“Where did you take this? It is not around here,” she said, passing it on to Vee, who inspected it closely before passing it on to Esther.
“C’mon, Sunny, don’t keep them in suspense,” her dad said, standing up. “You’re being a tease.”
Sunny burst into giggles. “All right,” she said, collecting her picture and gazing at it fondly before returning it to her pocket. “Her name is Dezzie. She’s a giant mixed breed—”
“We could see that,” Vee muttered.
“She’s our cyber dog,” Sunny continued, ignoring Vee. “We adopted her from Big Dog Animal Rescue in Utah. We send money every month to help take care of her until she gets her forever home. Us kids are all donating part of our chore wages to her.”
“That would have to be a big forever home,” Esther said.
“And your parents are kicking in, too,” reminded her father.
“Big Dog Rescue sends us pictures of her being cute. We can watch her on their web cam.” Sunny twirled.
“You girls did a good thing,” said Vee’s stepdad, raising his red plastic cup in salute. Immediately the other parents did the same. “To the S.A.V.E. Squad!”
The girls blushed and joined in the applause, laughing and applauding each other with exaggerated bows. Wink, Baba, and Fred aroo-aroo’d!
Aneta—full of chips, guacamole, sour cream, and love—sighed. Yes. They were the S.A.V.E. Squad. It is what they did. It was who they were. Just like she was a Jasper. Aneta Jasper.
Mom’s Peanut-Butter Cookie Recipe
1 cup peanut butter
1 cup sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla
Set oven at 350 degrees. Mix all ingredients. Shape dough into balls and place on cookie sheet. Bake for 8 minutes.
Kathleen’s note: Yes! Those are the ONLY ingredients. My student Emily brought these to class one time, and I fell deep into cookie love. She got the recipe from her grandmother. She says if you are feeling super special, put an unwrapped Hershey kiss on top right after they come out of the oven. P.S. Emily likes to write. Do you?
Lauraine Snelling is an award-winning author with more than sixty-five published titles, including two horse series for kids. With more than two million books in print, Lauraine still finds time to create great stories as she travels around the country to meet readers with her husband and rescued basset, Sir Winston.
Kathleen Damp Wright teaches writing to Christian home-schoolers and can’t wait to buy a student’s first novel! When she’s not dreaming up adventures for her characters, she’s riding bikes with her husband, playing pickle ball, and trying to convince her rescued border collie that Mom knows best.
Dog Daze Page 13