Puppy

“Please Mam, please let me have the puppy”. Katie’s eyes were glued to the pet shop looking straight at the little black puppy, who was chewing happily on a piece of blue rope.

“Please Mam, please can I have a puppy?”

Her mother grabbed her by the hand and tried to coax her away from the window. “Come on Katie, come on and we’ll do our shopping. There are lots of things we need to buy.”

Katie’s face looked up at her mother’s. Her eyes began to screw up as she got ready to try and win her prize. “But I want the puppy. I need a puppy. Please Mam, Please can I have the Puppy”.

“Why do you want a puppy? Our house is not big enough for him to stay, and the garden is much too small for him to run around and play.”

“But Mam, Mary has a dog. Please, please can I have a puppy?

“Who would look after him? Who would feed him and take him for walks? ”

“I would Mam, please can I have him. I want him to be my best friend”

“But Mary is your best friend, Katie. She wouldn’t like it if you got a puppy and stopped playing with her”.

Katie gave a big sigh, and raising her hands as she dramatically dropped them at her side.
“Don’t be silly Mam, I can have more than one best friend. Anyway, it would be different and Mary would be friends with Billy too.”

“Who is Billy? I don’t think I have met him, is he a friend from school?”

This time Katie rolls her eyes, the way she has often seen her mother do, when talking to Mrs Brown from next door.

“Billy is the name of my puppy Mam. Please can I have him?”

Her mother fought the urge to smile, and tried to remain stern.
“Katie darling, we are not getting the puppy. Come on now we must go do our shopping. We don’t want the shops to be closed by the time we get there.”

Katie’s little face fell, her whole world crushed. Her dreams fading fast, all because her mother would not get her the puppy. The puppy she needed so badly, her new best friend. Did her mother not understand how upset Billy would be too? Her eyes again scrunched tight and she started to sob.

“Please Mam, please can I have Billy, please, please can we bring him home?”

“No, we cannot. Come on, we must do the shopping.”

Her mother started to move, half dragging Katie along. Katie was still sobbing to herself over the loss of the puppy.

An hour later, with all the shopping done, Katie and her mother were sitting eating chocolate ice-cream, all dreams of the puppy long forgotten.