Never Grow Up

Animal Adoption Agency.
“Is this really happening?” Kari screamed. “We’re getting a dog?” Kari unbuckled her seatbelt and leaned forward. “Are we, Dad? Are we?”
Dad turned off the car and looked back at Kari and her siblings. “Yes. We are.” He laughed. “Your mother and I had already discussed it before we moved. And when you gave your presentation last night, we figured today was the perfect time.”
“Plus it’s fun.” Erin grinned from the backseat.
“Sure.” Dad winked at Erin. “That, too. We think you kids are ready for the challenge.”
“Like what kind of challenge?” Kari leaned forward.
“Like feeding the dog twice a day. Walking it. Cleaning up after it.” Dad nodded. “Are you up for the challenge?”
“Yes!” Brooke clasped her hands together.
Ashley nodded. “Yes. One hundred million percent yes.”
“I’m in.” Luke bounced a few times. “I’ll do whatever it takes. Two thumbs up.”
“I’m in, too!” Erin squealed, and Kari said the same thing.
“Let’s go, then!” Dad shouted as they made their way into the building. “We decided to adopt a dog. A puppy without a home.”
“Ms. Nan talked about that last week.” Kari could hardly wait to get inside. “Lots of dogs need adopting.”
Inside, they walked up and down several rows of dogs. Old dogs with white beards and young, hoppy dogs with extra energy. They saw tall dogs with spots and squatty dogs with wrinkles. At every cage, they stopped and said hello. But none of them seemed like the right one.
Until the very last cage.
There behind the bars was a brown furry puppy with big eyes and a waggy tail. He wasn’t barking like some of the dogs and he wasn’t crying like others. Kari thought the puppy almost seemed like he was smiling.
“Awww, he looks happy.” Luke bent down. “Hello, boy! Do you like us?”
The puppy walked over and licked Luke’s finger.
“I think that’s a yes!” Dad lowered himself near Luke. He petted the puppy’s cute head and then looked back at Kari. “What do you think?”
Kari’s feet were dancing before she could answer. “Yes! He’s our puppy! I love him already.”
The others gathered around and Brooke looked at the sign on the cage. “It says his name is Bo!” She reached in and patted the puppy. “He’s perfect. I feel happier already!”
Everyone laughed and the adoption worker unlocked Bo’s cage. “He’s a sweet puppy.” The girl didn’t look much older than Brooke. “Golden retriever and Rhodesian ridgeback mix.” She opened the cage door. “Someone left him on the side of the road. No family. No collar.”
Kari’s heart broke at that news. “Well, he has a family now!”
The worker put the puppy down. His tail swished back and forth while he went around the circle of Kari’s family.
“It’s like he already knows.” Mom was last to pet the little dog. “He sure is cute.”
“That settles it!” Dad swept the puppy into his arms and, after a few minutes of paperwork, Kari’s family and their new pet were back in the van.
“He’s so precious.” Kari rubbed noses with their new dog. She and her siblings took turns holding the puppy on the way home.
Ashley put her face against his. “Bo Baxter!” She looked around. “What could be more perfect?”
Back at home everyone spent the rest of the day playing outside with Bo. But he was an inside dog, too. Dad and Mom said so. Which meant this was the actual best Saturday in the Baxter family history. The kids all agreed.
Before dinner Kari found her journal and turned to the first blank page.
I can’t believe it! We have a new puppy! He had a rough start. Someone left him on the side of the road. And that’s not very nice because God made puppies to be in families. Not in cages or on lonely highways. But I’m not going to be sad about Bo’s old life. He’s our dog now!
Which could only mean one thing: Kari’s presentation had worked! The Baxters had a new puppy, Brooke had a reason to smile, and Dad had a best friend. But most of all their little brown dog would never be alone again.
Bo was home.

6
Last of the Toads
ASHLEY
Sunday school was almost over and Ashley was running out of time. She was painting a red barn for the top of Noah’s Ark, something Noah should’ve done. Somewhere for the horses to sleep. One more brush of red across the side of the barn and it would be perfect.
In a rush, Ashley dabbed her paintbrush deep into the red jar, but she pulled it out too fast, and the jar tipped hard on its side. Red paint poured out like the flood in Noah’s story. It flowed across the table and then over Ashley’s painting of the Ark and the red barn.
It didn’t stop there.
“Hey!” Natalie used a piece of paper to shield her drawing of Noah and a pair of zebras from the red spill, but it was too late. “This was my best painting!”
“Yikes.” Ashley spoke the word very softly. One simple mistake and the whole art table was on the edge of destruction. “I’m sorry, Natalie!”
Paint moved like a red river across the rest of Natalie’s picture and then over Landon’s drawing of what looked like a submarine-type ark. Landon laughed as his drawing disappeared in red. Clearly his picture wasn’t the greatest loss of the moment.
“Someone, help!” Natalie grabbed a paper towel and tried to wipe the red paint off her drawing, but it only made things worse. The more she wiped, the more her work disappeared.
“It’s a real-life flood!” Ashley jumped around and waved her arms. “Teacher! Help!”
They had a substitute Sunday school teacher that day. Substitute meant the normally nice and helpful Miss Diane had been replaced by a girl who must not have known how to put paint in a flat dish.
Tall jars were never a good idea. At least around Ashley.
Suddenly the new teacher sprinted into action. She found a roll of paper towels and