Fight for Life
Chapter Thirteen
Gran planned out the rest of the weekend for Maggie. She has to do everything in her power to help Zoe settle in. She has to clear some stuff out of the guest room. Old soccer uniforms, sneakers that don’t fit anymore, tests that Maggie never showed Gran, etc. Then, Maggie has to sit down to finish correcting her social studies test. She even has to fix her spelling mistakes.
The next day, on the way to school, Maggie stops in to say goodbye to Mitzy. Her owners are picking her up today. When they get on the bus, Maggie finds a place where she and Zoe can sit next to each other, but instead Zoe sits in another seat next to another student. By the time they get to school, Zoe and the other girl are acting as if they’re best friends. Go figure.
That day, Maggie takes the time in library to make a list of everything she knows about the puppy mill so far: litter of sick collies sold at the farmer’s market, along with black labs and the mutt, and the guy lives on Lafayet Road. She doesn’t seem to know much. She looks around. Everyone is actually doing homework. Sunita is sitting on the floor. Maggie knows Sunita’s the smartest of the other volunteers, and she’s the sweetest. So Maggie takes a deep breath, and crosses the room.
Sunita is confused. What is Maggie going to do when they find him? Maggie admits she doesn’t know. Sunita says there’s been some laws about animal abuse passed recently. She heads for the reference desk. It’ll be fastest if Mr. Margate helps them. He does indeed know exactly what they’re looking for. He passes over a book about the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, which contains information about the puppy mill law.
Maggie opens the book, but the words look like millions of ants marching down the page. Maggie stares at the page. Sunita asks what’s wrong, and Maggie knows she has to ask Sunita for help reading. Otherwise she’ll never get the puppy mill shut down. Sunita is happy to help. She scans the table of contents, flips to the index, and dives in. It’s like watching a great author… the way she reads so fast and scribbles notes.
And then, just as soon as Sunita started, she says 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. And they must be honest about any diseases the puppies may have. They have to make sure pups are given proper vaccinations, and they’re not allowed to mistreat them. Anyone who breaks the new laws have to pay big fines and may even be sent to jail.
This is all great. They can totally shut the puppy mill owner down.
Mr. Margate shows the girls where they can find a special phone directory which lists people by address. After Sunita corrects Maggie’s misspellings of the street name, they look for all listings for Lafayette Road. The list is over three pages. Maggie will need help narrowing the list down.
The bus ride home is loud and bumpy. Sunita sits next to Maggie, and they need to shout to be heard over the noise. Sunita says it could take days. Fifty names per column, three columns per page, three pages of columns. This is 450 names. Even if each call takes three minutes, it’ll take them more than eleven hours. But, if they ask Brenna, David, and Zoe for help, then it’d only take four and a half hours.
When the bus stops, Maggie scoots down the aisle a little bit to the others. One by one, she asks the others for their help. Brenna agrees instantly. Zoe smiles and says Mom says she’s good at talking on the phone. David’s friends are loud and obnoxious, but as Maggie turns away, he says he’ll be there. After the bus lets them off, they troop into the clinic.
Sunita hands out photocopied phone lists and Maggie assigns names to everyone. David uses the house line in the kitchen. Zoe takes the phone in Gran’s bedroom, and 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. And they still have another phone available for incoming calls.
Maggie says all they need to do is say they heard that 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 keeps messing up the numbers.
Brenna points out that Maggie mixed up the numbers. She dialed 463-9257 instead of 436-2597. She switched them. And then Maggie realizes. She 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 did it exactly as written, but Maggie wrote the wrong thing!
Mitzy got hurt because of Maggie’s mistake. She put a patient in danger. Just then, surprising Maggie out of her thoughts, Sunita shouts that David found the puppy seller.