Chapter 1 Chapter 1
My name is Mindy Kim.

I’m seven and a half years old. That’s old enough to ride a bike around our street, but not old enough to have my own puppy—or at least that’s what my dad said.

I don’t really agree with him, but our old apartment in California wasn’t big enough for a puppy anyway. I looked it up, and the experts on the Internet say that puppies need lots of room to run outdoors.

Now that we’ve moved into a house with a big backyard, we can really get a puppy! I just have to convince my dad that it’s a good idea first.

So far, no such luck. Dad wants me to prove that I can be “responsible” enough for a puppy first… and then he’ll “consider” getting me one.

I decorated my own room to show Dad I’m “responsible.” I’m trying to be more grown-up, so I only put three dog stuffed animals on my bed. There are ten more under my bed, but Dad doesn’t need to know that. They’ll just have to take turns.

After I finished, I was looking through a website on huskies, one of my favorite kinds of dogs, when I heard Dad say, “Mindy? Can you help me with these boxes?”

CRASH!

“Dad!” I ran downstairs to see him standing over a box of broken dishes.

“Oh no!” he said. “These were your mom’s favorites.”

He looked so sad, like he was about to cry. I wished I’d brought one of my stuffed dogs with me. I’d even let him hug Snowball, my favorite white husky.

I miss Mom, but I know Dad misses her a lot more. She died a few months ago because she was really sick for a long time.