The Genie of Sutton Place by George Selden

Author:George Selden
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux (BYR)
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

9

Sam’s Pet Shop

That’s what the sign over the door said—in big beautiful letters that Dooley invented.

It was on Second Avenue, and Sam and Dooley had their apartments—floor-throughs—on the second and third floor above. On the top floor lived Mr. Cantarell. He was one of those Collier-brother-type recluses who don’t go out for anything except to get food. And right in the middle of the biggest, busiest city in the world! I met him in the hall once and I liked him, but he doesn’t have anything to do with anything—so there he still lives.

When I learned, the day after the nervous lunch, that Sam had his pet shop and that Dooley and he had acquired pads, coincidentally, in the very same building on Second Avenue, I began to worry about evaporated former tenants. But Dooley swore to me that he hadn’t done anything to anyone. It was kind of a rickety building, down in the twenties, and all vacant, except for Mr. Cantarell. They kept him on, at his same cheap rent, for charity, and because he liked animals.

The way they got it was, Dooley made money. And I mean he really made money! About twenty-five thousand dollars in one afternoon. (That’s another thing: if anybody should find some fake money around, hold on to it. It may be Dooley’s, and it’ll probably be very precious someday. There can’t be too much counterfeit in circulation that a genie himself created.)

But after the money they did it all themselves. That same business about not wasting magic on what you can do by hand. Once the building was bought, and the mortgage arranged—with some doctored credentials for Sam—they tore through the place like two hurricanes: painting, scrubbing, renovating. Every old building should be so lucky as to have two guys like Dooley and Sam in it. They even bought ladders and painted the outside, too. And the plumbing—all new pipes—everything … Believe me, it’s lucky that all of that work was really work! It lasted beyond the spell.

In two weeks Sam’s Pet Shop was ready. And the best time in my life began … We started to get the animals.

We decided right off that we wouldn’t specialize in just one type. We’d have dogs and cats and fishes and birds and monkeys—and every kind of animal that could possibly find a home in New York. And at that very first conference we also resolved that we’d have special kennels and pens for mongrels and other mixed-together things that the other pet shops might consider just throwaways … After all, Sam was no pureblood himself.

I wish it had taken months and months—the fun we had! We began in other pet shops, picking out the animals we liked. Sam would say something like, “I think I could be a friend to that cat.”

Or Dooley would say, “A most appealing guppy, master.”

Of course I agreed to everything.

But then, after we got the rare guys like the kinkajou and the one we called William Rhesus, we

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.