One day Tommy Triangle saw Otto Oval zoom past his house on a brand new yellow skateboard with blue wheels.  The skateboard was large enough for both Otto and his dog Oliver!  Oliver and Otto always had so much fun together.

“Wouldn’t it be great to have my very own pet?” thought Tommy to himself.

He decided to call Cindy Circle to see if she wanted to take a walk to the SHAPELTOWN® Animal Shelter and check if any new pets had arrived. “Of course I’ll come with you Tommy,” said Cindy.  “Let’s go!”

When they entered the animal shelter, Tommy explained to the manager of the shelter that he wanted to adopt a pet.  First, the manager showed Tommy 4 cats and 2 kittens.  How many cats were there all together? Can you count them?

1 –   2 –  3 –  4 –  5 –  6

“They are really cute  sir, but  do you have any dogs?” Tommy asked.   “Yes, we do – at least 10.  Follow me,” said the manager.

The three of them walked to the other side of the building.  “Let me introduce you to little Harley first,” said the shelter manager.  He is very lonely because none of the other dogs will play with him.  They just ignore him.  He always sits by himself and looks so-o-o-o-o sad.”

Harley’s tail immediately started wagging, and he jumped up and down when he saw Tommy and Cindy.  “Look at those beautiful eyes Tommy, and that cute little nose!” said Cindy.  “He wants you to take him home!  Besides, he has triangle ears, and YOU LOVE TRIANGLES!”  “Wow, he certainly does have triangle ears,” said Tommy.  Harley kept looking up at Cindy and Tommy, wagging his tail, trying to get their attention.  “This is the puppy for me!  I would like to adopt him,” Tommy announced.  “But don’t you want to see the other 9 dogs?” said the manager.  “No, said Tommy.  “My heart goes out to little Harley.  I can give him lots of love and care.”     “Okay,” said the shelter manager.  “I will have a member of our adoption staff get all the paperwork ready.”  “Yippee,” shouted Cindy.

After he had filled out the paperwork, Tommy and Cindy thanked the manager of the shelter and walked home with Harley.   Harley was so excited!  His tail never stopped wagging, and Tommy could not stop smiling!  He wanted to show all his SHAPEL friends the new puppy he had adopted.

“We need a doghouse for Harley,” stated Cindy.    Tommy had a fabulous idea.  They would build a house shaped just like his – a triangle with 3 sides of course!  Harley will love it.

Cindy and Tommy worked all afternoon and were almost finished building the triangle doghouse by dinner time.   They were both really tired though.  “We can finish tomorrow and then paint the doghouse,” said Tommy.    “I want it to be green with a yellow door to match my triangle house.”

The next day Cindy got up early and ran over to Tommy’s house.  “I have good news and bad news, Tommy,” said Cindy.  “The bad news is that I only have two colors of paint left:  YELLOW and BLUE.  The good news is that we can mix those two colors together to make GREEN paint so the doghouse will be the same color as your house.”  “That’s great! Go ahead and mix the paint Cindy, and we can get started,” replied Tommy.

By lunch time, Tommy and Cindy had finished painting the entire doghouse. As Ricky Rectangle walked by with his horse Rusty, he asked,  “What on earth happened to your house, Tommy?  It SHRUNK!”   “Don’t be silly, Ricky.  This is not MY house,” said Tommy.  “It belongs to MY NEW PUPPY.  I just adopted him from the animal shelter!”

Just then Harley jumped out of his doghouse and barked hello to Ricky Rectangle and Rusty.

Ricky helped Tommy move the doghouse to Tommy’s front yard.   All the other SHAPELS® came running over when they heard the barking.  “Meet Harley,” said Tommy as he proudly introduced his new puppy to all his  friends.  Everyone loved Harley’s little green triangle doghouse, his cute little nose, his triangle ears, but most of all they LOVED Harley!

“Welcome to SHAPELTOWN®,” said Suzy Square.

The story is based on a little dog named Harley who was adopted at an animal shelter.  He has touched our hearts and brought so much joy into our lives!