Fight for Life
Chapter Thirteen
Gran planned out the rest of the weekend for Maggie. Maggie has to do everything in her power to help Zoe settle in, starting with clearing years of clutter out of the guest room. Old soccer uniforms, sneakers that don’t fit anymore, and tests that Maggie never showed Gran all come out of the closet and from under the bed. Then Maggie has to sit down and finish correcting her social studies test, fixing even her spelling mistakes one by one.
The next day, on the way to school, Maggie stops in to say goodbye to Mitzy. Mitzy’s owners are picking her up today, and Maggie already misses having her around the clinic.
When they get on the bus, Maggie finds a place where she and Zoe can sit next to each other. But instead, Zoe slides into another seat next to another student without a second glance. By the time they get to school, Zoe and the other girl are chatting and giggling as if they’re already best friends. Go figure.
That day, Maggie takes the time in library class to make a list of everything she knows about the puppy mill so far. A litter of sick collies sold at the farmer’s market, along with black labs and the mutt. The guy lives on Lafayette Road. Staring at her short list, Maggie realizes she doesn’t seem to know much at all. She looks around the quiet room, where everyone else is actually doing homework instead of chasing puppy mill clues. Sunita is sitting cross-legged on the floor. Maggie knows Sunita’s the smartest of the other volunteers, and she’s the sweetest, too. So Maggie takes a deep breath and crosses the room.
Sunita looks confused by Maggie’s plan. What is Maggie even going to do once they find him? Maggie admits she doesn’t know yet. Sunita mentions that some new laws about animal abuse passed recently. She heads for the reference desk to look into it. She figures it’ll be fastest if Mr. Margate helps them search.
Mr. Margate listens closely and does indeed know exactly what they’re looking for. He pulls a thick book about the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania off the shelf, one that contains information about the puppy mill law.
Maggie opens the thick book, but the words blur together, looking like millions of tiny ants marching down the page. Maggie stares helplessly, her cheeks growing warm with embarrassment. Sunita asks what’s wrong, and Maggie knows she has to swallow her pride and ask Sunita for help reading. Otherwise she’ll never get the puppy mill shut down in time. Sunita is happy to help. She scans the table of contents, flips to the index, and dives right in. It’s like watching a great author at work, the way she reads so fast and scribbles notes.
And then, just as soon as Sunita starts searching, she declares that she found it. The Dog Purchaser Protection Act, Section 9.3. People who raise puppies for sale are required to provide them with a healthy environment. They must also be honest about any diseases the puppies may have. Pups are required to receive proper vaccinations, and mistreating them is against the law. Anyone who breaks these new laws has to pay big fines and may even be sent to jail.
This is all great news. Maggie feels a rush of hope. They can totally shut the puppy mill owner down now that they have the law on their side.
Mr. Margate shows the girls where they can find a special phone directory, one that lists people by address instead of by name. After Sunita corrects Maggie’s misspellings of the street name, they search for all listings on Lafayette Road. The list turns out to be over three pages long. She realizes right away that she’ll need help narrowing the list down.
The bus ride home is loud and bumpy, packed with kids talking over each other. Sunita sits next to Maggie, and the two of them need to shout just to be heard over the noise. Sunita says it could take days to call everyone on the list. Fifty names per column, three columns per page, three pages of columns, comes out to 450 names total. Even if each call takes three minutes, it’ll take them more than eleven hours to get through the whole list. But if they ask Brenna, David, and Zoe for help, too, then it’d only take four and a half hours.
When the bus stops, Maggie scoots down the aisle a little bit to reach the others. One by one, she asks each of them for their help. Brenna agrees instantly. Zoe smiles, mentioning that her mom thinks she’s good at talking on the phone. David is surrounded by his usual crowd of loud, obnoxious friends. But as Maggie turns away, he promises he’ll be there anyway. Relieved, Maggie watches the four of them troop into the clinic together.
Sunita hands out photocopied phone lists, and Maggie assigns a set of names to everyone. David uses the house line in the kitchen, while Zoe takes the phone in Gran’s bedroom. Sunita calls from the phone in the lab. Sunita helps them disconnect the modem so they can hook up an additional phone at the receptionist’s desk. That leaves them with still another phone free for incoming calls.
Maggie explains that all they need to do is say they heard there were puppies for sale. And with that, it’s time to start dialing. Dial, ask, hang up. Dial, ask, hang up. Brenna is great at this. But Maggie, nervous and rushing, keeps messing up the numbers.
Brenna points out that Maggie mixed up the numbers again. She dialed 463-9257 instead of 436-2597, switching two of the digits. Something about that mistake tugs at Maggie’s memory, and she suddenly realizes what it means. She drops the phone and runs to the sheet of paper with Mitzy’s feeding instructions. And sure enough, Maggie had written down 5.2 scoops of dry food instead of 2.5. Brenna followed the instructions exactly as written, but Maggie wrote the wrong thing all along!
Mitzy got hurt because of Maggie’s mistake, and the realization hits her hard. She put a patient in danger. Just then, surprising Maggie out of her thoughts, Sunita shouts that David found the puppy seller.