She nods. “I have to tell you, we’ve had a lot of interest in that little dog. I have a whole stack of applications people have filled out to adopt him.”

I feel the blood rush to my face. “But you said you wouldn’t put him up for adoption for two weeks.”

“I know,” Tamara says, “and that two weeks will be up in four days.”

“But you can’t!” I cry.

Mama puts her hand on my shoulder and squeezes. Then she explains everything that’s happened.

Tamara taps her fingers on her desk. I can tell she’s thinking things over by the way she puckers her mouth.

“So Jewel is definitely going to this place where her sister lives, and you know for sure they allow pets?”

“Yes, ma’am,” Mama says. She doesn’t mention that Jewel doesn’t have the money for her bus ticket and neither does her sister.

“It’s just that they don’t allow dogs on the Country-Wide bus,” I say.

“That’s not fair,” Dylan says, clutching Ted the Shark to his chest. “Dogs are people too.”

Tamara laughs, but in a nice way. Then she says, “I have an idea that might get us around that.”

She opens a folder. “Let me make some phone calls while you go visit Baby.”

After supper, I meet Karina, Fire, and Daria down in the computer room. I fill them in on our visit to the animal shelter.

“Tamara says that if Baby is registered as Jewel’s emotional support animal, he can ride on the bus with her,” I say.

“An emotional support animal,” Karina says, trying out the words. “I’ve never heard of that.”

“It’s kind of like a therapy dog,” I explain. “They can go in lots of places that regular animals aren’t allowed, like the post office, grocery stores, restaurants, that sort of thing.”

“How does he get registered?” Daria asks.

“Jewel’s doctor has to write a letter saying Jewel needs Baby to be”—I search my brain for the words Tamara used—“mentally and emotionally stable.”

“That sure is the truth,” Fire says.

“And that Jewel is disabled,” I add, “because of her mental illness.”

Fire nods. “My mom is on disability for her spells too.”

“The good thing,” I say, “is Jewel has a caseworker now, and she’s working on all of this.”

“But can this all happen in just a few days?” Daria asks.

I nod. “I think so. Tamara said she’d talk it over with her supervisor, but she thinks they can hold Baby for at least another week. The shelter also has a dog trainer who can teach Baby the things he’ll need to go in public places and live in Heartwell Manor.” I don’t tell them, though, that Baby’s been moved to a kennel near the front where the “highly adoptable” dogs are.