1c8c0f371c0d914159db2df0bf94b5c6

“I step in it,” said Dooley.

“Weall step in it,” Shanille insisted.

“Eww,” Harriet said as she visibly cringed.

“And then they drag that poo into their homes, and it gets smushed into their carpets and smeared across their nice hardwood floors. It gets dragged into nurseries and kitchens. It ends up in bathrooms and bedrooms. It’s hideous, it’s gross and it needs to be stopped. I know, for Father Reilly curses about the horrible muck every single day.”

“Father Reilly curses?” asked Dooley. “I thought priests weren’t supposed to curse?”

“He uses colorful language, but never takes the Lord’s name in vain,” said Shanille prissily.

Father Reilly is Shanille’s human, and runs one of the biggest churches in Hampton Cove. And since many people set foot in that church, I could only imagine the amounts of dog poo they trailed inside.

“Just think about it for a moment,” she said now. “Let’s take as a very conservative estimate that one out of ten people step in dog poo, and that all of those people drag that poo into my church. That’s a lot of dog poo to clean up for poor Father Reilly.”

“I’m sure Father Reilly doesn’t clean his church himself, though, right?” I said.

“No, he has a cleaning lady, but the principle still stands: someone has to clean up the poo. And why? Simply because dog owners refuse to clean up after their dogs. If you want a dog, you should accept the responsibility and remove the poo,” said Shanille with the kind of forcefulness that hasserved her well as director of cat choir. I mean, if you can wrangle the entire Hampton Cove cat community, you can wrangle anything.

“I don’t think it’s the owners that should take the responsibility, though,” said Harriet, who hates dog poo even more than the rest of us. Her gorgeous white fur is more susceptible to being sullied and soiled than mine or Dooley’s or Brutus’s.

“You don’t?” said Shanille.

“Of course not. Just look at us cats. We do our business nicely and hygienically in a litter box, which is conveniently scented so as not to let the foul stench upset sensitive noses. Afterward, we clean our tushies all by ourselves. Compare that to dogs. Do they use litter boxes? No, they simplypee against trees and poo on the sidewalk. Yuck! And then, to make matters worse, they don’t even clean themselves! Double yuck! So you can see how the responsibility of this dog poo crisis lies with the dogs, not humans.”

“I think it might be a shared responsibility,” said Brutus.

“No, sweetie pie, if we do our doo next to the litter box, is it Odelia’s fault, or Marge or Gran’s? No, it’s our mistake, and we should be the ones suffering the consequences. But if a dog does his business on the floor, nobody cares! And that’s the big issue here.”

“So what do you suggest?” asked Shanille.

“I suggest we immediately start a campaign to teach dogs to use a litter box, just like cats. I mean, how hard can it be? If we can do it, dogs can do it, too, right?”

“But dogs aren’t as smart as cats,” said Dooley. “Are they, Max?”

“No, obviously they’re not,” I said. “Otherwise they would have learned how to go on the potty a long time ago.”

“Human babies learn to go on the potty when they’re two or three,” said Harriet, “so why can’t we teach dogs to do the same? It would save us the agony of having to look at that.” She wrinkled her nose as she gestured at the big pile of doo, stinking up the street.

“It’s a disgrace,” Shanille repeated her earlier estimation. “But I don’t know if dogs are even capable of being potty-trained. I mean, like you said, dogs are pretty dumb.”

“Yes, but surely they’re not as dumb as that,” said Harriet.

“This is a historic day,” said Shanille, who, as a priest’s cat, possesses the gift of the gab. “This is the day when five cats decided not to take it any longer. When five cats took a stand and said, enough is enough! No more! We are going to tackle an issue that has plagued our community for far too long.” Her face had taken on an appropriately earnest expression. “We, ladies and gentlecats, are going to potty-train dogs.”

“Yes, we are,” said Harriet, sounding cautiously pleased.

“And may the world never be the same again,” Shanille added.

“Amen,” I said. Shanille always has that effect on me.

Chapter 4

Odelia, after her short detour to her mother’s attic, finally arrived atGazette headquarters. She made a beeline for her editor’s office and when she burst in, saw that he wasn’t alone. A pretty young woman with auburn tresses and refined features sat across from him, looking teary-faced and visibly upset.

“Oh, finally,” said the young lady when Odelia entered. “You have to help me, Miss Poole. You have to help me find my mother!”

Odelia blinked.“Um…” She directed a questioning glance at Dan, but the white-bearded editor simply stared back at her, a grim expression on his face.

When he finally spoke, there was a catch in his voice.“I don’t believe you’ve met my goddaughter, Odelia. This is Alicia. Alicia, you know Odelia. My finest reporter.”