Book One

1

Louie, a fluffy, white Maltese with his tongue always sticking out, was having a nice nap in his room on the S.S.L. cruise ship. He liked the beds even though the boat rocked a lot.

“Louie, wake up! It’s breakfast time! We’re gonna go soon!”

He woke up, feeling hungry. “Well,” Louie yawned. “Breakfast, then home.”

Louie ate fast (as usual!), and his owners took him home by plane. The cruise was in Florida. He came in from New York, and he was going to his new home in California. He chased his tail which meant he wanted a walk. He liked chasing his tail better than saying “I want a walk,” even though he could talk.

2

The main thing that Louie’s owners had to remember was to make sure Louie did not see water towers. He had a huge fear of them after he heard that a good dog got locked in one for no reason. His owners knew that Louie had a fear of them because he told them. Louie only talked when he wanted to, and he only did it whenever he felt it was necessary or he just wanted to say a little something. His owners bought their new house while they were on S.S.L., so they didn’t know the city too well, and they didn’t know that a water tower was only ten blocks away from their home. Unfortunately, the owners went that way on Louie’s walk.

Louie was in the middle of having a chat with a pug. He was telling the other dog about his fear, when the pug said, “Really? You’re afraid of water towers? There’s one right behind you!”

Louie screamed, “AHHHHHHH! WATER TOWER!!!!” Louie ran so hard, that his collar broke off of him. He ran into a forest that had known many dangers, and no one who went in came out alive.

3

Louie’s owners were running behind him shouting, “LOUIE! COME BACK! YOU DON’T KNOW THE DANGERS OF THIS FOREST!”

But Louie was too far ahead, so he really didn’t hear them. As soon as Louie couldn’t see the water tower anymore, he thought, Phew, I’m safe! But what he didn’t know was that there were poisonous plants everywhere, a deadly sea monster in the lake, rattlesnakes, and black widow spiders. Or at least that was what people knew. Louie walked a little bit forward and then, looked down to see what he had just stepped on.

He thought, Hm, a little smooth, but why do I want to chew this? I’m gonna look at what this is. He looked down and he jumped up above the trees. It was a skeleton!

4

“AHHHHHHHHHH!!! SKELETON!!!” Louie screamed as he ran farther into the forest. Soon, Louie saw huge spider webs with giant black widows on them! And rattlesnakes! Louie was horrified! He ran back while avoiding poisonous plants.

He thought, Oh yay, I’m almost out, I’m safe! till he saw…

5

“A SEA MONSTER!!!” The monster was the most dangerous part of the whole forest. The sea monster was green, with huge claws and five eyes (one on his head, one on each arm and one on each leg). Its teeth were very sharp and were twenty feet tall. Its mouth was so big, it could swallow a whole public bus in one swallow without chewing it. It had four humongous horns on the top of its head that were so sharp, that it was sharper than a spear. Louie trembled in fear, and the monster gave a huge “ROAR!” Louie started to fight the monster for a little bit and realized that his weak spot was his right shoulder — he kept on swallowing when Louie was closer to his right shoulder. Louie realized that if he jumped just the right height at just the right place, he could maybe kill the monster.

Louie delivered a bite into the monster’s shoulder which started to kill him.

The monster said while he was dying, “Oh no! I am what made this forest dangerous, and I loved it when the forest was so dangerous!”

The monster died, and the forest was no longer dangerous. The skeletons became people, and there were no black widows or rattle snakes. Louie ran through a field with plenty of plants that aren’t poisonous by the touch to his owners, like dandelions, wonderful grass, even a little bit of some strawberries, apples, blueberries, raspberries and blackberries, and tomatoes (for some reason there was a lot of food!) His owners saw him running to them, so they had their arms open as he ran towards them.

6

They got Louie a new collar and learned where the water towers were. They always kept a blindfold, but he rarely used it.

Louie knew that the forest was now not dangerous anymore, but he still didn’t trust it. He thought that maybe there were some poisonous things left, so his owners never went that way.

They were very nice, and since one was a chef, she brought Louie’s favorite food home. His favorite food was chicken, waffles, eggs, French toast, and for dessert, he loved the biggest ice cream sundae that they made with his favorite flavor, chocolate chocolate chip.

Louie thought, It’s been a long day, and I’m sleeping late tomorrow!

7

Ever since he had gone into the forest, Louie was a little bit less scared of water towers and never used the blindfold much. He realized that the forest was much scarier than the water towers. Before, water towers looked like they almost wanted to eat him, but after the forest, he saw that they weren’t that scary looking, and he mostly got over his fear.

Besides, now Louie knew that the water towers had a lot of water in them, and Louie liked to swim. If he did ever get locked in, because he had made it out of the forest, everyone promised that they would give him food for the water tower. After he had gotten out of the forest, he also became a bit of a celebrity because no one had come out alive before, and it was always dangerous. Louie had made it out unharmed, and the forest was no longer dangerous since it was under the curse of the sea monster, which he killed with a bite.

Book Two

1

It was good that Louie was tiny, so if he thought that people and dogs were getting out of control, he could just squeeze out of the crowd.

After he got fame, he befriended Marnie the Dog.They liked to go on doggy trips three times a month, where they got to go to doggy spas, but they went to the dog spas very rarely, since Louie did not like them, and Marnie only liked it once a month. Louie didn’t like the chances of getting a poodle cut because he thought that he’d look silly with all of that fur, especially with all of the bald spots he’d have. He also thought he had to wear bows if he got one, and he would only wear them if they were bowties, and he only liked to wear them two times a year.

Louie’s owners weren’t always happy about him being famous, especially when his fans came into the house, unless it was only Marnie. When the fans came in, usually they made a mess in the house, and they would usually be there for about an hour. Maybe a little bit less, maybe more. But they liked Marnie because she was small, and she was a very sweet dog. Oh, and she didn’t have the problem of making the house a mess.

Louie was in love with Marnie, but he didn’t want to tell her right away. He waited about a month after they had gotten one doggy spa treatment together, then he told her.

He said, “Marnie, I’m in love with you.”

Marnie replied, “Really? Then let’s get married as soon as this is over!” After that happened, they held paws more, but they didn’t kiss, they nuzzled (they thought it was gonna be too gross if they kissed.)

2

Louie still had some fears left of water towers, but it only came up whenever he saw the one near the forest in person. Sometimes he was there at bad times, like when he was getting an interview for Pup Magazine. He was being silly a little bit, by barking instead of answering, which made everyone crack up, and chasing his tail when he was asked how he told his owner when he wanted to go for a walk. The reporter didn’t know what he meant when he chased his tail.

He went slightly crazy because of the water tower. He was jumping up and down and whimpering and shaking. His paws were in front of his chest, and he soon calmed down when the reporter took him to a different place. It was right in front of Louie’s house, which Louie’s owners were not very happy about. Marnie wasn’t happy either, since they were almost trampling her.

It was many hours later when some of Louie’s really big fans came in and yelled at Louie about his fear of water towers.

One said, “You can’t be afraid of water towers!”

Another said, “You can’t because it’s such a weird fear!”

That made Louie feel sad. His tail started to droop, and his head dropped. Even his tongue looked like it had drooped. Marnie got very mad at this, and she started to bark, growl, and scratch, and chased them until they left.

Louie was still feeling upset about what they had said, so his owners and Marnie comforted him. They gave him hugs, Marnie nuzzled him, and they told Louie that it was totally normal to have a fear of anything, and that there were some people who were afraid of knees, and there were some people who were afraid of books (these are fears in real life). After Louie heard this, his tail started wagging again, his head perked up, his tongue didn’t look droopy, and he had a big smile on his face. Soon, it was time for bed. Louie walked to his owner’s bed, Marnie jumped up too. Their owners got in bed, and they all fell asleep.

3

That night, Louie had a nightmare about his fans chasing him and then eating him. Louie didn’t get a very good sleep that night because of his nightmare. The next morning, more fans had come to complain about his fear. Louie decided to put his house off-limits to fans. Even so, they climbed up the side of his building, and one even gave him poisoned chicken because he didn’t like the fear so much. Louie then said how he was only scared of them and only afraid of one water tower, and he had to see it in person.

Louie decided that it was time for a doggie trip, but he never told anyone except for his owners and Marnie. Louie didn’t have a private jet or anything, so he used a public airplane to go to Ecuador. Louie knew they thought it wasn’t too obvious that he would go to Ecuador. He knew that his fans thought he would be going to China or Florida. He knew that they weren’t going to think about any other countries or states since Florida was the most likely place, and he was pretty sure people would think he was going to China. But he also thought about how people think about that and assume he’d go to the most obvious place — Florida. He knew that people would never think he’d go to some place like Ecuador.

He stayed there for about a month. By then, he knew that everyone had forgotten about his fear of water towers and realized that he was only afraid of one. Just in case, he took the long way back, which took him another month. Luckily, he made no stops in China or Florida, and none of the planes crossed North America or Asia, until he got back home to California.

4

By then, everyone just forgot about him even being afraid of water towers. In fact, no more articles about Louie were involved with water towers anymore. However, Louie had been in Ecuador for too long, and he was required to go back and move there. Otherwise, he would only be allowed to stay in North America. This was a very tough decision for Louie because he didn’t want to go back to Ecuador, but he didn’t want to not be able to leave North America. He and Marnie loved to visit France! Marnie and Louie would be so sad if they couldn’t go together to those places that were outside of North America.

5

Louie had just moved into a new home, only three months ago. His owners weren’t even finished unpacking yet. He didn’t want to move again, even farther from Florida. Besides, he knew that where he would stay, there would be a water tower literally in front of his house. This was the biggest water tower in Ecuador, and he knew that some people said that no one would actually give you food, no matter how big of a celebrity you were. No matter what promises you had on you.

Louie checked out the house, and he knew that even though it was an amazing house, no one would allow Marnie in the house, only because she wasn’t hypoallergenic. Most people who lived there were allergic to dogs.

Louie really didn’t want to lose Marnie. Marnie had been with him for almost two months now! He just couldn’t bear being away from her. He knew he was going to have to make the hardest decision of his life. Louie needed to know if that was the only house that was left. Luckily, he was also able to buy a whole hotel. However, they couldn’t let him. They said that hotels were too dirty, and that celebrities only deserved the finest. They probably didn’t understand that Louie was a dog! Louie decided that he would go to Ecuador, but he was sneaky.

6

He said he’d lived in the house, but he took Marnie in his suitcase. Of course, Marnie got out when they were doing the bag detection. So all of them went, but as soon as they found out that Marnie was there, they got extremely mad.

The truth was, they didn’t know that Marnie was actually hypoallergenic in secret. But like I said, it was secret. Marnie actually never knew it, but after they had spent about a week with Marnie, Marnie hadn’t even shed a hair on the ground, and none of the people were getting allergies from neither her or Louie. Louie and Marnie knew what that meant when they found out — they could stay together!

7

Since they couldn’t live in California anymore, the one owner who was a chef got a new cooking job, and the other one got another new job as a lifeguard on the beach.

Louie and Marnie loved running around on the beach, and they both knew that they had made the right choice to move to Ecuador.