Janey suddenly had a wonderful idea. One so obvious, she couldn’t believe she hadn’t thought of it sooner. “Of course!” she cried. “This is the perfect next project for the Pet Rescue Club! I’ll write about the cats on my blog.”
“I was going to say the same thing,” said Lolli, beaming at her friend. “We can get people to donate supplies that way!”
“And help all these cats get adopted,” Janey agreed. “I bet people will rush to help!”
Zach looked less certain. “Will people really come adopt a cat just because the shelter is crowded?” he asked doubtfully. “I mean, there are always cats here.”
“We’ll think of something,” Janey said, feeling much more confident than Zach did. The Pet Rescue Club had always come up with something in the past—she was sure they’d come up with a way to help this time, too.
“Any help the Pet Rescue Club wants to give us is always appreciated,” said Kitty, smiling and reaching up to pet Chester again. “And I think I have an idea of how you guys can help spread the word.”
Zach’s Idea
“How many cats?” Adam asked, eyes wide.
It was Monday, and the Pet Rescue Club was having a meeting during school lunch. They were explaining to their fourth member, Adam, about the situation at the shelter.
It was unusual for Adam to miss a chance to volunteer, but he had been busy all weekend. Even though he was only nine, Adam was trustworthy enough that he ran his own dog walking business. A lot of people—and dogs—depended on him. But he was disappointed he’d missed the excitement.
“We’re all going back to the Third Street Animal Shelter after school,” Zach was saying, with a mouth full of mac and cheese. “My mom is giving us a ride, so you can come, too.”
“I’ll have to ask my parents, but it should be okay,” said Adam, pushing his glasses up. “What’s the plan for helping the shelter? Do we have one?” Adam was even more organized than Janey, and liked to have a plan.
“Kitty said we should start with photos,” said Janey. She pulled her tablet computer out of her bag. “My tablet has a nice camera, so that should make things simple.”
“Seeing how cute the cats are will definitely help,” said Lolli, munching on a bag of homemade kale chips. She offered a chip to Janey, and Janey agreed to try just one.
Zach took a few and munched them thoughtfully. “I still don’t know if it will help us adopt more cats, though,” he said, frowning. “Like I said, there are always cats at the shelter.”
“Seeing cute cats always makes me want one,” said Janey, wistfully.
“Yeah, but not everyone is like you, Janey. Just because there are extra cats at the shelter doesn’t mean there are extra homes for them,” Lolli pointed out, putting her chin in her hand.
“We need some kind of an angle to get people’s attention. Like, half-off adoption fees. Or buy one cat, get one free!” Zach joked.
Janey groaned and rolled her eyes. She was about to tell Zach to take things more seriously when Adam spoke up. “That’s not a bad idea, actually,” he said.
“What?” asked Janey.
“What?” Zach repeated.
“Buy one, get one free,” said Adam, “or something like that. The Third Street Animal Shelter always does a great job matching pets and people—what a great way to get more a home.”
Janey nodded.
“Well, I read in a pet behavior book that some cats are happier in pairs,” said Adam. “Especially if they already know each other. They keep each other company and play together. It’s harder for them to get bored with another cat around.”
“And all of these cats came from the same shelter,” said Lolli brightly. “Some of them even come from the same litter! They definitely already know each other!”
“So if someone wants to adopt one of these cats, we could see if they would want to adopt two instead of one?” asked Janey, warming to the idea.
“If they have time and room for two, why not?” Adam said. “And we could see if the shelter will waive the fees, like Zach said. Adopt one cat, get the second one free.” He paused, then added, “We’ll have to ask Kitty first, though. Obviously.”
“I mean, it would definitely get cats adopted faster,” chuckled Zach. “Like, exactly twice as fast.”
“And we can come up with a fun name, like we did with the Walk and Wag!” said Janey, her mind already racing. The Walk and Wag had been a fundraiser the Pet Rescue Club had organized not long ago to help pay for a big dog’s knee surgery. It had been enormously successful, and Janey had liked planning an event. This could be just as fun.
“Catpalooza,” suggested Adam.
“Double the Love,” suggested Lolli.
“Twice the Hairballs,” suggested Zach in a serious voice, then burst out laughing.
Janey pretended to throw a wadded-up napkin at Zach, but she laughed, too. One of Zach’s jokes had turned out to be a good idea in disguise!
After lunch, Lolli and Janey found Ms. Tanaka in the school hallway, and asked her about letting them use the art room to make posters for their adoption idea. She’d let them do the same thing for the Walk and Wag fundraiser, so they were hopeful she’d let them do the same again.
“Well, the Walk and Wag was certainly a good idea,” said Ms. Tanaka. “But have you talked to Kitty about your plan yet?”
Janey and Lolli had to admit that they hadn’t.
“Get her permission, first,” Ms. Tanaka said. “If she says okay…” She smiled. “Well, I don’t see any reason why you couldn’t use the art room again.”
“Thank you so much, Ms. Tanaka,” said Janey, happily.
“Just make sure it’s okay with the shelter before you get ahead of yourselves,” Ms. Tanaka warned.
“Definitely,” Janey agreed. She’d make sure to ask Kitty about it the minute they got to the shelter that afternoon.
Photo Shoot
As it turned out, though, Janey was too distracted to ask Kitty about it right away, because Kitty had her own surprise waiting for the Pet Rescue Club when they arrived.
When Dr. Goldman dropped off the group at the shelter, Kitty was there to meet them. But instead of bringing them back into quarantine, she brought them into one of the little offices.
Inside, on top of a table, was a blue blanket draped over a frame, making a backdrop like the one Janey posed in front of on school picture day. There were props, like baskets and bows, and toys that jingled and sparkled. It was like the set up for a professional photo shoot.
“What do you guys think?” Kitty asked. “I asked workers from the shelter to bring in extra cat toys from home for the photos.”
“This is awesome!” said Zach, diving into one of the baskets with both hands and pulling out a pink feather boa. “Even lazy old Mulberry would flip if he saw all this.”
“This is going to be so much fun!” Lolli exclaimed.
“It’s sublime, Kitty,” Janey agreed. She put down her backpack and pulled out her tablet, ready to take on the role of cat photographer.
“I thought you kids could use all the help you could get,” said Kitty. “A good picture can make all the difference in an adoption.”
“Oh yeah,” said Adam, nodding. “Remember how Ms. Tanaka didn’t want to adopt Truman at first because his picture showed him looking so dirty and sad?” Truman had belonged to a family who had neglected him, and the first pictures Janey had gotten of him had not been very flattering.
“Right!” said Lolli. “But she changed her mind when she saw him cleaned up and in person.”
“Exactly,” said Kitty. “So let’s give these cats and kittens beautiful pictures, and the best chance we can to find good homes.”
“We had an idea about that, actually,” said Janey, suddenly remembering the Pet Rescue Club’s big idea. She explained it to Kitty. Some of the cats could go in pairs, and the shelter could waive part of the adoption fees. As Janey talked, Kitty started to nod.
“I have to say, yo
ur plan might be doable,” she said, rubbing her chin. “We’ve actually done something like that in the past, but it’s been a long time. We even had a name for it—we called it Purr-fect Pairs.”
It even already had a cute name. Janey felt her excitement rise. “So we can do it?”
“Well,” Kitty hesitated, “I have to talk to the other shelter workers. But the shelter is really full…” She rubbed her chin again. “I think it’s just the right thing to do, and I’m pretty sure that my coworkers will agree.” She smiled. “You guys just may have saved the day again.”
Janey felt really hopeful that Kitty was right. “Okay, Pet Rescue Club!” she said, holding up her tablet. “Let’s get some awesome pictures!”
The photo shoot was even more fun than Janey thought it would be. Kitty brought the cats and kittens into the room one or two or three at a time, and Janey, Lolli, Adam, and Zach took turns at different jobs.
There was a lot to do. Aside from taking pictures, they arranged props for the cats to pose with, and jingled toys to make the cats look toward the camera. Cats jumped into baskets and batted at balls, chased their own tails and rolled over to show their bellies.
Some of them were natural models. They posed and meowed. One or two were nervous, though, and the club took time to calm them and make sure they didn’t jump down from the table, or get stressed out by the attention.
Zach took nearly a whole page of photos of the black kittens, because they kept doing more and more cute things. Kitty laughed when she took the kittens back to the kennel.
“Kittens are easy to adopt,” she explained when she returned with Chester, the one-eyed cat. “Everyone loves kittens and puppies. It’s older animals that are usually harder to find homes for.”
Janey bit her lip as Kitty put Chester on the table and he began his usual purr, rubbing against Janey’s chin. She stroked his soft fur, looking down at him. “How old is Chester?” she asked.
“Dr. Goldman said about six or seven years old,” said Kitty. “He’s the oldest cat in the group.”
“It’s too bad you can’t show purring in a picture.” Lolli sighed, scratching behind Chester’s ear. He leaned his head into her hand, kneading the blanket in front of him and purring even louder.
“We’ll just have to make sure he looks really extra-handsome, then,” said Janey. She took her tablet back from Zach, and lifted it to get Chester centered on the screen. “Smile for the camera, Chester!”
Chester lifted his head at his name. “Purr-row?” he said, waving his long tail, and Janey snapped a picture.
Zach dangled a toy over Chester’s head, and the gray-and-white cat raised his paws to bat at it playfully. Janey snapped another picture. She took extra time, and extra pictures. Soon she’d taken even more photos of Chester than Zach had of the kittens.
“I think that’s probably enough,” Lolli said after about fifteen minutes, leaning over Janey’s shoulder and staring at the page full of pictures of Chester on the tablet’s screen.
“I know, I know,” said Janey, sighing. She scrolled through the pictures. “I just want to make sure I get the best picture possible.” Plus, if Kitty said it was hard to get older cats adopted, she wondered how hard it was to get an older cat with one eye adopted.
Finally, even Janey had to admit that she’d taken enough photos of Chester when he lay down in the middle of the table and began to fall asleep. No jingling toys or belly pokes could get him to stand back up. He just purred tolerantly and kept his eye closed. He was clearly done being a model for the day.
Kitty brought Chester back to his kennel, and the Pet Rescue Club picked up the props and cat toys, returning the room to normal before Dr. Goldman came to pick them up.
Before they left, Janey stopped by Chester’s kennel one last time. He was still sleepy, and squeezed his eye shut as she stroked behind his ear, giving her a soft “purr-row.”
“Don’t worry, Chester,” she whispered. “I’ll help you find a loving home. I promise!”
Surprise Arrival
“What about this one?” Janey asked, holding out her tablet to Adam.
“It’s a good picture,” said Adam. “But they’re almost all good pictures, Janey.”
“You should pick one and move on,” said Zach, munching on a seaweed cracker. “If you keep changing your mind, we’ll never finish the blog entry.”
The Pet Rescue Club had met at Lolli’s house. Lolli’s dog, Roscoe, whined at Zach, his eyes on the cracker in his hand. Roscoe was a large mixed breed—part Labrador, part rottweiler, and part who-knew-what. Zach held the cracker out of his reach. “Sorry, boy,” he said. “These are weirdly tasty, and they’re also all mine.”
Janey had heard from Kitty that the Purr-fect Pairs event was on for the next weekend. Potential adopters would be encouraged to adopt cats and kittens in twos. If they did, the shelter would waive the adoption fee for one of the cats.
Janey wanted to post on her blog to promote the event. They had more than enough pictures of all the adoptable cats, and the club had already made posters to hang up around town, just like they had for the Walk and Wag. Updating the blog was the next step.
If only Janey could decide on which pictures to use.
“May I see?” asked Lolli, reaching for the tablet. Janey handed it over and Lolli scanned the pages of photos.
“This one,” she said at last, tapping one to make it full size and handing the tablet back. Chester was sitting, his paws tucked in front of him. He was looking at the camera with his one big green eye. He looked regal, like a jungle cat.
Janey nodded. “Okay. This one.” Then she frowned, scrolling further down. “Or maybe…this one?”
Adam and Zach groaned. Part of the reason they were at Lolli’s house was also so they could meet Buttercup, the baby goat. Instead, they’d been stuck choosing pictures for almost an hour.
“Sorry,” Janey said, feeling a little exasperated that the others didn’t share her sense of just how important this was. She picked the picture Lolli had suggested and handed the tablet to Zach, folding her arms. “I’m just trying to make sure Chester has a really good chance of being adopted this weekend.”
Lolli hugged Janey. “It will be okay. When people come to the shelter and meet Chester, they’ll love him. He’s really sweet.”
Zach’s fingers tapped at Janey’s tablet. He was better with computers than anyone else Janey knew, and she always let him look over the Pet Rescue Club’s blog posts before she made them.
“Speaking of sweet…” Zach said, and held up the tablet to show a picture of one of the black kittens from the shelter. “I’m going to ask Mom if we can adopt her. Mulberry probably needs a friend, too, right?”
“Mulberry has lots of company,” Janey said. “You have two brothers, and he gets lots of attention from them. And your parents. And you.”
“Shh, you’ll ruin my plan to adopt Blackberry.” Zach grinned. “See? Her name even matches Mulberry’s.”
“Because you named her,” Adam pointed out, bumping his knee into Zach’s leg and grinning back.
“It’s a good name!” Zach insisted. He tapped at the screen a little longer, then handed the tablet back to Janey. “Here you go. Blog post is all ready to go.”
Janey looked it over one more time, then hit the post button. She exhaled, then put the tablet down. “Okay! Let’s go see Buttercup.”
“It’s about time!” Zach jumped to his feet, and Roscoe, who was still hoping for a cracker, jumped up with him to follow them outside.
“That is not a baby goat,” Adam said a moment later.
They were standing in the door of Lolli’s barn, looking down at a little white kitten. It was rubbing up against Mr. Simpson’s ankles, and meowed when it saw the Pet Rescue Club members. It trotted toward them with its tail held high.
“Oh my gosh!” said Lolli, dropping to her knees and scooping up the kitten. “Dad, where did it come from?”
“I’m not sure,” Mr. Simps
on admitted. “She was just here when I came to check on Buttercup a few minutes ago. It looks like she’s been outside for a while.”
“Poor little thing!” Janey petted the kitten, who closed her eyes and purred and purred, rubbing her head on Janey’s hand. Up close, Janey could see what Mr. Simpson meant. The kitten was dirty and skinny. Still, she seemed too friendly to be a stray. “Maybe she’s someone’s runaway pet?”
“Maybe so,” said Mr. Simpson. “Or maybe she was abandoned out here.”
Lolli put the kitten down on the floor of the barn, and the kitten resumed walking around their feet and rubbing on their legs.
“Just what we need,” said Zach, crouching to pet her, too. “Another cat.” He didn’t really sound that upset, though. He smiled when the kitten rolled over onto her back and started chewing on his fingers. “Oh, wait, Roscoe!”
Roscoe had followed the kids into the barn, and had spotted the kitten. He leaned his big head down to sniff at her. His mouth was nearly as big as her whole body. But the kitten just reached up with her paws and started licking Roscoe’s nose.
Roscoe made a confused sound, but started wagging his tail and panting. It was clear the kitten was in no danger from him.
“False alarm,” said Zach, obviously relieved.
“Boy, she’s friendly.” Adam started petting the kitten as well. “What are you going to do with her?”
“Well, first I was going to ask around the neighborhood to see if I could find her owners,” Mr. Simpson said, sighing. “If not, I thought I’d take her to the Third Street Animal Shelter.”
At that, the club members looked at each other in dismay.
“You can’t bring her to the shelter, Dad,” exclaimed Lolli. “It’s already crowded with cats, remember?”
“Oh, right!” Mr. Simpson slapped his own forehead, laughing a little. “I don’t know how I forgot. You kids have been so busy with the…what is it? The Twin Tails event?”
ASPCA Kids Page 2
