Use these 20 vocabulary words from A Dog's Life for your weekly list, daily word study, or spelling exercises.

(Note: these are in the order they appear in the book)

1. predator (pred-uh-tur)
noun
An animal that lives by hunting other animals for food. Lions, sharks, and hawks are predators.

2. investigate (in-vess-tuh-gate)
verb
If you investigate something, such as a crime, you fnd out as much as possible about it.

3. consider (kuhn-sid-ur)
verb

1. To think about something carefully before deciding what to do.
2. To believe that something is true. Shelley considers school to be a waste of time.
3. To take something into account. We must consider Danny's feelings.

4. abandon (uh-ban-duhn)
verb

1. To leave forever.
2. To give up.

5. wary (wair-ee)
adjective
Cautious and careful. Danny is always very wary of dogs.

6. scramble (skram-buhl)
verb

1. To climb over rocks or hills.
2. To rush or struggle to get somewhere or something. Jessica scrambled to get to the front row.
3. To mix up or mix together. Scramble the letters in the game.
4. To alter an electronic signal so that it requires a special receiver to decode the message. The cable television company scrambled its signal so that only subscribers could receive it.

7. emerge (i-murj)
verb
If you emerge from somewhere, you come out into the open.

8. haunch (hawnch)
noun
The hip, buttock, and upper thigh of an animal or person.

9. menace (men-iss)
noun
A threat or a danger. Drunk drivers are a menace to everyone else on the road.

10. rabid (rab-id)
adjective

1. Affected with rabies, an often fatal disease that can affect humans, dogs, bats, and other warm-blooded animals. Rabies is caused by a virus that attacks the brain and spinal cord and is spread by the bite of an infected animal.
2. Extremely violent.
3. Going to extreme lengths in expressing or pursuing a feeling, interest, or opinion.

11. retreat (ri-treet)
verb
To move back or withdraw from a difficult situation. The enemy retreated into the woods.

12. venture (ven-chur)
verb
To put yourself at risk by doing something daring or dangerous. The explorers ventured cautiously into the dense jungle.

13. desperate (dress-pur-it)
adjective

1. If you are desperate, you will do anything to change your situation.
2. Dangerous or difficult, as in a desperate act.

14. asphalt (ass-fawlt)
noun
A black, tarlike substance that is mixed with sand and gravel and then rolled flat to make roads.

15. independent (in-di-pen-duhnt)
adjective
Free from the control of other people or things. The colonists wanted to be independent of England.

16. scrounge (skrounj)
verb

1. To get things from people without paying. Can I scrounge a sandwich from you?
2. To get or collect things with difficulty. He scrounged up enough money to pay for lunch.

17. stalk (stawk)
verb
To hunt or track a person or an animal in a quiet, secret way. The leopard stalked its prey.

18. vicious (vish-uhss)
Adjective

1. Cruel and mean, as in vicious lies.
2. Evil or wicked, as in a vicious crime.
3. Fierce or dangerous, as in a vicious dog.

19. contraption (kuhn-trap-shuhn)
noun
A strange or odd device or machine.

20. instinct (in-stingkt)
noun
Behavior that is natural rather than learned. Ducks swim by instinct.