When I was five, I knew I wanted a pet. I didn’t care what kinds as long as I had a pet to love. All my friends had dogs, cats, and even birds. I so badly wanted a pet. On Tuesday during supper, I decided to ask for a pet while eating spaghetti. I remembered this because this was the night I decided to ask my parents the question I had been dying to ask. “Mom, Dad, can I please get a pet?” I asked. My parents just looked at each other with confusion. They didn’t know how to answer my question.

“Um. We can go look at some animals but no promises on getting one,” my dad responded in a confused voice.
I thought to myself, ‘This can’t be real?’ Well, my thought was wrong because it was real.

Friday after school we went to an animal shelter in Toledo. I don’t know why we went that far. I did not care. When we went inside, there was a smell of a clean wet dog. The smell inside the building was terrible.

Nonetheless we were finally here. Along both walls were cages of dogs. ‘Just dogs no other animal? That's weird since it’s an animal shelter,’ I thought. All the dogs barked in excitement. My parents and I walked up and down the wall of cages though not a single dog was the one I wanted. When we left the shelter, I was sad because I was hoping we would bring one home.

When we hopped in the car, I was sad; however I was not sad enough to cry. That’s exactly what I need to do. I needed to cry so my parents would feel badly. I asked in my fake crying voice, “Can we go to another shelter and look?” I thought, ‘This fake cry has to work.’ My parents did that weird face again where they looked at each. This time I knew that they would say no.

To my surprise they both said, “We can go to another place tomorrow.” I was too excited to sleep that night. Saturday rolled around, and we went to another shelter. This one had dogs and cats. First, we looked at the dogs. Some were the size of a tic-tac, and others were the size of tree trunks. Still none of them were the right one. We decide to go and look at the cats. At first glance they looked as if there were orange, brown, black and white cotton balls walking around. Walking into the room, the cats stopped in their tracks and stared like I was a monster. I started walking around petting the cats.

My dad said, “Alison, look that cat is following you.” I looked at this small orange cat following me wherever I walked. I started playing with the cat and made it chase me around the room. That’s when my my thought hit me like a truck. ‘This is the one.’

“Dad, this is the cat I need,” I pleaded and begged. I could tell my dad was giving it some thought.
He responded, “I don’t know if you need a cat, though.” This is when the real tears and not fake one’s came pouring out of me like a faucet. I had to leave the shelter in tears and heartbroken.  The next day was Sunday, and I had an attitude and was sassy with my parents. I didn’t do anything they told me to. I did the complete opposite. My mom had to go to the grocery store. My dad was going with her which he never does. Both my parents were going which meant I had to go with them. I was infuriated that I couldn’t stay home. The entire car ride I just sulked.

We arrived at our destination; however, it wasn't the grocery store. We were back at the shelter with the cat that followed me. We went back to the room with the cat I wanted. I was curious as to why. That’s when we bought the cat, the cat I wanted. The workers told us that the name was Hector. My parents and I both didn’t like that name for a cat.

“Why don’t we call the cat Hank,” my mom said.

‘Hank,’ I thought. “I like it,” I said happily. We took the cat home. At first he was scared to come out of the cage but then finally warmed up to exploring. Everywhere I walked, my cat followed. No matter where I went to or what I did. To this day my cat still follows me around and does what I do.