CAASPP Success - Grade 4 Reading Comprehension - Narrative #2

A Fish Named Dog

[1] I locked eyes with the fish as I tapped flakes of food into his tank. He stared blankly at me through the glass. Not exactly my idea of a perfect pet.

[2] I’d begged my parents for a dog or a cat. Even an iguana would have been better than a fish. But they showed up one day with a bright gold fish swimming around in a plastic bag. They beamed at me and expected me to be ecstatic. For a fish. A silly little fish.

[3] In protest, I named him Dog.

[4] Don’t get me wrong, I’ve got nothing against fish. They’re perfectly fine animals. But I wanted a pet that would do tricks and greet me when I entered a room. A pet that would show affection, like a tail wag or a meow. Instead, I got a dead-eyed fish.

[5] Or so I thought.

[6] “I’m never going to get a dog,” I said to my best friend, Jane, on the phone. I stared at my fish lazily munching on his flakes. Suddenly, Dog stopped eating and swam over from the other side of his tank. He looked at me, expectantly.

[7] “What do you want?” I muttered. Dog turned and swam back to his dinner.

[8] “It’s not fair,” I said, continuing to complain to Jane. “Everyone else has a dog.”

[9] Once again, the fish swam over from the other side of the tank, right up to the glass next to me. I gave him a puzzled look.

[10] Did he know his name was Dog? Was he coming to me when I called him?

[11] No way. Fish weren’t that smart.

[12] Were they?

[13] I waited for Dog to swim away again and begin eating. Then I said, “Dog!”

[14] He immediately swam over. Maybe Dog wasn’t a stupid fish, after all.

[15] After school the next day, I ran right home to see what else Dog could do. When the other kids asked where I was going, I said, “I’m going to teach Dog a new trick.” Nobody realized that Dog was actually a fish.

[16] By the end of the week, Dog could do loop-the-loops at my command. After two weeks, he could swim figure eights. After one month of practice, he could retrieve a little plastic ball by swimming under it and pushing it up to the top of the tank, so I could drop it back into the water. He was playing fetch!

[17] Dog was a good listener, too. As we practiced his tricks, I’d tell him all about school, and friends, and my baseball games. I’m convinced that he would pout his fishy lips when I had a bad day and swish his tail happily when I told him good news. And whenever I walked into the room, Dog would always swim up to me and give me a happy glub-glub.

[18] I was rethinking all my ideas about fish. But there was still one thing left to do. I dug my old red wagon out of the garage, transferred Dog to a small round bowl, and nestled him inside the wagon. He peered up at me excitedly. For the first time since he’d been my pet, I took Dog outside. I wheeled him around the block and all the way to the park.

[19] “What on earth is that?” asked a kid from school, who was out walking his schnauzer.

[20] “That’s Dog,” I said.

[21] A boy with a beagle chuckled. “When you said you were training your dog, you meant a fish?”

[22] I nodded proudly.

[23] “Well... ” said a girl with a basset hound, “what can he do?”

[24] I knelt down beside the fish bowl and shouted commands. Dog did each one as we’d practiced: loop-the-loop, figure eight, fetch. The kids were impressed. Some of them went home that very day and asked their parents for fish.

[25] I smiled down at Dog as we headed home. He gurgled and flapped his fins. And I’m pretty sure he smiled right back.

Dog was a good listener, too. As we practiced his tricks, I’d tell him all about school, and friends, and my baseball games. I’m convinced that he would pout his fishy lips when I had a bad day and swish his tail happily when I told him good news. And whenever I walked into the room, Dog would always swim up to me and give me a happy glub-glub.

I was rethinking all my ideas about fish. But there was still one thing left to do. I dug my old red wagon out of the garage, transferred Dog to a small round bowl, and nestled him inside the wagon. He peered up at me excitedly. For the first time since he’d been my pet, I took Dog outside. I wheeled him around the block and all the way to the park.