The New House

by Tabitha Taylor

It was a busy day at the Wick's house. Finally the family was going to be moving to their new house by the ocean! The family included, the mommy, 14 year old Allie and 8 year old Joy. There was also a Yellow Lab named Samantha, a kitty named Punkin and a pet mouse named Minnie.

When the Wicks pulled up in the drive way of their new home, everyone was very excited. Allie and Joy jumped out of the car and ran to look at the ocean, they have a good view since the sun was shining brightly. After looking at the ocean, they came to the car and got Samantha, Punkin and Minnie out of the car to bring into their new home.

While the movers were unpacking the house with mommy and daddy directing them. The children walked around the house looking at all the rooms especially their new bedrooms. Samantha looked at all the places she could nap, while Punkin looked at all the neat places she could hide. Minnie just sat in her cage wishing she could come out to explore.

Suddenly a storm blew in from off the coast! The rain was pouring with bright lightening and loud thunder! Luckily the lights were still on so everyone could help the movers. Samantha was a scared dog so she ran into the closet door. Punkin prided herself on not being afraid of anything but vet trips. Being the sweet kitty she is she went and lay in the room that had the closet where Punkin was in hiding. Punkin looked around the room and realized soon it would have furniture and every day stuff in the room. She was happy Minnie wasn't in the room because Punkin had been thinking she'd make a good meal and she didn't want to get in trouble today.

Finally Punkin fell asleep on the floor. While she was asleep, Joy brought Minnie in the room. She put her cage on the top shelf of the closet where Samantha lay sleeping. After a nice nap of a couple hours Punkin woke up and the lights were off. She heard this scratching noise and went to inspect every inch of the house to find out what was making the noise. While she was inspecting the lights came back on!

After finding nothing she went back in the room with scared Samantha. A new sound was added to the scratch, it was a squeak. Another noise, another house inspection and another time of finding nothing unusual. All of the sudden Samantha started to bark and Punkin went running to the rescue. When she tried to get to Samantha the closet door was shut, the movers accidentally closed the door while moving a dresser in the room. Punkin still heard scratch, squeak, scratch, squeak, squeak with alot of barking.

Realizing there was nobody to save Samantha, Punkin realized that she was going to have to save the dumb dog. There was no way to get the door open and at this point Samantha was whimpering. Running downstairs to where the family was, Punkin stood in front of them and meowed. She didn't know how long it would for them to recognize something was wrong but she's meow as long as it took. After meowing persistently for what seemed like forever, the little girl looked at Punkin. Punkin turned and walked to the room where Samantha was and the little girl followed. The strange noise was still in the room!

When she hear Samantha bark, the little girl opened the closet door and Samantha ran out of the room as fast as a missile. Punkin stayed in the room, she wanted to find out what the noise was. The little girl picked Punkin up and showed her the top shelf of the closet. There was Minnie in her cage. The squeaking was coming from the wheel she was running on. There were tiny scratch marks on the wall which must have been from Minnie's scratching the wall through the bars on her cage. Finally the mystery was solved! Punkin puffed her chest out with pride for being the cat who solved the noise mystery. She remembered one other very important job. Punkin stalked out of the room, went to the kitchen and ate out of her pink bowl