Buddy (3 page)

Lizzie’s best friend, Maria, showed up next. She arrived right in the middle of the puppy-food disaster.

“Wait! Let me get a picture before you clean them up!” Maria and Lizzie had talked on the phone about creating a poster with a picture of the puppies. Then they could put it up all over town. There had to be at least three people in Littleton who wanted puppies! It would be great to have new owners all lined up by the time the puppies were old enough to go to their forever homes.

Maria pulled her digital camera out of her backpack, knelt down, and started to snap picture after picture.
Flash!

What was that bright light? Cocoa stared up at the new girl. Then she charged straight for her, tumbling over herself in her eagerness to check things out. She put her nose right up against the new girl’s flashy thing. That made the new girl squeak!

Cinnamon sat down with a thump and started to clean herself, the way her mother had just begun to teach her. It wasn’t as much fun as licking a person, but the goo all over her legs did taste pretty good.

Buddy was still hungry, but he couldn’t get to his mom for milk. Not with the scary flashy thing in the room! He tried to hide behind Charles’s knee. He knew he would be safe there.

Skipper got to her feet and wandered over to the dish the puppies had abandoned. She was extra hungry these days, since she was nursing. This stuff didn’t look or smell like her usual food — but it was still food, so she might as well eat it! She began lapping the dish clean.

“Hey, Skipper, that food is for your puppies!” Lizzie said. “Oh, well.”

Maria sat back on her heels, laughing at the puppies. “Wow, they really are cute,” she said. “You guys are so lucky! They look just like the puppies in —”

“So Many Puppies!”
chorused Lizzie and Sammy and Charles.

“They have names now,” Lizzie said. She introduced Maria to all the puppies. “Cocoa is the adventurous one who almost put her nose on your camera. Cinnamon is the sweet one who’s always trying to kiss you. And Buddy is the shy one behind Charles’s leg.”

“I love those names!” said Maria. “They’re perfect. These
puppies
are perfect. You’ll find homes for them in no time.” She pulled Cinnamon onto her lap and let the puppy lick her cheek.

“I sure hope you’re right,” said Mrs. Peterson with a sigh as she wiped puppy food off the front of the Bean’s sweater.

Maria pushed the playback button on her camera and showed everybody the pictures she’d taken. The puppies looked adorable — but messy! The one of Cinnamon licking food off Cocoa’s ear was everybody’s favorite. It was hilarious.

“Maybe those aren’t the best pictures for our sign,” Lizzie said. “Let’s finish cleaning up the pups and try again.”

By the time the puppies were dry and clean, they were also very, very sleepy. That made it easy to pose them inside of Lizzie’s school backpack, with just their cute little heads and paws poking out. “Say ‘cheese!’ No, say ‘puppy chow!’” said Maria as she snapped away.

When they were sure they had some good pictures, Lizzie and Maria put the puppies in the box next to Skipper for a nap. Then the girls headed upstairs and got to work on the poster.

Lizzie loved making posters on the computer. She had done it for some of the other puppies her family had fostered, so by now she was pretty
good at it. First she and Maria uploaded the puppy pictures. It was hard to choose the cutest one! They were all adorable.

Then Lizzie typed a headline that read, “
WE NEED GOOD HOMES!
” Underneath, she put in all the information she knew about the puppies: their age, that there were two girls and a boy, and when they would be ready for adoption.

“Maybe you should put something about what kind of dogs they are,” said Maria. “They look like they might be part husky or something, the way their ears stick up.”

Lizzie glanced up at her “Dog Breeds of the World” poster. “Husky?” she said. “I never thought of that, but you might be right. For that matter, they might be part Saint Bernard, if you look at their coloring.” She laughed. “They could be almost anything. But they’ll grow up to be great dogs, just like their mom.”

When the sign was finished, they brought it downstairs to show everybody.

“Aww,” said Mom. “Very cute.”

“Looks great,” said Dad. “If you want to put some up downtown, I can give you a ride there and then you can walk back home. I’m headed to the firehouse for a meeting.”

Charles and Sammy promised to help Mom keep track of the puppies while Lizzie and Maria put up posters.

Dad dropped the girls off near the post office. They headed down the street, stopping in the shoe store, the dry cleaner’s, and the bakery. Everybody loved the poster and was happy to put it up, but nobody wanted a puppy. “Got three dogs at home already,” grumbled the lady at the shoe store. “My son’s allergic,” said the owner of the dry cleaner’s. “I don’t think my cats would appreciate a puppy,” said the girl behind the counter at the bakery.

Lizzie and Maria put up a poster in each shop. Then they kept walking down the block. “Hey, look at this!” Maria said, stopping at a bookstore
window. “This would be the
perfect
place to put up a poster.”

Lizzie read the name on the sign. “Lucky Dog Books,” she said. “There’s always been a bookstore here, but that’s a new name.”

“New owner, too,” said a very tall, white-haired man who was putting some books on a display table in front of the store. “I just sold my bookstore in New York City so I could move to a smaller town. I love Littleton already!” He smiled at the girls. “I’m Jerry Small,” he said. “I know, it’s a funny name for someone my size. But I’m stuck with it. Just remember: Jerry Small is tall. Anyway, what do you have there?”

Lizzie showed him a poster. “Can we put this up in your window?” she asked.

He took one look and broke into a wide grin. “You sure can,” he said. “Hey, those puppies look kind of familiar.”

“Maybe it’s because they look like the ones in
So Many Puppies!”
Maria suggested.

“That’s what everybody says,” Lizzie told him.

Jerry Small nodded. “That’s it!” he said. “Maybe I’ll put the book in the window, too. I’m trying to figure out good ways to get people to come into the store. Nobody seems to know I’m here!”

He scratched his chin. “Didn’t I hear that Mary Thompson just moved to Littleton? Maybe having a book by a local author in the window will help bring in business.” He looked at the poster again. “Those puppies sure are cute,” he said.

“They’ll be ready to adopt in a couple of weeks,” Maria said with a smile.

“Want us to save you one?” asked Lizzie hopefully.

“I’d love to have a puppy,” Jerry said. “I’ve always had dogs. In fact, my store is named after my last one, Lucky.” He looked sad for a moment. “Lucky was the best dog ever. He hung around my old bookstore with me. All the customers loved him. Lucky made me laugh every single day.” He shook his head and smiled.

“But right now I have to concentrate on getting some customers into the store,” he went on. “Once I have enough business, maybe I can think about adopting a dog.” Jerry took the poster and taped it to his window. He promised to show the girls some pictures of Lucky the next time they came to the store.

Lizzie and Maria walked around town some more and put up the rest of the posters. When they had taped up the last one, Maria said she had to head home, so Lizzie walked home alone.

As she walked, Lizzie thought about how nobody they had talked to was ready to adopt a puppy. She was beginning to understand why Ms. Dobbins was always so upset about all the unwanted puppies and dogs in the world. And she was beginning to see that it was going to be harder than she thought to find homes for three puppies — even if they
were
the three cutest puppies ever.

When Lizzie got home that afternoon, the house was quiet. She headed into the kitchen and found Mom sitting near the puppies’ box, looking upset. “Oh, Lizzie!” she said. “I’m glad you’re home.”

“What’s the matter?” Lizzie asked.

“I’m really worried about the little boy puppy,” Mom said. “Buddy. He just doesn’t seem — right.” She and Lizzie looked into the box.

Sure enough, the tan puppy was curled up in a tiny ball, hardly seeming to notice the way his sisters stepped all over him as they played tug-of-war with Snakey. “I think he’s shivering,” said Lizzie. She had never seen a puppy tremble like that before. “Poor Buddy!” she said. “Where’s Dad? Where’s Charles?”

“Dad’s not back yet, and Charles and Sammy just headed out to walk Rufus and Goldie,” Mom said, biting her bottom lip. She really looked upset.

“Mom, we have to call the vet,” Lizzie said. “Dr. Gibson will know what to do.”

Mom nodded seriously. “That’s exactly what I was thinking,” she agreed. “I guess I was waiting until Dad got home, so we could drive the puppy over to the animal hospital.”

“I don’t think we should wait anymore,” Lizzie said. Buddy looked really sick. He had hardly moved since she had started watching him, even though Skipper was nudging him with her nose. All he could do was lie there, shaking.

Buddy could feel his mom touching him, but he just wanted to be left alone. He was so tired! He was hungry, too, but he just didn’t have the energy to fight his sisters over food anymore.

Mom called Dr. Gibson and told her all about Skipper and her puppies. Then she explained how Buddy didn’t seem to have the same kind of pep that his sisters had. Lizzie sat watching Buddy while Mom talked. She was worried about him.

“Dr. Gibson says she’ll come right over,” Mom reported when she got off the phone.

Ten minutes later, Dr. Gibson rang the doorbell. “Let’s see those puppies!” she said with a smile when Lizzie answered the door. Lizzie felt better right away.

“Oh, look,” said Dr. Gibson when she came into the kitchen. “Aren’t they cute?” She squatted down by the box. “I see what you mean about this little guy,” she said. She reached in and, very gently, picked Buddy up. She felt him all over and looked in his eyes, mouth, and ears. “You’ll be okay, sweetie,” she said softly as she petted the tiny pup.

Buddy whined. Skipper, who was down at Dr. Gibson’s feet, whimpered, too. It was as if she were saying, “Can you help my baby?” Meanwhile,
Cocoa and Cinnamon romped around Dr. Gibson’s sneakers, attacking her shoelaces.

“It’s exactly what I thought,” said Dr. Gibson. “I think he’s just undernourished. That means,” she went on when she saw Lizzie’s puzzled look, “that he’s not getting enough to eat. That sometimes happens to the smallest puppy. They call puppies like Buddy ‘the runt of the litter.’”

“We’ve noticed that he gets pushed out of the way a lot,” Mom said. “So what do we do?”

Dr. Gibson pulled a small bottle out of her bag. “We give him some extra puppy formula,” she said. “That way, whether his sisters let him eat or not, we make sure he gets enough.” She showed Mom and Lizzie how to put a few drops of puppy formula onto their fingers and teach Buddy to lap it up. Then they slowly guided him toward the tip of the bottle, so that he understood where to get more food. Finally, the doctor asked Lizzie to sit down and hold Buddy on her lap to feed him.

Soon the puppy was sucking away greedily, with
his eyes closed. Lizzie could almost see his soft tan belly getting rounder. “He sure was hungry,” she said softly. She stroked the white heart on his chest.

“I think he’ll perk up pretty soon,” said Dr. Gibson, “but you’ll need to feed him as often as possible for a few days. That means a bottle every three or four hours. Can you handle it, or would you like me to take him to the animal hospital and care for him there?”

“We can do it!” Lizzie said. “I’ll set my alarm clock and get up in the middle of the night.”

“Oh, no you won’t,” said Mom. “Tomorrow’s a school day.”

“I’ll stay home from school!” Lizzie said.

Mom was shaking her head. “I don’t
think
so,” she said. “Anyway, Mary Thompson is visiting Littleton Elementary tomorrow, remember? You don’t want to miss that.” She looked up at Dr. Gibson. “But Buddy will be fine here,” she said. “I’ll take good care of him.”

“I’m sure you will,” said Dr. Gibson. “Just call me if you have any problems. I’m always happy to help out with foster puppies. They need all the friends they can get.”

Before she left, she knelt down to pat Skipper, Cocoa, and Cinnamon. “It’s a real shame,” she said. “There are just too many unwanted puppies in the world. It’s not easy to find homes for all of them.” Dr. Gibson looked at Lizzie. “Well, you probably know all about that, working at the shelter.”

Lizzie nodded. “Ms. Dobbins has a sign up that says that if one dog has puppies, and
they
have puppies, and their puppies have puppies, you can end up with almost seventy
thousand
dogs in seven years!”

“Wow,” Mom said. “That’s a lot of puppies.”

“And puppies grow up into dogs,” said Lizzie. “You should see how many dogs there are at Caring Paws right now. And they all need homes.”

“That’s right,” said Dr. Gibson. “And any dog that found a home with caring people like you
would be a very lucky dog.” She patted Skipper one more time and said good-bye. But what Dr. Gibson said made Lizzie think. She was so busy thinking that she forgot to say good-bye back.

Lucky dog,
Lizzie thought.
Just like the name of Jerry Small’s bookstore.
Lizzie wanted to help more of the dogs at Caring Paws become lucky dogs, with families of their own. And she wanted to help Jerry Small get people to come to his store. If he had more business, he might even adopt one of the puppies. Jerry was such a nice man, and the bookstore would be a great home for a puppy.

Lizzie was beginning to get an idea of how to help the dogs at Caring Paws, Skipper’s puppies,
and
Jerry — all at the same time!

“Buddy still looks kind of weak,” Charles said the next morning at breakfast. “Maybe Lizzie and I should stay home from school and help take care of him.” He looked over at the little tan puppy in his mother’s lap. Buddy looked back at him with his soft brown eyes. Charles could almost
feel
Buddy begging for Charles and Lizzie to stay home. Cinnamon and Cocoa were fine on their own, but Buddy needed them.

Charles waited for Lizzie to say something, but she was just staring into her cereal bowl, deep in thought.

Sammy, who was finishing off his second piece of toast, instantly agreed. “I’ll help, too,” he said.
Sammy also loved Buddy. Plus, he was always happy to skip school for a day.

“Thanks for the offer,” said Mrs. Peterson. “But the Bean and I can take care of Buddy just fine. I fed him twice in the middle of the night. He’s already looking much better.” She looked down at the tan puppy. “Aren’t you, Mr. Buddy?” she asked, in a baby-talk voice. Buddy reached up a paw when he heard his name, and Mom bent down to kiss him on the head.

Buddy loved this lady. She loved him, too, he could tell. He felt at home in her lap. It was almost as good as being curled up with his mother. He snuffled into her cheek when she kissed him.

Mom giggled.

She actually
giggled!
Charles looked over at Lizzie and raised his eyebrows, but Lizzie didn’t seem to notice. Charles had never seen their mother act quite like that around a puppy. But
Buddy could melt anybody’s heart. There was just something special about him.

“Buddy!” yelled the Bean. He reached up to touch the puppy.

“Hey, cool! The Bean knows Buddy’s name already!” said Charles. That was the first time the Bean had called any puppy by its real name. Usually he just said “uppy.”

“Easy,” Mom cautioned the Bean. “That’s good,” she said when the Bean gave Buddy a soft pat on the nose. “That’s the way to pat a puppy.”

“Pat
me
!” the Bean demanded. He toddled over to Charles and bumped his head up against Charles’s knee. Charles patted his head gently. “Good Bean,” he said. “That’s a good Bean.” The Bean laughed and went around the table getting pats. Pretending to be a dog was his favorite game.

After breakfast, Charles, Lizzie, and Sammy gave the Bean and the puppies a few last pats and headed off to school. “What’s up with you?” Charles asked his sister. “You’re, like, out of it.”

“Just thinking,” Lizzie said. “I’m working on an idea.” Then she started talking so fast that Charles could barely keep up. “See, I’m thinking about all the dogs at Caring Paws, and how they all need homes, and how our puppies are going to need homes, too. We need to get the word out.”

Lizzie swung her bookbag as she talked, getting more and more excited. “And I was also thinking about that new bookstore. It’s called Lucky Dog Books, and the owner is really, really nice. His name is Jerry Small, and he loves dogs. If he gets enough business, he might even adopt one of the puppies! But he needs people to know his store is there.”

Charles and Sammy looked at each other. What was Lizzie getting at?

“So what I’m thinking is this,” Lizzie continued. “What if there was a big grand-opening party at the bookstore — and we invited all the dogs from the shelter? People would come to the bookstore for the party, but they would also get
to meet the dogs — and Skipper’s puppies, too. And maybe some of them would get adopted! They would be lucky dogs, all right!”

Charles and Sammy were nodding. “It’s a great idea,” Charles said.

“It’ll be a lot of work,” Lizzie warned. “First I have to talk to Ms. Dobbins and Mr. Small,” said Lizzie. “Maybe Maria and I can make cookies and punch . . .” She swung her bookbag some more. “But how can we make sure that lots and lots of people come to the store?”

All the way to school, Lizzie kept talking and Charles and Sammy just kept nodding. Lizzie was like that. Once she got an idea, she couldn’t think or talk about anything else.

But once they got to school, Charles forgot all about Lizzie’s idea. During morning meeting, Mr. Mason reminded class 2B that it was “meet the author” day. Mary Thompson would be in the library, reading to each class in turn.

“I’d like you to think of some questions to ask
her,” Mr. Mason told the class. “It’s not every day that we get to talk to a real, live author.” He had put some of Mary Thompson’s books out on display.

Charles could hardly wait until it was his turn to share news. “Guess what came to stay with us this weekend?” he asked when Mr. Mason called on him. He pointed to the copy of
So Many Puppies
Mr. Mason had put out. “Puppies! And they look just like those.”

He fumbled in his backpack and pulled out the sign Lizzie and Maria had made. “See?” he asked, passing it around. Everybody said, “Awww!” when they saw the puppies. Charles told about how the puppies had ended up at their house, and what their names and personalities were.

“Are they going to live with you forever?” Mr. Mason asked.

Charles shook his head. “No,” he said sadly. “I wish we could keep one. But we’re just fostering them. They all need good homes.”

All morning, Charles kept glancing at the cover of
So Many Puppies.
He couldn’t wait to hear Mary Thompson read it out loud. Finally, after lunch, it was his class’s turn to go down to the library.

Mom was right: Mary Thompson didn’t act like a famous person. She was short and round and cozy-looking, with gray hair and a bright red scarf around her neck. She sat on the floor and invited everybody to sit in a circle with her. Then she read two of her books out loud, showing the pictures and stopping to ask questions like, “Does anybody here have a younger brother or sister?” and “What kind of animal do you think Susie saw?”

Charles was sort of disappointed that she didn’t read
So Many Puppies.
But he liked the books she did read.

Then it was question time.

“Where do you get your ideas?” asked Simon.

“How many books have you written?” asked Lucy.

“Do you draw the pictures in your books?” asked Robert.

“Do you like dinosaurs?” asked Sammy.

Mary Thompson answered all the questions. Then Mrs. Devine, the librarian, said there was only time for one more. Charles raised his hand and Mary Thompson called on him.

“Which book of yours is your favorite?” asked Charles. “My favorite is
So Many Puppies.”
He was dying to tell Mary Thompson about Cocoa, Cinnamon, and Buddy, but he knew there wasn’t time.

“Oh, I love that one, too,” said Mary Thompson. “I adore puppies, even though I haven’t had one for many, many years. But I wrote that book a long time ago! Usually whatever book I’m working on right now is my favorite.”

The bell rang just then, and Mr. Mason told the class to thank Mary Thompson. Then it was time to go.

Charles waited until everybody else had left,
then he went up to Mary Thompson. Just like Lizzie, he’d had an idea. He was almost too shy to ask, but the author seemed so nice. What did he have to lose?

He stood there for a minute, not sure what to say. Mary Thompson smiled at him and raised her eyebrows, like she was waiting for Charles to speak.

Charles smiled shyly back at her. “Would you like to come to a party?” he asked.