Rainbow Street Pets

by Orr, Wendy

  ‘What sort of animal?’ asked her little brother, Liam.

  ‘It would need a cage, whatever it is,’ said her dad. ‘You can’t have something just running around the house.’

  ‘It’s still a whole week before my birthday,’ said Sam. ‘Couldn’t we just go to the pet shop and see?’

  Her parents looked at each other.

  ‘Please?’ she begged. ‘I promise I won’t ask to buy one today.’

  ‘Is there even a pet shop around here?’ her dad asked.

  ‘No,’ said her mum. ‘But there’s the animal shelter on Rainbow Street.’

  Mr Ballart went to get the car keys.

  Sam wasn’t very good at dancing, but inside she was leaping like a rabbit in a brand new carrot patch.

  The first animal they saw was a three-legged goat grazing on the lawn.

  ‘Oh, the poor thing!’ exclaimed Sam’s mum.

  ‘Can we take it home?’ asked Liam.

  ‘She’d eat the curtains,’ said their dad.

  Sam liked the way this goat didn’t mind that it didn’t have as many legs as other goats. She smiled at her as they went up the path.

  They all went in the cherry-red door.

  Gulliver and Mona both said at once, ‘Can I help you?’

  ‘We’d like to look at some small animals,’ said Sam’s mum.

  ‘Just to get some ideas,’ said her dad. ‘We don’t want to take a pet home today.’

  Sam hardly heard them. A warm buzz of happiness was thrilling through her, because a little brown-and-white dog was sniffing her legs, a grey cat was grooming himself on the windowsill, and she knew that all around her were animals that needed someone to love. And one of them might be the right friend for her.

  ‘No problem!’ Gulliver screeched, in Mona’s voice.

  Maybe I could have a bird, thought Sam.

  But Gulliver looked as if he belonged here, and he sounded as if he liked being the boss. Samantha felt a bit nervous around him. She wanted a little friend who needed to be patted and played with, and didn’t tell her what to do.

  ‘The rabbits are mostly outside,’ said Mona, ‘but the other ones you might like to see are in here.’ She opened a door marked SMALL ANIMAL ROOM.

  Liam stopped to talk to the little stumpy-tailed dog, but Sam and her mother and father followed Mona.

  ‘Hi, everyone,’ said Mona, looking around at the cages and hutches against the walls. ‘You’ve got visitors.’

  Mr and Mrs Ballart looked surprised.

  ‘They don’t understand exactly what I’m saying,’ Mona admitted. ‘But it seems only fair to tell them what’s happening. Animals like being talked to, just like us.’

  Sam hugged Mona’s words inside herself. When she had her own pet, she would talk to it every day. She would tell it all her secrets, and her pet would never laugh if the words didn’t come out right.

  CHAPTER 3

  am was almost glad she’d promised not to ask to take a pet home today.

  There were so many animals in the room, and they were all so cute that she’d never have been able to decide. There were white rats, hooded rats, piebald mice and a mouse with a curly coat. There was a blonde guinea pig mother with three tiny golden babies.

  ‘The babies won’t be ready to leave their mum for another week,’ said Mona.

  Mona talked quietly to all the animals as she handled them. She showed Sam how to scoop up a mouse without squeezing its body, and put one of the piebald mice into Sam’s cupped palm. The mouse’s tiny body was warm in her hand.

  ‘He’s a bit skittish because he doesn’t know you,’ said Mona. ‘So just hold his tail very gently, here right up against his body – don’t ever hold a mouse by the tip of its tail, or you could break it off.’

  ‘That’s horrible!’ said Sam, feeling sick.

  ‘It would be,’ Mona agreed. ‘But holding it here doesn’t hurt him, and it stops him jumping off your hand and hurting himself.’

  When Sam put the mouse back, Mona gave her some sunflower seeds to feed a hooded rat, and showed her how to stroke the top of his head till he relaxed enough to climb into her hand. ‘Now cover him with your other hand to stop him jumping off,’ said Mona. ‘But never hold his tail.’

  Sam’s head was whirling with trying to remember it all.

  She patted the guinea pig mother, and held one of the babies in her hand, but the mother looked around so anxiously that Sam put the baby back before Mona asked her to.

  They went back to the waiting room, where Liam was still sitting with the brown stumpy-tailed dog.

  ‘I’m going to school soon,’ he was telling Nelly. ‘I’m a big boy now. I’m going to learn to read, and I’ll have lots of friends and do EVERYTHING!’

  Mona smiled at him. ‘I see you’ve found a friend. Nelly loves everyone – animals and people – but I think she really misses having little kids in her life.’

  Liam hugged the brown-and-white dog goodbye.

  ‘You know,’ Mona said gently, ‘not all dogs are as friendly as Nelly. You shouldn’t hug dogs you don’t know.’

  ‘Nelly,’ said Liam, ‘my name is Liam.’ And he hugged her again.

  Sam would have liked to hug Nelly too, but she wasn’t sure if she should after what Mona had said, so she just patted her head.

  ‘Go ahead,’ said Mona. ‘Nelly loves it. I just wanted your brother to understand that not all dogs are like that.’

  Sam hugged Nelly, and the warmth of the dog’s body melted away the muddle of wondering what animal she should choose.

  As they left, Mona handed Sam some papers. ‘These will tell you more about the different kinds of animals you met today and how to look after them. And you can come back any time and have another look. You’ll know when you’ve found the animal that’s right for you.’

  Nelly stood at the door to watch the Ballarts leave.

  ‘You liked that little boy, didn’t you?’ Mona asked, rubbing behind Nelly’s ears. ‘But they can’t have a dog, and I couldn’t do without you.’

  Nelly leaned lovingly against Mona’s legs. No matter how much she liked children, she and Mona belonged together, and she never wanted to leave.

  CHAPTER 4

  ow Sam had three things to be happy about. In one week it would be her birthday, and she’d go back to Rainbow Street to choose her pet. And the day after that, school would start.

  Sam never told anyone that she was excited about going back to school. She knew what her friends would say. But Sam liked school.

  She didn’t like gym classes, since her arms and legs didn’t always do exactly what she told them, and she didn’t like the kids who teased her. What she liked was figuring out new things, like in her science extension classes – because Sam’s brain was one part of her that worked just fine. Her best friends knew that, and they understood when words didn’t come out the way she meant.

  Still, Sam would have liked to be able to run fast along the beach, or jump high to catch a ball. When she watched Liam run and jump, she knew he was going to be happy at school right from the start. He wouldn’t be laughed at or teased, because her little brother could run fast, jump high, and catch any ball, no matter who threw it.

  Sam and her parents had read all the information sheets that Mona had given them, but they still couldn’t decide which animal would be the best pet.

  They learned that boy rats were usually cuddlier and girl rats were livelier, but that they could both learn to do tricks; that mice and rats needed toys to keep them busy, but that mice could get enough exercise by running in a wheel.

  Mrs Ballart worried that rabbits needed too much room, and Mr Ballart worried that the fancy mice might escape.

  Sam’s mind was running in circles and getting nowhere, exactly like a mouse in its wheel.

  ‘Don’t worry,’ said her mum, when she kissed her goodnight. ‘It’ll turn out okay.’

  Sam tried to smile. She’d never thought it was going to be this hard to choose!<
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  But that night, she dreamed of cuddling an animal with soft, thick hair. It was small but solid and sat quietly on her lap. It wasn’t any of the animals that she’d actually held at the shelter.

  ‘I want a guinea pig,’ Sam said when she woke up.

  She remembered the mother guinea pig with the little golden babies. ‘They’ll be ready to leave their mother in another week,’ Mona had said. That meant she could take one of the babies home on her birthday!

  She would choose a girl baby, and she’d name it SugarSpice. The name just popped into her head, and Sam knew it was a sign that this was going to come true.

  ‘Then the first thing to do,’ said her dad when she told him, ‘is to build a guinea pig cage.’

  So straight after breakfast, Sam went to the computer and searched for a plan. She printed it out and then she and her dad went to the hardware store and bought everything they needed for SugarSpice’s home.

  They built the cage to fit into the hall between Sam and Liam’s bedrooms, so it was longer than the one on the plan. It was a guinea pig palace.

  It had a solid plastic bottom that would be easy to clean, and wire-grid sides so the guinea pig would be able to see everything going on in the hall around her, but couldn’t climb out.

  At one end there was a ramp up to the second storey. The second storey had a plastic floor and wire grid sides too, but it was only half as long as the bottom.

  They put shredded paper on the floor, and finally they put in the wooden bedroom box, on the bottom floor so the guinea pig could find it easily. The box had one side open for a door, and a window cut out on each side. Sam imagined how she would peek in to see SugarSpice asleep in her bedroom.

  When she tried to imagine holding SugarSpice, it didn’t seem exactly like the solid little animal in her dream, but she knew that a baby guinea pig would grow and soon be just the way she pictured.

  There were still five more days to wait.

  ‘Could we go back and visit?’ Sam asked her parents, but the weekend was over and they were busy.

  ‘You know Mona said it was still a week before they could leave the mother,’ said her mum.

  ‘Just wait till your birthday,’ said her dad. ‘Your guinea pig will still be there.’

  So Sam waited. She went to the library and found a book about looking after guinea pigs. She drew pictures for the walls of the cage and made up a guinea pig rhyme:

  Guinea pig, guinea pig,

  You’re so nice.

  That’s why I call you

  Sweet SugarSpice.

  Sam’s mum said that she could still have a party, so Sam wrote invitations to her three best friends to come to her house on Sunday afternoon for a ‘Happy Birthday to Sam and welcome to Sugarspice’ party.

  The night before her birthday, she dreamed her guinea pig dream again. SugarSpice was all grown up, and her fur had turned from golden to black. Dreams are strange! Sam thought.

  But the strongest thing in the dream was the warm honey feeling of happiness, just sitting and stroking her animal friend. That was the part she knew was true.

  So right after breakfast, when Sam had opened the guinea pig card Liam had drawn her and the guinea pig book that her parents had bought, the whole family went to the Rainbow Street Shelter.

  ‘Can I help you?’ shrieked the cockatoo.

  Liam threw his arms around Nelly and started telling her all about getting ready to go to school tomorrow.

  Mona came out of the SMALL ANIMAL ROOM, and Sam rushed in.

  The hutch with the blonde guinea pig mother and her three babies was empty.

  SugarSpice wasn’t there.

  CHAPTER 5

  omeone wanted the mother as well as the babies, so we didn’t have to wait,’ Mona was saying to Sam’s parents. ‘Guinea pigs are always happier when they’ve got company, even when they’re grown-up.’

  Mr and Mrs Ballart looked at each other sadly. They knew how upset Sam was going to be if she couldn’t have the baby guinea pig.

  But Sam was too amazed to be upset – because there, in another hutch in the corner, was the guinea pig from her dream.

  He was fat, black and whiskery. Sam squatted down beside him. ‘Hello, Henry,’ she said.

  ‘Are you sure?’ asked her mother. ‘I thought you wanted a baby one.’

  ‘A pet has to be the right one for you,’ said Mona.

  ‘He’s the absolutely perfect one,’ said Sam.

  Mona smiled, and put Henry into Sam’s waiting hands. He felt exactly like he had in the dream: soft, warm and solid. His black hair was spiky and his whiskers stuck out, but he was the cutest guinea pig Sam had ever seen.

  He was so cute that Sam was suddenly sure there was a mistake and that he already belonged to someone else.

  ‘Does he need a home?’ she asked. The words came out fine, but her voice was quivery.

  ‘I think he’s just found one,’ said Mona.

  Sam’s birthday-and-welcome-Henry party wasn’t big, but it was the best party she’d ever had.

  She carried Henry around so he could see every room in the flat. She introduced him to her friends and let them pat him. But Mona had said to let him have some time to get used to his new home, so after everyone had said hello, Sam put him into the guinea pig palace.

  Henry scurried around his shredded paper bedding. He had a drink from his water bottle and ate some pellets. Then he went into his wooden bedroom box. Sam peeked through the little window, but she couldn’t tell if he was asleep or just resting. He was very quiet.

  But when Sam’s friends had gone home, and her parents were in the kitchen and Liam had gone to bed, Henry came out.

  ‘Hi there, Henry,’ said Sam. ‘Are you hungry?’

  She held out a piece of celery. Henry came closer. He was still shy, but he wanted that celery.

  Finally he came close enough to nibble the end. ‘Yum, yum, celery!’ said Sam, still holding it. She didn’t mind what she said to Henry because she knew he would know what she meant, and know that she was his friend.

  Henry’s cheeks puffed, his nose wiggled, and his teeth crunched as fast as they could. The celery disappeared right up to the last bit in Sam’s fingers.

  ‘Do you want some carrot now?’ Sam asked, and went to the kitchen to get it.

  When she came back, Henry was not being quiet at all. He was exploring his cage, chirping and whistling, scurrying up the ramp to the top floor and down again.

  Henry was a very happy guinea pig.

  Maybe Mona was wrong, Sam thought. Maybe most guinea pigs liked to have other guinea pigs for company – but Henry just needed Sam.

  All the rest of that day Nelly had wagged her stumpy tail at the people and pets who came in. She’d gone out to the runs in the back to sniff noses with the dogs that were waiting to find homes. She’d let a lost border collie bounce all around her until he felt calm again – but Mona knew that something wasn’t quite right.

  ‘How about we go to the beach on our way home?’ Mona said, and Nelly pricked up her ears.

  Nelly liked the beach. It had soft sand to dig and shallow waves to run in – but best of all, it had children. Kids who talked to her, kids who threw her a ball, kids who stroked her head and rubbed her freckled pink tummy when she rolled onto her back.

  She led Mona past one group of kids after another, collecting pats until her round brown eyes were glowing with happiness.

  ‘Oh, Nelly,’ sighed Mona as the little dog settled happily onto the back seat on the way home. ‘I’m sorry I don’t know any kids for you to visit.’

  CHAPTER 6

  iam was very excited about going to school with his big sister, but when he found out that Sam wasn’t going to stay with him all day, his lip started to quiver.

  ‘You’ll make lots of friends!’ said their mum, and hugged him again as Sam waved goodbye.

  Sam was excited too. She knew her words would come out just right when it was her turn to stand up and tell the class: �
��The best thing I did this summer was get a guinea pig from the Rainbow Street Shelter.’

  It was nearly her turn when Hannah stood up and said, ‘Last Friday my dad came home with a dog in the back of his ute … He’s got shaggy black fur, a white neck, three white paws, and a really cute stripe down his face.’

  That sounds like a dog I saw at the shelter! Sam thought, just as Lachlan shouted, ‘His name is Bear!’

  By the time they’d sorted out that Hannah’s Surprise was really Lachlan’s Bear, Sam knew her story didn’t sound very dramatic.

  But when she told it, the teacher said, ‘It sounds like Rainbow Street was a busy place last weekend: lost-and-found dogs, and adopted guinea pigs!’

  Hannah turned around and smiled at Sam, her ponytail swinging. ‘I’m glad!’ she whispered.

  ‘So am I!’ Sam whispered back.

  Liam’s day hadn’t been nearly as good.

  ‘Didn’t you make any friends?’ Sam asked.

  Liam shook his head. ‘There are too many kids! I don’t want to talk to so many kids!’

  ‘You’ll get used to it,’ said Sam. She wanted her little brother to be happy and brave at school right from the start.

  That night, Liam showed his reader to his mum and told her the story. He could already read a few words because of the books his parents and Sam read to him at home.

  ‘Your teacher’s going to be very pleased with you!’ said their mum.

  ‘There are too many kids!’ Liam said again. ‘I’m not going to do it at school!’

  Sam was suddenly so angry she thought she was going to burst. Liam could talk so well and do everything so easily – it wasn’t fair if he didn’t even bother!

  She marched to her bedroom. She would have gone in and slammed the door with a bang, if Henry’s cage hadn’t been in the hall beside it.

  She took the guinea pig out of his cage and carried him to her room. Henry sat quietly on her lap, just like he had in her dream. She held him up to her shoulder so his furry head tickled her neck.