ADOPTION

Written by Bokei Thompson (age: 9)

Bokei stood in the dining room, facing her dad. “Dad? Please? Pleaase? Could we just go?” the third grader asked. “Please, can we go to the animal shelter?”

“Fine, but we are not adopting, okay?” the senior man agreed. “Yay! Thanks, Dad!” the brown-haired, pale girl said happily, a smile beaming on her face.

 About thirty minutes passed, and Bokei’s whole family was getting in the car, even her Chinese grandmother who did not like to be in a public place, because she didn’t understand a thing anyone was saying. She was probably the first one in the car. Bokei watched as her grandmother came in, sitting in the middle back seat of the car, next to her, before her twin brother, Bolun, climbed in after her. She saw her mother and father, her father taking up the wheel, and her mother at the passenger seat in the front. Her dad started the engine, and quietly pulled out of the garage, electric mode on. He switched gears, turning on the gasoline, and with a steady vroom they were off.

They drove for about twenty minutes and then got there. Bokei bounced out of the car. “Yay! Finally!” she said happily. Bokei itched to get in, but knew to wait for the rest of her family. In a few moments, they were crossing the street to get in.

“Hi, welcome to the Humane Society.” said a shopkeeper half-heartedly, obviously faking an energetic tone. Bokei’s gaze flickered over to her, and then rested on a cage in the front, holding a sign that read: Old. Must feed soft food. Bokei crouched town in front of it, and let her finger stick into the cage, seeing the old brown tabby cat stretch its pink nose over and tap her finger. The shy third grader let out a soft giggle and pulled away.

“Why don’t we see the dogs?” Bokei’s mother suggested, leading the group over to a door that lead to some dogs. She heard the barking, and knew where they were heading, but her gaze was locked on the door that lead to the cats.

Turning to face the dogs, she found herself in a grey room with rows of dogs. Three cages stacked upon each other, about seven rows. She saw a hyper little Chihuahua bouncing around in its little cage. She felt sorry for it, being confined in such a small area when it really needed a big space to jump around in. But when she got close, it barbed its teeth and a low growl sounded in its throat. She reeled back a step, and then observed a German Shepard.

“Can we go see the cats now?” the pale girl said finally, after about ten minutes. “Sure.” her dad replied. She walked out of the room with her family. “Where are the cats?” her dad asked the shopkeeper, and she directed them over into the door she had been staring at. They browsed through several rows of cats, before seeing a small, hardened plastic room with two-month old cats in it. She looked through the clear plastic for about four minutes or so, and then a shopkeeper came along. “Would you like to see the cats?” she asked. “Yep!” the brown-haired girl replied, smiling. She watched as the well-tanned shop-keeper shifted through her keys and found a rusty-ish silver key and unlocked the door to the cats, opening it for Bokei’s family. She went in, and spotted a small grey and white tabby washing herself. She was the only cat awake. There was one stunning white cat, which she would be happy to get, having a liking for white cats anyway, but didn’t want to disturb the sleeping cats. The rest of her family stayed out side to not bother her, along with the shopkeeper.

The cat licked her toes. Bokei was wearing sandals, and she smiled, with a small giggle. That tickles! Bokei thought playfully.

After about fifteen minutes, she went out. “I wish I could get her,” the girl said wistfully, plopping herself down on the bench that her family was seated on. By then the shopkeeper went back onto her business.

“Well, you can.”

Bokei stared at her father in amazement. “R-really?” she finally managed to get out. “Yep.” He confirmed. Bokei could barely keep herself from yelling out in excitement. “Thank you, thank you, thank you!” she elated, dark brown eyes shining. She watched as her father went over to talk to the lady at the desk, and decided not to listen to their boring talk while filling out forms, although she did hear something about ‘pre-adoption’, but didn’t listen much. In the meanwhile, she entered the small room again and crouched down on the dirty cyan rug floor, stroking Omaha.

“I’ve got it all arranged!”

They drove home, and Bokei had a warm feeling. They had told them to come back a little later so they could de-flee it and give it a few vaccines. They agreed, and now they were driving back. She stared out the window the whole way, and finally caught the sight of the building, and in a minute or so, they were coming into the building, where someone was waiting with a pink cage in his hand and in another, a Ziploc bag full of brown pellets. He helped load her into Bokei’s father’s cat carrier, though very roughly, just dumping her in the carrier.

“The cat food is her normal food. Pour some into the food you buy for her and slowly decrease the amount for her to get used to it.” He explained quickly, handing it to Bokei’s father.

“Bokei, would you like to carry the food?” her father asked. “Yhea!” she replied enthusiastically, though pre-occupied staring at the cat. She took the bag.

“You ready?”
“Yhea.”

Bokei’s father set the cage into her lap. She put it into the middle seat, right next to her.
“Yhea? Yhea… it’s gonna be all right… aw! Yhea, Lily?”