SOLVED. Children’s anthology of scary stories involving pets, including hellhound and carnivorous lizard (Weekly Reader Book Club?) [s]

[Timothy]

I’m looking for a collection of scary stories for children, which I believe was published in the Weekly Reader Book Club series around 1996-1999.

The two stories that I remember involve pets.

1. A boy gets a seemingly immortal dog, possibly some type of hellhound. An attempt at euthanizing and cremating the dog utterly fails.

2. A boy gets a lizard-type pet that turns out to be carnivorous/violent. The pet escapes and the story ends with the boy holed up in his bedroom with a baseball bat, his dresser blocking the door and the lizard thumping up the stairs.

I remember the cover being an ominous black, possibly with red/orange streaks.

[Kris]

Here's a Goodreads list of Weekly Reader Books.

[Timothy]

The book is Eerie Animals by Donna Hill.

[Kris]

Glad you found your book, Timothy. Here's the link - Eerie Animals: Seven Stories by Donna Hill.