A Puppy Called Disaster Read online

  Look for all the books in the

  PET RESCUE CLUB

  series

  A New Home for Truman

  No Time for Hallie

  The Lonely Pony

  Too Big to Run

  To my new friend Sue, who came through.

  —R. H.

  Storm Warning

  “Are you going to eat that?” Zach Goldman reached toward the large, plastic-wrapped cookie in Janey Whitfield’s lunch box. It was lunchtime at school, and Zach and Janey and their friends Lolli Simpson and Adam Santos—the members of the Pet Rescue Club—were having a meeting.

  The four schoolmates had formed the club after helping to rescue a neglected dog named Truman. After helping Truman find a home with their homeroom teacher, Ms. Tanaka, they’d helped other animals. Now they were itching for a new case.

  “Hands off, Zach,” said Janey. She playfully swatted Zach’s hand away. Then she took the cookie from its plastic wrap and broke it into quarters. “Lolli, do you want a piece of my Choco-Tornado-Treat?”

  Lolli patted her stomach. Black, curly hair tumbled over her face. “Thanks, but I’m full,” she said.

  “Besides, you know her food is all natural, all the time,” said Zach. Lolli’s mother and father never gave Lolli any store-bought treats. They called themselves back-to-the-land hippies.

  Janey eyed the remains of Lolli’s lunch—brown rice with brown beans and brown tofu with soy sauce. It looked very unappealing.

  “More for me,” said Zach. With three older brothers, he was in the habit of eating as much as he could as fast as he could. He grabbed Lolli’s piece of Choco-Tornado-Treat and ate it in one bite.

  Adam adjusted his glasses on his nose, and then opened his mouth to snap up the bite of cookie Janey tossed to him, as if he were one of the dogs he trained and cared for in his pet-sitting business. Even though Adam was only nine, people all over town paid him to come to their houses to feed and walk their dogs while they were at work or on vacation. “Arf, arf,” Adam said, jokingly.

  Lolli was the only member of the Pet Rescue Club whose mouth wasn’t full of Choco-Tornado-Treat. “Has anybody posted anything new on the blog?” she asked Janey.

  Janey’s blog had started as a way for kids around town to share photos of their pets. Janey loved animals, but she couldn’t have a pet of her own because her father was severely allergic to anything with fur or feathers. She had to make do with seeing pictures of cute animals on the tablet she’d been given for her birthday. Now the blog had another purpose, too. The Pet Rescue Club used the blog to find animals that needed its help.

  Janey swallowed. But before she could answer Lolli, the principal’s voice came over the public address system. “School will close early. There is a severe weather warning for the area. Students are to board buses or meet their parents outside the school building.”

  Everyone began to talk at once. “Yay, no school!” said Zach.

  “This doesn’t seem like a time for jokes,” said Janey. All the kids were getting up from their tables at once. A fifth grader pushed Janey as he ran for the door.

  The principal’s voice came again from the speakers overhead. “Students will exit the cafeteria in an orderly manner, please! Walk, don’t run!” Kids kept running. “I said, walk!” squawked the speaker.

  “Does the principal have x-ray eyes? It’s as if she can see us all the way from the office!” Zach joked. Janey scowled at him. “Oh, laugh a little, Janey,” said Zach. Janey smiled, but only a little.

  Outside, the members of the Pet Rescue Club boarded the school bus. They lived in different parts of town, but the bus route passed nearby each one’s house.

  “Look at that sky,” Adam said as he took his seat beside Zach. “It’s pretty dark and gloomy.”

  Lolli and Janey took seats side by side. “I hope Roscoe is okay,” Lolli said. “He hates storms.” Roscoe was the Simpsons’ big, lovable dog. Lolli and her parents had found him at the Third Street Animal Shelter a few years earlier. He was a mix of Labrador retriever, rottweiler, and nobody knew what else. Roscoe and Zach’s orange tabby cat, Mulberry, were the Pet Rescue Club’s official mascots.

  “I have an idea,” said Adam. “Do you know what an anxiety vest is?” Adam had noticed that many of the dogs he cared for were afraid during storms. Then he had learned about a special vest that wrapped snugly around a dog’s body. The vest seemed to make the dogs feel calmer during a thunder and lightning storm.

  “My dad heard about those from Zach’s mom,” said Lolli. Dr. Goldman was a veterinarian with a busy private practice, who also helped take care of the pets at the animal shelter. “We’re going to get one for Roscoe soon.”

  The other kids on the bus were singing at the top of their lungs, as if they were heading home for a school vacation and there was nothing wrong. But there was something wrong. Janey couldn’t help thinking about the pets at the Third Street Animal Shelter.

  “The pets at the shelter will be scared,” said Janey. If she could, she would give all of them lots of hugs. “I wish we could go to the shelter instead of going home.”

  Just then, lightning flashed. Thunder boomed.

  Janey looked out the school bus window at the storm clouds. She saw a big yellow Lab running wild. The dog had a red collar, but it didn’t look like the collar had a tag on it. Janey pointed out the dog to the other members of the Pet Rescue Club. “I sure hope that dog is sprinting home to safety,” she said.

  Lights Out!

  In the hour after the school bus dropped Janey off at her house, the weather went from bad to worse. The sky grew thick with dark clouds. Rain fell in sheets. Now there was a sudden racket on the roof.

  Janey ran to the window and pulled aside the curtain. “Look!” she cried. “It’s hailing outside!” Hail was falling so hard and so heavily that Janey could barely see the mailbox at the curb.

  “Everybody, let’s go downstairs to the basement!” said Janey’s mother. Her face was nearly hidden by the stack of blankets she held in her arms.

  “Is the storm that serious?” asked Janey, letting the curtain fall shut and joining her parents.

  Janey’s parents had been watching the channel seven emergency weather broadcast, and now her father clicked off the TV. “There’s no need to be alarmed, sweetheart,” he said in a calm voice. He put his hand on Janey’s shoulder and guided her toward the basement door. “But chief meteorologist Bob Broad says the weather service has increased the tornado alert from a watch to a warning. That means we need to take shelter in the basement right now. Someone may have spotted a funnel cloud, or else a tornado is showing up on the weather service’s radar. They predict high winds and thunderstorms with hail.”

  Janey’s mom jutted her chin toward the window. “Well, he’s absolutely right about the hail,” she said. “We’ll be safer in the basement.”

  Janey followed her parents downstairs.

  The Whitfields’ basement was tidy, but unfinished. It didn’t have a playroom or family room. It was mostly a big, empty space, one you didn’t want to spend a lot of time in. There was a row of shelves along one wall, where her parents had stocked emergency food, water jugs, flashlights, extra batteries, and even some games.

  “The Red Cross gave an emergency preparedness course that most of the community took last spring,” Janey’s mother explained as they went down the stairs. “We’re all set, and our neighbors should be, too.”

  Janey’s father set up a folding table and chairs. “We can play board games,” he said. “And look! Snacks!” He put out a dish of salted peanuts and chocolate chips. “How about our old friend, Animal Baby Bingo?”

  Animal Baby Bingo had been a birthday present when Janey was littl
e. It was still one of her favorite games, because the game pieces and bingo boards were covered with pictures of animals. Janey agreed to play, even though she really wasn’t in the mood for games, not even ones with adorable baby animals. She could hear the wind whipping around and the hailstones pounding outside, even way down here in the basement.

  Janey’s mother turned on a standing lamp beside the table, and set up the bingo game. “See, love? Nice and cozy!” she said, giving Janey’s arm a squeeze. “We are snug as three bugs in a rug down here.”

  Janey tried to concentrate on Animal Baby Bingo. But her mind wandered. She worried about her friends and their pets. Were Truman and Ms. Tanaka together and safe? What was happening beyond the town limits? What about Roscoe, and Lolli’s goats and sheep? What about Mrs. Jamison and her pony, Lola, that the Pet Rescue Club helped her to adopt? And she was still thinking about the shelter. Was Kitty, who worked at the shelter, okay? And were all the pets there safe, too? Looking at all these animal game pieces wasn’t helping.

  Janey and her parents played a few rounds of bingo, and Janey almost started to forget about the reason they were playing games downstairs in their drab basement.

  “Bingo!” cried Mr. Whitfield. In his excitement, he hit the dish of snacks with his elbow. Peanuts and chocolate chips went flying!

  Just then, there was a deafening roar.

  The lights went out.

  Janey’s heart pounded and she threw her arms over her head. “Mom!” she yelled. “Dad!”

  “Right here, sweetheart!” her father yelled. She could hardly hear his voice over the long, loud, rumbling noise that filled her ears. Janey felt a firm hand on her arm. She grabbed it and held on tight. Bangs and cracks and creaks came from over their heads. Janey held her breath and squeezed her eyes shut.

  “Hang in there, Janey,” her father shouted over the awful racket. “It’ll be over soon!”

  Emergency at the Shelter

  Mr. Whitfield was right. The tornado was over almost as soon as it began. Janey’s mother set a battery-powered emergency lantern on the table and turned it on. Then she put her arms around Janey and rocked her back and forth. When they were sure the storm had really passed and the danger was really over, they went upstairs and looked around.

  “Everything looks good inside,” said Mrs. Whitfield after a quick check of all the rooms. Then they went outside.

  “Only a few shingles blew off the roof,” Janey’s father said. They stood in front of the house, blinking in the sudden sunshine. The sky was clear. It looked as if the tornado had blown away all the dark clouds.

  Janey looked around in wonder. Everything seemed so quiet, now. The yard was a mess of branches. “We’ll have to play the world’s biggest game of pick-up sticks,” she said.

  Her mother nodded. “But this is no game, love,” she said. “Let’s go and see how our friends and neighbors have weathered the storm.”

  Janey picked her way carefully through the yard and out onto the street, staying close to her parents. They walked past garbage cans rolling on their sides in the street. They stepped around a heavy iron lawn chair lying on its back with its legs in the air. Janey gasped when she saw that a big tree limb had crashed onto the roof of a car parked on the corner.

  Doors opened up and down the street as neighbors came out of their houses to see what had happened. Mrs. Peacham, three houses down, stepped onto her porch. Her little Chihuahua, Bimminy, shivered in her arms.

  “Are you all right?” Janey’s dad asked Mrs. Peacham. She nodded her head.

  “Is Bimminy okay?” Janey asked.

  “Poor thing, she cried and cried,” said Mrs. Peacham. “But she’s all right now, aren’t you, Bimminy,” she said, rubbing noses with her pet. Bimminy gave a happy little yip-yip.

  Mrs. Peacham looked around. “My lawn chair is gone,” she said, bewildered.

  Janey’s mom pointed back down the street. “There it is,” she said. “It flew a long way.” Everyone on the street began to walk around and explore. Every so often, someone would cry out, “I found it!” That meant they had located something of theirs that had been tossed around by the tornado.

  Janey and her parents helped their neighbors move things back to their homes for a while. But then she wanted to go and check on the animals at the shelter. “Please, Mom?” she begged.

  “I’m afraid it’s not possible right now,” Janey’s mother said. “You can see that our street is blocked by fallen trees. That means lots of other roads are blocked, too. Power lines are probably down all over town. Even if we were willing to let you walk to Third Street, it’s better that we stay out of the utility workers’ way right now. It will just be safer for you and for them.”

  “Maybe tomorrow,” said Janey’s father.

  It was a long night. Her house still didn’t have any electricity. So, Janey played her favorite game, Puppy Playtime, on her laptop. When the batteries ran out, she read a good book called Puppies in Paradise by the light of the emergency lantern. She wished she could talk to her friends, but there was no landline or cell phone service. Finally, she fell asleep and dreamed of puppies crying and crying.

  “Time to go to the shelter!” Janey said first thing the next morning, even though the electricity still wasn’t back on. But it was noon by the time the area was cleared of debris and Janey was allowed to go. Her mother walked with her. “Why does everything look so different?” Janey wondered as they made their way to Third Street. Even the light outside seemed to have changed.

  “It does look different,” her mother agreed. “Look! That big maple tree split and fell.” She pointed to several large chunks of tree trunk. Workers had cut up the fallen tree in order to make Third Street passable. “It’s amazing how much difference one tree makes,” she said.

  After what felt like a long time, they arrived at the Third Street Animal Shelter.

  “Kitty, we’re here!” called Janey. She had to shout to be heard above the noise of barking, yipping, howling, and meowing. The shelter was normally a bit on the noisy side. But the pets were so loved and so well cared for during their stay that it sounded like pets having fun at their version of school recess. Today, though, the pets sounded more stressed.

  “Boy, am I glad to see you!” said Kitty. Janey’s favorite pet shelter worker was flushed. Her hair was falling out of her usually neat and bouncy blond ponytail.

  “I bet you could use a hand,” Mrs. Whitfield said.

  “I could use as many hands as I can get,” Kitty said.

  Janey hadn’t expected to see so many animals at the pet shelter. “Why is it so crowded here today?” she asked.

  “As you may have heard, other parts of town were hit harder than our neighborhood,” Kitty explained. “A lot of folks had to evacuate their houses and go to the evacuation center at the high school.” Kitty jabbed a thumb in the direction of the high school. “The evacuation center doesn’t allow pets,” she added.

  “What?” Janey was outraged. Of all the times that pets and their people needed to be together, it was during a disaster, she thought. “Why not?” she said, peeking into the dog room as she spoke. Right away, she spotted the big yellow Lab with the red collar she’d seen from the bus yesterday. She had hoped that dog was dashing home. But at least he was safe here, and not still running loose.

  “The main reason is that local and state safety regulations don’t allow it,” said Kitty. She saw the shocked look on Janey’s face. “They do have their reasons,” Kitty explained. “One is that pets can panic in unusual, stressful situations and they might cause problems if surrounded by tons of strangers.”

  “And, as we know all too well, some people, like your father, have allergies,” Janey’s mother added.

  Kitty pointed to a thin scar on her wrist. “See that? Scared and stressed animals can be more likely to bite or scratch their owners, other people, or other pets,” Kitty said. “I got this when I was taking an old cat from the home where she’d always lived. Her p
erson had to move to an assisted-living facility, and he couldn’t keep his cat.” Kitty shook her head. “That poor cat was very upset. I didn’t take the scratch personally.”

  “Also, I imagine it’s just plain hard to deal with poop patrol when you’re stuck inside a high school gym,” said Mrs. Whitfield. “I guess we have to think of it as a people shelter, not a pet shelter.”

  “It’s a good thing we have both kinds,” said Kitty.

  Janey’s mother looked at her watch. “I’d like to go and check on some more neighbors now,” she said to Janey. “You’ll be all right here?” she asked.

  “There’s no place I’d rather be!” Janey said.

  Mrs. Whitfield left, and Kitty put her hands on her hips and looked around. “I’ve got my hands full, that’s for sure,” she said. “Some of these dogs and cats have been dropped here by their owners. Others have been separated from their people and found by emergency responders. I’m glad you’re here to help, Janey. Thanks for coming!”

  Just then, the door burst open. In came Lolli Simpson.

  “Lolli!” said Janey, glad to see her best friend. “How is everything out at the farm?”

  “Luckily, the tornado didn’t hit us out there, but the wind was loud,” said Lolli. “Roscoe was scared. I thought of the pets here, and my mom agreed to drop me off so I could check on them.”

  Then Dr. Goldman strode in, carrying her medical bag. Close behind her was Zach.

  “Hello, everybody,” said the veterinarian. “Zach and I thought you could use some help today,” she said to Kitty.

  “I sure can!” Kitty said.

  “How’s Mulberry?” Lolli wondered.

  “That cat slept through the whole thing,” said Zach. “Can you believe it? Didn’t even budge when a big branch came crashing down on the garage roof!”

  “Wow! It’s too bad Roscoe isn’t as mellow as that in a storm,” said Lolli. “He was shivering and whimpering. We are definitely going to get him an anxiety vest soon!”