Welcome to Dog Beach by Lisa Greenwald

raise my voice.
    â€œWe must look crazy,” Micayla shouts.
    â€œWe should start a doggie day camp,” Bennett suggests. “Like Seagate Day Camp, but for dogs! Look, they love us!”
    First Mr. Brookfield said it, and now Bennett, and the more we talk about it, the more I wish it was a real idea and not just a funny thing to think about.
    We start coming up with all the activities we could do in our doggie day camp—totally in a joking way—but even discussing it is so much fun. We decide we could even safely offer instructional swim in the ocean, since dogs are already good swimmers. And we could serve lunch on Dog Beach.
    â€œIt’ll be better than the Seagate Day Camp lunch,” Bennett says. “We were practically eating dog food to begin with!”
    Seagate Day Camp used to have a cook named Trey Fischer, and my mom said he was some musician back in the day. He loved cooking—he just wasn’t very good at it. His lunches were pretty terrible. He somehow found a way to ruin grilled cheese. Eventually he retired, and now kids bring their lunches from home. It’s much better that way.
    â€œThank you guys so much,” Amber says, now pushing Hudson in a jogging stroller as he shoves Cheerios into his mouth. All parents have jogging strollers on Seagate—they’re the only ones tough enough to maneuver on the sand. “Come on, Mari,” Amber says. But Marilyn Monroe just stays where she is, lying on the sand, with Micayla rubbing her belly.
    â€œWell, this is the happiest I’ve seen her since we’ve gotten to Seagate, except when she’s with you, Remy,” Amber admits. “Normally she has a dog walker in the city, since I have my hands full with this one.” She points to the stroller. “I think she’s felt neglected.”
    Wow. There really is a need for a doggie support group. All these dog owners admit that their dogs aren’t getting the attention they need.
    â€œEveryone loves Dog Beach,” I admit. “Even humans.”
    Amber attempts to put Marilyn Monroe in the second seat in the stroller, and Bennett bursts out laughing. I elbow him to get him to stop, but in all fairness, it’s just so funny. Soon Micayla is laughing too, and once two of us are cracking up, the third one can’t help but laugh.
    â€œIt’s crazy, I know.” Amber is laughing along with us now.“I should let her walk, but I need to get home quickly.”
    She puts Marilyn Monroe in the seat, only for her to hop back out. This happens three or four times, and then Amber turns to us. “Hey, I have a wacky idea. You guys can totally say no. I know this isn’t in your set hours, but, Remy, you are so good with her. And you’re here anyway. Do you have any interest in keeping an eye on her for a little while longer? And then walking her home?” She raises her eyebrows. “I’d pay you extra, of course.”
    The three of us look at each other, moving our eyebrows up and down, doing weird blinking patterns, trying to communicate with our eyes.
    â€œSure!” we all say at the same time.
    â€œThank you.” Amber smiles. “I had a feeling Remy would have awesome friends.”
    We spend another hour at Dog Beach, playing with the dogs, running around with them, and joking that we’re on the path to really running a doggie day camp.
    After that, we return Oscar to Dawn, and Marilyn Monroe to Amber, and we tell them that we’re available for walks in the afternoon if they need us.
    â€œSo you’re making all this dog-watching money,” Bennett says to me as we’re walking home. “Are you saving up for something?”
    I shrug. “I haven’t thought about it really.”
    â€œWell, there’s a new iPhone coming out in September; you can always get that,” Micayla suggests.
    â€œMaybe.” It does sound cool, but I feel weird taking these people’s