Chapter 1 Dingo and Saba ran into Jenna’s home and shook themselves dry. Jenna, who was lying by the fire, didn’t really look happy to see her son and daughter fling snow around the nice, warm room. “Where have you been?” she asked worriedly. “The race began an hour ago. I was so worried about you two!”
Dingo smiled and put an arm around his sister’s neck. “Aw, don’t worry, Mom,” he said. “You know that you don’t have to worry about little Saba getting in trouble when I’m around.”
Saba escaped from her brother’s grip and rolled her eyes. “Yeah, sure,” she said. “You’re so responsible. Like when you ran into Rosie two days ago and knocked her over.”
“What did you do?” Jenna said, shocked. Dingo stepped hard on his sister’s front paw. “Oh, nothing,” he said. Jenna rolled her eyes. “Well, just tell me before you sneak away like that next time, okay?” she said. Dingo and Saba nodded. “Mom, I can take care of Saba,” Dingo said. “Don’t worry about it! Mom, we’re already five months old. We can take care of ourselves now.”
“Dingo, stop acting like you’re responsible for me,” Saba said. “You’re only nine minutes older than I am.”
“Oh, come on, Saba,” Dingo said. “You have to admit it. You would be dead by now if it wasn’t for me!”
Saba knew that her brother was right. She was always getting into bad situations, and her brother had saved her each time. Now she was stuck. “Uh…hey, Dingo, want to go to the boiler room?” she asked, hoping to change the subject. Dingo and Jenna smiled at each other. Saba just didn’t want to admit that she needed her brother so much. “Sure, I’ll go,” said Dingo. “I’ll see you later, Mom.”
“Bye, Mom!” Saba cried out as she ran out of the door with her brother close behind. As soon as they were both outside, she turned to her brother and said, “Let’s race!”
The two dogs ran as fast as they could toward the boiler room. Dingo was pulling ahead of his sister, but then he came to a halting stop. Saba saw her brother stop and stopped herself. ‘What’s wrong?’ she thought. “Dingo! Here, boy!” a voice was shouting. Dingo ran to his owner and wagged his tail. “I have some big news for you, boy,” his owner said, patting him on the head. Dingo started to follow his owner back to his home. He turned around and shrugged at Saba. She shrugged back. Saba turned around and kept walking. “I guess I’ll just have to go to the boiler room by myself today,” she thought out loud. Suddenly Saba felt depressed. When Dingo had been right next to her, everything in the world looked beautiful. Now everything was dark and dreary. Saba entered the boiler room. She saw another dog in there. The dog was a husky; he looked kind of like Dingo. Usually, Saba would introduce herself to the new dog in town, but she didn’t feel in the mood at that time. Saba sighed. She hoped that her brother would come back soon.

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