When the Going Gets Ruff

by Daphne Maple

  Sure enough, when she reached the doorway her hands flew to her chest, as though the sight of the filthy kitchen might give her a heart attack. Her eyes were wide like a zombie was walking toward her and her mouth fell open. Yeah, this was bad, all right.

  “Mom, it’s going to be okay,” I said, standing up. I realized I had some of the gunk on my face but when I tried to wipe it off I just glopped even more on.

  “What—what happened?” my mom stuttered.

  “Taylor, Kim, and I had a little accident when we were trying to cook our project for social studies,” I said.

  My mom gazed around the room, which practically glistened from its slimy coating. “You call this a little accident?” she asked.

  “No one was hurt,” I said, hoping that information would help. And I realized we were lucky none of us had been hit by the hot liquid when it flew all over the place.

  “Well, I’m glad to hear that,” my mom said. Her shock was subsiding and now she just looked disappointed in me, which was the worst. “I’ll change and then we can clean this up. I don’t think we’ll have time to cook so we can just order pizza or something.”

  I hated how beaten-down she sounded. She worked hard all day and now she was coming home to more work—work made by me and the fact that I hadn’t been careful enough. Again.

  “Mom, I’m sorry,” I said.

  “Accidents happen,” she said. “But maybe next time you could be more careful.”

  “We will,” I said. My shoulders sagged as I watched her walk out of the room. My plan had totally backfired. Instead of showing my mom how I’d changed, it showed her I was just as flighty as ever.

  There was definitely no asking for a pet now.

  10

  The next day the weather matched my mood: dreary, gray, and by the time school let out, rainy. We each ran to pick up our club dogs and then met up at the shelter instead of our usual stop at the park. Once we were all inside the dogs were extra energetic, running around and barking away.

  “Hey, girls,” Caley called. She and Alice were heading into the food area and the dogs all ran to see if maybe dinner was early today.

  “Sorry, guys,” Alice said with a laugh. “We’re just checking how much food to order.” She turned to us with a smile. “We’ll be done in a sec.”

  The front door opened and Tim came in, shaking rain off his black raincoat. “It’s really coming down out there,” he said. “And is it me or does this place reek of wet dog fur?”

  It definitely did. I went to change into my shelter clothes and when I came out Kim and Taylor were throwing tennis balls for Coco, Lily, Gus, and Popsicle. Alice was back in her office. Tim was on the floor playing tug-of-war with Humphrey while Caley was tossing Boxer’s favorite Frisbee to him, Daisy, and Hattie. And where was Mr. Smashmouth? Right at my feet, waiting to be picked up. I happily obliged.

  “Hello, little guy,” I said, giving him a kiss. Then I headed over to Taylor and Kim so that he could play fetch with the others.

  “Was your mom really upset about the kitchen?” Kim asked. She’d had to retake a math test over lunch, so we hadn’t had time to catch up yet.

  “No, it was worse,” I said. “She was disappointed.”

  “Ugh, I hate that,” Kim said sympathetically. Gus dropped a ball at her feet and she patted his head before sending it across the room for him. “Did it take a long time to clean?”

  “It wasn’t bad,” I said. I was pretty much lying. It had taken my mom and me almost two hours to scrub up all the gunk and wipe everything down so it wasn’t sticky anymore. The kitchen still stank of rose, which was now the smell I most hated. And my mom had been too tired to even eat the pizza once it arrived. But there was no point in telling Kim and Taylor about that. It wasn’t their fault they’d had to leave.

  “It sounds like a rough night though,” Kim said.

  I guess I still looked pretty down.

  “I have something to cheer you up,” Taylor said, pulling some paper out of her pocket. “It’s a pet quiz I downloaded last night. It’s got fifty questions and it’s guaranteed to find the perfect pet for anyone and everyone.”

  “Sounds good,” I said, my interest piqued despite yesterday’s setback. There was still plenty of time to show my mom how responsible I was. And with this foolproof quiz I’d be ready with the ideal family pet when she said yes! “Thanks.”

  There was barking outside the shelter and then the sound of scratching on the front door. The dogs in the shelter seemed to freeze and Taylor began inching toward the safety of Alice’s office. Sierra had arrived.

  Tim opened the door for Mr. Finnegan while Kim went to help stop Sierra before she could take off with her leash still attached. Sierra’s nails ground into the floor as she strained against both Kim and Mr. Finnegan, but Kim managed to get the leash off before setting her free.

  The little dogs had already fled, so Sierra had a clear path as she took off around the shelter.

  “I’ll see you later,” Mr. Finnegan said. “Thank you.”

  “Let’s get these dogs playing,” Tim said, rubbing his hands together. Then he grabbed a green ball and threw it high in the air. When it bounced back down Coco, Lily, Gus, and Sierra took off after it.

  “Want to see if we can get the little dogs to come out?” Kim asked me, Caley, and Taylor.

  “Definitely,” I said, and Taylor and Caley nodded.

  We picked up some tennis balls and chew toys and headed to the other side of the shelter, near the cages. Then we began coaxing the little dogs out, being sure to keep their toys far from Sierra.

  Mr. Smashmouth came over to me right away and Popsicle and Daisy went to Kim. Hattie stayed in her cage, so Taylor went over and began petting her in there. Humphrey had settled in for a nap in the far corner. Caley pet him for a moment, then picked up Boxer’s Frisbee. “He’s not little but I think he needs some one-on-one attention,” she said. Boxer pranced at her feet, clearly agreeing.

  And for a few minutes everything was great. The dogs played happily, the humans were having fun, and everyone seemed relaxed.

  But then Caley tossed Boxer’s Frisbee close to Sierra, who lunged for it. Boxer ran over, ready to play, but Sierra ran away with it. And when Boxer followed, close at her heels, she dropped the Frisbee and nipped at him.

  “Sierra!” Caley called, rushing over.

  Sierra ignored her and snapped at Boxer again. This time Boxer flattened his ears and growled.

  “Boxer, come,” Caley called, now sounding slightly panicked.

  But Boxer was locked in a battle for his beloved Frisbee and he growled again, this time louder.

  Alice was out of her office like a shot. “Boxer, come,” she said in her gentle but no-nonsense way. And this time Boxer came. “Kim, can you take him to his cage to calm him?” she asked. “And Tim, will you please take Sierra out to the back porch for a few minutes?”

  They both did as she asked and order was restored. But my heart was still pounding crazily in my chest and I could see that both Caley and Kim were pale, while Taylor looked close to a panic attack. That had been bad and we were lucky it wasn’t worse. What if we’d had a real dog fight on our hands?

  “How’s he doing?” Alice asked Kim, who was walking back to the center of the room with Boxer.

  “He’s fine,” Kim said. “But maybe we should put away his Frisbee for the rest of the day. I don’t think he’s going to want to share it.”

  “Good idea,” Alice said. “Though I think our problems may go deeper than that.”

  “We haven’t figured out how to settle Sierra into the club,” Kim agreed. She began throwing a red rubber ball for Boxer, Lily, and Coco.

  “We’ve been trying,” Caley said. She still looked a bit shaken up but was on the floor petting Hattie and Popsicle.

  “And I know we’ll figure it out,” I added.

  But Alice frowned. “I’m not so sure about that,” she said. “The other dogs are scared of Sierra and one
of them could have gotten hurt today.”

  I hated that she was right but there was no denying it.

  “I know you girls want to help,” she went on. “But it’s possible that the Dog Club may not be right for every dog. Perhaps Sierra isn’t a good fit for what we do here.”

  Kim, Taylor, and I exchanged a stricken look. We couldn’t kick Sierra out of the Dog Club! If we did, no Roxbury Park dog owner would ever sign up for the club again. We needed our word of mouth to be positive, letting potential customers know that the Roxbury Park Dog Club was the perfect place for their dogs. Not a place where some dogs fit in and others were asked to leave.

  “Alice, let us keep trying,” I begged. “I know we can find a way to make it work.”

  Alice bit her lip for a moment, clearly considering my request. “What ideas do you have?” she finally asked.

  I let out the breath I’d been holding. She was giving us another chance! But I knew it was probably the last one, so we had to make it count.

  “Taking her on a long walk seemed to help,” Caley said, “at least at first.”

  “It was coming back here and seeing the other dogs that got her worked up,” Kim said.

  “Oh, I’ve got it!” I almost shouted. “We take Sierra on a group walk before coming to the shelter. That way she gets exercise and exposure to the other dogs so it’s not as overwhelming when she arrives.” I was so excited about my idea that I almost jumped up and down.

  Alice nodded slowly. “It’s worth a try, I suppose,” she said. “As long as you can convince Mr. Finnegan to let you pick Sierra up for the club.”

  “I can, I know I can,” I bubbled. I was already composing my speech in my head.

  And by the time he came to pick up Sierra I was ready. I’d practiced my pitch with Taylor, Kim, and Caley, and Tim had promised to keep Sierra busy while I spoke to her owner. Gus, Daisy, and Coco had been picked up by the time Mr. Finnegan arrived, which helped too—less dogs to rile Sierra up.

  “How did everything go today?” Mr. Finnegan asked after greeting an exuberant Sierra.

  “Well, she was a bit wound up,” I began. Caley had come up with that phrase and we all agreed it was very diplomatic. “And I had an idea that might help.”

  “I’d love to hear it,” Mr. Finnegan said. His eyes were on Sierra, now playing a ferocious game of tug-of-war with Tim, who was looking tired. Hopefully Mr. Finnegan wouldn’t notice that part.

  “It seems like when Sierra arrives at the shelter she’s got a lot of energy,” I began. “And she’s very excited to see the other dogs.”

  “That’s certainly true,” Mr. Finnegan agreed.

  “So we were thinking you could use the Roxbury Park Dog Club pickup service,” I said. “One of us would come to your house to get Sierra for the club. We’d have at least one other dog and we’d take them both on a walk before bringing them here, to get out some of that energy and to let Sierra begin socializing with other dogs before arriving at the shelter.”

  Mr. Finnegan rubbed his chin for a moment. “I’m not sure,” he said slowly. “She’s a lot to handle, even on her own.”

  “We’ve taken her out for walks before without any problem,” Caley said.

  “And it seemed to calm her down a bit,” I added.

  “But are you sure one of you could manage her plus another dog?” he asked, sounding doubtful. “That seems like a lot to me.”

  “Yes, absolutely,” I said, trying to sound relaxed even though sweat was pricking my temples. We needed him to agree to this and I knew that meant presenting him with a rational and calm argument. “All of us here have a lot of experience working with multiple dogs.”

  “That’s true,” he said thoughtfully.

  “We’d take Sierra with one of the less playful dogs,” Kim said. “And that would probably have a soothing effect on her.”

  “Perhaps it would,” Mr. Finnegan said. It seemed like he was almost convinced, so I took a deep breath and gave it everything I had. “I really think this is the perfect way for Sierra to transition into the club time.” That was another Caley phrase. “She’ll be able to adjust to time out of the house and time with other dogs in smaller steps. So when she gets here it won’t be overwhelming. She’ll be more prepared and everything will go better from there.”

  I was worried the last part didn’t sound quite as polished but Taylor gave me a thumbs-up behind Mr. Finnegan’s back, so it couldn’t have been too bad.

  There was a pause as Mr. Finnegan considered, then nodded. “Okay, let’s give it a try,” he said as Sierra bounded over and jumped up on his shoulders.

  I suppressed my squeal of delight until they’d both left.

  “Great job,” Kim cheered.

  “Yeah, you sold it to them like a pro,” Caley said.

  Taylor gave me another thumbs-up and even Alice was smiling.

  Only Tim looked worried. “Now we just have to hope it works,” he said.

  11

  “Hi, hon, how was dance?” my mom asked when I climbed into the car after class, leaning over to give me a kiss. She sounded cheerful and I knew that the slimed kitchen incident was now fully behind us. In general my mom didn’t hold on to grudges for long, thank goodness. Because I’d taken that quiz Taylor had given me and had the perfect pet ready to pitch to her! Plus I’d come up with an idea to show her how serious I’d be about caring for a pet. But first I had a few examples of how responsible I was that I needed to tell her about, to set the stage just right.

  “Dance was great,” I said, sitting back in my seat as she eased the car out of the parking lot and onto Olive Avenue. “And guess what? Madame Florence chose me to manage the dressing room during our winter show!”

  It actually sounded like a bigger deal than it was: the manager was just the one who was in charge of going to the real stage manager if there was any kind of costume problem. And all of us had some kind of job for the show. But still, mine sounded good and I could tell from the pride on my mom’s face that she was pleased.

  “Congratulations,” she said warmly. “Madame Florence must think you’re very capable if she chose you for that job.”

  Madame Florence did think I was capable—or more like she expected it of all of us and so we were. But I was glad that my mom was happy about the job. And I knew she’d like my news about Sierra too. I’d been saving it for the right moment and clearly this was it.

  “Guess what else?” I said. “I came up with a plan to help integrate Sierra into the Dog Club, to make her transition from home to the shelter go more smoothly.”

  I could tell by my mom’s grin that she liked the Caley words as much as Mr. Finnegan had. “Good for you,” she said. “Tell me about it.”

  “She needs some exercise first thing, so I’m going to pick her up and take her for a walk before going to the shelter,” I said. “And she gets really worked up seeing the other dogs, so I’m going to bring Gus along on the walk, to kind of ease her into things.”

  My mom was nodding. “That is a good idea. And her owner agreed?”

  “Yes, I told him about it and he thought it could work,” I said, feeling a glow as I remembered how Mr. Finnegan had finally agreed to our plan. “Alice said we should give it a try too. So I’ll be getting Gus and Sierra and walking them before our next Dog Club.”

  “Wonderful,” my mom said. “Good for you for coming up with a smart plan.” Instead of turning onto our street she kept going straight. “I have to pick up a few things at the grocery,” she said.

  That was even more than I could have hoped for: we would be right by Paula’s Pet Emporium. It was like a sign that now was the time to finally convince my mom about a pet. So I took a deep breath and dove in. “I took a quiz Taylor gave me, about the best pet for our family,” I said, looking out the window instead of at my mom. I didn’t want to see her reaction until I’d said everything. “And it said a chinchilla would be the best fit for us. I looked them up online last night and it seems like it cou
ld really work. They’re neat and quiet and the article said they’re affectionate too.”

  We were stopped at a light and I snuck a quick peek at my mom. Her expression was neutral, which was way better than negative, so I went on.

  “I know you’re worried I’ll forget to take care of it so I came up with an idea,” I said. “I’ll make a weekly chart of her feeding schedule and I’ll put it up on the fridge. Every day after I feed her I’ll check it off, so you’ll know it’s done and so I won’t forget.” I crossed my fingers and braced myself. “What do you think?”

  “Her?” my mom said, turning the car into the lot in front of Old Farm Market. “So you want a girl?”

  “Yeah, because I was thinking we could call her Pippi,” I said.

  My mom reached over and patted my hand. “I used to love reading you those books,” she said softly.

  “Yeah, they were the best,” I said. I spoke softly too, not wanting to break the spell. This was the very first time that her response wasn’t an immediate no, and I didn’t want to do anything to mess that up.

  We went into the market, where I helped with the shopping, making sure to get the exact right milk and yogurt, and not asking for any cookies or treats. When we were in line to pay I put everything on the conveyer belt, then turned to my mom.

  “Is it okay if I go to the pet store?” I asked. “I know they have chinchillas and I want to just take a quick look.”

  “Sure, honey,” my mom said. She was a bit distracted but her response still seemed pretty positive.

  I practically skipped over to the pet store.

  “How can I help you?” Today it was a man behind the counter, who looked sleepy, like he’d just woken up from a nap.

  “I want to see the chinchillas please,” I said. It’s possible I was a little loud because he winced a bit. But then he got a key from under the counter and led me over to a glass cage with four gray and white young chinchillas inside.

  They were smaller than I’d thought, almost the size of mice. Actually they looked a lot like mice, though with bigger ears. Some of my excitement drained away as I watched them just sitting in a pile together, all mousy and not really doing anything.