Chapter 2: How Does Your Garden Grow?

Jim my driver and Sally my new guard were taking me to school and I saw something strange out the car window. A car in the lane next to us had its window open and a guy was holding a puppy out the window. They were in the lane next to the curb.

He was sitting behind the driver. He tossed the puppy up into the air over the car towards the sidewalk.

I yelled, “Jim stop the car.”

He slammed on the brakes and moved over next to the sidewalk lane. I opened the car door and jumped out. Sally followed me, even though she didn’t know what was happening.

I ran back to where the puppy had landed. It was lying there. It looked like it had been knocked out. I picked it up and held it and it started to move. Soon it had wiggled around and started to lick my face.

Sally asked me what was going on. I told her about the guy tossing the puppy out the window. She thought that was terrible.

I held the puppy in my lap while they took me to school. It was friendly and wanted to play. I had to leave the girl puppy with them. I peeked.

Jim and Sally promised they would take care of the puppy while I was in school.

I told Patti who was my friend again about it. She told me I was a hero because I had saved the puppy. I told her I just had done what I thought was right and that it wasn’t a big deal. Now my brother Ricky was a real hero.

Then I remembered that Ricky always said that he had done what was right and it wasn’t a big deal. Well, he is a hero to me. Maybe I’m a hero to Patti. That seems silly.

Of course, she told some of the other kids. The teacher heard them so I had to tell the whole class about it. They thought the guy who tossed the puppy out the car window was horrible. Maybe we should find him and toss him out a car window.

My teacher started to say something and then shook her head.

“Mary is our hero of the day. Now let’s get to work. And Mary being a hero doesn’t mean you can use those bad words you blame on your mother.”

I don’t use bad words all the time, just when people are mean like that tosser who threw the puppy out the window.

After school, I rushed out to the car to see how the puppy was doing. A bunch of the other kids followed me. Sally got out of the car holding the puppy. Everyone thought she was the cutest little thing. She was a baby German Shepard.

I let the kids hold her. She loved it and licked everyone on the face. She piddled on Billy so she was my favorite dog. Someone said, “PU dog pee,” and all of us moved away from Billy. He ran back into the school to wash off.

I told her she was a good girl. My good girl needed a name. I would have to think. The only dog like her that I knew was Rin-Tin-Tin. That sounded silly to me.

Sally told me that they had shown her to Mum and she said the dog had to go to the Veterinarian for a checkup and its shots. She would have to be fixed.

“What’s wrong with her? She looks fine to me.”

Sally replied, “I don’t think anything is wrong with her.”

“Then why is she going to be fixed, Daddy says if it isn’t broken don’t fix it.”

I don’t know why Jim and Sally started laughing, it wasn’t funny.

“Mary, you will have to ask your Mum about that.”

“Okay, but I’m worried I know when Daddy tried to fix the broken plumbing it got worse. I don’t want to make my puppy worse. Oh, and her name is Liz.”

“How did you pick Liz?”

“For Queen Elizabeth.”

“Oh.”

“I bet she will like that I named my dog after her.”

“I’m sure she will, but she probably will never hear about her.”

“Oh, I will tell her the next time we visit the Palace.”

Jim told Sally, “There is a lot about the Jacksons that you don’t know yet. The Viscountess and the Queen are good friends.”

“Oh, you mean I might have to go to Buckingham Palace?”

“There is a good chance.”

“But I don’t have anything to wear. What does one wear to a Palace?”

Sally was nice so I decided to help her.

“I wore a pinafore the last time.”

Jim butted in, “There you go Sally, good fashion advice.”

We pulled up to the Veterinary place so Sally didn’t get to reply. I think she was going to use one of those words that I’m not allowed to say.

The Vet as they called Dr. Pol was very nice. I told him that Liz wasn’t broken and that he shouldn’t try to fix her. He explained that it was a little operation so that she wouldn’t have puppies.

He explained that German Shepard’s grew big and that they wouldn’t fit in our house. I tried to tell him we had a big house but I don’t think he understood.

He gave Liz her shots. I don’t like shots but I know you will get sick if you don’t get them. Liz was even able to look at the needle when he stuck it in. She is braver than I am.

We were leaving Liz here for several days so she could be fixed. I still wasn’t certain about that. I like puppies.

There was a sign in the lobby where Sally was paying the bill. It said the shelter needed money to save the dogs.

I asked about that. It seems some people don’t like or want dogs so they give them to the shelter. The shelter was running out of money so they might have to put them down.

“They won’t be able to sit on your lap?”

Sally told me, “No honey they will put them to sleep.”

“What if they aren’t tired and want to play.”

Dr. Pol was standing there and he explained it, I don’t know why people are afraid to say things.

“If they don’t have money to feed the dogs they will give them a shot to kill them. It is kinder to do that than letting them starve to death.”

That made me want to cry but rather than cry I wondered if I could do something about it.

“How much do they need?”

“Right now they need several thousand dollars. That is a lot of money.”

“I have that much, I will go home and have Mum write a check.”

I don’t think Dr. Pol believed me.

When we got home I told Mum about the starving dogs and that I wanted to save them.

She told me that I couldn’t save all the dogs in the world.

“I know I can’t, but I can save these. You told me I have a bunch of money in the bank from my pictures and advertisements. I know that I say I want to spend it on toys and candy but that is kid stuff. I want to do something grownup. Helping animals is grownup.”