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| - Victor held Sparky's leash in one hand and a suitcase handle in the other. Sparky looked over his shoulder. Persephone was prancing behind him, her sparkly purple jeweled collar twinkled in the sunlight. Sparky held his head up and continued onward. Suddenly, Sparky looked over at a squirrel nibbling on a acorn. Sparky barked at it and jerked the leash out of Victor's hand. Persephone jerked her leash out of Elsa's hand and the two dogs raced toward the squirrel. It looked at the dogs. White foam covered its mouth. Persephone turned around and raced back towards Elsa. Sparky kept barking at it and the squirrel hissed at him and reached up and took a bite out of Sparky's bolt. It didn't hurt Sparky, but it did hurt the squirrel. Sparks flew in several directions as electricity covered the squirrel's body. Finally, it let go of Sparky's bolt and fell to the ground, dead. Before it fell, it clawed off the dog's collar. Sparky sniffed at it a little, then returned to Victor. "Good boy, Sparky!" Victor said. "It would've been bad if one of the campers got bitten by that squirrel." "No kidding," Bob, one of Victor's classmates, came up from behind them. Bob looked down at the squirrel. Cynthia appeared next. Sparky saw Mr. Whiskers ll and barked at him. Victor picked Sparky up. Elsa bent down and looked at the dead animal. "Victor," Elsa began. "That animal's rabid! Sparky was lucky he didn't get bitten!" "Yeah," Bob piped up. "She's right!" Victor looked at Sparky. He was lucky. "C'mon Elsa," Victor said. "Let's go set up our campsite." ********* While the kids were putting up their tents, Persephone slept inside Elsa's tent and Sparky was curiously sniffing about in certain parts near the camp. The bull terrier found several acorns, leaves and bark that had fallen off of trees. Still, it didn't satisfy him. Sparky didn't want to stray far from the camp, so he decided to bark for Victor to come with him. Giving out a couple of short barks, Victor raced over to him. "Hey, boy!" Victor said. "Where'd you run off to?" Suddenly, they heard a cat screech. Victor whipped his head around in the direction it came from. They didn't see anything. Sparky sniffed the air. Then he started to bark. Victor looked down at his dog, then he looked back up. Suddenly, they saw a scruffy black cat tail disappear into the maze of trees. Sparky bared his teeth. Victor scooped the dog up in his arms and headed back toward camp.
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