Kaltag woke up on a sunny morning a stretched in the sunlight. He ate some food, and took a little walk down the street. He decided to see his friend Sierra, a dark grey and white husky, and walked to her owner's house. He scratched on the door.

Sierra came out her doggie door and said, "Kaltag! I've got great news! My owner bought the meat shop!"

"Really? So he could give you some meat sometimes?" said Kaltag

"I hope so! C'mon, lets go! I'm starving!"

Kaltag had already eaten this morning, but didn't care, cause meat was good! He and Sierra ran to the meat shop and saw Sierra's owner inside reading a newspaper and chugging a beer. The shop wasn't open yet. Sierra scratched on the window and her owner looked up from his reading. But his face turned angry. He got outside and slapped Sierra on the head.

"I thought I chained you up dog! What'd you do? Chew through your collar?"

Kaltag looked at Sierra and noticed her collar wasn't on today. She looked down.

"Go on home dog! Git!" he yelled, and Sierra ran in the direction of home. Kaltag followed her.

"Wait up Sierra!" he called, and Sierra looked back with tears on her face.

"Its okay, he just got a little angry at you, that's all." said Kaltag. There was one thing about Sierra, she was real sensitive.

Sierra sighed. "I guess your right." She turned away. Kaltag came up to her.

"He's not always mean to you, is he?"

"Well, sometimes he's not, but he never calls me by my name anymore, and he keeps wanting me to get out of his space. We never do anything anymore!" she said and wiped her eyes with her paw.

"Don't worry. I'm sure he'll get over it." said Kaltag.

"I hope so." siad Sierra, and seemed to be a little cheered up.

The next day Kaltag was going to train for the next race coming up in three days. He did pretty good actually. Afterwards he went to see Sierra, but when he looked in the window of her house he saw her bed empty. He checked the yard and saw her chained up to a tree. "Hey Sierra." he said.

"Hey Kaltag." Sierra walked by the fence as far as her chain could allow her to. She looked pretty gloomy.

"Whats wrong?" asked Kaltag.

"My owner kept hitting me last night for some reason, and it really hurt! And then he spilled his beer on me! Oh Kaltag! I think something's wrong with him!"

"I don't know, but if he keeps doing that, you might have to... run away." said Kaltag.

"But what if my owner gets mad?" said Sierra.

"You'll have to hide. If he unchains you, here's the plan: You'll jump over the fence and run as fast as you can. Hide somewhere like an alley. And when he can't find you, scratch at my door and I'll help you hide."

"I don't know if I run away just yet though--"

"Trust me. When I was a pup, I did the same thing. And look at me now! I'm a sled race dog!"

"I guess your right..." said Sierra, and she smiled and walked back to the tree she was chained to. Kaltag went home and decided to rest; he had another day of training tomarrow.