#72 Karen's New Puppy

[tiff85]

I would not think of giving my own pets up either. It's hard to just give your pet away like that. I think they should have trained the puppy too.

[wenonah4th]

Clearly Seth knew something about raising a dog since he'd raised Midgie from a pup.

[anzuhana]

I don't think they should've given Sadie away just because she was being difficult. I think they could've brought her to an obedience training class for some extra training. The class could've made Sadie more obedient and less difficult. Sadie not listening reminded me of when I was going home yesterday and the owner was constantly trying to get his dog to sit and stay since after the man let go of the dog (he made the dog sit, the dog didn't sit willingly on its own), the dog stood up and walked forward.

[virgoscorpio]

My personal belief is that Karen, as a whole -- both at the Big House and the Little House -- had WAY too many pets. I think this was just an idea for a book plot that didn't happen before and they just went with it. Also, I *guess* it's a good lesson for kids to learn when their pets don't get along.

[psychoseal]

Why do people get animals and give them up the minute they become difficult?? It's awful, the cat we have now we got from someone I work with who was moving to a place where she couldn't have animals a week later she got a kitten. If she didn't want it any more she could have just been honest I still would have taken in the cat. We have had her for nearly seven years and apart from being a bit anti social she's lovely.

What are Karen and Andrew going to think if they get rid of everything when it gets too tough. (Karen will be shipped off to a millitary school at age 10...) Karen seems to just get anything she asks for without either of her parents thinking it through.

[supprazz]

I can understand getting rid of Magic Tastee and the Bunny...but a puppy :*(

[Kylie90210]

I'm glad all of you had the same thoughts I did with this book... Seth and Lisa were terribly irresponsbile for getting a puppy then giving her away when she became a hassle. It was so awful! I honestly thought they would end up keeping Sadie and she would play with Midgie and stop her running away. That old couple must think the Engle's are a horribly irresponsible family, losing one dog and giving away another. I did.

But yeah, not a good message.

[zoar3]

Lisa and Seth also didn't seem to spend much of any time period (other than Karen constantly telling Seth to take Sadie away from Rocky on her leash) or when Seth (I thought that was so sweet) stayed up with Sadie for part of the night. This book also made it sound like the Engles backyard was not fenced in. It's not my intent to get into a debate over invisible fences or other non traditional fence means of keeping dogs in a yard. I do think this book was before that time. I have to confess I was much more attached to Lucky than Sadie though I do like Sadie's name. The best part of the book might have been when Midgie got to ride up to her party in the tree-house basket. That was cute.

[wanderingfrog]

Ugh, I recently read this book for the first time and it was horrible. Let's get a puppy! Oh no, the puppy is behaving like a puppy! There is no way we could ever have possibly foreseen that! We've got to get rid of the puppy!

I also thought it was weird that Karen and Andrew really wanted to get rid of Sadie, too, not just the adults. They didn't have much responsibility for Sadie, nor should they have, since they're young children and it was Seth who wanted to adopt a puppy after his dog ran away. They weren't the ones who had to train her. You'd think that two kids who normally like animals wouldn't be so gung-ho to give away an adorable puppy just because she was inconveniencing them a bit.

[CharlotteTJohanssen]

I just want to say that the cover of this book is adorable. I’m a cat person but the puppy is just so cute.

As for the main plot, I’ve never had a dog but even I know that what Sadie was doing was typical puppy stuff. If they didn’t want the responsibility they should have gotten an adult dog later.

I love the subplot in this one though! All of the neighbor kids come together and build a treeehouse. I wonder why it’s not mentioned more post this book? I could see some fun plots with that. The young kids vs the older kids was kind of fun. I like that we see Bobby, Nancy, and Karen hanging out. I wish we saw Catherine and Willy also hanging out they were cute kids.

[livvy]

Why did they have to get a puppy? I thought they had wanted to raise it themselves but they gave up when Sadie was being difficult. Moving from one home to another would have stressed her out too. Poor Sadie it's wasn't her fault. The Engles should have taken the time to train her.

I hate this book and glad I'm not the only one.

[sparklymouse]

I’m glad that the consensus is that this book sucked. Midgie was gone for 10 days when they decided to get another dog. Andrew, the 4-year-old voice of reason, wondered how Midgie would react if she came back and saw another dog in her house. Lisa was like “she might be dead.” !!! What an a-hole thing to tell your kid. Just let him think she’s happy somewhere.

Lisa mentioned that losing Midgie was really hard on Seth because he had just lost his dad a few months ago. Ok, that is one thing that makes his behavior throughout this whole book make more sense. He was still in a grieving process and probably not making decisions that he normally would.

I am currently thinking about getting a shelter cat, so I relate to being overwhelmed by the picking out process. I liked Andrew’s name choice of “Wags.” Some shelters require you to re-surrender the pet back to them if you are going to get rid of them. (I’m not sure how they can enforce that, but it’s a thing.) Seriously, these guys should have been put on a no-adopt list for the future.

I don’t know much about puppy raising beyond observing my sister-in-law. Sadie should have been in a crate at night. It makes them feel more secure. And, hello, she was not housebroken. Even if she was, puppies have little bladders, and someone would have had to have let her out at least once during the night.

Let’s talk about how Midgie kept escaping from a tall basement window above a refrigerator. “If Midgie were to jump onto the chair, then onto the washing machine, then onto the top of the refrigerator…” Yo, Midgie wanted out of that house.

I’m amazed that these little kids were straight up building a treehouse while Seth had his head up his butt. I can barely hammer one nail into a wall to hang a picture. These kids had the strength to attach railings and steps to a tree. How do we feel about the decor? A table and chairs, a “treasure chest” trunk, a mirror, a rug, two old telephones, and two paintings of a clown and a cat.