Pets

= Dog in the Pool, by Caroline =

It was what we all thought would just be a normal Sunday afternoon, and my entire family was at the pool. It was hot out and the pool water was nice and cool. My parents were sitting at the table in the back of the pool area, and my little brother Nate was playing with my family’s dog Freddy. My big brother Tim and my little sister Leah and I were swimming in the pool. My siblings and I weren't fighting at all. It was a warm summer day, and everything was just going a little too perfect.

“Mom and dad, can we let Freddy go on the pool deck?” I shouted to my parents.

“Sure, just watch him carefully and make sure he doesn’t fall in the pool!” My mom shouted back. Nate ran onto the pool deck and called Freddy. Freddy is a basset hound, so when he runs his ears fly out behind him and he takes a long time because his legs are so short. He walked up to the edge of the pool towards Tim, Leah, and I and sniffed around. We splashed him a little bit and showed him the water. He seemed to like it! Freddy cautiously leaned over the edge of the pool deck and sniffed the water. He started to drink the pool water!

“Guys, back away from him. He’s not going to jump in or anything.” Tim said.

“Yeah, he will probably just go and lay under the bench or go to the grass now.” Leah agreed. We all backed away a tiny bit. Freddy’s paws were half way off the pool deck. His long, brown ears touched the surface of the water as he lapped up the water. He slowly started to back away from the pool.

“See, he won't-“ Leah started to say. But it was too late. Freddy had jumped off of the pool deck. His paws stretched forward and his ears flapped in the air. His long basset hound body had left the pool deck. We all watched, with our mouths open, as he landed in the water. He wiggled around underwater and thrashed his head around. We all started to shout, and we swam towards him.

“I got him!” Tim shouted and he lifted Freddy up so he wasn’t underwater. I helped him hold Freddy.

“MOM! DAD! HELP!” Nate shouted.

My dad ran to us with a bunch of towels and m y mom grabbed her phone. When they got over to us they took a picture of Freddy, who was making that face you make when you trip and then you pretend it didn’t happen.

Everything was okay but we realized that we had to be more careful with Freddy from now on.

Snake in the Basement, by Tres

One night I was watching a movie with my family in my living room. My dad spoke up in the middle of the movie and said, “I gotta go downstairs to take care of some work.”

I expected him to take about an hour to take care of his work so I was pretty surprised when he came up 5 minutes later. “You done already!?”

“No, I found a snake, I think it is a python.” The first to react to his reply was my grandmother; she immediately ran away and didn’t come back.

“Should we call my tennis coach? He is pretty good at handling animals especially snakes since he has one as a pet!”

“I don’t think he’ll be awake right now, it’s pretty late already.” I started to worry; I didn’t know anyone else that could actually take care of animals like snakes.

“Ok, so what are we going to do?” asked my brother sounding a little bit worried. “We’re not gonna go to sleep knowing that there is a python in the house, right?”

“Yes Ty,” replied my mother. “We’ll find a way.”

My dad then went back down to try and make the snake get out of the house but came back up seconds later with no luck. “I can’t seem to do anything, it always seems like it is going to try and bite me.

“OKAY! I AM READY TO DO THIS!” I turned around to see who it was and I was shocked when I realized it was my grandmother holding a broomstick.

“Wait, so what are you gonna do with that broomstick?” I asked my grandmother.

“I’m gonna whack that snake!”

“Um…Okay then and good luck.” Then my grandmother and my dad went down to try once more.

I couldn’t concentrate on the movie anymore so I turned it off and my brother didn’t complain so he must have thought the same thing as me. I wondered how they were doing down there. How were they going to get the snake to come out of the house? There was no exit down there so it was going to have to come upstairs to go outside... wait…how did it get in the first place? Later on my dad told me that he thinks the snake was able to get in the house because he accidentally left a small window open and it went inside.

I heard some footsteps; they were my dad’s. I was relieved to realize that they were able to handle the snake. He was carrying a plastic bag and I realized it was the snake and it was very, very still. “Wait, so you killed it?”

“Yeah, we didn’t really have any choice.”

“And what about grandma?”

“Well…She did almost nothing and I had to do everything. The only thing that she did was hit that snake when I already killed it.”

I was very relieved now that I could go to sleep without thinking that there might be a snake moving around in my house.