Animal Shelter

Today, my mom took Zoe and me to the animal shelter nearby. I'm still not all that keen on the idea of getting a new dog, but my mom insisted that I stop moping around the house and gave me two options: either I come with her to the animal shelter, or I work on finishing a to-do list as long as my arm. For obvious reasons, I chose the shelter.

When we walked in the front door, there was a very friendly receptionist that greeted us. She showed us into the room where they kept all the animals and told us that we could take a look around.

There was a stand with a couple of birds sitting on it, a basket with a pink poodle, one with a cat, one with some hamsters and a couple of rabbits, and one with two dogs. I went over to greet the poodle first.

A woman in a blue coat with the word "Volunteer" stitched onto the arm came up behind me.
"That's Cotton-Candy," she told me. "We just call her CC."
"She's cute," I said, giving her pink, curly fur another pat. But she wasn't Shiloh.

A few moments later, I heard a cry from across the room. I turned to see Zoe with a yellow bird balanced on her shoulder.

"Cool!" I cried. "What kind of bird is she?"
"I dunno, but she sure is smart," Zoe said, turning to the bird. "Who's a pretty bird?" The bird responded by chirping loudly.
The woman in the blue coat appeared behind us again.
"That's a goldfinch," she told us. "And that one is a male, actually. Female goldfinches have much duller-colored feathers. Here, feed him some of these seeds - he loves them." I left Zoe feeding the seeds to the goldfinch and wandered over to the rabbit pen.

I picked up one of the bunnies from the basket and gave her a pat. She was so soft and cute!

I thought about asking Mom for a bunny, but she always says that she can't stand to see animals cooped up in cages like rabbits have to be. With a sigh, I set the bunny down and went to look at the dogs.

Zoe was already there, playing with an excitable golden retriever.

Over in the other corner of the pen was another golden retriever. But this one seemed a bit more shy. I reached out my hand to give her a pat.

She sat up in the side of the pen to give me a curious sniff. She was even softer and more adorable than the bunny! I loved her at first sight.

"Zoe, come here and look at this dog," I said over my shoulder. "Isn't she adorable?"

Zoe gave her a tentative pat. I could see it growing in her face - there was something utterly lovable about this dog.

Mom came up behind us.
"What do you think?" she asked.
"Well. . ." I hesitated. The dog was awfully cute, but it seemed like an insult to Shiloh's memory to choose another dog so fast. "Maybe a little later. It's hardly been a week since Shiloh went missing." Zoe nodded in agreement.

Even so, as we were walking out the front door, I couldn't help but look over my shoulder one last time.
What happens if someone else takes her? But we can't get a dog so soon after Shiloh left - can we? What should we do?

That's all for now! Thanks for reading!

Shiloh's Missing!

If you haven't already discovered this from the title of this post, Shiloh has gone missing!

Zoe and I got off the bus yesterday at our stop, and we raced home like we always do. We let ourselves in the front door and grabbed some cookies from the cupboard, and sat down in the living room to do our homework.
After a few minutes of scribbling answers to math problems, I got the feeling that something was wrong.
"Zoe?"
"Yeah?" she responded. I struggled to find the reason for my unease. As I was puzzling it over, it suddenly hit me.
"Zoe, where's Shiloh?" I asked, suddenly anxious. She looked up at me, shocked.
"What?"
"He always greets us at the door," I said. "Today he didn't."
"Maybe Mom just let him out in the backyard," Zoe suggested, leaving the book she was reading for English on the couch and getting up to search.
We peered out the window that faced the backyard, but saw nothing but a gate dangling off its hinges. I aimed a panicked look at Zoe.
"Okay, don't freak out yet," she said, but I could tell from her expression that she was about to start doing just that.
"I'm gonna call Mom!" I cried, running into the kitchen and picking up the phone. I dialed Mom's cell number and waited impatiently for her to pick up.
"Hello?" I finally heard on the other end.
"Mom?"
"Charlotte?" she responded. "Are you and Zoe all right?"
"Yes, yes, we're fine," I answered. "It's about Shiloh. Did you let him out in the backyard earlier?"
"Yes, I did," she said, sounding bewildered. "Why, Charlotte? What's wrong?"
"Well, the gate's off its hinges and Shiloh's not in the backyard."
Silence fell on the other end of the line.
"Is this a joke?" Mom asked, her voice strained.
"No, this is not a joke!" I cried. "He's missing, Mom! What are we supposed to do?"
"I don't know," she said. "Wait until I get home to do anything. I don't want you girls wandering around alone in the woods without anyone at home."
"Then get home soon," I told her, and hung up. I turned to tell Zoe the bad news.

It was a depressed silence that hovered over the living room as we waited for Mom to get home. I read the same word problem over and over to myself without absorbing a single letter of it.
Shiloh's not the youngest dog in the world, I thought anxiously. What if he forgot the way home? What if he's lost out in the cold and the dark?
A loud bang! startled me out of my thoughts. I looked up to see Mom standing in front of the now-closed front door, her forehead creased with worry.
Without pausing, Zoe and I leapt up, grabbed a couple of flashlights, and pulled on coats, boots, and gloves. Mom made sure we took a cell phone with us, and told us that she would stay home in case we ran into trouble. Zoe and I ran out into the night.

We came home three hours later, our throats sore from calling and our fingers and toes numb with the cold. Mom gave us a hopeful look as we walked in the front door, but it turned to one of concern when she realized that Shiloh was not with us.
I couldn't fall asleep that night. Shiloh always slept at the bottom of my bed, and the silence left in the absence of his slow, even breathing was eerie.

Shiloh went missing five days ago. We've put up flyers all around our neighborhood, but so far no one has called to tell us they've seen him.
I'm beginning to get really worried. What if he never finds his way home? Mom told me that we could go to the pound and pick out another dog, but I told her that wasn't going to happen. Not for a while, at least.
  Have you ever lost a pet? Did they find their way home?

US Marine Band

Hi everyone!

As many of you might not know, I'm in the concert band at school. I play the flute mostly, but I can play the piccolo too - just not very well.

Last week, our band teacher told us something very exciting. The US Marine Band - one of the best bands in the nation and the world - was performing at a college nearby on Monday night! I was so excited! He told us that this was a once-in-a-lifetime experience, and he wanted to see all of us there. Well, I decided, he was going to see me there for sure - I wasn't going to miss this for anything!

When I was getting ready for the concert on Monday night, the phone rang. Mom called up the stairs, "Charlotte! It's for you!"
"Coming!" I replied. I pulled my shirt over my head and sprinted downstairs to grab the phone.
"Hello?" I said, breathless from my dash down the stairs.
"Charlotte? It's Saoirse."
"Saoirse?!" I cried. "Omigosh! I haven't talked to you in so long! How are you? Zoe and I are good. Did I tell you about that time the other day when Zoe and I were raking leaves and -" I started talking very fast, the words spilling over each other.
"Yes, Charlotte, you told me that already," Saoirse cut me off, sighing.
"Oh, that's right. Me and my short-term memory loss!" I laughed. My chronic forgetfulness was an ongoing joke between the two of us. I heard her rather forced laughter on the other end. Well, maybe it was only funny to me. "So, what are you calling about?" 
"Well, my mom got tickets to see the Marine Band and I was wondering if you wanted to come with -" I cut her off with my shrieks.
"Omigosh! I'm going already with my mom - my band teacher told me about it! Isn't it exciting?" I cried.
"Yeah, yeah. I'll see you there," she said, and hung up.
I put down the phone and tore back up the stairs to finish getting dressed.

About a half hour later, my mom pulled into the parking lot at the field house. I leapt out of the car and waited impatiently as she took her time getting out. We joined the long line of mostly old people trying to get through the front door. I waited even more impatiently, bouncing up and down, as the line crawled forward.
Mom and I finally reached the door to the field house, handed a woman our tickets, and then finally, finally, we were inside. I looked quickly around the room, looking for a hint of bright red hair. I didn't see any - the field house was a sea of white heads. I was still looking around anxiously, hoping that Saoirse was going to make it, when I heard someone call behind me.
"Charlotte!" Saoirse yelled.
"Saoirse!" I cried back excitedly, as I turned to see her coming through the door with her mom. "You made it!" I ran over to give her a big hug.
"Yeah, yeah," she said, shrugging out from underneath my arms. "Let's sit down, the concert's about to start."

There wasn't time to say anything else; just then, the announcer cleared his throat into the microphone and silence fell across the auditorium. The four of us found seats near the back - which, unfortunately, made it hard to see anything but the tops of the musicians' heads - and settled in to listen.

My favorite part was the piccolo solo in one of the last songs on the program - four piccolo players stood in the front of the stage where I could actually see them and played an incredibly difficult piece! I had always thought that I was a good piccolo player, but seeing them made me feel so... average. I couldn't imagine ever being able to play that well!

As the audience pushed and shoved to get out the front door after the concert was over, I heard the loud hammering of rain on the roof. I groaned, imagining the long walk out to the car in my nice clothes - I hadn't even brought a raincoat! My mom suggested to me that I take off my nice shoes and make a run for the car. I was averse to that idea at first - what if I stepped on a piece of broken glass or something? But I didn't want to get my favorite shoes all wet and muddy, so I reluctantly agreed.
I gave Saoirse a big bear hug before we stepped out into the rain, and she rather tentatively hugged me back. I gave her a cheery wave and a "hope to see you soon!" as my mom and I flew out into the downpour.
By the time we reached the car, we were drenched and panting, but exhilarated. I had water and sand sprayed up the sides of my legs, but I didn't care - I was washable, and besides, I loved to run, especially in the rain!

I loved going to see the concert, and I would definitely go again if I ever had the chance. It really was amazing!
Have you ever gone to a concert like Saoirse and I did? What was it like?

That's all for now! Thanks for reading!

Happy (early) Halloween!

Hey everyone!

I finally decided what I wanted to be for Halloween - a black cat! My mom and I went shopping over the weekend to see if we could find a cat costume, but at the few stores we tried, there were none! All that we could find was a pair of cat ears and a tail, which was too bad, but still, it was better than nothing.

I dressed up in a pair of black jeggings, brown boots, and black t-shirt, and Mom made me some whiskers out of pipe cleaners. I have to say, it turned out better than I expected!

Zoe finally consented to coming trick-or-treating with me. She decided to at the last minute, so we didn't have time to get her a proper costume. I found an old witch hat in my closet, and I gave her Alexandria Beauregard's cape and belt, and tried to convince her to wear a skirt. She adamantly refused, telling me that she wouldn't go at all if I made her wear a skirt.
"Please?" I begged.
"No way! There is no one on the entire planet that is going to be able to get me into a skirt," she told me. I sighed and went to find her some tights instead. The best I could find were some blue calf-length ones, but she didn't seem to mind.
Mom took these pictures of Zoe when we tried on our costumes this afternoon. Isn't she pretty?

We haven't carved our pumpkin yet - it's our tradition to wait until Halloween night. I can't believe it's only 2 days away! I'm so excited - I love everything about Halloween, from carving pumpkins to dressing up to getting free candy! What's your favorite part (or parts!) of Halloween? What are you going to dress up as this year?

That's all for now! Thanks for reading!

Raking Leaves

Sorry I haven't posted in so long... I think it's been over a month! I've been super busy with school and homework, but this week we have a four-day weekend, so I've finally had some free time.

But of course, before I could do what I wanted, Zoe and I had to help my mom rake the lawn so my dad could mow. Zoe and I carried on our annual tradition of making a leaf maze. You can't see it so well in the picture, but it was really big! It covered almost the entire lawn!

 

 

After we had run it a few times, Dad came out and told us that we had to rake it up so he could mow. Zoe groaned, but I didn't care. After all, the whole fun of the leaf maze was making it. Besides, there were plenty more leaves on the trees around the lawn, and they'd be falling pretty soon.

 

Mom helped me and Zoe rake all the leaves into one huge pile in the middle of the lawn.

 

Yesterday, it rained, so the leaves were all wet and slimy. Of course, Zoe didn't care about that. She took a running jump and dove into the pile.

 

 

I walked up to her with my nose wrinkled.

 

"Eww... Zoe, there are probably all kinds of mushrooms and slugs in there. You'll get your clothes all slimy!"

"What do I care about clothes?" she laughed, climbing down from the pile. "Come on, you should try it! It's really fun!"

 

"No way!" I said, shaking my head and backing up. She rolled her eyes and walked back a few steps to take another jump.

At least, that's where I thought she was going.

Really, she was creeping up behind me, and just as I sensed that there was someone behind me -

 

- she gave me a big push, right into the pile of wet leaves!

 

She was laughing hysterically at the look on my face, and didn't notice when I stood up and grabbed her arm, then threw her right back into the pile.

 

My clothes were already wet after that, so I figured I might as well jump in again. We spent the rest of the afternoon diving into the pile until it wasn't even a pile anymore - just a bunch of wet leaves and bits of grass spread across the lawn. My dad came outside and yelled at us to clean it up . . . or else.

 

Mom came out with some donuts and hot chocolate for the two of us after the whole pile had been raked into the woods. We sat on the porch while we ate them.

 

I can't believe it's already October! October means Halloween, and Halloween means trick-or-treating! I'm having trouble deciding what I want to be this year, though. I was thinking maybe a black cat or a ballerina - possibly Tinkerbell. Zoe says she's too old for trick-or-treating, but I told her that no one can be too old for Halloween. You get to dress up and you get free candy! What's not to love?

Are you going trick-or-treating this year? What will you dress up as? What's your favorite part about Halloween?

 

I'll try to post more often if I can - 6th grade is a lot of fun, but it's also a lot of work!

That's all for now! Thanks for reading!

 

First Day of School!

Today was Zoe and my first day of sixth grade. I've been bouncing back and forth between being really excited and scared out of my wits. The nerves took over once we reached the front doors, and all of a sudden I wanted to run back to the car and have Mom drive me home. But Zoe, being the ever daring person that she is, just rolled her eyes and grabbed my arm, pushing open the doors with her free hand.

Now what? I thought, as we stood there in the main lobby, people and teachers all milling around us. Where are we supposed to go? What are we supposed to do? I turned to Zoe, panicking, and for the first time that morning, she looked as nervous as I felt.

Then, to  our great relief, we heard a teacher calling, "Sixth graders! Sixth graders over here!" Zoe and I hurried over to the woman. She smiled at us and asked for our names.

"Charlotte and Zoe Tate," I told her over the voices of the quickly expanding mob of students around us.

"Tate, Tate," she mumbled. "All right, you two will be with Mr. Mortenson." She pointed to a man standing behind her. He grinned and waved at us. I grimaced. He wore a bright pink hawaiian shirt decorated lavishly with pictures of pineapples and ukeleles, and he had braided his beard into a long strand that he seemed to be constantly stroking. His hair was tied into a wild ponytail, and his eyebrows were so bushy that it was a wonder that he could see out of them at all. When I looked down at his feet, I found them to be fit into bright blue flip-flops, and his tattered denim shorts revealed legs that were so covered in thick, black hair that you could hardly see his skin.

I looked at my sister, stricken. He was still grinning goofily at us, revealing very crooked, very yellow teeth. Zoe wasn't trying to hide the look of absolute disgust that was forming on her face. This was the man that we would have to see every single morning for an entire year?

"Follow me, girls," he told us. We followed him obediently, along with a handful of other sixth graders. The looks of disgust on our faces were echoed on theirs. I caught Zoe's eye, and we both dissolved into giggles.

 

Once we got to his room, we soon discovered that as a person he wasn't all that bad; actually, he sounded like he would be a very fun homeroom teacher. But his physical appearance was beyond revolting - I almost threw up when I saw that he had long strands of black hair growing out of the collar of his shirt.

Besides that obvious setback, all in all it was a pretty good day. It turns out that Zoe and I have homeroom, lunch, and math together (we're both in the advanced program), and a lot of people from my elementary school that I know pretty well are in some of my classes. The classes themselves sound pretty interesting, and the teachers seem strict but nice at the same time. Luckily, they didn't assign any homework yet, but that's probably going to change pretty soon!

 

Here are some pictures that my mom took of us as we were waiting for the bus. Zoe refused to dress up, even though we were getting our pictures taken at school today! Mom has long since stopped trying to convince her to wear nice clothes, so she just let her go in sweat pants and a tank top.



 

It's sad that summer's over, but sixth grade so far sounds like it'll be pretty fun! There wasn't any reason for me to be nervous about it! Do you still go to school? Were you (or are you) ever nervous about the first day at a new school?

That's all for now! Thanks for reading!

Trip to the Cove!

 Yesterday, Mom was having some friends over for dinner, so she was going crazy cleaning the house and cooking enough food to feed 20 people, even though she only had to feed 10. She was totally frazzled and very on edge, so Zoe and I decided it would probably be best for us to get out of her hair. It was a hot day, so we decided to bike down to the cove and go swimming.

Well, the moment that we got there, we realized that swimming wouldn't be an option, unless we wanted to walk out across the mudflats for a few hundred feet, and then go swimming in the few inches of mucky water that was left behind when the tide went out. We didn't want to do that (well, Zoe did, but I didn't let her), so instead we decided to go exploring on the rocks.

Here are just some pictures I took of the cove as we were coming down the path.

We left our bikes in the bushes at the end of the path, and climbed down the hill to the water.

 

At the bottom of the hill, I had already started down the grassy path towards the rocks when I heard Zoe cry from behind me, "Charlotte! You have to come see this!"

"What?" I asked. I found her standing next to the shell of a massive horseshoe crab.

"Whoa! That is HUGE!" I cried, staring wide-eyed at the shell. "It's kinda creepy, though."

"Are you kidding? It's awesome!" Zoe said. "I dare you to touch it!"

"Ew! No way!" I told her, backing away from the crab on the spot. Zoe laughed, but followed me away from the shell.

We walked off down the grassy path towards the big rocks in the distance.

  We had to climb over a bunch of loose rocks - all covered in bird poop - to get to the end of the path.

After we had climbed over the rocks, we came to a muddy little path surrounded by marsh grasses and dotted with flat stones. I hopped from rock to rock to make my way along the path, not wanting to get any of the greenish mud on my converse sneakers. Zoe, of course, had no trouble with getting mud on her footwear, and charged right through the mud without a pause.

When we emerged from the muddy path, we were faced with a very tall boulder.

I found a place to put my foot, and started climbing.

Hooray! I made it to the top!

On another side of the rock, Zoe was climbing up too.

Zoe wobbled as she neared the top, and I reached down to grab her arm before she could fall back to the ground.

"Let's take a break," I said, out of breath from the climb. "I think there's a place where we can sit over there." I pointed to a bench-like indent in the rock a few feet away.

I suddenly had an idea. "Let's pretend we're ship captains!" I said excitedly to Zoe. "We could pretend that we were being attacked by pirates or something!"

"Count me out," Zoe said, climbing down from the bench and to a small tide pool a few feet below.

"Aw, come on, it'll be fun!" Zoe just rolled her eyes.

I peered down over the rock at the tide pool, which Zoe had just reached. There was some seaweed, a few periwinkles, barnacles, and some clam shells sitting around in the water.

It didn't look all that exciting, so why she'd rather look at that than play pirates, I had no idea. Oh, well. I could play by myself.

The wind kicked up as I sat on the rock, which made it all the easier to imagine that I was on a big merchant's ship, leaning into the railing at the bow with my hair and my skirts whipping around me, just like Kate Winslet in the Titanic. I could almost hear the waves lapping at the prow of the boat, could almost smell the salty ocean breeze.

I turned to look behind me, where, to my horror, was a pirate ship, gaining fast on our little vessel.

"Pirate ship to starboard!" I yelled, pointing a finger in the direction of the right side of the boat. The crew sprang into action. The pirates were now almost side-by-side to our boat, and were beginning to board us, swinging from boat to boat on ropes like monkeys. Swords clashed, people yelled, cannons fired -

"Charlotte!" My eyes snapped open, and I saw Zoe standing in front of me, waving her hands in my face.

"What?" I groaned, disappointed as I always was at being awoken from my world of pretend.

"Where's the food? I'm hungry," she said.

"You're always hungry," I sighed. I picked myself up from the rock and Zoe and I made our way back to where we had left our bikes and my backpack. We sat down under a tree a little ways away to eat.

I had barely taken a single bite out of my apple when I heard a clap of thunder. I looked up.

A big black storm cloud was hovering above us. Just as I heard another rumble of thunder, I felt a drop of rain on my head, followed by another, and another.

Zoe and I looked at each other just as a flash of lightning lit up the sky.

"Let's go!" I cried.

We raced up the incline to where our bikes were, and pedaled furiously for home.

We reached home just as the downpour started, so we got to finish our picnic inside as we watched the thunderstorm outside the window.

It makes me sad to think that summer's coming to an end. As excited as I am for school to start, I'd rather summer stretched on for another month or so! :) Did you have a good summer? What did you do? 

That's all for now! Thanks for reading!