Dogtown

One day, Jessie’s mother, a professor, is put on a six-month sabbatical. Chance thinks that they’ll get to spend lots of time together until she hears Jessie asking questions like why they have to leave and why they’re leaving Chance.

Jessie and her mother start packing suitcases. Two of the dogs in Chance’s neighborhood warn her that suitcases mean humans are leaving and that “if you were lucky, you would go with them. And if you weren’t…” (212).

A dog-sitter comes, promising to take care of Chance. Chance tries to run after her humans, but the dog-sitter closes the door, and Chance “stare[s] out the window as Jessie and Professor Besser [drive] away” (215).

Little by little, Chance’s home changes, until the only part that smells like it should is the yard. The dog-sitter brings her abusive boyfriend to live in the house. Chance grows fearful and tries to avoid the couple.

One night, the dog-sitter and her boyfriend fight. When Chance tries to retrieve the salami that the dog-sitter threw at her boyfriend, the dog-sitter punishes Chance by throwing her out into the cold. Chance makes a run for the door, but the boyfriend runs her over with his truck. Chance blacks out, waking up sometime later to find that she is missing a leg.

The dog-sitter and her boyfriend decide to tell Chance’s owners that she ran away and lost her leg so that they won’t get blamed and possibly not paid. Right then, Chance knows that she has to run away in order to survive.

The dog-sitter’s boyfriend rips off Chance’s collar and throws her in his truck. Chance doesn’t know where he is taking her, but she knows she has to get away. Moving slowly with only three legs, Chance manages to jump out at a stop sign. She lands in a freezing snowbank, and though it’s miserable, she considers it an improvement.

Chance hops to a restaurant, where a kind man who smells like walnuts and honey feeds her and warms her up. He brings her to Dogtown and asks if they’ll take care of her, to which the front desk worker replies, “[W]e’ll do our best” (229).

Chance explains to Metal Head that for months after these events, she wondered if Jessie and her mother would come for her, but “after a while it was too painful to wonder anymore” (230).

Metal Head realizes that Chance knows how he feels. Still, when Chance asks him to come with her and Mouse back to Dogtown, his denial is adamant: “‘[N]o!’ Metal Head said, closing his eyes” (232).

Chance is annoyed that Metal Head won’t go with her because she “pulled out all the stops with Metal Head and it had made no difference at all” (233). Mouse tugs Chance to a box in the trunk that has a copy of Green Eggs and Ham.

Chance brings the book to Metal Head, reminding him about Quinn and reading buddy day. Metal Head still wants to stay with Jimmy, but Chance tries to persuade him that he helped Jimmy grow up and that “it’s Quinn who needs [him] now” (237).

All Metal Head’s lights start flashing. Chance doesn’t know what this means, but she hopes it indicates that “his steel heart [is] beating again” (238).

Before the group can hop out of the trunk, Jimmy’s mother comes back to close it, plunging them into darkness.

The three hide under a tarp as Jimmy’s mother runs errands, which takes a long time and makes Chance impatient: “[H]umans and their errands! Makes me glad I’m a dog” (241). When they get to the thrift store, the mother leaves the trunk open while she drops off a box. The three hop out and hide until she leaves.

Chance is turned around from the drive and doesn’t know how to get back to Dogtown. She worries about being out on the streets at night, both for herself and for Mouse. Metal Head only has 22 minutes of charge left, but Chance keeps everyone motivated by saying, “[W]e’ll have to find a charge on our way home” (246).

Chance hears the train whistle in the distance. It’s farther away than it sounds from Dogtown, but regardless, “it [is] comforting to hear the familiar sound” (248).

There’s a fish market nearby, which reminds Chance of her humans. The three head that way, with Chance hoping to find food and a charging station.

Chance is thinking about how to get them all into the fish market when Mouse runs inside and grabs a shrimp off a plate. People start yelling, and Mouse runs back toward Chance, pursued by a man with a broom.

The man with the broom chases Mouse until he collides with a woman carrying bags. As the humans gather up the fallen items, Mouse gets back to Chance, signing that he’s hungry. Chance understands because she feels the same.

Chance realizes that the group lost Green Eggs and Ham and goes back to look for it. She finds it near the fish market and grabs it as the broom man and his friend leave the market for the day. The two see Chance carrying the book and talk about how she is an interesting dog—one who has a mouse for a friend and can read. Chance thinks this is silly but then realizes, “[A] book and a friend…what could be better than that?” (260).

Chance meets up with the others outside a furniture store and goes inside to scout. She finds an open plug near the mattresses and couches, which is perfect and reminds her that there are two types of humans: “those that allow their dogs on the couch, and those that don’t” (262).

Chance goes outside to get the others. Mouse and Metal Head get inside before a girl closes and locks the door, but Chance does not.

Chance runs around to the front of the store, but before she can make a plan to get inside, “the girl slip[s] out and close[s] the door behind her” (267).

Chance runs to the window and communicates her plan to mimic Metal Head’s escape from his basement cage to unlock the door. Metal Head needs to charge first, and Chance struggles to keep warm outside, but eventually, they get the door open. Chance runs into the warmth with only one care on her mind: “[Do] I want to sleep on a bed or a couch?” (272).