The work day ended, and Jillian drove home quickly, but still carefully, in her beige four-door sedan because, on one hand, she needed to get to her home phone before the Humane Society closed, but on the other hand she knew she didn’t have any more gimmies.

Her car had little piles of white paper coffee cups and magazines that had been stepped on and twisted into spirals. Everything was covered in a layer of crushed Apple Jacks. Some books lay on their spines or sides or wherever they landed, books about confidence and stuff, which she knew were super corny, but helped her out and helped her stay on track. Jillian felt like she was gliding home in a star craft, she was so excited. She glided into the day care parking lot and de-boarded her craft in the spot just next to the handicapped spot, swooped through the doors, and looked through that crawling mass of children to find hers, that little halfie. Half hers, you know.

“Hey, Barb!” said Jillian to the day care teacher.

“Adam!” shouted Barb, and then Adam, who was five-ish and had tight, dark curly hair and a pale face, walked casually out of a tiny plastic house.

At home, Jillian handed Adam the remote and said, “Now, you sit in here. Mommy’s gotta go do something.”

“Can we eat soon?” asked Adam.

“Oh yeah, dinner’s soon, just watch your video for a second.” The video was a documentary about baby animals that Adam seemed to like.

Jillian walked to the kitchen, picked up the cordless, picked up the laptop, walked to her bedroom, and shut the door. It was so exciting, ugh! She dialed the Humane Society and looked at the picture of Carla. The phone rang twice before it was answered. Each step was a thrill.

“Hi!” said Jillian. “I’m calling to inquire about the dog on your website named Carla, the special needs dog?”

“Oooohh, I’m sorry, but Carla was adopted yesterday.”

“Oh, really? Are you sure? Because she’s still up on your web page.”

“Yeah, I’m sure. Every time we put up one of those photos the dogs get adopted almost the same day. It really makes people fall in love, I guess.”

“Yeah, I guess it does,” said Jillian. “Well, maybe you should take it down so you don’t give a misrepresentation of the dogs you actually do have.”

“We have a lot of wonderful dogs in right now. All the time, in fact. Do you want to know our hours?”

“No not really, I only wanted Carla.”

“Are you sure? Carla’s not our only special needs dog, if that’s what you’re looking for.”

“I’ll think about it.”

“Ok, well, please keep us in mind,” said the woman.

“Bye.”