Triple Pet Trouble (Judy Moody and Friends)
Page 1
.
.
JUDY
M
O
O
DY
AND
FRIENDS
.
To my wife, Hoài
E. M.
For the helpful crew at California Carnivores
M. M.
This is a work of fiction.
Names, characters, places,
and incidents are either products
of the author’s imagination or, if real, are used fictitiously.
Text copyright © 2015 by Megan McDonald
Illustrations copyright © 2015 by Peter H. Reynolds
Judy Moody font copyright © 2003 by Peter H. Reynolds
Judy Moody®. Judy Moody is a registered trademark of Candlewick Press, Inc.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, transmitted,
or stored in an information retrieval system in any form or by any means,
graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, taping, and recording,
without prior written permission from the publisher.
First electronic edition 2015
Library of Congress Catalog Card Number 2014955349
ISBN 978-0-7636-7443-4 (hardcover)
ISBN 978-0-7636-7615-5 (paperback)
ISBN 978-0-7636-8210-1 (electronic)
This book was typeset in ITC Stone Informal.
The illustrations were created digitally.
Candlewick Press
99 Dover Street
Somerville, Massachusetts 02144
visit us at www.candlewick.com
CONTENTS
CONTENTS
CHA
CHA
p
p
TER
TER
1
1
CHA
CHA
p
p
TER
TER
2
2
CHA
CHA
p
p
TER
TER
3
3
Jaws in Love 7
Mystic Mouse 23
Toady and the Vampire 45
.
CHA
CHA
p
p
TER
TER
1
1
7
Jaws in Love
Jaws looked droopy. Jaws looked
mopey. Jaws looked wilty. Jaws was
Judy Moody’s Venus flytrap. Two of
his leaves were turning black. One of
his traps was turning dead.
Judy Moody stuck her Grouchy
pencil in one of his traps and . . .
snap . . . trap . . . NOT! Jaws did not
snap his trap. Not even when she tried
an ant, a tiny cricket, or a roly-poly.
.
Stink’s jaw dropped when he saw
Judy’s pet. “What’s wrong with Jaws?
He looks like moldy old bread.”
“He’s sick,” said Judy.
“Ooh. Maybe he has the measles.”
“I don’t get it,” said Judy. “I feed
him earwigs from Dad’s garden. I
take him outside in winter. I snip
off his dead leaves when they turn
black.”
“Maybe he doesn’t like his new
haircut,” said Stink.
.
10
“I know,” said Judy. “Dr. Judy, Pet
Vet, to the rescue!”
Dr. Judy gave Jaws a bath — with
rainwater.
She sang him the
Baby Bumble Bee song.
She read
to him from
Charlotte’s Web.
11
“Don’t read him a sad book!” said
Stink.
“It’s his favorite,” said Judy. But
Jaws looked as droopy as ever.
Judy looked stuff up in her Big Head
Book of Bug-Eating Plants. “It says here
that there’s only one place in the
world where Venus flytraps grow in
nature.”
“Where?”
“A place called Cape Fear,” said
Judy, “in North Carolina.”
Stink shivered. The Moodys’ cat,
Mouse, pulled her toy mouse in closer.
“Maybe Jaws is homesick,” said Stink.
“Maybe Jaws is just lonely,” Judy
said.
.
12
“Aha! Jaws needs a friend,” said Stink.
He ran downstairs and came back
carrying a fishbowl. A goldfish was
floating on top of the sloshing water.
Stink set the bowl down next to
Jaws. “Jaws, meet your new friend,
Goldilocks.”
Judy peered into the bowl. “Stink.
That’s no goldfish. That’s a cracker. A
goldfish-shaped cracker.”
“Jaws doesn’t know that,” whispered
Stink.
“He’d probably rather eat than meet
his new friend,” Judy whispered back.
Jaws did not perk up one bit.
“It’s not working,” said Stink.
“Making friends takes time,” said
Judy.
.
14
Judy and Stink gave it time.
One day. Two days. Three days.
Judy peered into the goldfish bowl.
“Goldilocks looks puffy,” said Judy,
“and pale.”
“Let me see,” said Stink, pulling the
fishbowl toward him. The cracker fell
to pieces. “Argh! Jaws’s new friend
just became five friends!” cried Stink.
“Jaws looks worse,” said Judy.
“You’d look bad, too, if your best
friend just turned into Cream of
Goldfish,” said Stink.
“Let’s move Jaws over to the
window,” said Judy. “I think he needs
more light.”
They set Jaws down on the window
seat next to Mouse and a pile of
papers and junk. “Move over, Mouse,”
said Judy. “Make way for Jaws.”
.
16
Mouse leaped to the floor, but a
piece of paper got stuck to her paw.
Junk mail! Mouse shook her paw,
trying to get rid of it.
“Mouse is trying to show us
something,” said Stink.
Judy unstuck the piece of junk mail
from Mouse’s paw. On the flyer were
pictures of a Venus flytrap, a pitcher
plant, a sundew, and a cobra lily.
Carnivore city!
The flyer said GRAND
OPENING!
The
flyer said that a store called Cape Fear
Carnivores was opening right there in
Frog Neck Lake!
Judy kissed her cat on the nose.
She, Dr. Judy Moody, knew just what
to do to save Jaws.
.
18
Judy and her dad took Jaws to Cape
Fear Carnivores. Judy talked to the
owner, Peter Tomato. Peter Tomato
knew everything in the world about
bug-eating plants.
Peter Tomato helped Judy start her
very own bog. First she picked out a
pot that looked like a mini bathtub.
Next she filled it with sand and peat
moss. Then she planted Jaws in
the bog next to a brand-new, way-
tall, red-and-green North American
pitcher plant.
“Jaws,” said Judy, “meet Petunia,
your new bug-eating buddy!”
When Judy and Jaws and Petunia
got home, Stink peered into one of the
pitcher plant’s long tubes.
.
20
“There’s water in there,” said Stink,
“and a dead fly.”
“That’s how a pitcher plant traps
its food,” said Judy. “An insect smells
nectar, lands on the mouth of the
plant, and —
zoom
— falls right down
into the tube.”
“Cool,” said Stink.
“Did you know some pitcher plants
eat animal poop? They like shrew poo.”
“Hardee-har-har,” said Stink. “You
made that up.”
“Did not!” said Judy. “Peter Tomato
at Cape Fear Carnivores told me. Peter
Tomato would not lie.”
Judy sat back to admire her bog.
Jaws did not look droopy or mopey or
wilty. Jaws looked positively perky.
21
At last, Jaws had company. He
curled a leaf around Petunia, the
pitcher plant.
“Look,” said Judy. “I think Jaws is
in love!”
“Love at first sight,” said Stink.
“Love at first bite,” said Judy.
.
23
Mystic Mouse
CHA
CHA
p
p
TER
TER
2
2
Judy was reading to Mouse from her
Big Head Book of Pets. She was reading
all about parrots and potbellied pigs
and pocket pets — pets that can fit in
a pocket.
Then she looked out the window.
“Check it out, Mouse. Stink has a
lemonade stand. And his lemonade
stand has a big long line.”
.
Jingle-jangle. “I can already hear
the jingle of all the quarters in Stink’s
pockets.”
All of a sudden, she, Judy Moody,
had an idea. A pockets-full-of-
quarters idea.
25
She set up a table down the sidewalk
from Stink. She hung up a sign. She put
out an empty jar. She hid her Big Head
Book of Pets under the table, just in case.
“Hey!” said Stink. “This is my corner.”
“It’s a free country, Stink.”
“Why is Mouse wearing a turban
and sitting on your mood pillow like a
queen?”
.
26
Judy pointed to her sign.
PET PSYCHIC
:
MOUSE
THE MIND
READER
. “Mouse
knows what other pets are thinking.
She knew Jaws needed a friend,
remember?”
“What’s the jar for?”
“The jar is for when all the quarters
start to roll in. Twenty-five cents a
reading.”
P
PE
E
E
E
E
ET
T
T
T
T
T
P
P
P
P
PS
S
S
S
S
SY
Y
Y
Y
Y
YC
C
C
CH
H
H
H
H
H
HI
I
I
I
I
IC
C
C
C
C
C
C:
:
:
M
M
M
M
M
M
Mo
o
o
o
ou
u
u
u
u
us
s
s
s
se
e
e
e
e
e
e
t
t
t
t
th
h
h
h
he
e
e
M
M
M
M
M
Mi
i
i
i
i
in
n
n
n
n
nd
d
d
d
d
d
R
R
R
R
R
Re
e
e
ea
a
a
a
a
ad
d
de
e
er
r
r
27
Stink went back to
his table. “Ice-cold
lemonade!” cried Stink.
“Hand-stirred. Only
twenty-five cents!”
“Meet pet psychic
Mouse Moody!”
called Judy. “Got a
pet problem? Mouse
can solve it!”
Kids gawked at Mouse on their way
to get lemonade but didn’t stop. Judy
put up more signs.
FREE TUMMY RUBS!
FREE HEAD SCRATCHES!
.
28
Rocky was first in line. “Hi, Rock,”
said Judy. “What’s your pet problem?”
Rocky held out his pet iguana. “It’s
Houdini. He turned a weird color. And
his skin is peeling.”
Judy ducked under the table to
peek at her Big Head book in secret.
She sprang back up and leaned over
her cat. “Mouse the Mind Reader
29
has spoken. She says Houdini is just
growing. That’s why he’s shedding his
skin.” Judy scratched the back of the
iguana’s head. “Give him a nice bath,
mist him every morning, and he’ll
feel better.”
“Thanks!” said Rocky.
“Twenty-five cents, please,” said
Judy. Ka-ching!
.
Behind Rocky was Frank Pearl. His
parrot, Cookie, sat on his shoulder.
Judy gave Cookie a free tummy rub