CHAPTER 1 Howling Like Mad I'm Alfie Wolfe and I'm here to tell you all about a fraidycat dog named Freddie Don't think I'm making fun of him I know what it's like to be scared of stuff Especially sharks Man sharks creep me out But this story isn't about killer fish It's about Freddie Freddie the beagle Freddie with the howl like you wouldn't believe He checked into our dog hotel last June I'll never
forget that stormy week We're talking huge dark thunder clouds Those clouds were the color of stormy ocean water full of seaweed And sharks Back to Freddie He showed up on a Saturday The weather guy on TV had forecasted blue skies and tons of sunshine that weekend Man did he get it wrong That morning a huge boom of thunder woke me partway up I was lying inside my sleeping bag on our living room floor I was at the tail end of a nightmare still half asleep and yelling stuff like Help I'm inside a shark It swallowed me whole I kicked and punched and shoved trying to bust my way out of that shark's stomach A loud ripping sound sort of like meat tearing off bones made me stop and open my eyes I realized that I was at the bottom of my sleeping bag
All of me My whole head and body Then I noticed that I'd torn a big hole in the bag down there I stuck my head out of the tear and looked around Our living room was as dark as the inside of a shark's stomach It was noisy in there too I heard my own panting and rain pounding on the windows I heard thunder rumbling outside and my sister laughing I looked over at her and saw that Alfreeda was inside
her sleeping bag But she was down at the very bottom of it all curled up laughing at me Her sleeping bag looked just like a shark that had swallowed a kid whole Ha she cried You're afraid of sharks now too Since when We don't live anywhere near an ocean Ha ha ha Suddenly a super loud boom of thunder shut her right up I thought Weird Alfreeda never shuts up And since when HAVE I been scared of sharks Then I remembered they started freaking me out just the night before My family had been watching another dog movie Well my dad hadn't been watching He was Up North studying wolves in the wilderness Just my mom sister
