NOTE: I am giving this away from my unpublished children's collection. It is an educational easy reader for your 6-9 year olds. Hopefully it will prove helpful in meeting some of your home schooling challenges, while providing a bit of entertainment.....

 

Jenny was a girl who lived on one side of the street.  Jerry was a boy who lived on the other side of the street.  Jenny liked to play basketball, tag and especially with her cat Gwendolyn.  Jerry liked to play on his computer or video games and especially with his dog Goliath.

 

Jenny and Jerry saw each other almost everyday during summer vacation.  Their families owned a pet breeding business. The families were friends, but Jerry and Jenny did not get along. One morning Jerry walked Goliath past Jenny’s house. She was sitting under a shady tree, brushing Gwendolyn.  Goliath growled at Gwendolyn, GRRRRR.  Gwendolyn hissed back at Goliath, HISSSS.

                                                                                                                      

“Dog walking does NOT look like much fun.” Jenny shouted across the street at Jerry.

 

"Cat brushing does NOT look like much fun either!”  Jerry shouted back at Jenny.

 

Later that evening, Jenny noticed Gwendolyn did not seem to be feeling well. Jenny’s parents took Gwendolyn to the veterinarian. Jenny went along too.

 

“This cat is not sick,” the veterinarian told Jenny and her parents.  She is about to have kittens.”

             “When do you think that will be?” asked Jenny’s mother.

              “In a few days,” said the vet.

             “Great.” said Jenny’s parents, with a frown.

             “Yippie!” said Jenny.

 

The next day, Jenny was running up and down her driveway, dribbling her basketball, when Jerry walked by with Goliath. “Where’s your dumb cat?” he asked

 

“My cat is not dumb.  She’s going to have kittens any day now,” Jenny answered.

 

“Kittens!  That will just bring more cats into the neighborhood!”  Jerry shouted.

 

“Who asked you anyway?”  Jenny shouted back. She slammed the door as she went into the house.  Now Jenny and Jerry did not speak at all.

                                         

In a few days, Gwendolyn had her kittens. All the kids in the neighborhood went to Jenny’s house to see the new kittens, except Jerry.                                          

 

Jenny took the kids into the large closet where Gwendolyn and her new kittens lay sleeping. “1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8” counted Jenny, pointing to each tiny kitten. All of them were lying so close that each one had part of its body on top of another kitten.  Each one was about the same size, except one was the smallest of them all.

 

Jenny went outside to play tag with her friends. She went back inside to check on the kittens four times. The first time she checked the kittens had moved into two separate piles. There were three in one pile and five in the other. Jenny counted the kittens, “Hmm…. 3+5=8,” she said as she went back outside.  Soon she was back to check the kittens for the second time. This time they moved again into piles of two and six, Jenny counted the kittens, “mm... 2+6=8,” she said as she went back outside. Soon she was back to check the kittens for the third time. This time they moved again into piles of four and four.

                                     

Jenny counted the kittens, “Hmm… 4+4=8 too,” she said as she went back outside.

 

Soon Jenny was back to check the kittens for the fourth and last time.  This time they moved into a pile of seven and uh-oh Jenny did not see the last kitten!  She looked more closely at the seven and knew that it was the smallest kitten that was missing. “Someone help!” she yelled as she ran around the house. “They’re all outside,” she said, running for the door, but her parents were way in the back doing yard work. Jerry was in his front yard, playing with Goliath, so Jenny yelled, “Jerry, come here, hurry!”

                                              

Both Jerry and Goliath came running across the street to Jenny’s house.  Goliath went straight to the closet, where the kittens lay sleeping. Gwendolyn was in the kitchen eating her dinner. Goliath started sniffing around right away and instantly came out with the eighth kitten, pressed gently in his mouth.

 

Then he gently laid the eighth kitten on top of the others.  Just then, Gwendolyn came back to the closet.  Her eyes went straight to Goliath. Their eyes were fixed on each other, but there was no growling or hissing.

 

“Well, look at that!” yelled Jerry “I can’t believe my eyes.”

 

“You know,” said Jenny, “if our pets can find something they can each care about, then maybe we can too.”

 

“You may be right,” replied Jerry.

 

The next day when Jenny and Jerry saw each other, Jerry had exciting news. “Guess what?” he said, “I just found out Goliath is going to be a Daddy!”

 

“Wow, that’s so amazing!" said Jenny.

 

“But the most amazing thing is the way we became friends,” replied Jerry.

  

“And it was all because of Gwendolyn’s eighth kitten,” they said together.