Polly the parrot flapped around the house. The dog barked loudly. Then, Polly chirped, “Be quiet!” as Caesar barked. She repeated it over and over until Amy ran in to stop the noisy pets. 

“Polly, be quiet! Caesar, sit down! Ugh!” Then, she sat down to watch her favourite show on the tv. Soon, a burnt smell filled the house. Amy had forgotten the pot on the stove and now the peas were all charred.

She turned off the stove and moved the pot, She moved in such a hurry that she accidentally knocked over the tray of eggs and they smashed on the ground. While she tried to clean everything up, the dog started running around in the house and stepped on the eggs (she chuckled when their dog almost slipped in the egg) took a lick, and started running again spreading the egg all over the house. Today has just been catastrophic. After everything was cleaned up, Amy finally sat down. Whew. I’m done cleaning up. 

Crash!!!  Amy rushed into the kitchen to see her mom’s favourite coffee lying on the ground. I’m about 20 pieces. Carly the kitten had knocked the mug half full with coffee and it hit the ground with a smash.

 “I will never again stay home with the animals myself!” She yelled, exasperated. Amy put the frightened cat in her bedroom. She brought the dog and the parrot in her bedroom too and locked the door so they wouldn’t cause anymore trouble. Then, she tramped downstairs to clean up the coffee. And, see how she can fix the mug. After that, she gave the pets their dinner. Amy washed Ceasar the dog’s feet and put him in his room, put Polly in her cage, and put Carly the kitten in her kitty bed. 

Not long after that, when the sun was set, a car pulled up into the driveway. Amy sighed a sigh of relief. Her parents were back. 

“Hello sweetie! Wow! You cleaned the house. Thank you!” Her mom smiled. “Ok,” Amy replied. 

“Wait, where’s my coffee mug? I left it here on the desk.” Mom looked around. “Um… Carly knocked it over so I cleaned up. The mug broke, sorry.” 

“Oh, that’s ok, I can buy another one.” 

“Did you feed the pets?” Dad asked.

 “Yes, I just finally got to sit down.”

Later, when it was almost 12-year-old Amy’s bedtime, she heard her parents talking. She crept up to hear what they were saying. “Wow! This place is cleaner than we left it….” “Amy is a good pet sitter…” “We should leave her here more…” “I was scared at first but she did a good job…”

Oh man! Amy cringed. Not again. She thought.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 

“Hmm, what should I make for breakfast? Oh, I’ll just make the usual…fried eggs and toast.” Mom said while looking in the fridge early the next morning. She hummed softly. “Wait,” mom stopped her face wrinkled in confusion.  “Where are the eggs?” Just then, Amy walked down stairs. ” Bonjour maman!” “Bonjour mon chéri!” 

“Where are the eggs? There was a full tray of 6 when I checked last.”

”Ummm…” Amy’s chirpy face slowly turned pink. “It got knocked over accidentally… I can buy them back today,” She said. “The whole tray???! What on earth happened?” Mom asked. Amy told her everything. 

“Well, it was your first time, just remember, never, ever leave the stove on when you are gone.”

 “Oh, by the way, I signed you up to volunteer at the animal shelter. I know you’d love that!” 

“Oh non! When is it?”

“It’s just once a week and it starts tomorrow.”

“Okay.”

Amy took a deep breath, her already pink face getting red-er by the second. She didn’t want to animal-sit. Animals are cute and everything, I just don’t want to have to babysit them. 

“What’s wrong?” Mom asked.

“I don’t want to volunteer..”

” Oh, well, go for 2 weeks, and if you still don’t like it, I guess I can take you out.” 

The next day

When Amy arrived, she slowly walked inside. “Hello!” A friendly lady smiled. “I’m Kennedy, one of the supervisors. I’ll show you around.”

“Ok.” 

The animal shelter was small, but there were so many tiny, cute cats and dogs, there were birds too. 

“This little kitty is named Buttercup. She was one of the smallest kittens. Buttercup is 5 weeks old. She loves to explore and she needs lots of attention.” Kennedy said handing her a tiny, orange-yellow kitten. “Aww, she is so cute.” Buttercup meowed and started squirming. “Her eyes opened a few days ago. Here is a small list of things that you need to do with her.” 

“Ok, thanks!”

This might actually be easier than I thought.

It wasn’t a very long list. I have a longer list of chores to do at home.

Amy read:

Play time: 10 minutes

Feeding time: A serving of meat, one bottle of milk. 12:00 PM

Clean litter box

Outside time: 10 minutes

Play time: 20 minutes

Nap time

 Kennedy led her to the kittens’ play area. Amy watched the other little kitties run around. Two Birman kittens were playing tug-of-war with a small rope. A few others were play fighting or trying to catch a little Pom-Pom hanging from a string. Buttercup trotted over to a small orange kitten chasing a ball. 

“This one is Buttercup’s brother, Otis.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The next week, Amy was left at home, again, with the pets.

But this time she was excited. Volunteering at the cat shelter gave her ideas on what to do with the pets. She had made a list of everything she planned to do.

“ Come Caesar, Polly, Carly!! ” Amy opened the back door as Caesar the dog bounded out. Polly the parrot and Carly the kitten followed.

First, they played fetch with Amy’s glow in the dark ball, while Polly cheered them on… well, she cheered for herself.

“ Yay! Polly win! Polly win!”

“ Hooray!! Wow! Carly, you got the ball!”

Then Amy got a small rope, “Let’s play tug of war!”

Carly clearly wasn’t interested, and sauntered off to play “Hide and Pounce” with Polly.

After that, Amy took the pets inside.

The kitty bounced away to a different room, and the parrot got some toys to play with quietly.. That is, if quietly means throwing the cats toy mice and balls around the room, chasing them, catching them, and throwing them farther.

All while squawking: “ Yay! Polly win! Polly win!” 

“What can I do with you now, Caesar?” Amy asked the dog, it’s big puppy-eyes looking up at her.

“Woof!”

“What did you say?”

“ Woof, Woof!”

“D’accord… I guess that means…” Amy thought for a while.

“Oh! You want to go to the dog park??”

Caesar’s tail started to wag ferociously, and he ran to the back door and started jumping up and down.

“Ahhh, oui! That was it! Wow, I’m a great dog-mind-reader!” Amy chuckled.

“Hmmm… I guess I could take you.. I’m bored too..”

Caesar ran from the door to Amy, and back, spinning in circles.

So Amy set off, sprinting, Caesar thrilled to be going on a walk, at a very unusual time. By the time they reached the park, Amy was out of breath. 

Caesar, on the other hand, was as jolly as a child who had gotten too many candies.

After a while, Amy decided it was time to go back home. 

“Come on Caesar!”

This time, they trotted back. 

“That was fun! Wasn’t it Caesar?”

“Woof!”

When they arrived, Amy jumped as she heard “ Crash!”

“What happened?” She ran towards the sound. 

“Carly!! You troublesome cat! Now what am I gonna do??”

She carefully picked up the pieces of the shattered glass plate.

“You never used to be like this.. Why all of a sudden are you always making trouble?”

Carly meowed, and stared at Amy.

Amy could never stay angry the kitten for long. Carly’s sparkly green eyes, and tiny little face always made her smile. But today, Amy felt that something was wrong. Her usual beam was gone, and her eyes seemed to yell ‘Help!’

She paced around in a circle, meowing.

“What’s going on??” 

Carly walked to the back door, turning around every few seconds to make sure Amy was following. 

“Ohh, you wanted to go outside??” Amy frowned, trying to figure out what the problem was. She opened the door, and saw the tiniest kitten she’d ever seen.

“Meoww,” Carly struggled to pick it up, because she herself was small, and slowly took it inside and laid it at Amy’s feet.