Lily to the Rescue: The Misfit Donkey Read online

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  For the wonderful volunteers and staff helping animals at PAWS Chicago

  1

  Maggie Rose is my girl. I am her dog. In my opinion, this means we should be together every moment. Being together with Maggie Rose means playing with balls in the yard. Or getting belly rubs. (I get the belly rubs, not her.) Or stopping in the kitchen for treats as often as possible.

  The kitchen is the best room in the house. It smells amazing. Sometimes I just like to lie on the floor in there and let the smells fill up my nose and hope that soon food will fill up my mouth.

  But I can’t always be with Maggie Rose, because on some days she says “School” to me and then she goes away. That is very sad. I don’t know why a girl would ever go away from her dog.

  On those days of “School” I often go with Mom to Work, which is a building full of friends for me to visit. Brewster, one of my very best friends, is an old, tired dog who goes with me on those mornings. Brewster’s person is Bryan, who is Maggie Rose’s brother. Whatever “School” means, it seems to apply to Bryan as well, because whenever Maggie Rose says it, Bryan leaves, too.

  But there are other days that Maggie Rose doesn’t say “School,” and those are the best days.

  On those days, Maggie Rose lies in bed until I jump on her and paw at the blankets and stick my nose under the covers to find her face and lick her ears or her cheek or her chin.

  “Lily!” she moans. That’s what she did this morning. “Lily! It’s Saturday! I wanted to sleep late!”

  I understood exactly what she was saying: it was time to wrestle! I grabbed a hank of her hair in my mouth and backed up, shaking my jaws, while she shrieked and giggled. “You are such a crazy dog!”

  On this not-School day, Maggie Rose ate toast and other things for breakfast while I sat by her feet and drooled. She saved a crust for me. She always does, and I’m grateful. Maybe someday she will save an entire slice for me. I would be fine with that, too.

  Brewster followed me into the kitchen, because Bryan was not home. In fact, Bryan hadn’t slept in his bed the night before. I could smell that just as easily as I could smell the fact that Brewster had slept in Bryan’s bed. Brewster is very good at sleeping on soft things.

  Once Maggie Rose and I were done with breakfast, we headed out into the yard. Maggie Rose found one of my toys, one that squeaks in a satisfying way when I bite down hard. She sat down next to me in the grass, holding the toy in one hand. With the other hand, she covered up my eyes.

  “Okay, Lily. This is going to be really hard!” she said, and I could feel her move as if she had thrown something. “Find the toy!” she told me. She took her hand away from my face.

  I could smell exactly where the toy had landed, so I trotted over to it and jumped on it and chewed it hard, so it squeaked and squeaked and squeaked. I brought it back to Maggie Rose, and she seemed very excited and pleased. Not pleased enough to give me a treat, but still happy.

  Brewster was not impressed at all. He just lay in the shade by the fence. I know that he can be lured into playing with a squeaky toy if I jump up and down and shake it right in his face, but it takes a lot of effort.

  When Bryan came into the yard, I thought maybe now we’d have a game of two children and two dogs and one squeaky toy, but it didn’t happen. Instead, Bryan scuffed his way across the grass to Brewster, who raised his head and wagged. You can tell that Bryan is Brewster’s person, because Brewster doesn’t raise his head for anyone else.

  “Hi, Bryan!” Maggie Rose called out. “Did you have a good sleepover?”

  Bryan flopped down on the grass and put his arms around Brewster. I can tell a sad boy when I see one, and so can Brewster, who immediately put his head against Bryan’s side to give comfort.

  Maggie Rose went over to Bryan, so I did, too. Bryan smelled like himself, and Brewster, and peanut butter.

  “What’s wrong, Bryan?” Maggie Rose asked softly. “Did you and Carter get into a fight?”

  Bryan shook his head. Brewster and I looked at each other, wondering what was going on with our people.

  “Then what happened?” Maggie Rose asked.

  “Carter’s moving. To South Carolina.”

  “Oh,” Maggie Rose replied.

  “He’s been my best friend since first grade,” Bryan went on. “Then we moved here to this stupid new house, and I didn’t get to go to school with him anymore. Mom and Dad said they’d drive me anytime I wanted to see him, but they’re always too busy. And now he’s the one who’s moving, and I’m never going to see him again.”

  Maggie Rose sat cross-legged in the grass, so I plopped down next to her. Whatever was going on, it seemed like nobody needed a squeaky toy right now.

  “I’m sorry, Bryan.”

  “Now my only friend in the whole world is Brewster.”

  Brewster perked up his ears. I was sure he could feel the waves of anger and sadness coming off Bryan.

  “Well,” Maggie Rose began, “you and Carter will still be able to write each other. And FaceTime and stuff. And maybe he could come visit in the summers! I read a book where friends stayed together until they were really, really old, like thirty.”

  Bryan looked away. “Not the same thing,” he replied bitterly.

  “So, what about new friends? You could make new friends,” Maggie Rose suggested.

  Bryan snorted. “Like that’s easy. By the time you’re in fifth grade, all the kids have best friends already. Nobody needs a new one.” He got up. “Come on, Brewster.”

  I lay next to Maggie Rose as we watched Bryan walk toward the house. They went in the kitchen door. I was worried that he’d get some peanut butter in there and share it with Brewster but not with me. Maggie Rose was worried, too. I could tell.

  “We have to come up with some way to help Bryan make friends, Lily,” Maggie Rose whispered.

  I didn’t know what she was saying, so I wagged. Maybe there’d be peanut butter soon.

  2

  The next morning, Maggie Rose and I decided that the very first thing we wanted to do when we woke up was to go visit with Mom. Well, actually Maggie Rose decided that, but I was happy to go along. Mom was sitting at the kitchen table eating toast and some other things, too.

  I am always glad to eat a crust of toast, no matter who gives it to me. So I sat hopefully at Mom’s feet.

  “Good morning, Maggie Rose. Want some breakfast?” Mom asked.

  “Yes, please, Mom.”

  Mom stood up and went to the counter and began clinking things together in a way that sounded very much like a good dog was about to get a treat.


  “Mom?” Maggie Rose asked. “We’re going on our trip today? Just us?”

  “That’s right!” Mom put bread in the toaster. I wagged at the smell. “Excited?”

  “Yes.” Maggie Rose nodded. “But…”

  Mom stopped clinking things and turned. “But what, honey?”

  “It’s just…”

  “Just what?”

  “Just, whatever we’re doing, can Bryan come, too?”

  Mom straightened in surprise. “Bryan? I thought you wanted some mother-daughter time.”

  “It’s just that Carter is moving away, and Bryan found out yesterday,” Maggie Rose explained in a rush. “So I thought if we’re going someplace fun, he’d like to go, and maybe he’d have fun, too.”

  Mom came back to the table carrying a plate of things that smelled delicious. She placed it in front of Maggie Rose, so I went and sat next to my girl. “Carter’s moving away? I didn’t know that. That’s going to be so tough for Bryan.” She sighed. “It’s sweet of you to think of inviting him, hon. You’ve got such a good heart. Yes, I’ll ask him. But I don’t think we should bring Brewster along on this trip.”

  “What about Lily?” Maggie Rose asked.

  Mom smiled a little. “Lily can come. In fact, it’s a particularly good trip for Lily.”

  “How come?”

  “You’ll find out. It’s a secret.” Mom smiled more and took a bite of toast.

  I was still sitting and being a good dog when Bryan came shuffling into the kitchen. Bryan always walks as if he’s kicking dirt, even if there isn’t any. “Where’s Craig?” he asked as he sat next to my girl.

  “Your brother’s already helping your father with chores,” Mom replied.

  Bryan groaned. “Just great.”

  I watched them all eat and I noticed that Bryan put peanut butter on his toast. What a wonderful idea! Now we had two kinds of toast right up there on the table. I would love to spend the whole morning tasting first one kind of toast, then the other. We could all do it, and then we’d each decide which was our favorite. My favorite would either be the toast with peanut butter or the toast without.

  “Don’t you want to do chores today?” Maggie Rose teased him.

  “Dad always wants to do chores,” Bryan replied. “If I do them too fast, he gives me more to do, and if I do them too slow, he gives me more to do.”

  “So…” Maggie Rose said slyly, “you want to do something that’s not chores?”

  “Yeah, of course.” Bryan snorted. “Who wouldn’t?”

  “Like come with me and Mom?”

  Bryan hesitated. “Where are you guys going?”

  “It’s a secret,” Mom said, stirring the coffee in her cup.

  Bryan frowned. “It’s not going shopping for clothes, is it? Like new dresses or something?”

  Mom and Maggie Rose both laughed. “No, not that,” Mom told him.

  “Then what?”

  “Come along and find out,” Mom told him.

  All the people seemed to be having a good time talking. But none of them were saying my name, and none of them were giving me any toast. I flopped to the floor with a long, sad sigh, and just then Bryan flicked a bit of toast off the table. It was a crust with peanut butter on it and it bounced right off my nose! I crunched it right up. My favorite!

  “Okay,” Bryan agreed cautiously. “I’ll go.”

  Then a piece of crust fell from my girl’s fingers onto the floor, and I grabbed it just as quickly. It was plain, with no peanut butter. My favorite!

  “All right, then. Put on some old sneakers, because they might get a little dirty,” Mom advised. “Let’s go!”

  Car ride!

  I sat between Maggie Rose and Bryan in the back seat. I licked Maggie Rose and gazed out the window, watching for squirrels. I saw a dog and I barked.

  “Lily! Don’t bark!” Maggie Rose told me. I felt sure she was telling me I was doing a good job of spotting a dog and barking to let it know I had seen it. The other dog didn’t look at me as we went by, probably embarrassed because he didn’t have a car of his own. I went back to searching for squirrels.

  “Are we going to the zoo?” my girl asked.

  “No. Not the zoo,” Mom replied. “But there are animals where we’re going.”

  “The game preserve?” Bryan guessed.

  “No, not to the game preserve.”

  “So it has animals, and Lily is allowed to go,” Maggie Rose said thoughtfully.

  “Oh, I know where we’re going!” Bryan announced. “To a farm!”

  “Exactly right, Bryan. To a farm where Lily knows two of the animals.”

  Bryan frowned at my girl. “Lily knows some farm animals, Maggie Rose?”

  Maggie Rose shook her head. “I don’t think so. Like cows?”

  “No, no cows on this farm.”

  Bryan lifted a hand that smelled marvelously like peanut butter. He scratched his head. “Chickens?”

  “No chickens.”

  “Zebras?” Maggie Rose asked.

  Mom laughed.

  “Crocodiles? Anteaters? Giraffes?” Bryan guessed. All the humans in the car were laughing, so I wagged. People don’t have tails to let others know they’re happy, but laughter is the next best thing.

  “Oh, wait!” Maggie Rose exclaimed. “I know where we’re going!”

  3

  Bryan was staring at Maggie Rose. “So? Where are we going?” he demanded.

  “To visit the pigs!” Maggie Rose replied.

  Bryan looked to Mom. “Really?”

  Bryan was smiling. It was nice that he was no longer unhappy. I thought of Brewster, at Home, lying on Bryan’s bed, believing his boy was still sad. Brewster would be so excited when we returned and his peanut-butter-scented person was cheerful again!

  “It’s been a little while since we dropped off the piglets at their farm, and I want to check up on them,” Mom said. “I try to follow up with all the animals that the rescue places, as best I can. And we don’t get too many baby pigs, so I really want to see how Scamper and Dash are doing.”

  “And that’s why Lily gets to come! She’s friends with the pigs!”

  I knew the word “pig,” but could not smell one or see one out the window. It wasn’t until the car stopped and the doors opened and I was allowed to jump down that I knew why everyone was talking pigs all of a sudden.

  Several smells came to me at once on the warm air. Grass and clover and hay and lots of different animals. I sniffed hard and started to wag, because now I could smell Scamper and Dash!

  Scamper and Dash are two pigs who are my friends. A while ago, they came to Work to drink milk out of bottles and run around like crazy animals. We played and played, and napped, and then Mom or Dad or even Maggie Rose would give them more milk in bottles. But I did not get any of that milk, not even a little bit.

  This happens sometimes, but not because everyone loves pigs more than dogs. People just make bad decisions now and then. A good dog has to put up with it, because dogs are better for people than a couple of pigs, even pigs who can run really fast.

  I’m sure most dogs would agree with me on this.

  I had already forgiven Scamper and Dash for getting bottles of milk when I didn’t, so now, I pulled hard against the leash my girl was holding, dragging her toward their smell. We came to a fence made of long wooden rails with spaces between them. Mom and Bryan followed more slowly.

  “Okay, okay, Lily, I’m coming!” Maggie Rose said as I towed her. “Wait! Lily, wait!”

  I knew she was telling me that she was as excited to see Scamper and Dash as I was.

  On the other side of the wooden fence were three big pigs. One of them was very big, and I recognized her scent. She was the mother pig! Her name was Sadie. But where were my little friends Scamper and Dash?

  The two pigs that were lying in the muck with the mother jumped to their feet and ran over to see me at the fence, squealing and kicking up dirt. They shoved their snouts through the
fence, and when we touched noses I was amazed.

  These big pigs were Scamper and Dash! They used to be babies, and now they were bigger than I was! But they smelled the same, and they were still very friendly. I looked up at Maggie Rose and wiggled impatiently. My girl just had to take me off my leash. It was time to play!

  She reached down and unclicked my leash. “Okay, Lily!” I dove under the bottom rail of the fence, and Scamper and Dash lunged to greet me. We sniffed each other all over.

  Pig is a very interesting smell, not like anything else in the world. It’s wonderfully powerful and musty. Once you’ve smelled pig, you’ll never forget it.

  So Scamper and Dash were now bigger and heavier … but did they still like to run? I took off at a gallop, looking back in hopes that Scamper and Dash remembered the rules and would follow. They did! My feet splashed and slid in wonderful, slippery, squishy mud, and my two pig friends and I tore up and down their pen together.

  The biggest pig lay comfortably in a hollow in the ground where some hay was scattered. Sadie was sort of like Brewster, more interested in lying down than in a wonderful game of Chase-Me. When I ran up to her with my tail wagging, she sniffed my nose gently, but she didn’t get up. She was so huge I wasn’t actually sure she could get up.

  That was all right. Scamper and Dash and I were busy enough. I found a scrap of old rope in a corner of the pen and grabbed it with my teeth. I shook it hard and danced with it, teasing Scamper and Dash, but it seems that pigs don’t understand how to play Tug-the-Rope. Neither of them tried to grab it.

  They did understand Dig, though. When I dropped the rope because I smelled something interesting underneath the dirt, they came to help me claw at the ground. With my paws and their hooves, we sent the dirt flying!

  “Lily, yuck!” I heard Maggie Rose call.

  I found what I’d sniffed out—it was a big chunk of orange peel that had been squashed into the mud. Then I looked over to see what Maggie Rose wanted.