by Coco Simon
Rocky was due to have her puppies in two weeks.
“Wow. Lots of baby doodles! So what are they going to do?” I asked. “What are they going to doodle?” I giggled.
My dad laughed too, but then he grew serious. “He didn’t know. I could hear his wife in the background. She was kind of upset. Freaking out, actually. He said he’d have to call me back. Poor kid.”
“Wow. Some people just really shouldn’t have dogs,” I said.
“I know,” agreed my dad.
“I’m going to give the Cupcakers the update,” I said, returning to the family room, where we were making beaded bracelets and eating popcorn while we watched one of Alexis’s required dance shows before we turned on a movie.
Meanwhile, Jake had been allowed to bring Rocky and her huge bed up to his room, and he was literally holding a vigil at her bedside, watching her every breath. It was pretty cute. I’d never seen him act so responsible before. Usually, he just loses interest in things after a little bit. Rocky was better but pretty wiped out from her ordeal. The vet said we’d be surprised by how quickly she’d bounce back, though.
Back in the family room, my friends were dismayed by Mike’s reaction to Rocky’s news.
“It’s too bad they’re not into that dog. If she were my dog, I would be obsessed,” said Katie.
“I think Jake and that dog have a real bond too,” I mused.
“Totally,” Alexis agreed, tearing her eyes away from the TV for a minute.
“Oh, that little Jakey is so cute,” said Mia. “I wish I could adopt him and get him some toys and treats and take him home to live with me!”
“Be my guest!” I offered, but they all scolded me.
“You’re so lucky to have that little guy,” said Katie. “I wish I had someone else in my house. It’s so quiet and lonely whenever I get home. My mom’s at work, and it’s just me!”
“Okay: You need a dog!” Mia said decisively, pointing her finger at Katie.
Katie laughed. “Oh, but my mom’s allergic. You know that! That’s why I could never have a pet.”
“Doodles are hypoallergenic, supposedly,” I said with a shrug.
“Really?” said Katie. “Maybe I’ll have my mom come in and play with Rocky tomorrow when she picks me up.”
“You should!” I agreed. “Wouldn’t it be awesome if she wasn’t allergic?”
“Yeah,” Katie said dreamily.
“I’ll cross my fingers,” I said.
Rocky was fit as a fiddle the next day. We made some more petcakes and decided I’d drop them at ARF for taste testing later in the afternoon, when my dad and I went to see Tigerlily. Despite the events of the previous day, Rocky seemed very interested in sampling the petcakes, which we thought was a good sign. My mother, however, forbade us from giving her any.
“I do not need that dog getting sick again. It was not a pretty sight or an easy cleanup,” she said, her nose wrinkling in distaste.
“Get used to it, Mom,” I joked. “When Jake gets his puppy, that little critter’s going to make lots of messes.”
My mom sighed. “I know. At least Rocky’s housebroken. Mike did a good job training her.”
Just then Jake walked into the kitchen.
I nodded. “Yeah, Rocky also sits and stays.”
“And shakes! I taught her last night. Watch!” said Jake. Then he turned to the dog. “Rocky, sit!” Rocky sat. “Okay, Rocky . . . shake!” Jake put out his hand, and Rocky lifted her paw and put it in Jake’s hand. Everyone cheered.
I was amazed. “You taught her that? How?”
Jake smiled proudly. “I googled it. Then I did what the lady in the video said.”
“Wow, Jake. That’s impressive. Can I try?”
He let me, and sure enough, Rocky shook for me. Everyone took turns, and then we were all patting Jake on the back.
“Great job, Jakey!” said Mia.
“I might become a dog trainer for the Big Apple Circus when I’m older. Like the guy in Stay,” he said matter-of-factly. “Next, I’m going to teach her to play dead. You just make a gun with your finger and point it at her and say, ‘Bang, bang!,’ and she’ll fall on the floor and lie on her side.”
“Jake! That sounds awful!” said my mom, which made him grin even more.
“Well, you’d better get going on it because Mike is coming to pick her up in two hours,” I reminded him. Then I felt bad—I knew how much he loved Rocky.
Jake’s face fell. “I don’t want Rocky to leave.”
“I know, me neither,” agreed Alexis.
My mom lifted her eyebrows and sighed. “She is a sweet dog.”
“That’s why we should keep her!” said Jake. “Everybody loves you, boy,” he said, hugging Rocky’s neck.
“Girl,” I corrected.
“Jake, are you going to get one of Rocky’s puppies?” asked Katie.
“Maybe!” my mom said brightly, in that tone of voice moms use for when they’re speaking on behalf of kids who are right in front of them.
Jake scowled. “No.”
“Oh!” said Katie, taken aback. She looked at me in confusion. “I thought . . . ?”
I shrugged. “Who knows? I think we should get one.” I thought Jake would be thrilled.
“Come on, boy, let’s go outside and work on your tricks,” said Jake, and they went out into the fenced backyard.
“Was it something I said?” joked Katie.
My mom looked thoughtful. “He really is devoted to that dog.”
“When he sees the puppies, he’ll fall in love. Don’t worry, Mom. And he’ll get the pick of the litter, I’m sure. I just hope Mike and Sandy don’t move before the puppies are born.”
Katie’s mom came to pick her up a little later, and we rushed to the car in the driveway, dragged her out, and brought her in to meet Rocky.
“Uh-oh!” My mom laughed when she saw what was going on. “Puppy fever is already striking!”
Mrs. Brown laughed. “Good thing I brought my inhaler!” she cried as we pulled her through the kitchen and out to the yard.
Mrs. Brown was a good sport about it. She sat on the patio and patted Rocky and listened to Katie enumerate the many reasons why they should get a (hypoallergenic) dog. Mrs. Brown didn’t seem to have any reactions to Rocky, which she said was unusual. When it was really time for them to leave, she offered to drop off Alexis and Mia and said she and Katie would go home to “begin a conversation” about dogs. Katie was ecstatic, and I hugged her extra hard when she left.
“Good luck!” I whispered in her ear.
“You too!” she replied, referring to Tigerlily.
After everyone had left, my parents and I sat down to have a serious conversation about Tigerlily. I crossed my fingers and put them in my pockets so my parents couldn’t see.
“It’s a little unplanned. I mean, we’ve never been a cat family. I don’t know much about cats as pets,” said my mom.
“It seems pretty easy,” my dad said with a shrug. “I spoke to Linda Barnett about it at length at ARF yesterday.”
“I can do it all,” I offered. “I’ll take care of her. I’ll pay for her food and litter and the vet. I earn enough money to cover it. I would just love to have my own little girl kitty who could sleep on my bed and wait for me to come home from school. It would be so cozy!”
My mom laughed. “I can see the appeal.”
“She is a sweet cat,” said my dad, looking at me.
“So what do you say?”
My parents looked at each other. “Okay by me, I guess,” relented my mom. “You’ll take care of her. I don’t mind buying the supplies, but you deal with her shots and the vet and all that, deal?”
“Ugh. Shots?” I said.
My mom looked at me. “You don’t have to watch. You just have to bring her once a year, and stay on top of it. I just can’t add lots of new schedules to my life if we’re also getting a dog.”
“Okay.” It seemed like a small price to pay. “Dad?”
“Great. Sounds good to me.” He stood, and we were about to set off when the doorbell rang.
“Oh! There’s Mike to pick up Rocky, I bet,” said my dad. “This might take a few minutes.”
A few minutes turned out to be almost an hour! I was so impatient, I thought I’d burst! Rocky had been thrilled to see Mike, and I actually felt bad for Jake at the reception she gave Mike. Mike was happy to see her too, and he got down on the floor to hug her. It almost looked like he was crying a little. I guess if I’d been away from my dog for a few days, I might cry a little when I saw her again. Maybe?
But then Mike asked if he and my parents could have a chat in private, and Jake got a worried look on his face. As they all went out to the living room to talk, Jake turned to me, pale as a sheet. “Is Mike mad at me that Rocky got sick? He’s going to say I did a bad job for letting her get at those cupcakes. But I didn’t know! I was watching a movie, and she got up and I didn’t even notice she was gone for so long.” He sat down heavily on a kitchen chair and put his head in his hands. “He must be really mad. Do you think they’ll punish me? Maybe he’ll bench me at the next game. Ooooh!” Jake moaned.
I knelt down next to him. “Jake! Dude, get a grip! It’s not your fault that Rocky got sick. It’s my fault for not thinking about Rocky when we left the cupcakes out to cool. He should bench me if he’s going to bench anyone!” I laughed.
Jake scowled at me through his hands. “You’re not even on the team,” he said icily.
“Listen,” I said, patting his shoulder. “You took great care of Rocky this week. She could not have been happier or healthier, except for the cupcake thing, which wasn’t your fault. And if it weren’t for the cupcakes, we wouldn’t have even found out that Rocky was pregnant! Think of that! No one would have known to take care of her health in the special ways you do when a dog is going to have puppies. It actually worked out great.” I rubbed his leg. “Don’t be so hard on yourself, little guy. You’re a good kid!”
Jake smiled up at me. “Thanks. You’re a good kid too, Emmy!” He threw his arms around me and gave me a big hug. It was so adorable. If Mia and Katie could see me now, they’d be green with envy. I guess they were right. Jake was pretty sweet sometimes. And then he said, “And when Rocky comes to live with us, I’ll let her sleep on your bed sometimes.”
Oh, brother. When was this kid going to learn?
As it turned out, though, Jake was sort of right.
Coach Mike had come to plead with my parents to keep Rocky through when she had the puppies and they were old enough to leave her. Sandy was insistent that they could not move into a new home in a new state with new jobs and with a dog that was about to give birth at any minute. I had to kind of agree with her, even though I didn’t like her very much. This was probably all great for her—she got rid of the dog for a couple of months and didn’t have to deal with any of the messy stuff.
My parents agreed, mostly because they felt sorry for Rocky. Plus, they knew how happy it would make Jake. I think they even offered to keep her for good, but Mike just couldn’t give her up. I wasn’t supposed to know that part because they really didn’t want Jake to know that they had tried and failed to get Rocky for him.
Instead, they spun it that Coach Mike was so impressed by Jake’s tender loving care of Rocky, he wanted us to be the ones to help her become a mother.
“What a guy,” Matt said sarcastically when he heard the news. “We do all the dirty work, and he gets his dog back. What’s he going to do with the puppies?”
My mom and dad looked at each other, aghast.
“We didn’t get that far!” said my dad.
“Oh no!” said my mom.
“Seriously, people?” I said.
Matt just shook his head. “There’s a sucker born every minute.”
“Can we go get my cat now, please?”
And my parents looked at each other again and then collapsed into helpless laughter. Parents are so weird sometimes.
CHAPTER 8
Tigerlex
It’s official: Tigerlily Alexis Taylor has come home to live with me!
Last night I came home with her, and Matt, the computer graphics wiz, helped me make little adoption announcements with her photo, and a little kitty paw print on them. All in pink. It is so cute. I’m going to hand them out to my friends at school today, and I know they’ll think it’s hilarious.
Tigerlily slept on my bed for the whole night, in a warm little ball by my feet. It was the best night ever. We were supposed to keep her in just one room for her first night, but she was too curious, so she got out and explored the whole house when I was in the shower. She knows how to open doors, by the way. She is a genius kitty. She stands on her hind legs and lifts her front paws up on either side of a doorknob and then moves her paws up and down until the knob turns. I’m going to video it and send it in to The World’s Funniest Home Videos.
We were supposed to keep her upstairs and away from Rocky and blah, blah, blah, but it just wasn’t realistic in this household. And anyway, it turned out the two critters liked each other! There was lots of sniffing and checking each other out last night, but nobody barked or hissed or anything. I think it’s good that we have those gates to keep Rocky in the kitchen, though. It allows Tigerlily to have the rest of the house to herself.
So this morning, Tigerlily followed me down into the kitchen, and Rocky was lying on her bed in a warm, sunny corner. My mom had already sent her outside to do her business and she had eaten, so she was all snoozy. Tigerlily walked right over to her, bold as you please, and gave her a good sniffing. Rocky didn’t even twitch! She just opened one eye lazily and checked out TL and then went back to sleep.
“Mom! Did you see that?!” I cried.
“Mmmm-hmm! Incredible!” she murmured, taking a sip of her coffee.
Right then, Tigerlily gave Rocky a little bat on the snout, and Rocky hopped up and started chasing her around the kitchen. Tigerlily ran like a streak and flew over the gate to the hall and disappeared. Rocky stood there, panting and staring at us, as if to say, Can you believe the nerve of that one?
“Maybe they were just playing?” I said to my mom.
“Uh-huh, whatever you say,” she said with a smile. She had to see how cute they were together!
I settled onto a stool at the counter for breakfast, which my mom served up: scrambled eggs, a piece of buttered whole wheat toast, and some cut-up apples with cinnamon on them. While I munched, my mom and I talked about plans for Rocky’s upcoming motherhood.
“I need to call the vet today at ARF to find out about scheduling doctor’s appointments for her and what else we need to do. I think we have about two weeks or so. We have to up her calcium intake; I think I read somewhere to give her cottage cheese. We also need to make her a special bed; I looked it up online,” said my mom.
“Oh, my friends and I could help with that!” I said. “We could make it supercozy.”
“Great!” said my mom. “Thanks. You’ll just have to involve Jake because, you know . . .”
“He’s a spoiled brat?” I said sweetly.
My mom waved a dish towel menacingly at me. “He thinks she’s his,” my mom said firmly.
“She’s everyone’s while she’s here. And she’s really Mike’s!” I said.
“Rocky!” cried Jake, rolling into the kitchen. He scrambled to her side and nestled in next to her on her doggy bed.
“Gross, Jake!” I said, wrinkling my nose. “That bed is so hairy and dirty!”
“I think it’s beautiful, like Rocky,” he replied.
I looked at my mom.
She shrugged. “It’s like every day is Christmas for him with her here. It’s so sweet,” she said.
I stood and put my plate and glass in the dishwasher, then headed up to change for school. “Whatever you say, lady!” I said.
The remaining weeks of Rocky’s pregnancy passed quickly. The weather grew cooler and ARF hosted two more events at the park.
We Cupcakers baked petcakes for pups and cats, and our original masterpieces, for both events. Alexis charged half price—enough to cover our expenses—and everyone was happy. They got a deal, and we didn’t lose any money. It all worked out.
The best part for me was getting to be friends with Diego. I am still majorly crushing on him, but I have to say first that we are officially friends. I have gone to ARF a few times with him to work as a volunteer. We walk the dogs (which I am obviously very qualified for), clean out the cat boxes (ditto), and play with the animals in the yard and the cat aquarium.
Diego has done a lot more posting of photos, and Mrs. Barnett says that his publicity is directly responsible for the adoption of a cat and a puppy at the event last week. I am so proud of him. Also, he has a new plan to subject his dad and his sister to Rocky before the puppies come, just in case they might not be allergic, like Mrs. Brown.
But over the last few weeks, Jake has been the most impressive one of all. He makes certain to feed Rocky her cottage cheese every day, even though she doesn’t really like it. He talks Rocky into taking a walk, even when she doesn’t want to go out, because the vet cautioned us not to let Rocky gain too much weight, or the birth could get difficult for her. Jake also helped build a bed out of a huge refrigerator box that my dad got from a friend at work, who’d just had a new fridge delivered. They laid it on its side, length-wise, cut off the top and part of a side, and then lined it with old foam cushion inserts from our old patio furniture, covered in plastic sheeting, and topped with clean old towels. I have to admit, I’d sleep in there if I were a dog. Jake put in a couple of Rocky’s rag toys and taped up a huge photo of himself on the wall, which is kind of hilarious. It’s in the mudroom, where she can access it when she needs to deliver the babies.
My parents were so proud of him that after the second week of Rocky’s visit, they sat him down and told him my mom had done the research and bought tickets to the Big Apple Circus! Jake could bring two friends and they could each have a copy of Stay. After the circus, they could have pupcakes and a sleepover.
