"My Friend Earl" As told by Clayton Roo My name is Clayton Roo. My nickname is Roo. Everybody calls me Roo. When I was one year old, my owners came home with a little black dog that became a brother to me. His name is Earl. That's him trying to jump out of the picture. He's camera shy. He has a lot of energy so he's a lot of fun.
2 He is all excited about this new world he is living in. This is my story of our fun and friendship together. Do you see what I mean? He just makes you want to laugh. Here's Earl wearing a Tee shirt so he doesn't get cold. He has all kinds of funny clothes that he dresses in. I've put lots of funny pictures with him in his favorite clothes at the end of this book.
3 Mom s Home "Run Roo, run." Earl said. "I just saw Mom pull up the driveway." He was right. She was home right on time. This means dinner and then we get to go outside for a while and wrestle. Earl is really good at wrestling. We sleep really good when we play outside. Do you sleep really good at night when you play outside?
4 The Ghost On The Front Lawn" Moving back and forth No legs Nothing touching the ground Nothing like we've seen before. Barking couldn't scare it away. It moved over and back, not even scared of Earl and I. Then suddenly it came flying at us. I ran onto the porch. Earl was stuck on the lawn.
5 I decided that the porch was the safest. I edged back and watched carefully as it got closer and closer to Earl. Earl's eyes were wide and he wasn't sure what to do. Just minutes before, the ghost was far away. Now that it was right in front of us, things were different. If only I had a plan. Maybe if Earl would look at me we could figure it out. And he did like he had read my mind. Brilliant!! Everything was in place. When the ghost went left, Earl dodged right and circled right around me.
6 We're a good team so we were ready now. A light wind blew and Earl and I hopped out of the way as the ghost flew right by us. "Wait a minute." exclaimed Earl. "That thing is not alive. The wind is just blowing it all over the place. Next time it comes by, bite it, Roo." OK Earl.
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8 BOOM! Boom!!! Wow, that was loud. Do you know what that was, Earl? That must have been a balloon from someone's party that got caught on that branch on the front lawn. The light that we saw on the balloon was from the sun. That was pretty scary, but now that we know what it is, it's not scary at all. Another mystery solved, Earl."
9 "Halloween" Tomorrow is Halloween. We get to dress up in costumes. That s me, Roo, in the picture. It s so funny. I m wearing my Superdog costume. I wanted to try it on to make sure that it fits good. When you get new clothes do you like to try them on?
10 My human sister, Jordan, goes out in her costume and rings the neighbors doorbell and says Trick or Treat and the people come to the door and give her candy. When she comes home it smells real good but dogs can t have chocolate. It will give us a stomachache. So remember not to give dogs chocolate. Can you find which ones are chocolate?
11 The Squirrel Hopping out on the front lawn is an animal with a really bushy tail. It is smaller than Earl and is brown. Every so often it stops and sits on its back legs. What is that thing, Roo? Earl said, never taking his eyes off of it. It s a squirrel."
12 "They make their houses out of leaves and live way up in the trees. You can see this squirrels house if you look way up near the top of the tree. They eat nuts and seeds that they find, then they bury some and put the rest in their nests, so they have something to eat when it gets cold outside. When winter comes there is not much food outside."
13 Why don't they live in the house with us?" "Well, for one thing Earl, they're not used to living inside. They need to be out where they can do what they want. They're wild animals." Earl, looking all confused now asks, Are we wild animals, Roo? "No we re tame. That means that we can live with people and learn things that make people happy." A silence comes over Earl. Roo you know so much. I hope one day I ll know as much as you... and I m glad we re tame too.
14 Me too, Earl, me too. I said to him as we giggled on our way back to the porch. "By the way, Earl, did you know that the squirrels don't always remember where they buried the nuts. The nuts, which are really seeds, grow into trees. Squirrels are responsible for planting millions of trees in our country and that's a really good thing. "Nuts"
15 "The Snow" Boing, Boing, Boing. There goes Earl jumping up and down on his back legs. "Look outside Roo" Earl said. "White stuff is falling from the sky." That's snow, Earl." I said. Now I know why he's all excited! He's only 10 months old. That s less than one year.