New Puppy Disaster

• Chloe O'Donoghue, Grade 4
• Short Story
• 2018

“Mum now are we getting the puppy?” I exclaimed. I could barely contain my excitement. These last few days of waiting were excruciating as we had been waiting for our puppy for weeks! “Ok, NOW we are getting the puppy,” said Mum, stressing. The sun was up, and I could hear the Willy Wag tails next door singing loudly. The household was crazy! We were puppy proofing EVERYTHING. When we were finally ready we hopped into the car and drove off to the airport to get the puppy.
There were lots of people there because it was business season which means that lots of people go on business trips. There was a lot of hustle and bustle surrounding the station where you pick up the pets. While we were waiting a girl came up to us and said, “Is this puppy yours?” I said “YES!!” We welcomed the puppy home. We decided to call him Hudson because he has sort of a Hudsony sort of look.
That night, Mum and Dad were going to a ball, so Jude (my annoying little brother) and I were alone for the night. When Hudson met our cat Snowball he was happy because he loved cats, I think it was because he thought she was a funny looking and sounding dog! Snowball wasn’t as easily convinced, but she seemed to tolerate Hudson. Snowball and Hudson got along well at first, but when Mum and Dad went out, they went crazy destroying things!
Jude and I were relaxing in our lounge room watching television when Hudson and Snowball chased each other towards a drawer. On top of the drawer were some of our most treasured things. Bang! Hudson bowled into the drawer and accidently knocked over a wedding photo, a china vase, two Thailand elephants that we could never replace, and a trophy that we could never replace as well (especially because I don’t do ballet anymore)! Meanwhile, Snowball also got herself into some mischief and ate Mum’s lipstick! It was a cat-pup-strophe!
Snowball then also knocked down the books. When they were finally asleep, we crept around and put the books back on their shelf, searched for another photo of Mum and Dad’s wedding on the computer and printed it off. We couldn’t do anything about the lipstick, so we left it knowing that we would get in trouble, but we didn’t care as we were very tired and still had lots to do. We glued the trophy and china vase back together very carefully and made sure that it was all even and perfect. From a distance, it looked like it was never cracked.
By the time Mum and Dad finally got home, we were sound asleep in our beds. This cat and puppy sitting business is hard work! Mum and Dad never mentioned the cracks in the vase and the trophy or why Snowball had lipstick all around her mouth– but from then on, we ALWAYS had babysitters instead.