A dog’s settled, comfortable life gets a nip in the nether parts after a puppy’s sudden arrival. When T.P., named for an incident in his past involving the room with what he calls the “tall, white drinking bowl,” hears human buddy Jeff telling his mom and dad about a “chocolate lab” on loan for just a week, honest, he has no idea that the household is about to acquire (permanently, of course, by the end) a new resident for whom the word “frisky” is way too pale. Not only is the four-legged youngster both leaky and ignorant of proper canine protocols, she unleashes a nonstop barrage of irritating chatter—“Are you a dog? You smell like a dog, only not as big or pretty as my mother. Are these your people? Are they going to be my people?”—and claims entirely too much of Jeff’s attention to boot. T.P. sulks at first, but it’s just not in his nature to stay down for long. After rescuing the newly-named Mocha from being drowned by a wild goose, he comes to terms with his new role as caregiver. Rogers’s accurately detailed drawings, replete with smiles and close-ups of the exuberant pup, capture not only the semi-rural setting, but the engagingly doggy spirit of this upbeat animal tale. (Fiction. 10-12)
