ASPCA Kids

by Rachael Upton

  And every move she made, Elsa and Chester followed behind her. They batted at toys and wrestled, or stepped on her feet to stop her from walking and to get her to pet them. Janey didn’t mind a bit, of course—it just meant it took a little bit longer than usual to do the cleaning.

  It was too bad Elsa hadn’t been at the shelter during the Purr-fect Pairs event, Janey thought as she worked. She and Chester would have made a perfect purr-fect pair themselves.

  At last, Janey finished cleaning. The cat room was spotless. And, she realized, Chester and Elsa had disappeared. They must have tired themselves out playing, she thought.

  She put the duster she had been using down on a windowsill and went looking for them. She had to say good-bye before she left.

  It took her a little while to find them. And when she did, she couldn’t believe her eyes.

  Elsa and Chester were sleeping together on one of the pet beds. That wasn’t surprising. What was surprising was the way they were sleeping.

  The two cats were cuddled close, lying nose-to-nose and tail-to-tail, their backs curved just so. Looking at them from above, they formed a shape that looked almost exactly like a heart.

  Janey got a wonderful idea suddenly.

  Quietly, she snuck out of the room on her tiptoes and went to the office where she’d stashed her backpack. She pulled out her tablet computer, and returned to the cat room, just as quietly.

  To her relief, Elsa and Chester hadn’t moved.

  Janey opened the camera app on her tablet and lifted it up, making sure both cats were in frame. Then she snapped a few pictures. The first couple of photos came out blurry, but the third was just right. Elsa and Chester didn’t just look kind of like a heart—they looked exactly like a heart. It was just what she had been hoping for.

  “Kitty!” Janey ran out of the cat room, holding her tablet against her chest. “Kitty, Kitty!”

  “Janey? Is something wrong?” Kitty stuck her head out of the office.

  “Nothing’s wrong! Everything’s sublime!” Janey beamed, holding the tablet up for Kitty to see.

  “Whoa!” Kitty gazed at the photo on the screen. “Is that Elsa and Chester? Did you take this picture?”

  Janey nodded. “I saw them sleeping in a heart shape, and I remembered what you said about photos being important, and…I think this might be the one that gets Chester adopted.”

  Kitty agreed. “He looks so adorable here. And Elsa, too!”

  “Yeah.” Janey smiled. “I was wondering—could we maybe let them be adopted as a pair? Like last weekend? Like you said, they get along so well.”

  Kitty nodded slowly. “I think that is doable. I mean, with a picture this great, how could I say no?”

  Janey jumped for joy. “Thank you, thank you!”

  “I’m guessing this photo will be going up on the blog?” Kitty smiled.

  “Yep!” Janey beamed. “As soon as I talk to the other members of the Pet Rescue Club.”

  Second Chances

  “This is the cutest picture I think I’ve ever seen,” Adam said, staring at the tablet screen. Janey had convinced the Pet Rescue Club to hold an impromptu meeting during recess the next day. They were sitting on the bleachers together, looking at the amazing photo.

  Janey noticed Zach was looking a little longingly toward the soccer field, where some of the other boys were playing. But he quickly looked back, grinning his approval at the picture.

  “I’m so glad that Elsa is Chester’s best friend,” Lolli said happily. “And Kitty said they could be adopted together?”

  “Yep! Two-for-one, just like the event last weekend,” Janey confirmed. “As long as they go to the same home. I thought it would be best if we all wrote the blog post together, though. Especially you, Lolli, since your family fostered Elsa for a little while. You know her better than I do.”

  “And you know Chester pretty well,” said Lolli, nodding enthusiastically. “You’ve spent more time with him than we have. We can write a great blog post together.”

  “What about us?” Zach asked, holding up a hand like they were in class.

  “Of course I need you guys to help.” Janey laughed. “Purr-fect Pairs wouldn’t have happened at all without you. And now we have a chance to get Chester and Elsa a home together. We just have to make this blog post perfect.”

  “You mean purr-fect.” Adam grinned.

  Zach groaned. “I’m getting tired of that pun.”

  “I still think it’s cute,” Lolli chimed in.

  “Okay, Adam, write this down, then,” said Zach, as he stood up, striking a dramatic pose. “This is the tale of Chester the pirate cat, captain of the good ship Meow-Meow, hero of the seven seas, eater of sardines—”

  “Zach!” Lolli interrupted, giggling. “I don’t think that’s what Janey had in mind.”

  “No,” Janey snorted, covering her mouth to keep from giggling as well. “But I think you should tell Ms. Tanaka all about Captain Chester next time we have creative writing.”

  “Okay, okay,” Zach sat back down, but he was grinning ear-to-ear, and no longer stealing glances at the soccer field.

  Janey smiled around at her friends. She thought again how lucky she was to have the Pet Rescue Club—to have friends who loved animals like she did, and who were happy to give up a recess to help animals in need.

  “Let’s tell it like a story,” she said, thoughtfully. “But a real one. About how two cats who didn’t know each other at all became the best of friends.”

  With all four friends working together, Chester and Elsa’s story took shape. They even added some information about the benefits of older cats, like that they’re already litter trained! It took all recess, and about half of lunch, but eventually they had a blog post that they were proud of. It told all about the two cats’ rather sad backgrounds, but also explained how happy they were together, and how the shelter wanted to keep them together so that they could stay friends.

  Janey promised to post it as soon as she got home.

  After she hit post on the blog that afternoon, Janey couldn’t help but be anxious. The photo was amazing. The blog post was amazing. But would anyone read it? She kept her tablet with her all evening, watching it with her e-mail open while she did her homework, brushed her teeth, and put on her pajamas.

  She could barely even pay attention to her favorite show, because she kept glancing down at the screen in her lap.

  She would have brought it with her to the table at dinner if her mother hadn’t forbidden it. “A watched in-box never chimes,” she joked as she served Janey some peas.

  “The picture and the post are beautiful,” Janey’s dad added. “You guys did a great job. Just relax.”

  Janey was not relaxed. After dinner, she stared at her empty e-mail folder until her mom finally made her turn the tablet off and go to bed. Even then, she tossed and turned for a little while, visions of heart-shaped cats in her head, before she finally managed to fall asleep.

  She woke up to her mom gently shaking her shoulder, which was unusual. It was Saturday, and her mom usually let her sleep in a little bit on the weekend. She almost never woke Janey up unless there was something to do. Janey started to mumble something about the time, but her mom interrupted her.

  “Honey? I think you might want to check your e-mail,” her mom whispered, looking bemused.

  Janey sat up, looking blearily at her mom, then down at the tablet she was holding out. The tablet’s e-mail program showed a little number next to the icon, letting her know how many e-mails she had.

  Right now, the number read fifty-eight. As Janey watched, it clicked up to fifty-nine. She rubbed her eyes and blinked, thinking maybe she was seeing things. Still fifty-nine. Janey squeaked in surprise, thoroughly awake now.

  “I’d say your photo worked,” Janey’s mom chuckled as Janey tapped the icon to open her e-mail.

  She scanned the subject lines of the messages in her in-box. Every single e-mail was about Chester and Elsa! Some were ju
st talking about how cute the photo was, but Janey could see many messages just on the first page, asking about adopting both cats.

  “I have to call Kitty!” Janey said, looking up at her mom with a giant smile on her face.

  “Kitty already called you earlier this morning,” Janey’s mother replied. “She said the shelter had half a dozen calls about your cats this morning. People from as far away as the next county want to adopt Chester and Elsa. That’s why I turned your tablet on and woke you up.”

  “But how?” Janey was amazed. Her blog had been helpful in getting attention and help for animals in the past, but never this much, and never this fast.

  “Apparently,” her mother explained, “a reporter from the local news has been following your blog. He remembered your club from back when you all helped with the big storm, and thought it would be a good idea to keep an eye on you guys, in case you did something else amazing.” She smiled. “He thought the photo was really cute, too. He put it and a link to your blog on the website this morning. He called Kitty, too. He said the photo went kind of viral.”

  “So Chester and Elsa are famous!” Janey hugged the tablet to her chest and bounced in place on her bed, unable to contain her excitement. “That. Is. Sublime! I have to tell everyone—Adam and Lolli and Zach, I mean—and I have to call Kitty back—oh my gosh, there’s so much to do!”

  “Why don’t we start with getting dressed and having breakfast?” her mom suggested. “Your dad is making pancakes, and I think Internet fame can wait until after you’ve eaten.”

  Janey called Kitty almost as soon as she had swallowed her last bite of pancake. Kitty sounded frazzled again, but in a good way.

  “The phone has been ringing off the hook all morning. The shelter director even said that we could extend the Purr-fect Pairs promotion to this weekend, too. The reporter who posted your photo is going to write a story about it for the news website.”

  “I can’t believe it,” said Janey, feeling dizzy.

  “Neither can I,” Kitty admitted. “It’s amazing. And we have a dozen people interested in adopting Chester and Elsa.”

  “A dozen?” Janey cried. “That’s so many!”

  “It is,” Kitty agreed. “Do you have time to come by the shelter today?”

  “Yes!” Janey did a little dance on her end of the phone.

  Kitty laughed, as if she was picturing Janey’s victory dance. “Okay. I’ll see you later today. And the rest of the Pet Rescue Club, too, I hope!”

  Happy Homes

  The shelter was crowded again, but with people instead of cats. There were even more people than there had been the previous weekend.

  “We aren’t going to run out of cats, are we?” Zach whispered to Lolli.

  “Maybe?” Lolli whispered back. “I don’t think that would be so bad, though.”

  “It’d be unprecedented,” Adam said. “But why are we whispering?”

  Janey heard their quiet conversation, but tried to ignore it for now. Lots of people had come to adopt Chester and Elsa—but since only one family could adopt one pair of cats, many families had stayed to meet and adopt other cats. Mr. Petersen had told the Pet Rescue Club an hour ago that they had officially adopted more than half the cats in the entire shelter.

  As great as that news was, though, Janey had to focus. Kitty had asked her to sit in on their adoption interviews, and Janey intended to take the responsibility seriously. She looked back to the young couple who were holding Chester and Elsa in their laps.

  She already really liked Sam and Isabel. They hadn’t just been the first ones to call the Third Street Animal Shelter to ask about Elsa and Chester. They’d also been the first ones in line when the shelter opened, and Elsa and Chester hadn’t moved from their laps since they sat down.

  “We just moved into town last week,” Sam was saying to Kitty, rubbing Elsa under the chin. “Otherwise we would have been here last weekend, too.”

  “Our cat Michou died a few months before we moved,” Isabel put in sadly as she stroked Chester’s fur. “He was sixteen, and I’d had him since I was in high school.”

  “Sixteen?” Janey said in amazement. That was almost twice as old as she was.

  Isabel nodded, smiling a little. “It took a long time for me to feel ready to adopt another cat, but Sam and I decided we’d get two once we moved to our new house. I was so sad when I found out we’d just missed the Purr-fect Pairs event!”

  “Lucky for us, these guys convinced you to give it another go,” said Sam, looking fondly down at Chester. “When I saw that photo, I woke Izzy up to show her.”

  “I was so mad at Sam until I saw the cats,” Isabel laughed. “Then I totally forgave him. Especially once I saw the other photo of Chester.”

  “Really?” That piqued Janey’s curiosity. “The one from the blog post before?”

  “Oh yes! As soon as I saw him, I knew we had to try to adopt him and Elsa.” Isabel beamed as she reached into her purse and pulled out her phone. “I’ll even show you why.” She handed her phone to Janey.

  On the screen was a cat that had just one blue eye—the other side of his face was smooth fur, like Chester’s. The cat in the photo looked happy, cuddled in the arms of a person who looked like a much younger Isabel.

  “Is this Michou?” Janey asked. He was beautiful, and he also looked a little bit like someone had mixed Elsa and Chester together.

  “That’s him,” Isabel confirmed. “Isn’t he sublime?”

  Janey’s eyes lit up with happiness. They found a great home for Chester.

  “Seeing these two felt a little bit like fate. Right, buddy?” Sam nuzzled the top of Chester’s head, and Chester gave a very loud, very happy purr-ROW, which Elsa echoed, kneading Isabel’s arm.

  She nudged Kitty, giving her an enthusiastic nod. Kitty nodded back, and turned to the couple.

  “You guys seem like you’ll give them a great home,” she said, seeming to agree with Janey. “But I have to say, there’s a problem here.”

  Janey’s heart sank and she looked at Kitty, surprised. Sam and Isabel looked worried, too.

  “You gave us too much money.” Kitty laughed. “You only need to give us the adoption fee for one cat.”

  “Oh!” Sam grinned with relief. “That’s intentional. We were always planning to pay both fees, and we have everything we need for Chester and Elsa at home already.”

  “We wanted to come to the shelter for Purr-fect Pairs so we could get a pair of cats who already knew and liked each other,” Isabel explained. “Just like these two. Consider the extra a donation.”

  “So wait,” Janey said slowly, “does that mean…?”

  “Yes, Janey,” Kitty said gently. “Chester is officially adopted, and so is Elsa. Congratulations on your new family members,” she added to Sam and Isabel. “Just one thing left to do.” It was her turn to nudge Janey.

  “Oh!” Janey picked up her tablet, holding it up. “I want to get a picture for my blog!”

  “Of course,” Sam said, putting his arm around Isabel happily. “A family portrait!”

  “Let’s take one with the Pet Rescue Club, too,” said Isabel, with a wink at Janey. “After all, without their help, we never would have known about Chester and Elsa at all.”

  A moment later, the members of the Pet Rescue Club were together, posing for a photo next to Elsa and Chester and their new family. “Say cheese!” said Kitty as she took the photo. She looked at the screen, then turned it around for the Rescue Club to see. “What do you think, guys?”

  Janey looked happily at the photo, then up at Chester and Elsa with Sam and Isabel. “It’s purr-fect,” she said.

  We share a lot with our pets: our lives, our homes, our love, our deepest secrets. But is it a good idea to share our food?

  Not always. Several common foods that are perfectly safe for people can be dangerous or even deadly for our cats, dogs, and other pets. Also, there are some household items and houseplants that pets should never be allowed to che
w on or eat. Here are a few examples, but for a more complete list from the experts at the ASPCA®, visit aspca.org.

  • Onions and garlic

  • Chocolate

  • Coffee

  • Avocado (especially dangerous

  to birds and rodents)

  • Grapes and raisins

  • Many human medications

  • Antifreeze

  • Fabric softener sheets

  • Amaryllis

  • Pothos (a popular houseplant)

  Image © 2017 American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.

  All rights reserved.

  Meet the Real Chester

  Chester from A PURR-fect Pair was inspired by an animal rescue story in New York! The real-life Chester had sustained a trauma before being rescued by the ASPCA and needed to have his right eye removed, but he was still gentle and quiet and playful.

  When Christina and Jim came into the Adoption Center, they were looking for a perfect pair. First they spotted Elsa, a striking and sweet cat who wanted love immediately. Soon after, Chester, with his one-eyed stare, meowed and caught their attention, too. The two cats quickly became the best of friends just like the Elsa and Chester in our story.