Sparky Helps Mary Make Friends by Caryn Rivadeneira & Priscilla Alpaugh

Author:Caryn Rivadeneira & Priscilla Alpaugh
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781634407861
Publisher: Red Chair Press
Published: 2019-12-31T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 7

The peanut butter-banana muffins were for me! Mary’s mom found a recipe that worked well for humans and dogs. (Not cats though. Ha!)

Amazing. This is the best family.

After the humans ate one and I ate two—and then tried to sneak a third—Mary asked if she could show me her room. Sounded good to me!

Tasha said sure. But before we left, Tasha showed Mary the hand commands for “sit,” “down,” and “do-si-do.” Mary performed the commands pretty well. I, of course, played the game perfectly.

Then Mary patted her leg and said “Sparky” in a higher-pitched version of her scratchy voice. We were off. I let her go first up the stairs. Not because I don’t know where her room was—I could smell the hand sanitizer a mile away—but because it is considerate to let new friends go first.

That’s Good Manners. (See: Trick #1.)

But halfway up the stairs—the part where the steps turn sharp to the left—we hit a snag. A cat-shaped snag, to be exact.

The gray cat smelled like tin foil and chicken. She arched her back and hissed like the cobra I’d seen on a TV show called Scariest Snakes on Earth with Tasha.

I stepped back. This cat was really scary!

Mary bent down toward the cobra-cat and slipped a hand under its arched tummy.

“Oh, Custard.”

Custard! I’ve had custard—well, a few licks anyway. Custard is soft and sweet. That cat was no Custard!

But this was my big chance. If I was going to show Mary how to make new friends—and I was—I needed to show that I could be not afraid.

I put a front paw forward. Then a back paw. Two paws later, all four were square on the same landing as Mary and Custard, the Cobra-Cat.

I sat my Good Dog Sit and swung my tail into a wag. My tongue drooped out of my mouth.

Mary lowered Custard to where I sat and said, “See, Custy? This is Sparky. Isn’t he sweet?”

I made my best silly face. There was no way this cat wouldn’t want to be friends!

But Custard just laser-beamed me with her eyes again. She wanted me to look away. I knew it.

But my mind game was better than hers. I kept my loopy face, but I stared right back. You will be my friend, Custard. You will be my friend. If for no other reason than because I really want to help Mary!

I wish Learn to Read Minds could be Trick #3. But all my practice on Tasha has shown me humans will never quite master this. But cats? That’s another story. They get it. When Custard unleashed her claws and swiped a paw at me, I knew: Custard read my mind.

Still, Custard was a tough cat to crack. Time to whip out some more Make New Friends Tricks.

“Be a nice girl,” Mary said to Custard. “Let’s go to my room and see if we can’t all make friends.”

Custard hissed at me again. I ignored her. I loved Mary’s idea. Learning to make friends was the whole reason I was there, after all.

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