Kristy shook her head. “We’ve got enough pets at our house already.”
Dawn shook her head. “I like hamsters, but if I get a pet, I’d like a bigger one. A cat or a dog.”
I looked at Mallory. She seemed thoughtful. “We’ve got ten people in our family,” she said slowly, “but no pets. I don’t see why we couldn’t get one little pet. The younger kids would like a hamster. So would the boys. Well, so would all of us.” Mallory dove for the phone. “Mom! Mom!” she cried.
(I could just imagine Mrs. Pike saying, “What on earth is the matter?”)
“Mom, the Mancusis are going to give the hamster babies away. In about three weeks, I think.” (I nodded.) “Could we have one? It would be a good experience for Claire and Margo. And I think Nicky would like a pet …Yeah? …I know …Okay …Okay, thanks! This is great! ’Bye, Mom.” Mallory hung up. “We can have one!” she announced. “We’ll be getting our first pet, too!”
I have never seen so much excitement.
Then the phone rang and we lined up three jobs.
When the phone rang a fourth time, Mary Anne opened the record book again, and we sat up eagerly. I picked up the receiver. “Hello, Baby-sitters Club,” I said.
“Hi,” answered a very small voice. “I — This is Jackie Rodowsky. Is Kristy there, please?”
“Sure, Jackie. Hold on,” I told him.
I handed the phone to Kristy, whispering, “It’s Jackie Rodowsky.”
Kristy raised her eyebrows. “Hi, Jackie.”
That was all she said, and Jackie burst into tears.
“What’s wrong?” she asked him. “What happened? Is your mom home?”
“She’s here,” Jackie told her. “And I’m okay. I mean, I’m not hurt. But we had our class elections today.”
“Oh,” said Kristy. “Right. And what happened?”
“I lost. Adrienne beat me. I tried and tried to show the kids that I could take care of Snowball. But I don’t think they believed me.” Jackie paused. When he started speaking again, his voice was trembling. “I just — just wanted a pet to take care of by myself. That’s all.”
“Jackie,” said Kristy gently, “I’m sorry you lost. I’m sorry the kids wouldn’t pay attention to you. Really I am. Sometimes things just work out that way. But listen, could I talk to your mom for a sec, please?” There was a pause while Kristy waited for Mrs. Rodowsky to get on the phone. Then she said, “Hi, Mrs. Rodowsky. This is Kristy Thomas. Jackie told me about the elections today and I was wondering — could he have a pet of his own? I think he wants one, and I know where he could get a free hamster…. Yes…. Really? Oh, terrific! Could I talk to Jackie again, please?”
So Kristy gave Jackie the good news about his hamster.
“My own? My own hamster?” Jackie shrieked. “Amazing! What will I name it? Is it a boy or a girl? What color is it?”
Kristy couldn’t answer his questions, so we arranged for me to take him over to the Mancusis’ in a couple of weeks. The hamsters wouldn’t be ready to leave their mother yet, but Jackie could look at them and pet them and play with them in order to choose the one that would become his very own. Jackie liked the idea a lot. So he thanked Kristy eleven times and then they got off the phone.
“Well, all’s well that ends well,” said Kristy.
“Huh?” said Claudia.
“I mean, happy endings everywhere you look. We got our club problems straightened out. The sick hamster turned out to be pregnant, and then she had her babies and they were born without any trouble, and now Jessi and Mallory’s families will have their first pets, and Jackie lost the election but he got a hamster. Happy endings.”
“Yeah,” I said, smiling.
The numbers on Claudia’s digital clock turned from 5:59 to 6:00.
“Meeting adjourned,” announced our president.
I walked out with Mal. “I wonder,” I said, “if I could talk Becca into changing Misty’s name to Mancusi.”
“Darn!” said Mallory. “That’s what I wanted to name our hamster.”
“Really?”
“Nah.”
We giggled.
“Call you tonight!” I shouted to Mal as we separated.
Best friends have to talk a lot.
* * *
Dear Reader,
I love pets. When I was growing up, my family had, at one time or another, tropical fish, hamsters, mice, guinea pigs, turtles, and many, many cats. The cats were Tigger (I named Mary Anne’s kitten after him), Kiki, Fluffy, Honey (Fluffy’s daughter), Sweetheart, Jerry, and Pumpkin. When I graduated from college, the first thing I got was a cat of my own — Spanky. After Spanky came Charlie, Mouse, and Rosie. Now I have Gussie and Woody. Gussie and Woody didn’t get along at first, but now they are best friends. Their favorite game involves leaping out at each other from inside wastebaskets. I find overturned wastebaskets all over the house.
Because I like animals so much, I thought it would be fun writing about a family with lots of pets, so I created the Mancusis. And because one of my hamsters had babies when I was young, I created Snicklefritz for Jessi Ramsey, Pet-sitter.
Happy reading,
Ann M. Martin
* * *
About the Author
ANN MATTHEWS MARTIN was born on August 12, 1955. She grew up in Princeton, New Jersey, with her parents and her younger sister, Jane.
There are currently over 176 million copies of The Baby-sitters Club in print. (If you stacked all of these books up, the pile would be 21,245 miles high.)In addition to The Baby-sitters Club, Ann is the author of two other series, Main Street and Family Tree. Her novels include Belle Teal, A Corner of the Universe (a Newbery Honor book), Here Today, A Dog’s Life, On Christmas Eve, Everything for a Dog, Ten Rules for Living with My Sister, and Ten Good and Bad Things About My Life (So Far). She is also the coauthor, with Laura Godwin, of the Doll People series.
Ann lives in upstate New York with her dog and her cats.
Copyright © 1989 by Ann M. Martin.
Cover art by Hodges Soileau
All rights reserved. Published by Scholastic Inc. SCHOLASTIC, THE BABY-SITTERS CLUB, and associated logos are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of Scholastic Inc.
First edition, February 1997
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. No part of this publication may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereafter invented, without the express written permission of the publisher. For information regarding permission, write to Scholastic Inc., Attention: Permissions Department, 557 Broadway, New York, NY 10012.
e-ISBN 978-0-545-62807-5
Ann M. Martin, Jessi Ramsey, Pet-Sitter
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