Karen's Black Cat

  The author gratefully acknowledges

  Stephanie Calmenson

  for her help

  with this book.

  Contents

  Title Page

  Dedication

  1 A Visit to the Vet

  2 Boo-Boo’s Family

  3 An Excellent Idea

  4 The Purr-fect Kitten

  5 Meow! Tweet! Boo!

  6 Who’s a Party Pet?

  7 Big Plans

  8 A Little Talk

  9 Boo! Boo!

  10 Kittens!

  11 Daddy’s Cat

  12 The Bad-Luck Spell

  13 Down in the Dumps

  14 Karen and Boo-Boo

  15 Pumpkin

  16 Karen’s Problem

  17 A Two-Cat Family

  18 Decision Day

  19 The Halloween Party

  20 Cat Lessons

  About the Author

  Also Available

  Copyright

  A Visit to the Vet

  It was a Saturday morning in October. I was sitting alone in the waiting room of Dr. Smith’s office. Well, I was not really alone. Some people with their pets were there too. Dr. Smith is a veterinarian.

  I saw three dogs: a Scottie, a Westie, and a Dalmatian.

  I saw a green-and-yellow parakeet who kept saying, “Hello! Hello!”

  And I saw a brown rabbit who wiggled his nose a lot.

  Elizabeth, my stepmother, was in the examining room with our cat, Boo-Boo. Boo-Boo is an old gray tiger cat. He can be crabby sometimes. That is why I did not go into the office.

  “We find that nervous animals do better with fewer people around,” Dr. Smith told us when we came in.

  So I was sitting in the waiting room, thinking. Here are some things you might like to know about me. I am seven years old. I have blonde hair, blue eyes, and freckles. Also, I am a glasses-wearer. Hmm. I wonder if Boo-Boo needs glasses.

  Before I got glasses, I had headaches that made me cranky. Boo-Boo has been crankier than usual lately. And he has been eating more and sleeping less. Maybe his eyes are his problem. I tried to picture Boo-Boo wearing my glasses. First I pictured him in my blue glasses. They are the ones I wear for reading. Then I pictured him in my pink glasses. They are the ones I wear the rest of the time. I decided the color did not matter. Boo-Boo in glasses was a silly sight!

  A cold wet nose poked my hand. It was the Dalmatian. His tail was wagging.

  “I hope you do not mind. He is very friendly,” said his owner.

  “I don’t mind. What is his name?” I asked.

  “Spot. I know it is not very original, but it fits,” said his owner.

  I reached down to pet Spot. I was glad that I would not be able to introduce him to Boo-Boo. Boo-Boo might his or show his claws. It is no fun having a crabby pet.

  Just then Elizabeth came out of the examining room. Boo-Boo was in his carrier. When they passed the other animals he did not even hiss. That was not like him.

  “Good-bye, everyone!” I said. I held the door open for Elizabeth. Then I asked, “Will Boo-Boo be okay?”

  “Dr. Smith is worried about him,” replied Elizabeth. “She has run some tests and will call us with the results later this week.”

  I felt worried about Boo-Boo. I knew the rest of my family was worried too. That is a lot of people. Boo-Boo and I are part of a big family of people and pets. I will tell you who they are.

  Boo-Boo’s Family

  Guess what. Boo-Boo has one family, but I have two. Here’s why.

  A long time ago when I was little, my family was Mommy, Daddy, Andrew, and me. (Andrew is my little brother. He is four going on five.) We all lived together in a big house in Stoneybrook, Connecticut.

  Then Mommy and Daddy got divorced. Mommy moved with Andrew and me to a little house not far away. She met a very nice man named Seth. She and Seth got married, and now Seth is my stepfather.

  At first, the four of us lived in the little house with all our pets. The pets are Emily Junior, who is my pet rat; Bob, who is Andrew’s hermit crab; Midgie, who is Seth’s dog; and Rocky, who is Seth’s cat. (Rocky is a lot friendlier than Boo-Boo.)

  Things changed last spring when Seth took a very good job for a few months in Chicago. We all went there together. But I missed Stoneybrook too much, so I came back.

  I was lucky that I had somewhere to go. You see, I have another house and another family. Now I am living in the big house. Daddy stayed here after he and Mommy got divorced. (It is the house he grew up in.) Then he met and married Elizabeth, which is how she became my stepmother.

  Elizabeth was married once before and has four children. They are my stepbrothers and stepsister: David Michael, who is seven, like me; Kristy, who is thirteen and the best stepsister ever; and Sam and Charlie, who are so old they are in high school.

  I also have a little sister, Emily Michelle, who is two and a half. I love her a lot, which is why I named my rat after her. Daddy and Elizabeth adopted her from a faraway country called Vietnam.

  The other person living at the big house is Nannie. She is Elizabeth’s mother, which makes her my stepgrandmother. She came to live at the big house to help with Emily. But now she helps everyone with everything.

  Of course you know about Boo-Boo already. But there are other pets at the big house. They are Shannon, David Michael’s big Bernese mountain dog puppy; Scout, our training-to-be-a-guide-dog puppy; Crystal Light the Second, my goldfish; and Goldfishie, Andrew’s porcupine. (Just kidding!) Goldfishie is Andrew’s fish, who decided to stay in Stoneybrook too.

  Before Andrew went to Chicago, the two of us switched houses almost every month. We spent one month at the big house, then one month at the little house. That is when I gave us our special names. I call us Andrew Two-Two and Karen Two-Two. (I thought up those names after my teacher read a book to our class. It was called Jacob Two-Two Meets the Hooded Fang.) I call us those names because we each have two of so many things. We each have two houses and two families with two mommies and two daddies. We have two sets of toys and clothes and books. We have two bicycles, one at each house.

  I also have two best friends. Hannie Papadakis lives across the street and one house over from the big house. Nancy Dawes lives next door to the little house. (Hannie and Nancy and I are in the same second-grade class at Stoneybrook Academy. And we play together all the time. That is why we call ourselves the Three Musketeers.)

  I am happy with my two families. I wonder if Boo-Boo is happy with his one family. I think he is. After all, he is not always cranky. Right now, he is curled up napping in the sun. He looks very peaceful. Boo-Boo, I hope you are okay.

  An Excellent Idea

  We were eating dinner on Tuesday when the phone rang. Elizabeth answered it. She said hello, and then we heard her say, “Thank you for calling, Dr. Smith.”

  We stopped talking and listened. But we could not tell what was going on. One moment Elizabeth sounded relieved.

  “That is good news,” she said into the phone.

  The next moment she sounded worried.

  “And you are sure there is nothing we can do?”

  As soon as she hung up, I asked, “What did Dr. Smith say about Boo-Boo?”

  “The good news is that Boo-Boo’s tests all came back fine. He does not have any sickness she can name,” replied Elizabeth.

  “Then what is wrong with him?” asked David Michael.

  “The sad news is that Boo-Boo is suffering from old age. There is nothing we can do right now to make him feel better. Dr. Smith said we just have to be as kind to him as possible,” said Elizabeth.

  “Hug Boo-Boo!” suggested Emily.

  “I do not think so. Boo-Boo is hiding,” I said.

  I had not seen Boo-Bo
o since we sat down to eat. That was probably a good thing. Boo-Boo does not like hugs very much.

  “We should respect his need to be by himself,” said Daddy.

  “Poor old Boo-Boo,” said Kristy. “It makes me sad that he does not feel well.”

  My whole family looked sad.

  “I have an idea that could lift our spirits and maybe Boo-Boo’s too,” said Elizabeth.

  “What is it?” asked Daddy.

  “I suggest we think about getting another pet. A kitten might be a good idea,” Elizabeth replied.

  “That is an excellent idea!” I said.

  My spirits were lifted right away.

  “I am not so sure,” said Daddy. “A new pet in the house could upset Boo-Boo.”

  “We have had lots of new pets come into the house,” said Elizabeth. “Boo-Boo has not been especially friendly, but he did not seem upset.”

  “That is true. But he is older now,” said Daddy.

  “I have heard stories about kittens cheering up old cats,” said Nannie.

  “If Boo-Boo does not like the kitten, he can just ignore it,” said Charlie.

  “We should take a family vote,” said Daddy. “All in favor of getting a kitten, say ‘Aye.’ ”

  “Aye!” I said.

  So did Elizabeth, Kristy, David Michael, Sam, Charlie, and Nannie. Emily called out, “Me!”

  “The ‘ayes’ and the ‘me’ have it,” said Daddy. “We can start thinking about looking for a kitten.”

  “The Stoneybrook Express will be out tomorrow,” said Sam. “Sometimes there are ads for kittens in it.”

  The Stoneybrook Express is a new community newspaper. I used to deliver the paper with Kristy. But it was too hard for me to have an important job like that and go to school at the same time. So Sam took over.

  My family was going to get a kitten. This was very exciting news.

  The Purr-fect Kitten

  It was my turn to help Nannie clear the table after dinner. I was so excited thinking about our kitten that I almost dropped a plate.

  “Good catch!” said Nannie when I caught it.

  “Nannie, remember the kittens that were born in the toolshed? I wish we had them now,” I said. “I would keep Rosie. She was the bounciest, happiest one.”

  “I remember how much you liked Rosie,” replied Nannie. She was at the sink now, rinsing dishes.

  Nannie handed me a plate to put in the dishwasher.

  “I liked all the kittens — Rosie, Pokey, Tippy, Ruby, and Bob,” I said.

  “The mother cat was named Growly, wasn’t she?” asked Nannie.

  She handed me a glass for the dishwasher.

  “Yup,” I replied. I had forgotten all about the mother cat. “I named her Growly because she growled to protect her kittens. But she was really a nice cat.”

  I thought about the cats I knew. They were all friendly. Except for Boo-Boo.

  “I want to get a nice cat. Not a grumpy one like Boo-Boo,” I said.

  “We do not know what happened to Boo-Boo before we got him. I doubt he was born cranky. Something may have happened to make him that way,” said Nannie.

  “We will be very nice to our new cat so she will be friendly when she grows up,” I said. “The new cat will play with me. She will be a pretty cat. And she will not be fat like Boo-Boo.”

  Nannie stopped what she was doing and looked at me.

  “Karen, even if Boo-Boo is cranky sometimes and even if he is fat, he is part of our family,” she said. “And now he is old. So more than ever he needs all the love we can give him.”

  “I know,” I said. “I just want to love a better cat.”

  Nannie gave me a Look. I was already sorry I said that. It was not nice. It is just that Boo-Boo is not a fun pet. I wanted my new kitten to be friendly and pretty and funny and everything good a cat could be. I wanted the best, most purr-fect kitten in the whole world!

  Meow! Tweet! Boo!

  At school on Wednesday, my teacher, Ms. Colman, picked me to take attendance. I love Ms. Colman. She is a gigundoly wonderful teacher. She almost never raises her voice or gets angry at me. Even when I call out in class, she just asks me to use my indoor voice, please. She makes everything interesting. And she asks me to do important jobs such as take attendance.

  Ms. Colman handed me the attendance book and a blue pencil. I started checking off names.

  I checked off my own name first. Then I checked off Nancy and Hannie. They waved to me from the back of the room. (I used to sit in the back with them. Then I got glasses and Ms. Colman moved me up front where I could see better.)

  After I checked off my best friends, I checked off my best enemy. Her name is Pamela Harding. She can be a meanie-mo sometimes. Her best friends are Jannie Gil-bert and Leslie Morris. I checked them off too.

  Next I checked off Addie Sidney. She was arranging a collection of fall leaves on her wheelchair tray. She looked up at me and smiled.

  Then Natalie Springer popped up from under her desk and banged her head. Poor Natalie. She had probably been pulling up her socks. They are always drooping. I checked off her name.

  I checked off Ricky Torres, my pretend husband. (We got married on the playground one day at recess.) I checked off Bobby Gianelli, Hank Reubens, and Omar Harris.

  Terri and Tammy Barkan, who are twins, were in class. So was Audrey Green. Check. Check. Check.

  I checked off a few more names. Then I handed the book and pencil back to Ms. Colman.

  “Thank you, Karen,” she replied. “All right, class. It is October. What holiday is coming up at the end of the month?”

  “Halloween!” I shouted.

  Oops. I know I am not supposed to shout or call out. At least this time I was not the only one. A few of us forgot the rules. That is because we were all excited about Halloween.

  “It would be nice to do something together to celebrate the holiday,” said Ms. Colman. “As usual, we will have our school costume parade. And our class can always have a party. But I thought we could think of something even more special. Does anyone have any ideas?”

  Hoot! Hoot! Our class pet is a guinea pig. Sometimes he whistles and hoots in his cage.

  “Maybe Hootie has an idea!” said Hannie.

  Everyone laughed. But Hootie’s hoot gave me an idea. It was a gigundoly good one too. I raised my hand, and Ms. Colman called on me.

  “I think we should have a Halloween pet party,” I said. “We can each bring a pet to school. We can dress our pets up in costumes!”

  “That sounds like fun,” said Ms. Colman. “But what about the children who do not have pets?”

  “We can share,” said Hannie.

  “Good idea,” said Ms. Colman.

  “We can make paper pets too,” I said. “Those pets will be very well behaved.”

  That made everyone laugh.

  Hoot! Hoot!

  “We will need a costume for Hootie,” said Ricky.

  I was proud of my husband for having such a good idea.

  “We should have Halloween treats for everyone — people and pets,” said Addie. “Candy for kids. Biscuits for dogs. Seed for birds.”

  Everyone was filled with ideas. We had lots of fun planning our party. Ms. Colman said we would hold the party after recess, before the school Halloween parade. I could not wait.

  Who’s a Party Pet?

  Daddy was in his office when I returned from school. Sometimes he closes the door. That means he is busy working and should not be interrupted unless it is important. But his door was open. So I ran in to tell him about my day.

  “Guess what! We are having a Halloween party at school. It is going to be a pet party. We can dress our pets in costumes. And it was my idea!” I said.

  “That is terrific,” replied Daddy. “Who are you planning to bring?”

  “Well, I cannot bring the pet in myself. Ms. Colman says a grown-up has to bring our pets to school and take them home after the party,” I said.

  “That will n
ot be a problem,” said Daddy. “Elizabeth, Nannie, or I can come to school.”

  “Thank you,” I said. “Now all I have to do is figure out which pet should come to the party. I was thinking about Scout. She is so cute and lively. But there are lots of special rules for guide-dogs-in-training. It might be hard to follow them at a party.”

  “I agree,” said Daddy.

  “Then I thought of Shannon. But she is too big and wild.”

  “I agree again.”

  “I do not want to bring Crystal Light or Goldfishie. They would just slosh around in their bowls. It would be more fun to bring Emily Junior. But one of the boys in our class is afraid of rats,” I said.

  “It is considerate of you to think of that,” said Daddy.

  (I was glad Daddy noticed how thoughtful I was being.)

  “Of course, our new kitten would be perfect,” I said. “But we might not have the kitten in time for the party.”

  “Agreed,” said Daddy.

  “So that leaves Boo-Boo,” I said.

  Before I had a chance to say anything else, Daddy said, “Oh, no, Karen. You cannot bring Boo-Boo.”

  “Why not? Ever since we went to see Dr. Smith, Boo-Boo has been calmer. He did not even hiss at the other animals in the waiting room.”

  “If he seems calmer, it is because he is old and slowing down,” said Daddy. “The party would be too much for him.”

  “But we are going to dress up our pets for Halloween. Boo-Boo would look cute in a costume,” I said.

  “He would not like being dressed up. You know that,” said Daddy.

  “I will make it fun for him. I promise. I will bring special treats for old cats. I will put a cozy blanket in his carrier. I will not let anyone touch him. I will watch him every second.”

  “Karen, the answer is no. Absolutely not,” said Daddy. “Boo-Boo is too old to go to school with you, especially for a party.”

  I had one thing to say. But I did not say it out loud. I said it to myself. Boo.

  Big Plans

  I have more pets than anyone I know, but not one of them was the right one to bring to school. I did not say another word about Boo-Boo and the party.