As Lulu walked down the street to her second appointment she started singing this money song, which all of a sudden had popped into her head:

By the time she had sung her song a few times she had come to the next house, where the doorbell was answered by someone who introduced herself to Lulu as Pookie’s mommy. (She wasn’t a dog, of course. She was a plump, pink human being with many curls. Did you really think that a dog had answered the doorbell, opened the door, and introduced herself?)

A teeny-tiny white fuzzball was nestled cozily against Pookie’s mommy’s chest and held in place by Pookie’s mommy’s left hand as Pookie’s mommy explained (Hang in there, please—this sentence is long!) that though her little girl’s name was spelled P-O-O-K-I-E, the POOK part rhymed with DUKE and not with BOOK, and that Pookie got very upset if she was called by a name that rhymed with the wrong word. “You’ll never have a problem if you just remember DUKE,” said Pookie’s mommy—or PUKE, Lulu secretly thought but did not say. “Otherwise, you’re sure to hurt her feelings, and trust me, you wouldn’t want to hurt Pookie’s feelings.”

Lulu soon learned that the other thing that was sure to hurt Pookie’s feelings was expecting Pookie to walk when Lulu walked her. “Here’s how this works,” Pookie’s mommy explained. “You’re the one who walks. Pookie gets carried. And when it’s time, you’ll sit her, gently, underneath a tree, and she will do what she’s supposed to do.”

“How will I know when it’s time?” Lulu asked. And Pookie’s mommy answered, “Not to worry. She will let you know.”

During this whole conversation Pookie never opened her eyes, not even when she was handed over to Lulu, who was urged by Pookie’s mommy to practice saying Pookie’s name several times.

“Nicely done,” said Pookie’s mommy to Lulu, after she’d finished practicing her OOKs. “I am offering you the job of Pookie’s dog walker.”

Lulu didn’t think much of a dog that couldn’t even be bothered to open her eyes. But she very much liked the twelve dollars and fifty cents that she would be paid every week to walk her. Remembering, as she did now and then, the manners she had learned from Mr. B, Lulu said to Pookie’s mommy, “Thank you. I accept. I’ll see you at six thirty-two on Monday morning.”