Yippee and Dino Series – Part 8

Dino chooses a pet

That Saturday morning Yippee and Dino were up even before Mamma and Papa. They quickly got ready and waited patiently – at least for a bit, for Mamma and Papa to wake up.

But when they realized that Mamma and Papa were treating the weekend morning like any other weekend morning, they decided that it was time to take things in their own hands.

Both Yippee and Dino marched up to Mamma and Papa’s room and banged loudly on the door. “It is already seven in the morning, wake up”, said Yippee.

Mamma opened the door. She looked drowsy and a bit upset with Yippee for waking her up so early on a Saturday morning.

“Yippee, why are you up so early in the morning? Go back to sleep and let me sleep too”, she said.

“But Mamma we have to go and get Dino her pet”, said Yippee “Have you forgotten? How could you?” he said, a bit puzzled.

“No Yippee, I have not forgotten anything. After all this was my idea. But it is seven in the morning and we need our weekend sleep. So go back to sleep”, she said.

Hearing all the commotion, Papa too woke up. But he felt too tired to get out of the bed. Still in bed, he reasoned with Yippee. “The market doesn’t open till ten in the morning Yippee. Go back to sleep”, he said.

“But we are up and we are also ready”, said Yippee feeling a bit sad.

“Okay you guys, since I am completely awake now, let us rustle up a special weekend breakfast”, said Mamma, getting into the spirit of things.

Dino had an idea for breakfast. “Yippee, why don’t we go to that bakery and buy Bologs for breakfast?” asked Dino.

“That is a great idea. Mamma let us go to the market and get bologs for breakfast”, said Yippee, feeling that the big day was starting on the right note.

The breakfast plan kept the three busy and luckily for Papa, he managed some more sleep!

Finally it was time for Yippee and Dino to go to the pet store. They rushed in even before Mamma and Papa had managed to get out of the car.

Mr. Kind Face looked up a bit surprised. Just sometime ago Yippee had bought a pet for himself. “What is he doing in the store again?” he wondered.

“Oh! Hi Yippee!” he greeted Yippee. “Your pet is here too. I hope everything is fine” he asked a bit worried.

“Oh yes! everything is fine, Mr. Kind Face. We are here to get a pet for Dino”, said Yippee.

“A pet for your pet? Now that is a new one and a very interesting idea indeed”, said Mr. Kind Face with a smile.

“Why don’t you take Dino around to check out what she wants”, he said.

Mamma and Papa watched indulgently as Yippee and Dino looked around for a pet for Dino.

Dino looked inside one basket, which had a red panda. “Isn’t she cute”, she said to Yippee.

“Oh! So she likes the Red Panda, does she”, Mr. Kind Face asked Yippee. “Yes, she thinks he is cute!” said Yippee.

“But you need to tell her that Pandas loves climbing trees and at times Dino may not like the fact that she can climb up and sit on a tree for hours without feeling the need to come down”, said Mr. Kind Face.

Yippee quickly explained to Dino what Mr. Kind Face had said. Dino realized that the Red Panda, however cute, might not be the best pet for her. She may work out as a pet for a cat, maybe.   Dino had never taken a fancy for climbing trees.

The Panda in Red
Illustrated by Gauri Ghosal

Dino decided to move on and look inside the next basket. This basket had a beautiful lion cub. The cub softly growled and purred at the same time when Dino patted her. She had the softest and largest brown eyes that Dino had ever seen. “Isn’t she so sweet”, she said to Yippee.

“Same problem here too”, said Mr. Kind Face. “She can climb up trees and you may not find it easy to coax her down”.

Yippee asked Dino to look at the other baskets while explaining the problem to her.

The next basket had a tiny little puppy. The puppy squealed with utter delight when she saw Yippee and Dino peering into her basket. “Take me home, take me home”, she said.

 The talking dog
Illustration by Gauri Ghosal

Dino could not believe her ears. “A talking dog! This can’t be true”, she thought. She asked Yippee, “Do you hear what I do?”

“Yes, I hear the barking of the puppy”, said Yippee.

“No-no, she is talking to us. She is saying take me home! And you know what. I will”, said Dino in a determined voice having made up her mind.

“I can understand what she is saying.  She is the right pet for me”, said Dino feeling very happy.

Dino has made a choice
Illustration by Gauri Ghosal

“Hey that is great”, said Yippee. “It is just like I can understand what you say to me”, he said to Dino. Yippee completely understood Dino’s reasons for choosing the puppy over all the other options in the pet store.

“Mamma and Papa, Dino has chosen her pet. This puppy is coming home with us”, said Yippee.

“Don’t call her puppy, Yippee, her name is Bruno”, said Dino with a smile that lighted up the entire pet store.

Yippee and Dino Series – Part 7

 A PET FOR A PET!

That night Mamma Giant and Papa Giant had a long discussion. “What should we do about Dino?, asked Mamma, worriedly.

“Don’t worry, we will find some solution”, said Papa.

“But you know Yippee does go to the school for very long hours and it is very natural for Dino to feel lonely and unhappy. In a matter of only few days she has become very attached to Yippee and follows him all around the house,” said Mamma

“We need to keep Dino occupied with something that she enjoys when Yippee is away at school”, she said.

“It is getting late”, said Papa. “Let us go to sleep. I am sure we will have a solution for this once we sleep over it. Good Night”, he said and went off to sleep promptly

It took Mamma longer to go to sleep. She was worried that Dino may end up in Yippee’s school yet again!

Next morning, Mamma woke up early than usual. She anyways had not been able to sleep well. However, instead of looking grumpy she was looking very chirpy and happy.

Lalalaaaa…, humming to herself , she was making breakfast for everyone.

Papa was a bit puzzled at this change of mood but was happy that everything was back to normal again.

And the breakfast that Mamma had prepared was seriously delicious. There were pancakes with yummy maple syrup. Apart from chicken burgers, this was Yippee and Dino’s other favourite breakfast.

When everyone had settled down at the table. Mamma stood up and in a very serious voice said, “I want to discuss something very important with the family today”.

“I have an idea but I want to understand from each one of you whether it works for you or not. Especially, I want Yippee you to tell me whether you think that it is the right thing for Dino”.

“Now everyone knows what happened yesterday”, Mamma said looking at Yippee and Dino.

Dino blushed a bright red and looked totally uncomfortable.

Yippee got a bit worried. Is Mamma still angry with Dino for what happened yesterday? He thought to himself.

But there was really no need for Yippee to get worried. What Mamma wanted to share was a plan to make sure that Dino does not feel the need to go to Yippee’s school again.

“I have a plan”, said Mamma

“And the plan is really very simple. Now the reason why Dino went to Yippee’s school was because she did not have company at home”, said Mamma

“So, what if we get her company?,” asked Mamma

“Another Dinosaur?”, asked Yippee excitedly almost spilling the bottle of maple syrup

“Well, no not exactly”, said Mamma a bit hastily

“The idea is that if we get a pet for Dino, she would have someone to spend her time with when Yippee is away at school. And when Yippee is back, they can all play together”, said Mamma.

Mamma Giant and Papa Giant discussing
Illustration by Gauri Ghosal

Papa looked at Mamma a bit puzzled. “So, you don’t mind another pet in the house?”, he asked her

“Why should I mind? I love having Dino here and if she can select a pet for herself. I think it would be nice”, said Mamma with a smile

Everyone turned and looked at Dino. Dino was a bit taken aback with the idea. She thought through in her mind. She is Yippee’s pet and now Mamma is saying that she (who is Yippee’s pet) can get a pet for herself! It sounded strange to her. She was not sure whether she could take care of a pet. After all she was still a baby herself!

She looked at Yippee hoping for some help on this one. Yippee of course, was completely for the idea. He felt that finally he would have loads of company at home.

Yippee asked Dino, “So what do you think?”

Dino looked at the excitement in Yippee’s eyes and knew that it was the right thing to do. After all, she was also a pet and how much looking after did Yippee have to do for her. Not much. And then Mamma pitched in big time and so did Papa. They would do the same for her pet too, she thought.

“Yes”, she said to Yippee. “Let us go to the pet store from where you got me and get a pet for me”, said Dino with a huge smile.

“Mamma, Papa Dino is in. When do we go to the store? Let us go right away”, said Yippee

Papa said, “Nice try son. But today is school day. We will have to wait till weekend to go to the pet store.

That week was the slowest week for both Yippee and Dino.

But finally it was weekend. They woke up excitedly and got ready before 9 in the morning that Saturday.

To be continued…