Lupe’s Pets

By Virginia Brosseit

Lupe sat on the front steps of her apartment building. She was lonely. Her friend Ramona was away for the day, and Lupe had nothing to do and no one to play with.

I wish I had a pet, Lupe thought. But there was a big sign in her apartment building that read NO PETS ALLOWED.

Lupe saw her Uncle Jorge walking along the street with a package under his arm. He sat down on the steps beside her. “This is for you,” he said.

Lupe was excited. She opened the package. In it she found some wonderful treasures—a pad of white paper, crayons, colored pencils, and a little pair of scissors.

“Thank you!” cried Lupe. “Thank you, Uncle Jorge.”

Lupe had a happy afternoon. She drew with her colored pencils on the white paper. She colored with the crayons. She cut with the little scissors.

That evening Ramona came home. She and Lupe sat on the steps of their apartment building.

“I have a lot of pets,” said Lupe.

Ramona shook her head. “You can’t,” she said. “Pets aren’t allowed in our building.”

“But I have pets,” said Lupe. “I got them from Uncle Jorge.”

Ramona looked as if she did not believe Lupe.

“I’ll tell you about my pets,” said Lupe. “I have a brown and white giraffe, a black and white zebra, a black gorilla, an orange monkey, and a red rooster.”

“That’s impossible,” said Ramona. “Nobody has pets like those.”

“I have,” said Lupe. “I’ll show you.”

Lupe took Ramona upstairs to her apartment. In Lupe’s bedroom Ramona saw hand-drawn pictures of a giraffe, a zebra, a gorilla, a monkey, and a rooster.

“See!” Lupe laughed. “My pets are paper pets!”

Illustrated by Dick Brown