walking around. In some ways, it reminded him of the boiler room. However, it was different, too: the boiler room was a large room, but this place was only about three feet tall. It was also colder in this place (obviously, because it was underground and had no heat source).

Liko turned around and lay down in front of him. He followed her example. “Well, what do you think?” she asked. “It’s good to have a place where Seno and his followers can’t disturb us.”

“It reminds me of a place that we had in Nome,” Dingo said thoughtfully. “But Tair, the ringleader of the mean dogs back in Nome, knew about it, so we could never get away from him. I like this idea…if I ever go back to Nome, I have to find a place like this where we can get away from Tair.”

Liko paled. “What’s wrong?” Dingo asked.

“Well…” Liko had trouble beginning. “I have to tell you something about your owner.” She sighed. “If his plan works, you’re never going back to Nome.”

Chapter 8

Saba wiped away her tears. ‘No one else thinks that I can be independent,’ she thought angrily. ‘I’ll show them. I’ll be the toughest dog in Nome!’

Suddenly she saw a squirrel running past the door. It stopped for a second to look at her. Then it began to hop away again.

‘There’s my chance,’ Saba thought. She quickly followed the squirrel to the edge of town. There the squirrel ran up a tree. Saba ran up to the trunk.

“Aha!” she shouted to the squirrel. “I have you cornered! Surrender!” A nut fell on Saba’s head. “OW! What did you do that for?”

The squirrel stood on one of the branches and sneered at her. Saba growled. “Quit showing off!” she yelled at it. “Why don’t you come down here and fight like a…um…well…squirrel?”

The squirrel stuck out its tongue at Saba, and her blood began to boil. “That’s it!” she said. “We could’ve done this the easy way, but you’ve left me no choice!” She put both paws on the trunk and tried to shake the tree. It didn’t budge. Saba tried again, but the tree didn’t move an inch.

Saba looked up at the squirrel and scowled. “Well, consider yourself lucky,” she said. “If I was in better shape, you would be on the ground and dead by now…”

Saba slowly walked back to the town of Nome. On the way to the boiler room, she passed a family. She paused to look at them for a moment. There was a little girl on top of the roof of a building. She lost her balance and fell off. Luckily an older boy (‘Her brother,’ Saba thought) was there to catch her. The parents of the two children scolded the girl for going up on the roof, and then thanked the boy for saving her. Saba blinked away tears. The same thing had happened to her once as a pup, and Dingo was there to break her fall. ‘Now he’s not here,’ Saba thought. ‘And I need him more than ever.’

-----

Saba walked into the boiler room, looking at the ground. If there was anyone else in the room, she didn’t want them to know that she had been crying again. When she looked up, she saw Josh in the corner, looking back at her. She turned around and headed for the door.

“Wait, Saba!” Josh said. He ran to her side. “I want to talk to you. Can you please just listen to what I want to tell you?”

Saba sighed and said nothing. She walked to a side of the room and sat down, watching Josh as he sat down next to her. “Look,” he said. “I’m sorry that I made you feel like a wimp in front of Tair. I was just trying to protect you.” He sighed and shook his head. “Saba, I know you can be independent. But Tair is the strongest dog in Nome. Standing up to him is almost like committing suicide.”

“I know that you’re right, Josh,” Saba said. “I just didn’t want to admit it. I know that you were just trying to protect me. I wanted to prove that I could be independent. I guess that there are a lot easier ways to do that…” Saba looked away and tried to hold back tears. “Dingo has always been there for me. Without him, I’m helpless. I would give anything to have him back.” 

Josh looked at the ground. “I know that you miss Dingo,” he said. “I can’t bring him back, but I can do the next best thing.”

Saba looked at Josh. “What’s that?”

“I can teach you how to be independent,” Josh said.

Saba’s jaw dropped. “Would you really do that for me?” she asked.

“Sure! I can teach you how to hunt, and how to protect humans from wild animals, and…”

Saba hugged Josh tightly. “Thank you, thank you, thank you!” she said, grinning. “What could I ever do to repay you?”

Josh gasped for breath and squirmed in Saba’s grasp. “How about letting me breathe?”

Saba let go of Josh and smiled sheepishly. “Sorry,” she said. “I’m just really excited.”

There was an awkward silence for a moment. Josh just looked out the window, while Saba was deep in thought. ‘What if Josh and I become more than just