Lily to the Rescue: Dog Dog Goose

by W. Bruce Cameron

  I did Come. The geese all sputtered and honked, shocked that I was leaving. They made a lot of geese noises and then all ran to follow me. They didn’t like Maggie Rose as much as they liked me, and they backed away a little when she came close to them. But they didn’t run, and she was able to pick up Gertrude again.

  Maggie Rose held Gertrude in two hands. Gertrude wiggled a little and fluttered her wings, probably thinking what I was thinking, which was that my girl was going to put the big bird on my back again.

  “That’s good,” Mom said. “Just let her go, Maggie Rose. You don’t want to throw her or anything. See if she’ll flap her wings before she hits the ground.”

  Maggie Rose let go. Gertrude stretched out her wings and fell to the ground. She shook her head and sort of grumbled and waddled away from Maggie Rose. She didn’t seem to think that Drop-the-Goose was a fun game.

  I didn’t think I’d like it, either. I hoped Maggie Rose would not get the idea of playing Drop-the-Dog.

  Maggie Rose tried her new game with some of the other goslings. They all stretched their wings wide and fell straight to the ground.

  “They don’t get the idea of flapping,” Mom said. “They’ve never really seen a goose flap her wings.”

  “We could put a pair of wings on Lily,” Maggie Rose suggested. “Like my fairy wings I wore for Halloween once.”

  Mom laughed. I wagged. I think that laughing is how people wag, since they don’t have tails. “Well, maybe not that. But we’d better come up with something,” she said.

  “We’ll figure it out,” my girl promised. “Lily can do anything!”

  10

  That evening, Maggie Rose let me squeeze out the gate and blocked the geese, who honked in outrage. I went Home with my girl and sat under the table while the family ate dinner. This is one of my favorite things to do.

  “I had to do a presentation in class,” Maggie Rose told the family while she ate spaghetti.

  “Oh? How did it go?” Mom asked.

  “I got an ‘A.’ Want to see? I’ll show you!” Maggie Rose jumped out of her chair. She hurried into the living room and came back with a big piece of stiff white paper.

  This was so interesting that I crawled out from under the table. Maggie Rose did not sit back down in her chair. Instead, she stood by the end of the table, holding her piece of paper.

  Maybe this meant that Maggie Rose was all done with her spaghetti and would be giving it to me instead. That would be great!

  “My presentation is called ‘Why Bryan Should Be Allowed to Adopt Brewster,’” Maggie Rose announced.

  Dad sat up a little straighter. Mom made a muffled noise through her mouthful of spaghetti.

  “Point number one,” Maggie Rose continued firmly. “Brewster is an old dog and nobody wants him. He’s been living at the rescue for a long time, and it’s sad. He needs a family.”

  Bryan was staring at Maggie Rose. He had stopped eating his spaghetti. Maybe I could lick his plate, too?

  “Point number two. Brewster likes playing with Lily. And it’s the only real exercise he gets. It would be good for him if he lived here and got to play with Lily more. Point number three. Bryan loves Brewster, and he would take really good care of him.”

  Mom put down her fork. “Thank you, Maggie Rose, but—”

  Maggie Rose didn’t let Mom finish. “Point number four. I got to adopt Lily, so it’s only fair if Bryan gets to adopt Brewster. Thank you. That’s the end of my presentation,” Maggie Rose said, all in a rush. She sat down.

  Everybody was quiet for a few seconds. Then Craig started to clap. Bryan quickly joined in.

  Clapping is a funny noise that humans make with their hands. I don’t know why.

  “Well.” Mom shook her head. “That was quite a presentation, Maggie Rose. But you know that the rescue has a rule. No one who works there can adopt a pet. Their families can’t, either. People need to trust that we are finding the very best homes for the animals, and not just letting employees have them.”

  “Yeah, but you did let Maggie Rose adopt Lily,” Craig pointed out. “And come on, you’re a veterinarian and dad’s a game warden—everyone knows this is the very best home.”

  “We made an exception in Lily’s case, but…” Mom hesitated. “Bryan, I didn’t even know you were interested in adopting Brewster.”

  Dad looked down at the meatballs on his plate. Maybe he was getting ready to give one to me.

  “Yeah, I…” Bryan stopped to cough. “I didn’t know Maggie Rose was going to do that. But she’s right. I’d take good care of Brewster. And he’s been at the rescue for forever.”

  Mom looked at Dad. “James, what do you think?”

  Dad looked at Maggie Rose and then at Bryan.

  “It was an excellent presentation,” he said. “I’m proud of you, Maggie Rose. Still, decisions about the animals at the rescue are up to your mom, guys. All I’ll say is—Brewster’s a great dog. I’d be glad to have him here. But it’s Mom who gets to make the call.”

  “I have to set an example for the staff,” Mom said. “I have to follow the rules. That’s only fair.”

  Bryan slumped a little.

  “Anyway Bryan, even if Mom said you could adopt Brewster because it’s only fair since Maggie Rose adopted Lily, there’s still the adoption fee,” Craig pointed out.

  Mom nodded. “That’s true.”

  “That’s the one rule Mom can’t break. And there’s no way you could raise that kind of money,” Craig told his brother.

  “But if he could get the money somehow…” Maggie Rose suggested.

  “It’s too much—he can’t do it,” Craig insisted.

  Dad was watching this conversation very carefully, probably wondering when we were going to discuss giving a good dog a meatball or two.

  “Bryan,” Mom said. “Taking care of a dog is a lot of work. You’d have to feed Brewster, walk him, pick up his poop in the yard. Every day.”

  Bryan was sitting up straighter now. I could feel the excitement in him.

  “Yes,” Bryan said. “Yes, I know, I get it! I’ll do everything.”

  Mom looked as if she were thinking hard. Her face was all frowny. You’d never catch a dog with an expression like that.

  “I think it would be a good thing for Bryan, to save his money for something important instead of just spending it on nothing,” Dad ventured carefully.

  Mom nodded. “All right. Yes, Bryan. If you somehow manage to save the two hundred dollars, you may adopt Brewster.”

  Mom looked startled when my girl, Craig, and Bryan all burst into happy smiles.

  “Yes!” Craig exclaimed.

  After dinner, Maggie Rose and Craig and Bryan all went into Bryan’s room. I went, too, of course. Bryan had thin pieces of paper and round bits of metal scattered all over his bed.

  “I’ve got a hundred and thirty-five dollars,” he said. “This is taking forever. I’ve been washing cars and raking leaves and stuff.”

  “You’ll get there,” Craig said. “I’m helping my friend Roy stack firewood tomorrow—you can have my money from that.”

  “And I get paid for cleaning out the cat cages at the rescue—you can have that,” my girl volunteered.

  Bryan looked hopeful. “Do you really think this is going to work?”

  11

  The days started to turn a little colder, especially in the evenings. In the mornings Maggie Rose would pet me and say, “School,” and then go away, which was very sad.

  Bryan said “school,” too, and seemed even sadder than I was. “With school I can’t do extra jobs during the day. I’m still fifty dollars short,” he complained to my girl. “At this rate, I’m never going to get to adopt Brewster.”

  After Maggie Rose and her brothers left, Mom and I always went to Work, where I had friends.

  I was usually happy to see the geese at first, but after a while became a little weary of them constantly following me. The birds made noises all the time, like a dog with
his head hanging out the window. Brewster always stirred at the honking and glared at me, as if expecting that I could figure out how to make them stop.

  I was never tired of being with my girl, but a bird is not a Maggie Rose. Sometimes a dog wants to be able to lie down without geese on her face.

  Maggie Rose usually came in through the door that led to the yard. She’d drop her backpack on the floor and kneel down so I could kiss her and let her know that it had been a long, long time since we’d been together.

  Then we’d go out into the yard, me and my girl and the geese.

  My friend Casey would come by every now and again. He’d land on the grass and take off and the geese would watch him very closely. They’d flap and flap, but they wouldn’t fly.

  One day Mom and Dad came out to watch the geese play Flap-Our-Wings.

  “I don’t think they’re going to get it in time to migrate,” Mom said with a sigh. “We’ll have to find a wildlife park somewhere that can take them.”

  “Craig says they have to run when they flap,” Maggie Rose said. “Otherwise they won’t get off the ground.”

  “Probably true,” Dad observed.

  “Well … I have one last idea,” Maggie Rose said. “Mom, when I call, open the gate, okay?”

  I was distressed when, moments later, my girl slipped out the gate, shutting it behind her. Where was she going without her dog? I went to the gate and whined and Mom followed me but didn’t let me out.

  “Okay, Mom!” my girl yelled.

  Finally, Mom opened the gate. Maggie Rose was across the field, running. “Come, Lily!” she called.

  Chase-Me!

  Behind me, the geese broke out into frantic honking. I could tell they were playing Chase-Me, too.

  I ran as fast as I could out into the field. Someone had cut the grass, so it was nice and short for running. “Come on, Lily! Come on, Gertrude! Come on, Mr. Waddle-puss! Come on, Harold!” Maggie Rose yelled.

  I loved yelling. I loved running. This was the best!

  I looked behind me. The geese were running over the grass. They had their wings out and were flapping them, just like they did when they played with Casey.

  Gertrude was in front with her neck stretched out and her feet moving as fast as she could make them. Then an amazing thing happened.

  Gertrude rose up into the air!

  The other geese were doing the same thing. They were flying!

  Maggie Rose jumped up and down and shouted with excitement. I barked, too, just to join in.

  The geese flew in a wobbly circle and then came lower and closer to the grass. They landed and waddled up to me, honking as if they couldn’t wait to tell me what they’d done.

  Mom and Dad had been watching. Dad was clapping. Mom was beaming.

  “Great idea, Maggie Rose!” Mom called out.

  “Do it again!” Dad shouted. “Let them get used to how it feels to fly!”

  Maggie Rose and I ran. The geese ran after us. They shook out their wings and flapped and flew. We did it again and again. Every time the geese landed, they seemed astonished and rushed up to me to tell me all about it. Maggie Rose would gasp and I would pant and we would run some more.

  It was wonderful!

  I didn’t see why we should ever stop, but after a while Maggie Rose told me to do Come and we all went back into the yard. Mom shut the gate. Maggie Rose flopped down on the grass and breathed in great big breaths.

  I licked her face and lay down next to her. The geese piled up around us. Gertrude didn’t join in, though. She went to sit in a pile of straw in a corner of the yard.

  “Oh, what a relief,” Mom said.

  The people all seemed happy. That’s what Chase-Me does. It makes everybody happy.

  Maggie Rose sat up.

  “It’s funny Gertrude is over there,” she said. “She always wants to be right next to Lily.”

  “Are you sure that’s Gertrude?” Dad asked. “They all look alike to me.”

  “Of course it is,” Maggie Rose said. She got up and went over to the corner where Gertrude was sitting in her straw. She gasped.

  “Mom! Dad! Come look!” she called out.

  I jumped up, shoving a goose off one front paw, and hurried over to see if my girl needed me.

  “Look what Gertrude’s done!” Maggie Rose said. She was pointing into the straw.

  I stuck my nose where she was pointing, right under Gertrude. Gertrude got up and shook herself and waddled away.

  In the straw where she had been sitting was a small, smooth egg.

  12

  The next day, Maggie Rose and Bryan and I went to visit Mrs. Swanson. Maggie Rose carried a small sack.

  We arrived at Mrs. Swanson’s house and Maggie Rose rang the doorbell. Mrs. Swanson opened the door.

  “Lily and I have something for you, Mrs. Swanson,” Maggie Rose said.

  She was grinning. Mrs. Swanson looked puzzled. My girl handed her the bag and Mrs. Swanson opened it and looked inside.

  “Oh my,” she said. “Oh my! Oh my!”

  “Gertrude just laid it. It’s a fall egg for your collection!” Maggie Rose told her, beaming.

  “Of course it is!” Mrs. Swanson said. “Come in, come in.”

  We went in the house and Mrs. Swanson took a small egg out of the paper bag. She put it on the shelf with the other eggs. She did not seem to think of giving a good dog anything to eat.

  “How much should I pay you for the egg?” Mrs. Swanson asked.

  My girl looked surprised. “Oh, nothing,” she said. “It’s a present!”

  “Oh, no, I can’t take it as a present,” Mrs. Swanson said. “No, that wouldn’t be right at all. I’ll give you exactly what I paid for the last one I bought. A farmer found it, and he knew I liked geese, so he offered it to me. That was ten years ago! That’s how rare fall eggs are!”

  “Oh,” said Maggie Rose. “Well, I guess that sounds fair.”

  Mrs. Swanson went into another room and came back with a handful of the thin pieces of paper that Bryan seemed to like so much these days.

  “Here you go!” she said.

  Maggie Rose’s mouth dropped open.

  “But I can’t … but that’s…” she stammered.

  “I won’t have it any other way,” said Mrs. Swanson firmly. She pushed the pieces of paper into Maggie Rose’s hands.

  Maggie Rose looked up at her with a big, wide grin.

  “I have to find Bryan!” she said.

  Maggie Rose ran all the way Home, and of course I ran with her. She burst into the house, shouting, “Bryan! Bryan!”

  I barked, because obviously we were being loud and that was fun.

  Bryan and Craig came down the stairs and into the living room.

  “What’s the big deal? Why are you yelling?” Bryan asked.

  Maggie Rose shoved the pieces of paper into his hands. “Look what Mrs. Swanson paid for Gertrude’s egg!”

  “Is it enough?” Craig demanded.

  Bryan ran upstairs. He ran down again with more of that paper in his hands, plus a jar full of clinking pieces of metal.

  He dumped the metal out on the dining room table and spread the pieces of paper out, too. He mumbled. Maggie Rose wiggled and jumped from foot to foot. Bryan looked up.

  “Well? Well?” Craig pressed. “Is it enough or not?”

  “Tell us, Bryan!” Maggie Rose urged.

  Whatever was going on had everyone as anxious as I always felt when my girl was getting ready to put food in my bowl.

  “Two hundred and three dollars and eighty eight cents,” Bryan shouted.

  “Let’s go!” Craig said.

  Craig and Bryan and Maggie Rose and I all ran across the field to Work. Mom was sitting at a desk in the small room called Mom’s Office. We burst in.

  “Here!” he said. “I have it all. Maggie Rose and Craig helped.”

  “So did Lily and Gertrude!” my girl added, beaming.

  Bryan put the paper and the metal bits on Mom�
�s desk.

  Mom sorted through them. Then she looked up. “I don’t know how you did this in such a short period of time, Bryan. But it’s all here. The adoption fee has been paid. Congratulations. Brewster is yours.” Mom smiled.

  Bryan ran out into the room with the kennels and opened Brewster’s. Brewster got up and groaned and stretched and came over to Bryan. He wagged his tail slowly but steadily.

  The geese, of course, came to huddle around me and honk at me as if they were dogs and I were their person. I shook them off.

  Bryan knelt down and put his arms around Brewster.

  “I kept my promise,” he whispered. “You’re my dog now, Brewster. I’ll love you for the rest of your life.”

  * * *

  After that day, Brewster and I did Work and then he came to Home to be with us! It was very nice to have another dog around. Brewster and I could chase balls in the backyard together. When my girl was busy, I could find Brewster. He was usually napping, so I would curl up with him and nap, too, without geese.

  Brewster really is good at naps.

  A few weeks after Brewster came Home, Dad and Maggie Rose and the geese and I all climbed into the car to take a car ride together! We drove up into the mountains.

  I rode in the back seat with my girl, of course. The geese went in a crate in the back.

  “Are you sure the geese are ready to fly south already?” Maggie Rose asked. “They’ve just barely learned how to fly!”

  From the front seat, Dad nodded. “I know,” he said. “But it’s the time when the geese leave, so we just have to hope Gertrude and the rest are ready.”

  We stopped in a place high in the mountains, near a big lake. There were geese out on that lake—big ones! Grown-up geese! They seemed restless and kept lifting up from the water for short flights and then splashing back down again.

  “See? Getting ready to migrate,” Dad said, watching them. “We came at just the right time.”

  Dad lifted the crate down from the back of the truck and set it on the ground. He opened it. The geese streamed out, honking and flapping and looking around with interest.