Borrowed Dogs & Cardboard Bones

“Emily?” Jessie said sweetly to her cousin. “You’re my kindest, nicest, most favorite cousin in the whole world.”

Emily looked at Jessie suspiciously. “Oh yeah?”

“Yeah,” Jessie replied.

“What do you want, Jessie?” Emily knew there must be something up.

Jessie cleared her throat and took a deep breath. “I want to ask . . . umm.”

“Ask what?” Emily was curious now.

Jessie gulped and tried again. “May I borrow Peppy, your robot dog, for show and tell at school?”

Emily stared at Jessie. She had used all her birthday money to order that robot dog. It was one of her favorite toys. “I don’t know,” she replied. “My puppy cost a lot of money.”

“I know, and I promise, promise—triple promise—that I won’t let anything happen to it.” Jessie sprawled on the floor in front of Emily, clutching her feet. “I’ll take super good care of it. Pleeease!”

Just then Emily’s mom walked into the room. “What’s going on here? Are you groveling, Jessie?” she asked, laughing.

Jessie sat up. “Huh? I’m not groveling; I’m begging.”

“Well, groveling means getting down on your face—just like you’re doing,” said Emily’s mom. “What are you begging for?”

“She wants to borrow my robot dog for show and tell,” Emily answered.

“I see,” her mom replied. “Well, it’s up to you, Emily.”

“Please, Emily, I’ll take good care of it.” Jessie whimpered like a puppy.

Emily rolled her eyes. “Alright. But only for one day.”

Jessie jumped up and hugged her cousin. “Thank you, thank you, thank you!”

The next day, Jessie couldn’t wait to show off the robot puppy. When it was her turn for show and tell, she carefully lifted the puppy from her backpack and pushed a button on the remote control. The robot began to move.

“Wow!” “That’s neat!” said the other kids.

“Hey, isn’t that Emily’s dog?” asked Justin, who was friends with both Jessie and Emily.

“Tell us about the dog, Jessie,” said her teacher, Mrs. Bentley.

“This is Peppy. She belongs to my cousin. But she let me borrow it to show you. Watch.” Jessie made the robot puppy walk, run, and bark. Then when it wagged its tail, all the students laughed. Jessie beamed with pride at how well the class liked her show and tell.

“There’s a bone that she can fetch, too,” added Jessie, feeling around in her backpack for the little bone that had come with the dog. But to her surprise, Jessie couldn’t find it!

“Oh no!” Jessie started to panic. She quickly snatched up the robot and grabbed the remote from a classmate’s hand then shoved them into her backpack. “Sorry, that’s all for today!” she announced. The kids stared as Jessie ran to the back of the room and smooshed her backpack into her cubby.

“Well, I guess it’s time for recess,” said Mrs. Bentley.

Once Jessie got outside, she told Justin about the bone. “I don’t know what to do,” she said. “I promised Emily I wouldn’t let anything bad happen.”

Justin nodded. “I guess you’ll have to replace the bone.”

“Replace it? Like buy a new one?” Jessie asked in shock. “That could cost a lot of money! I don’t wanna do that. Maybe I could just say I’m sorry.”

Justin thought for a minute. “Saying you’re sorry is good, but I think Jesus would want you to do more than that, especially since you promised to take care of it.” Jessie thought about what Justin said. Then she got an idea—she would make a brand-new bone! After school, Jessie rushed around collecting supplies. She used a marker to draw a bone shape on the back of a cardboard cereal box and cut it out. One side was an ugly “cardboardy” brown, but the other side was pink and yellow from the Fruity Sprinkles picture on the box.

“Perfect!” Jessie said and tossed it in her backpack with the robot to take to Emily’s house. “Here you are!” Jessie handed the dog to Emily.

“Oh, good!” said Emily. “I was worried.”

“No need to worry,” said Jessie. “I even made a new bone for your puppy!” Jessie handed the cardboard bone to her cousin.

“What’s that for?” asked Emily, frowning.

“Umm, it’s to replace the bone I lost.”

“What?” Emily stared at the piece of cardboard in her hand. “This is from a cereal box. I can’t use this. The other one was made special for my dog!”

Jessie watched as tears trickled down her cousin’s cheeks. “I’m sorry, Emily,” she said softly. “I didn’t mean to lose the bone. What do you want me to do?”

Emily sniffled. “You could buy me a new one.”

“Yeah, I guess that’s the right thing to do,” Jessie agreed. “But I don’t have much money, see?” Jessie unzipped the money pocket in her backpack to show Emily. But when she looked inside, she let out a squeal of delight.

“The bone! It’s in my money pocket!” She pulled it out and handed it to Emily.

“Hooray!” Emily cheered. “You found it!”

The two girls did a happy dance together, jumping around in circles. Finally, Emily put the robot dog on the floor and laid the bone down.

“Fetch!” she said and pressed the remote. Peppy skittered toward the bone then picked it up and brought it back to Emily, wagging her tail. “Good dog!”

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