Little Differences

I go with mom and dad to the vet to get the puppy checked out. The veterinarian says that the puppy will be just fine. All he needs is to take some medicine for a few days and he must get his leg wrapped up too. The nurse hands the puppy back to me and we head out the Vet office and over to our car. “Can we keep him?”, I ask mom and dad. Dad looks over at mom and she turn around to look at me. “His family must miss him so much, Katie”, she says to me. “But what if he doesn’t have any family”, I say in my saddest voice. “Then we’ll keep him”, mom says. “First, we are going to create posters of him and hang them up, just in case he does have a family who is looking for him. If no one claims him then he is yours”, dad says with a big smile. “Yes, thank you. You two are the best”, I say with so much excitement.

I take the puppy upstairs to my room and hope that no one comes for him. The puppy and I are rolling around on the floor, playing with a ball of mine. “You like that don’t you. We are going to get you some chew toys and doggy snacks because you’re such a good boy”, I say while rubbing the puppy on the head. The doorbell rings and I run down the stairs. I am so distracted by the doorbell that I don’t even notice the puppy has followed me down the stairs.

I look out the peep hole and see Jessie standing on the other side waving. She tells me that she always gets a feeling that I’m watching her out the peep hole when she comes over. I open the door and let her in. “Hello, what’s going on?”, Jessie asks. “Hi, we just brought the puppy back from the vet. Doctor says he’s going to be just fine”, I tell her. “Are you going to keep him”, she asks next. “Yes, mom and dad said I can keep him if no one claims him”, I reply.

“Awesome, him and Caramel can be best friends”, Jessie says excitedly. “Yeah, they’ll be best friends just like us”, I say.

The puppy goes over to Jessie and rubs his head against her leg and begins barking at her as if he’s trying to say something. “That’s a good boy. That’s a good boy”, Jessie repeats over and over to the puppy and he just barks and wags his little tail. “He likes you”, I say. “I like him too. Did you give him a name yet”, she asks me? “No, I’ve been too busy worrying about someone coming to claim him.” “Girls! Come on down”, dad yells up the stairs. “Coming!”, Jessie and I say in unison.

“We’re going to go out and hang the posters now”, dad tells us handing us a stack of flyers with the puppy’s face on it that says MISSING. It says that if he belongs to anyone they should contact my dad. “Jessie, your parents said it’s fine if you go with us. Would you like that?” “I would love to, Mr. M”, Jessie says. We drive uptown, and dad parks the car. We begin walking up and down the street putting posters on every telephone pole and we leave some inside the grocery store.

The little lady on the corner who runs the antique shop gives us permission to put some on her window. We put the last few posters up at the animal shelter. “If he’s missing, this is probably the first place they’ll look”, dad says.

I almost want to rip the posters back down and throw them away, so no one will see them. My heart won’t let me do it. If he has a family, they should have him back. If it were me that lost a dog, I know I would want someone to help me find him. We climb into the car and head home. On our way home dad asks us if we want some butterscotch candy. “That’s it”, I yell. “What’s it?”, Jessie asks. “His name. I’ll call him Butterscotch”, I say.