Mission Impawsible

by Daphne Maple

  They both laughed but something else was occurring to me. “You know, Alice was right,” I said slowly. “The club is a lot of work.”

  Sasha frowned. “Yes, but it’s worth it,” she said quickly.

  “Definitely,” I agreed. “I’m just thinking maybe we should divide up the work we do, so we’re not all trying to do everything.”

  Taylor nodded. “That makes sense,” she said. “Also if just one of us is in charge of something, it will definitely get done.”

  “And that way we don’t each have too much to do,” I said.

  “We all have to walk the club dogs to the shelter and take care of them there,” Taylor said. “So that we can’t divide up.”

  “What are the other jobs?” Sasha asked.

  “Well, now there’s the Dog Club Diary,” I said. “Posting to it every day and also setting it up and running it—basically being a web designer.”

  “That’s a lot of work,” Sasha said. “I think it should be a two-person job.”

  I nodded. “I think you’re right. There’s also answering calls and emails from potential clients and scheduling them. And keeping the client list updated.”

  Taylor and Sasha were nodding. Then Sasha spoke up. “Kim, I nominate you to write for the website. You have all those great observations about what the dogs like and what they need. And you tell good dog stories. I think the owners will really like reading what you write.”

  “Agree,” Taylor said immediately. “That’s totally your job, Kim.”

  “Thanks,” I said, pleased at their praise. “I’d love to do that. I think it’ll be really fun.”

  “And I can do the web design stuff,” Taylor said. “I like computers. And you know I like taking pictures.”

  “Perfect,” Sasha said. “So that leaves the calls, client list, and scheduling to me. And I’m on it.”

  “Great,” I said, grinning.

  We started walking down Main Street.

  “You know, I think we just had a business meeting,” Taylor said.

  “It did feel awfully professional,” Sasha agreed. She slung an arm over each of our shoulders.

  “Maybe we should branch out and form a cat club next,” Taylor joked.

  “Let’s do something easier, like fish,” Sasha said, making us all laugh. The cool air felt good on my face as I walked down Main Street with my two best friends.

  “One thing’s for sure,” I said.

  “What’s that?” Sasha asked.

  “Us,” I said. “We really are the three musketeers.”

  Sasha grinned. “I think so too.”

  “Me three,” Taylor said, and we all laughed.

  At the next Dog Club meeting we decided that the club dogs were ready to arrive at the shelter at the same time. The three of us plus our charges met up in front of the shelter. There was happy barking when we walked in but it wasn’t crazy like it had been before. As soon as Humphrey’s leash was off, he padded over to Popsicle, Gus right behind him. Coco and Boxer had a joyful reunion that involved a lot of jumping around while the other dogs began an elaborate greeting of sniffing.

  I was about to start playing with them when I noticed something unusual. Alice, Tim, and Caley were all standing in front of the office smiling. And they were all wearing sweaters, or in Tim’s case, a gray sweatshirt.

  “Alice has a surprise,” Tim said. He looked at Alice and Caley. “Ready?”

  They nodded and then all took off their sweaters at the same time. When I realized what was going on, I gave a shriek of delight. Sasha clapped her hands together and Taylor gave a low whistle. “Pretty neat,” she said.

  The three of them were wearing different-colored T-shirts that said “The Roxbury Park Dog Club” in big letters, with matching paw prints.

  “I designed them,” Tim said. “What do you think?”

  “I love them,” I bubbled, and Sasha and Taylor quickly agreed. I couldn’t believe two high schoolers were wearing shirts to advertise the club that I’d thought of. It was so cool!

  “I picked the colors,” Caley said, like she wanted some credit too.

  “They’re perfect,” I said, and she smiled like my praise really mattered to her. It was the best feeling.

  “This is totally my favorite of all your dog shirts,” I told Alice.

  “I’m glad to hear it,” she said. “Because there’s one for each of you too.” She held out three folded shirts.

  “Thanks,” Sasha squealed, taking them. Taylor and I echoed her thanks as we ran to the bathroom to change into our new shirts. When we unfolded them, we saw there were dogs on the back, too.

  “I like this version of shelter clothes,” Sasha said, preening in the bathroom mirror after she’d put hers on.

  “Yeah, me too,” I agreed, looking at my reflection. “I think the dog on the back looks like Humphrey.”

  “Because he’s so lazy,” Taylor laughed.

  “I think it’s awesome that two high school kids are wearing shirts for our club,” I said, still feeling the glow from Tim’s and Caley’s enthusiasm.

  “Seriously,” Sasha said, looking as happy about it as I felt.

  “Why wouldn’t they?” Taylor asked, still not as impressed with the older kids as Sasha and me. “It’s the coolest club around.”

  “Good point,” I said with a grin.

  “It really is a cute shirt,” Sasha said, smoothing it down as she gazed at her reflection in the mirror.

  “Maybe the Dog Club should have a fashion line,” Taylor kidded.

  The three of us headed out to the main room and began an afternoon of blissful dog play.

  15

  Way less blissful was the essay. The pressure was really on, not just to get it done but for it to be perfect. If I got a bad grade I knew my parents would ask me to spend more time doing homework, which would mean less Dog Club time. Plus this was my first big assignment for Mrs. Benson and I had to show her I could do it. But the more I thought about it, the more I realized that I didn’t just need to do a good job for Mrs. Benson and my parents. I needed to prove to myself that I could handle the big seventh grade essay. So all of that together? A whole lot of pressure!

  I wanted to put it off as long as possible but I knew that would be a big mistake, so Friday night after dinner I went up to my room to write. My desk was covered with books, information I’d printed out for the Dog Club notebook, and papers. I cleared everything off, turned on my computer, and stared at the screen, which was as blank as my mind. I mean, I knew I wanted to write about the Dog Club, but should I just jump in with that? Or start somewhere else? Then there was the question of which things were important and which weren’t. Mrs. Benson had made a big deal about “not going off on tangents and sticking to the heart of things.” But how did you know the difference?

  After five minutes of my mind running in circles I decided to get my writing juices flowing by working on the first entry in the Dog Club Diary. That turned out to be way easier than the essay. I wrote about how Coco, Popsicle, and Gus had made a game of snatching Boxer’s green Frisbee. Taylor had taken a picture of all four dogs running gleefully around the yard and I knew we’d post that. But I tried to describe it too, how funny it was to see such different-sized dogs frolicking together. Then I wrote about Daisy playing ball with Hattie and Taylor. I didn’t write about how Taylor tripped over a branch and ended up with leaves stuck to her braids, but it had been pretty funny. Sasha and I helped pull them out and made a lot of jokes about our grooming service. Last I wrote about how toward the end of the day the dogs had flopped in a big pile together with the three of us, just snuggling and getting love. Writing about it let me remember how fun it all was and I realized I was going to love working on the Dog Club Diary.

  I saved it and then emailed it to Taylor so she could upload it to the site, along with pictures. And then I went back to the essay. I stared at the screen, pushing myself to think of something, anything, to say. Why was this so hard but the Dog Clu
b Diary entry so easy?

  I jumped as I heard a knock on my door. I turned in my desk chair, feeling annoyed that one of my parents was already up to check on me. But to my surprise it was Matt who walked in, wearing his favorite old Star Wars shirt and smelling like the apple pie my mom had heated up for dessert, which Matt had eaten almost half of.

  “What’s up, Pip-squeak?” he asked, picking up one of the china dogs from my collection.

  “Don’t call me that,” I snapped. “And don’t touch that.”

  “Okay, calm down,” he said, setting down the dog and raising up his palms.

  “Sorry,” I said. “I’m just stressed about this essay.”

  “How’s it going?” he asked, flopping down on my bed. Clearly all was forgiven. Matt wasn’t one to hold grudges and I knew he understood how hard I worked at school stuff.

  “Awful,” I whined. “I don’t know how to start or what parts I should write about or anything.”

  “But you have a ton of things to say,” he said.

  “It doesn’t feel that way,” I said.

  He laced his fingers behind his head and looked up at the ceiling. “You’re thinking too hard.”

  “How can you think too hard?” I asked, puzzled.

  “When you worry so much about how something should be that you can’t actually start it,” he said.

  “Oh,” I said, getting it. “Yeah, I guess that’s me.”

  “You just need to write what you do at the shelter,” he said. “Start by telling me first. Sometimes it’s easier to talk about it and then begin writing.”

  “I can do better than talk,” I said, swiveling in my chair and pulling up my Dog Club Diary entry on my screen. “I can show you.”

  Matt hauled himself off my bed and read my post over my shoulder. “This is great,” he said. “Exactly what you need for your essay, though that should probably be a little more structured.”

  “I can’t just write about playing with the dogs,” I said. “That doesn’t answer the question of how I make a difference at my volunteer work.”

  “Two things, little sister,” Matt said. “First, yes it does, because those dogs would be really lonely without you playing with them. That is you making a difference.”

  “I never thought about that,” I said. “But I guess it makes sense.”

  “Second thing,” he said. “Tell me more about the setup. Because that scene is about more than just you playing with dogs.”

  “What do you mean, the setup?” I asked.

  “How you ended up at the shelter with a mix of dogs with homes and shelter dogs,” he said. “Because the shelter wasn’t set up like that when you first got there.”

  “You mean the Dog Club,” I said. “How me and Sasha and Taylor started the Dog Club.”

  Matt shook his head. “No, how you saw a problem facing the place you were working,” he said. “How you came up with an idea to save it and then did the work to make that idea happen. And how well it’s been going ever since.”

  “Oh—” I started again, but Matt quickly cut me off.

  “And how you worked together with other people,” he said. “Because essays like this should always include something about teamwork.”

  I leaned back in my chair, considering all he had said. Then I smiled. “Matt, you’re a genius,” I said.

  “I know,” he said. He gave me the peace sign as he headed out.

  Finally, I started to write. And once I started, I realized that just like Matt had said, I had a ton of things to say.

  I began with the most important thing: the dogs. How great the shelter was and how fun it was to play with the dogs. I included what Matt had said about how important it is for dogs to be played with and loved. Then I wrote about Humphrey and dogs like him who faced long hours alone.

  I took a quick break and grabbed some oatmeal cookies in the kitchen. It turned out that writing made you really hungry. But as soon as I was done, I headed back upstairs to my computer. I wrote about the shelter potentially having to close and how I’d come up with the idea for the Dog Club. Writing it made me remember how scared I was to tell Alice about it but that I’d worked up my courage and done it. And she had listened and let us give it a try.

  Next I wrote about all the work Sasha, Taylor, and I had done to get the club started. Which got me thinking about Taylor and how just a few weeks ago she’d seemed like a threat and now she was one of my best friends. And that too was because of our work at the shelter. That’s when I realized that my work at the shelter wasn’t just about dogs. So when it came time for my conclusion, I wrote about that too.

  When I first volunteered to work at the Roxbury Park Dog Shelter, I thought I would get to have fun with dogs and learn more about caring for them. And I definitely have. But I’ve learned a lot more than that too. I’ve learned about how to be a friend. I’ve learned how to step up and try to make a difference when someone, a dog or a person, needs help. I wanted to try to help the dogs at the shelter and I’m happy that my friends and I were able to do that with the Roxbury Park Dog Club. But the shelter helped me too. It helped me learn to trust my own ideas, to speak up when I think I have something to say. And it taught me that both dogs and people are worth getting to know, even when it doesn’t seem like it at first. So I’d have to say that while I think I have made a difference at my work, my work has made a difference to me too. And one thing I know for sure: I can’t wait to see what happens next!

  I worked on my essay all night and on Saturday morning I revised it. I was pretty proud of how it had turned out. I was just doing a final spell-check when I heard another knock at my door. This time I was hoping it was my parents and sure enough, they both walked in, looking slightly anxious.

  “We wanted to see how the essay is going,” my mom said.

  “And to see if we can help at all,” my dad added.

  “Actually, I think I’m done,” I said. “Want to read it?”

  “Yes,” they said practically in unison.

  I printed it out and then waited nervously while they sat on the bed and read it together. My mom smiled at a few parts and once my dad laughed. That was probably the part about how funny it was to see such different dogs play together. Then at the end I heard my mom sniff a little. And that’s when I knew my essay was okay.

  “Kim, I’m so proud of you,” my mom said when she was done. She had tears in her eyes.

  “You had a great idea,” my dad said. “And you worked your tail off to make it happen.”

  Normally I rolled my eyes when my dad came up with one of his corny sayings but today it didn’t feel quite so corny. Because I had really worked my tail off to start the Roxbury Park Dog Club.

  “So I can keep spending time working on the club?” I asked.

  My mom nodded. “If you keep doing top-notch work like this, absolutely.”

  “I will,” I promised.

  “It really is amazing how you came up with the idea that saved the shelter,” my mom said, pulling me down on the bed between them so they could both hug me.

  “And then you wrote a bang-up essay about it,” my dad added, kissing me on top of my head.

  I had to roll my eyes at that. But I hugged them back too. Having my parents this proud of me felt really good.

  Monday afternoon the shelter was filled with yelps of happiness and playful dogs. As soon as we let him off his leash Humphrey padded over to Popsicle, while Coco made a beeline for Boxer. Hattie, who had been so much more independent lately, was chasing after a ball with Daisy. And Lily and Mr. Smashmouth had come over to snuggle with the three of us, which we were very happy about.

  “I love this,” Taylor said, her arms around Lily.

  “Yeah, I don’t think it gets any better than all this dog time,” Sasha agreed. She had Mr. Smashmouth on her lap and was rubbing his fluffy belly.

  I looked around at all the dogs. “It’s pretty amazing,” I said.

  Sasha and Taylor both looked around too. And
then we beamed at each other. “We made this happen,” Sasha said proudly.

  “Photo moment!” Taylor called, pulling her phone out of her pocket. We leaned together, the dogs snuggled between us, and Taylor snapped.

  “This will be perfect for your photo wall, Kim,” she said in a satisfied tone as we all looked at the shot. Our faces were close together and we were all laughing, looking like the happiest three musketeers around. Which we pretty much were.

  “It is,” I agreed. “And I want it as my screen saver on my phone.”

  “Oh, me too,” Sasha exclaimed.

  Taylor grinned and bent over her phone, her braids falling down with a musical tinkle of beads. “I’m sending it to you guys right now.”

  Just then the phone in the office rang. “I’ll get it,” I said, scrambling up. “Hopefully it’s another client.”

  I ran into Alice’s office and picked up the phone. “This is the Roxbury Park Dog Shelter and Dog Club,” I said in my most professional voice. “How can I help you today?”

  A few minutes later I hung up, just as Alice was walking in. “We have a new customer,” I told her happily.

  Alice grinned. “That’s great news,” she said. “And guess where I was?” She went on before I could answer. “The hardware store. I made an appointment to get the floors redone. We’ve been needing to do that for ages, and thanks to you and the club, we can afford to take care of it.”

  “Awesome,” I said, grinning widely.

  “Good news?” Sasha asked as I sat back down with Sasha, Taylor, and the dogs. Hattie came over and put her head in my lap.

  “We have a new client,” I said. “Sierra, a German shepherd mix.” I went on scratching behind Hattie’s soft ears. “Her owner read the Dog Club Diary and said it sounds like the perfect place for her dog since she and her husband work long hours. She’s really excited.”

  “Awesome,” Sasha said. “The more customers we get, the better for keeping the shelter open.”

  “And better for the dogs too,” I said. “So they can keep making new friends.” Hattie had rolled onto her back so I could pet her belly and she was panting happily. “You’d like that, wouldn’t you, girl?” Hattie reached up and gave me a lick on my hand.