Maggie Rose loved all animals. She’d cradled the small black kitten after I had found it. She’d petted Stripes and Blotchy. She’d worried about Freddie. She didn’t love any of these animals as much as she loved me—and that was only natural, since I was her dog—but they mattered to her. She took care of them.
I had to do that, too. I had to take care of the small animal under the log.
The not-dog had sensed my hesitation. It came closer with its mouth wide open and all its teeth on display. It let out its breath in a huffing sound that I think was its way of trying to growl.
I put my head down and growled right back, as loud and fierce as I could be.
“Lily!” cried my girl’s voice, louder than before. I heard running footsteps crunching on old leaves and soft earth, and suddenly, there she was! My girl! She pushed through a tall bush, shielding her face with her arms to keep it from getting scratched, and hurried right to me.
The not-dog took one look at her and ran off, rustling through tall grass. I dashed to my girl as Mom and Dad and Furry Face came pushing through the bush as well.
I jumped up at Maggie Rose’s knees, wagging my tail as hard as I could. My girl! I’d found her!
She scooped me up and held me close and kissed me. I kissed her back, licking her cheeks and neck and ears and as much of her as I could reach. It had been so long since I’d seen her!
“Did you see that raccoon? Lily was barking at it!” Maggie Rose said, holding me close.
“I just caught a glimpse of it, yes,” Mom said.
“It looked like a young one to me, probably not even a year old yet,” Dad added. “That’s lucky! A big, full-grown raccoon might have gone after Lily. They can be aggressive, and she’s just a puppy.”
Maggie Rose held me even closer. “Lily, Lily, I’m so glad we found you,” she whispered.
“Funny that the raccoon was out in daylight,” Dad went on. “They’re nocturnal. Maybe this one got lost. She’ll be in big trouble with her mother for wandering around in the daytime, I bet!” He smiled at Maggie Rose and patted me.
I wiggled around to lick his hand and wag at Furry Face and Mom. It was nice to have all my friends here with me.
“What were you doing here, though, Lily, huh?” Maggie Rose asked me. “You shouldn’t have been in the woods at all.”
“I must have left the door unlatched when I came back from getting the paper,” Furry Face said. “I do that a lot. Guess I’ll have to adjust my habits.” He came over to pet me, too. I liked getting attention from so many people at once.
“It’s a long way for such a little puppy to come,” Mom said. “I wonder what brought her to the woods.” She was looking thoughtful, and she left us to walk over to the log where the tiny, frightened creature was hiding.
That reminded me that I still had something to do. I wiggled until Maggie Rose set me down, and then I hurried over to the log and stuck my nose into the hole where the small not-dog was hiding.
It was still just as scared. I pawed at the dirt and yipped once to let the creature know that everything was safe now. It could come out and play. Then I looked up at Maggie Rose. Since she was here now, she’d make everything all right.
Mom bent down and looked in the hole. “Oh,” she said, very softly.
She took hold of my collar and pulled me back. Then she picked me up and handed me to Maggie Rose.
I squirmed to get down, but Mom shook her head. “Hold on to her,” she said to Maggie Rose, still softly, and she drew all the humans several steps away from the fallen log.
“Is there something under there?” Furry Face asked. He seemed to understand that he was supposed to speak softly, too.
Mom nodded. “Look!” she whispered.
A tiny, twitching nose was poking out of the hole under the log. A smooth little head followed, with two long ears that quivered with the slightest sound. The creature crawled out of the hole, and I could see that it was no larger than Sammy.
A new friend to play with! But Maggie Rose did not understand how much I wanted to play with this tiny thing. She held me firmly, and I couldn’t get down.
The creature looked around with wide dark eyes, stared at us for a moment, and then darted away. In a moment, it had vanished in the long grass.
And I didn’t even get to play Chase Me!
“A rabbit,” Maggie Rose whispered. “Just a baby one!”
Mom nodded. “That’s right. I bet it just left its mother. It probably hasn’t been on its own for more than a few days.”
“Lily was protecting it!” Maggie Rose said. “She saved it from the raccoon!”
“Lily to the rescue,” Furry Face said softly. He patted me again.
Mom smiled. “Well, even a little rabbit like that could outrun a raccoon if it needed to. But it was so young—it probably didn’t know what to do, so it just went to ground.”
My girl buried her face in my fur. “Lily, you’re the best,” she whispered to me.
“Thanks for coming so quickly to help me look for her,” Furry Face said to Mom and Dad. “I didn’t know who else to call.”
“We’re very glad you did call us,” Mom said. “It’s what we do. And now…”
She put a hand gently on Maggie Rose’s shoulder. Maggie Rose looked at her, and I felt the same old sadness rise like a massive force inside my girl.
“Let’s go back to Mr. Mancuso’s house, hon,” Mom said gently.
“Yes,” said Furry Face suddenly. He was looking hard at Maggie Rose. “We should go back there.”
Maggie Rose nodded miserably. I squirmed around to lick under her chin. Usually that made her giggle, but it was of no use now.
“You’ll need Lily’s leash. And that picture you drew of her, with the list on the back,” Furry Face went on. “You’ll need to add the baby rabbit to the list of animals Lily has rescued. When you take her home with you.”
Hope spiked inside my girl, and my head snapped up. Something had happened to change how she felt. But what?
“Johnny,” Mom said to Furry Face. “I’m not sure I understand what you mean…”
“Lily missed you so much,” Furry Face told my girl. “She cried by the front door all night. I think we may need to reconsider some things here.”
My girl was trembling just a little. I looked around alertly, in case I needed to scare off any not-dogs who might be frightening her, but I couldn’t see or smell any.
“I don’t want you to feel that you have to…,” Mom said hesitantly to Furry Face.
“Lily’s a rescue dog,” Maggie Rose said, with her eyes on Mom. “She saves animals. Like Dad does. Like you, Mom. I know you have a rule, and I know all the reasons about foster failure—I know! I do! But Lily’s special. She’s not just any puppy. She could work at the rescue. She could really help there. I think that’s what she’s supposed to do.”
“It’s almost like Lily belongs to the rescue as well as to Maggie Rose,” Dad said quietly. “But I meant it, Chelsea. I will support whatever you decide.”
Furry Face and Mom and Dad looked at one another. My girl tucked her face into my fur. She was breathing quickly.
Mom turned to both of us. “Maggie Rose,” she said, “I am so sorry for what I’ve put you through. I think I was focused on the wrong things. You’re right. Lily has an amazing knack for bonding with other animals. And more importantly, she’s yours. Lily is your dog now.”
And with that, the sadness that had been lurking inside my girl for such a long time left her completely. “Yes! Yes! Lily, you’re my dog!” she whispered. “Lily! Lily! Lily!”
I barked, loving her giggles. I wiggled until she was forced to set me down, and I raced in circles at her feet, so thrilled with this change of mood that I didn’t know what to do with myself. There were no bouncy toys to be found, but I located a stick and pounced on it and shook it and dashed back and forth, hoping someone would do Chase Me in celebration.
“Wow, look at all that energy.” Furry
Face laughed. He turned to Mom. “Maybe Maggie Rose is right. Maybe I should start with a cat.”
“We can arrange that,” Mom replied. “In fact, we just got some in.”
Maggie Rose dropped to her knees and spread her arms, and I abandoned the stick and ran to her. She wrapped me in a hug. “You’re my dog now, Lily. You belong to me,” she whispered happily.
I didn’t know what she was saying, but I knew this: I was her puppy, and she was my girl, and finally, finally, I had made her happy.
Reading & Activity Guide to
Lily’s Story:
A Puppy Tale
By W. Bruce Cameron
Ages 8–12; Grades 3–7
Synopsis
It’s love at first sight when animal-loving Maggie Rose meets rescued pit bull mix puppy Lily, at the animal shelter where Maggie Rose’s mother works. In Lily’s Story: A Puppy Tale, by W. Bruce Cameron, these two little sisters (one human, one canine) prove that their big hearts matter more than their size, birth order, or breed. In their respective human and puppy families, big brothers teach them the challenges and rewards of “sibling-hood.” At the shelter and off-site, Maggie Rose and Lily learn important lessons about pet and wildlife rescue from Maggie Rose’s animal-shelter-president mother and game-warden father. And they learn a lot about each other, too. Maggie Rose discovers that Lily, though she herself is a rescue animal, has the heart and temperament to help other animals in distress. And Lily learns that making “her girl” Maggie Rose happy—whether that means bonding with “non-dogs” at the animal shelter, distracting a wild deer, or just playing ball—is the most fulfilling job of all. In spite of obstacles and separations, Maggie Rose and Lily find a way to stay together and show everyone that, once in a while, a “foster failure” can be a true success!
Reading Lily’s Story: A Puppy Tale with Your Children
Pre-Reading Discussion Questions
1. In Lily’s Story: A Puppy Tale, canine narrator Lily’s mother is a pit bull. Pit bull-type dogs have received a lot of “bad press” for being dangerous, but they also have many advocates who challenge the negative stereotypes. Have you heard or read good or bad things about pit bulls? Do you have a particular reaction to a dog when you know (or find out that) it is a pit bull, versus another kind of dog? Is this reaction positive or negative? Why?
2. Lily is rescued and brought to a shelter as a puppy. Have you ever visited an animal shelter, or fostered or adopted an animal from a shelter? What did you learn from that experience?
3. The story’s human main character Maggie Rose learns a lot about animals from her parents, since her mom is president of the Colorado animal shelter where Lily the puppy comes to stay, and her dad is a game warden. Can you think of other jobs related to wild animals or pets? What are the jobs? What do you know, or would you like to learn, about these jobs?
Post-Reading Discussion Questions
1. In Chapter 1, pit bull puppy Lily and her mother and brothers have been rescued and brought to a shelter. Shelter president Chelsea Murphy’s children—Craig, Bryan, and Maggie Rose—come for a visit. How does Lily being the only girl, and the “runt” (or smallest, weakest puppy) in her litter contribute to the special bond she develops with Maggie Rose?
2. In Chapter 2, Maggie Rose introduces Lily to some of the other animals at the shelter and explains: “That’s what we do, Lily. We find families for animals who don’t have homes. Like you!” Why is this important work? What might happen to stray, homeless, or abandoned animals if rescue shelter workers didn’t find and help them?
3. Lily meets Missy, a lost Yorkie who has a raccoon bite on her leg. How does Lily help Missy? When Lily sees Missy reunited with her owner, she observes: “In that instant I understood something new. My life here in this place with my mother and my big heavy brothers was a good life, but it was not what a dog needed most. To be truly happy, a dog needed to be like Missy and have a person of her own.” Do you think this is true for your own dog, if you have one, or of a friend or relative’s dog you have observed?
4. What does Maggie Rose’s mother explain about the concept of a “foster failure” in Chapter 4, when Maggie Rose says she wants to adopt Lily? Does this change how Maggie Rose feels about adopting Lily? How does Maggie Rose prove, over the course of the story, that Lily should be an exception to the rule about shelter workers (and their families) not adopting pets from the shelter?
5. What do you think about Maggie Rose’s choice to hide Lily in her shirt when potential adopters come to visit the puppies, in Chapter 5? If you were in Maggie Rose’s situation, would you do the same thing? Why or why not? When the family interested in adopting one of Lily’s brothers expresses concern about pit bulls being dangerous, what does Maggie Rose’s mother explain to them? What are some of the misconceptions about pit bulls she clears up?
6. In Chapter 6, when Maggie Rose’s middle brother Bryan tries a harsh training approach with Lily, Maggie Rose says: “Mom says that kids at school are always picking on you, and that’s why you pick on me. And it’s not fair.” Have you experienced, or talked about, situations with bullies? Do you think bullying sometimes is a cycle, in which bullies feel insecure so they pick on, or put down, others so they will feel better about themselves? What do Bryan and Maggie Rose learn about each other in this scene, which starts with the heated argument and ends with Bryan giving Maggie Rose the personal journal?
7. Maggie Rose and Lily go with Maggie Rose’s father (who is a game warden) to release Sammy the Squirrel back into the wild, in Chapter 7. How does using pine cones to “play catch” with Sammy the Squirrel help Lily finally master the “Bring it here” command Maggie Rose has been trying to teach her? When Maggie Rose and her dad return from releasing Sammy, her dad hears Maggie Rose’s oldest brother Craig call his sister a “runt” What do we learn about how Dad feels about this nickname, and how the term relates to Maggie Rose’s relationship with Lily?
8. When another family might adopt Lily, Maggie Rose’s parents discuss what to do. Maggie Rose’s mom feels she needs to follow her own rule that shelter workers (and their families) cannot adopt animals. Maggie Rose’s dad sees his wife’s point of view, but sympathizes with his daughter, too. If you were Maggie Rose’s parents, what would you do in this situation? What are some of the extra considerations for Maggie Rose’s mom, since she has to look at the decision from both work and family perspectives?
9. In Chapter 10, Maggie Rose’s dad invites her to survey a mountain goat herd at Echo Lake, so she won’t be at the shelter when the new family visits Lily. Maggie Rose sneaks Lily into a cat carrier and brings her along. Do you think Maggie Rose makes the right choice to do this? Why or why not? How does Lily help rescue the deer trapped in wire fencing, when Lily’s dad receives the call from the sheriff’s department?
10. In Chapter 12, Lily observes that a new man who comes to meet her “wore fur on his face.” What are some of your favorite examples from the story of humorous observations and descriptions Lily shares from her puppy point of view?
11. Maggie Rose wants to keep Lily because she loves her and thinks they belong together, but she also thinks Lily can play an important role at the shelter. Maggie Rose tells Lily: “We’re going to try something new. I’ll prove to them that you’re meant to be a rescue dog.” How does Lily prove her skills as a rescue dog in her interactions with kittens Blotchy and Stripes, and Freddie the Ferret?
12. Maggie Rose and her mother are bringing Lily to her new owner (radio disc jockey Johnny Mancuso) when her mom gets a call to rescue some kittens that have been found in an empty apartment. How does Lily help with the rescue? How does she discover and save a kitten the people would have missed?
13. What is the list on the back of the picture and poem, which Maggie Rose gives to Lily’s new owner, Johnny? What does Lily do at her new owner’s home t
o show how much she misses Maggie Rose?
14. In the final chapter, Lily picks up the scent of a small, frightened creature hidden under a fallen log, and tries to protect it from an unfriendly raccoon. Why doesn’t Lily leave the little creature under the log even when she hears Johnny, Maggie Rose, and Maggie Rose’s parents calling for her?
15. After reading the story, do you agree with Maggie Rose that Lily is not just a rescued dog, but also a rescue dog? What did Lily’s Story: A Puppy Tale teach you about the important role people (and sometimes other animals) can play in helping scared, hurt, and homeless animals?
Post-Reading Activities
Take the story from the page to the pavement with these fun and inspiring activities for the dog lovers in your family.
1. Bullys, Not Bullies!
National Pit Bull Awareness Day (NPBAD) was established to increase understanding and appreciation of bully breed dogs, generically known as pit bulls, and to dispel some of the negative stereotypes surrounding this group of dogs. You can check out www.nationalpitbullawarenessday.org to learn more about this positive public relations campaign for the pit bull. Together with your child, gather art supplies, such as poster board, construction paper, markers, paint, crayons or colored pencils, and other decorative elements. Then, work as a team (or invite friends and family members to join you) to design and create posters for National Pit Bull Awareness Day. What images and messages can you include on the poster to help educate people about the positive qualities of pit bull-type dogs, and to correct or clarify some of the myths, or misinformation, about them? National Pit Bull Awareness Day takes place each October. You might save your poster for that dedicated day, or choose to hang your poster (with permission) in school or community venues throughout the year.
2. Silly Lily Pet Portraits
Animal rescue officer Joan Simmons, who works with Maggie Rose’s father and Lily to rescue the wild deer, calls the rescue pup “Silly Lily.” Keeping this nickname in mind, invite your child to revisit the text and try to visualize some of the funny interactions Lily has with other animals throughout the story. Provide paper, paint, and colored pencils, and ask your child to sketch, draw, or paint his or her vision of a favorite interaction or scene. Subjects to consider might be: Lily’s interactions with her mother dog, her older brothers, other shelter pets, such as Poppy, Brewster, Oscar, Freddie the Ferret, Sammy the Squirrel, Missy, the lost Yorkie, Stripes and Blotchy, the shelter kittens; or the kittens Lily helps rescue from the vacant apartment; or the baby bunny she protects from the unfriendly raccoon. You might invite friends or family members who have read Lily’s Story: A Puppy Tale to do their own Silly Lily portraits; or they can do paintings or drawings of silly moments featuring their own pets. If desired, arrange an art show where everyone displays and shares their work. Perhaps you can invite other friends and family to the art show, asking guests to bring an optional donation of dog food, toys, or other supplies, which you can donate to a local animal shelter or rescue.
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