"He was getting there," said Mallory. "But then Gabbie left the room for a minute and came back carrying R.C." That's R.C. for Rat Catcher, the Perkinses' brown tiger cat.

    "She must have thought R.C. needed a bath, too - because the next thing I knew, she'd dumped her in the tub with Chewy!" Oh, my lord.

    "R.C. jumped right out and streaked out the door, looking like a drowned rat. And Chewy chased after her. Water was flying all over the place!" said Mallory. By now we were hysterical, imagining the scene.

    "Of course, R.C. ran under the porch, and Chewy followed her. Both of them got covered with dirt. So the whole thing was a waste!" "I'm sure Chewy would have gotten dirty again by the time of the pet show, anyway," said Mary Anne.

    "That's what I tried to tell Gabbie and Myriah," said Mallory. "But they were too upset to listen. What a day! It took us the rest of the afternoon to clean up the bathroom." "I had kind of a similar experience with Linny Papadakis and his turtle," said Kristy.

    "He gave his turtle a bath?" asked Claudia.

    "No, he didn't exactly give Myrtle a bath," said Kristy. "What happened was - " But she was interrupted by a job call. Mrs. Barrett needed a sitter for Buddy, Suzi, and Marnie. Mallory got the job. Then Kristy went on with her story.

    "Linny spent all afternoon painting Myrtle's shell," she said. "He used these water-based poster paints, since I told him that his model paints might not be so good for Myrtle. You know what? He did a great job. Myrtle looked really cool when he was done." "What did he paint?" asked Claudia.

    "There were these red lightning bolts running down the sides of the shell, and yellow stars," said Kristy. "And all kinds of other stuff. We took Myrtle outside with us afterward, so that Linny could admire her once in awhile as he played." "Sounds like a disaster is coming up!" said Mary Anne.

    "You're right," said Kristy. "Linny got involved in a game of Statues with some other kids, and Myrtle crawled over to this little plastic pool in the side yard. By the time we got to her, all the paint had washed off." "Oh, poor Linny!" I said.