I left my Frisbee in the car and raced to catch up. The bells jingled as the door closed behind me, and I suddenly coughed from a familiar disgusting smell. It was like the way the bathrooms at school smelled after the janitor had cleaned in there. Or like Grandma’s new home.

Through a window, I saw a man cleaning cages. Dozens of hamsters squirmed around one another in a glass tank next to the man. Hamsters bored me. My sister had three, and all they did all day long was sleep. Once or twice I snuck into her room after she was asleep to catch the hamsters awake. They were running on their wheel, looking like they were trying to win some dumb race or something. What I really wanted was a dog, but dad was allergic, so that was out. Sometimes I wanted to run away and live with the Greens. They had six dogs: two golden retrievers, a schnauzer, a beagle, and two mutts. Dog heaven, if you asked me!

“Allison, come see how sweet these are,” Mom called from across the store, using that voice! Jeepers, stop embarrassing me, I thought, hearing those little baby sounds she’d made those times when she’d pulled over the car to talk to someone walking a dog. I liked dogs as much as Mom did, but not enough to embarrass my whole family when I saw one.

I wanted to leave the smelly store that seemed to only sell hamsters, mice, and rats, but the thought of Mom using that voice again if I didn’t show up soon sent me toward her fast.

Boxes of pet stuff cluttered the isles, and along the side wall I noticed tanks of fish. What a bore. You can’t pet fish. Besides, you flush more of those down the toilet than you keep alive. I knew that from my friend Becky who’d had about 10--a new one every month or two when she found them belly up in the morning or after school.

Becky showed me a dead one once--it was smelly, with its body hard and its eyes all bulgy. Gross. Hey, maybe Mom was buying Grandma a fish so she had something else to complain about other than her health. It seemed that’s all Grandma talked about these days, ever since she moved into that place that always smelled like someone had just peed in her pants.

Before Grandma’s accident a few months before, I’d spent a lot of time with her, but I couldn’t anymore, now that she walked with that metal contraption and lived in that smelly place. I hated to visit her there. My last report card, I’d gotten all A’s, but I didn’t even show it to Grandma. It wasn’t worth going to that place just to collect my $12.

With old people and pee on my mind, I heard mom call again in that voice! Oh God, help me! Maybe I should just run away! As I turned the corner, nearly knocking over ceiling-high bags of cat litter, there was Mom, playing with a white and tan puppy that had one tan floppy ear, the color of peanut butter, and one white ear, standing straight up. It was like it didn’t know yet if it would be a cocker spaniel or some kind of terrier. It was small--no bigger than Mom’s lap. And it had big, brown, droopy eyes.

“Oh, I wish we could get her,” I begged, as the puppy jumped onto my lap and licked my face, the other tan and white puppies in the boxes now crawling onto Mom’s lap.

“Do you, Allison, promise to take good care of her and to keep her as far away from your father as possible until he forgives me?” Mom asked, grinning.

“Oh, Mom,” I screamed, jumping into her arms. “Could we get her?!”

“Congratulations on your straight A’s,” I heard her say, as the puppy licked my face. “She’s a present from Grandma, who’s very proud of you.”

I looked at Mom for a second, then carried Peanut Butter and Fluff to the cash register, as Mom followed, pulling out her wallet.

As the man took the money and I snuggled my new best friend, I wondered if she could learn to play Frisbee. Then I wondered if they let dogs into Grandma’s place.

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