Prologue
It’s strange how fast everything changed across my country, which, in case you don’t know, is Island Nation. Well, most of the changes happened on Puddin’ Head Island, the large island where I live. Maybe your country has had dogs for a long time, but my country had lived for generations without them. We’d never even seen a dog in a zoo, let alone owned one as a pet. Mom told me someone ordered a shipload of puppies and dogs from some place called the United States. Suddenly everyone wanted a puppy or dog. At least most Puddin’ Heads did. And guess what? My family got the best puppy, Waggers. And like the rest of the Puddin’ Heads, we thought taking care of a puppy would be easy. After we brought Waggers home, that silly idea lasted about one hour.
Most Sweeties, on the other hand, who live, of course, on Sweetie Island, don’t want anything to do with dogs because dogs are for Puddin’ Heads. A lot of Puddin’ Heads and Sweeties still don’t like each other, which is also silly. After all, my new best friend, Lily, is a Sweetie, and as you’ll soon learn, she really wants a puppy.
My teenage sister, Blaze, tried to explain the history of the Puddin’ Heads versus the Sweeties to me a while ago, shortly after she became a football and rock star. And just for the record, I am way more creative than Blaze, even if no one notices. Blaze said something like, “A very long time ago, many different types of people from around the world arrived on Island Nation.” Blah, blah, blah. “Then some numbskull tricked the people on Puddin’ Head Island into hating the people on Sweetie Island and vice versa.” Then more blah, blah, blah and a bunch of other confusing words. But here’s a part she said that I did understand: “Because there were so many different types of people, when the Puddin’ Heads and the Sweeties mixed, they didn’t know who was who. So this numbskull tricked many Puddin’ Heads into wearing red and many Sweeties into wearing blue so they could recognize their enemy.”
Fortunately, partly due to my sister’s accomplishments—blah, blah, blah, yawn, yawn, so-glad-I’m-almost-done-talking-about-my-sister—it’s no longer cool for Puddin’ Heads and Sweeties to hate each other. Yep, after I met Lily and learned about this ridiculous history, I started wearing lots of colors. However, Blaze explained that there are pockets of people on Puddin’ Head Island who still despise the Sweeties. Secretly, they call themselves true red Puddin’ Heads. I bet you can guess what they think about kids who wear lots of colors.
At the beginning of this story, I didn’t know my uncle was a true red Puddin’ Head. I didn’t know that he really, really loved his new lawn. And I didn’t know that’s where me, Waggers, and someone else would be staying for almost a whole week.
