"There's no way she can win a prize at a big pet show like this." I thought about all the other pets that would probably be entered in the show. Nobody had a pony, at least as far as I knew. But there were a lot of dogs in the neighborhood - dogs that knew how to do all kinds of tricks. There were a lot of beautiful cats, too. Would a boring little hamster be able to compete? Becca might have a point, there, I thought. But I didn't want her to worry about it.

    "Winning a prize isn't everything, Becca," I said. "Just being in the show will be fun." I thought I sounded very grown-up and reasonable.

    A tear ran down Becca's cheek. "I wish we had a dog," she said. "Then I could give it a bath, and put a ribbon around its neck, and teach it some really great tricks. Then it would win first prize!" She sniffed. Obviously, she wasn't convinced by my reasonable little speech. "Dumb old Misty is just going to sit there, wiggling her nose." "C'mon, Becca," I said. "You love 'dumb old Misty.' Remember when we got her, how excited you were?" Misty was born during one of my craziest sitting jobs. I'd been pet-sitting for this couple, the Mancusis. They don't have any kids, but boy, do they have a lot of pets. They have three dogs, five cats, some birds, two guinea pigs, lots of fish, a snake (ew!) named Barney, a bunch of rabbits, and an aquarium full of turtles.

    The Mancusis also have hamsters, and when I was sitting, one of the hamsters got sick. It was awful! I didn't know what was wrong with him, and I had to miss an important meeting of the club to take him to the vet.

    Well, you've probably guessed the rest of the story. "He" was really a "she" - and she was pregnant. She was going to give birth very, very soon. And not long after the babies were born (there were a lot of them!), the Mancusis came home. They were very happy with the way I'd handled the whole thing, and they offered me a baby hamster of my own.