Going Batty Read Free Page A

Katie began to smile.
    “Wow!” she exclaimed. “This is sooooo cool!”
    “What is?” Suzanne shouted. She ran into the living room.
    So did all the other kids. They wanted to know what Katie was so excited about.

Chapter 6
    The kids were staring at the computer screen.
    “What’s the big deal?” Kevin asked Katie.
    “Look!” Katie answered. “The zoo is giving people the chance to adopt an animal.”
    Just then, Katie’s dog Pepper came running into the room. He raced over to Katie and rubbed his little brown and white cocker spaniel body against her jeans.
    Katie bent down and scratched his chin. “Don’t worry, Pepper,” she said. “I don’t mean I would adopt a tiger and bring him home. If you adopt a zoo animal, the animal stays at the zoo.”
    “How do you adopt an animal if it doesn’t live with you?” George asked.
    Katie scrolled down a little on the screen. “See, it explains it all here,” Katie told him. “You can donate money to the zoo to help care for an animal. Then the zoo sends you pictures of your animal, and information about him. Best of all, you get to name the animal.”

    The other kids didn’t seem nearly as excited as Katie did.
    “Nobody loves animals the way you do, Katie,” Jeremy said. “Are you going to do it?”
    Katie shook her head. “I can’t. It costs twenty dollars to adopt a zoo animal,” she said. “I only have seven dollars of my birthday money left.”
    “That’s too bad,” Jeremy told her. “It would have been a really nice thing to do. That’s what I like about you, Katie. You’re always so nice.”
    Becky turned and looked at Jeremy for a minute. Then she smiled at Katie. “I have some of my birthday money left,” she said. “Maybe we could adopt an animal together.”
    “Wow!” Katie exclaimed. “You would do that?”
    “Sure,” Becky told her. “I’m nice, too.” She grinned at Jeremy.
    Jeremy blushed. He pushed his glasses up on his nose and stared at the floor.
    “Thanks,” Katie said to Becky. “How much do you have?”
    “Six dollars,” Becky said.
    Katie frowned. “That only makes thirteen dollars. It’s still not enough.”
    “I’m broke or I would chip in,” Kevin told Katie and Becky. “It’s really cool that you guys want to help a zoo animal.”
    Suzanne had heard enough. “Oh, please. They’re not the only ones who want to help animals. I’m nice, too!” she exclaimed. “In fact, I’m going to donate seven dollars that my aunt gave me last Christmas.”
    “Wow! Suzanne, that is nice of you,” George said. He sounded surprised.
    Suzanne smiled sweetly at George. Well, as sweetly as Suzanne could smile, anyway. “I know,” she told him.
    Katie thought for a minute. “I have seven dollars. Becky has six. And now with Suzanne’s seven dollars, we have twenty dollars! That’s just enough. We did it!”
    “Yay!” Becky shouted.
    “Once again, I saved the day,” Suzanne reminded Becky and Katie.
    Katie laughed. That was such a Suzanne thing to say. But it was also true.
    “What animal should we adopt?” Becky wondered. “How about a monkey? I love the way they swing from tree to tree.”
    “I’d rather adopt a peacock,” Suzanne suggested. “They’re so elegant and pretty.”
    “A peacock?” Becky asked her. “They’re too fancy. And they always look kind of snobby to me.”
    “Why don’t we adopt an animal that’s not so cute or pretty?” Katie suggested. “Like a rhinoceros.”
    Becky and Suzanne both stared at her.
    “Why would we want to do that?” Suzanne asked.
    “Because no one else would want to,” Katie explained. “Cute monkeys or beautiful birds will always get someone to adopt them. But animals that aren’t so cute need to be adopted, too.”
    “You didn’t feel that way when you adopted Pepper,” Suzanne said. “You told me he was the cutest animal at the Cherrydale Animal Shelter.”
    “He was,” Katie admitted. “Pepper was a really adorable puppy. But I