The 12 Dogs of Christmas by Emma Kragen

thrilled that it was all going well, and that the audience was responding. Maybe many small changes were happening in many large hearts right now. But as eleven Chocolate Lab puppies were being brought on stage and the kids sang, “ELEVEN LABS A-LAUGHING,” in her ear came an urgent, “Emma, all the dogs for the twelfth day ran away!” At first Emma didn’t believe the stagehand, but he insisted, so she went backstage to see for herself and found Norman standing there, a gleeful grin on his face and old Scratch in his arms.
    â€œOh, looking for the doggies?” Norman taunted just as Emma could hear, “ON THE TWELFTH DAY OF CHRISTMAS MY TRUE LOVE GAVE TO ME—” And then the music stopped, and she could hear the buzz of the audience as nothing numbering twelve happened. “On the twelfth day of Christmas,” Norman sang, rather badly, “my true love gave to me—ab-so-lute-ly no doggies!”
    In the assembly hall the audience was perplexed, Mrs. Walsh was consternated, and the mayor was delighted. Mrs. Stevens wondered what had happened, but figured that she had to continue, so she played the intro again, and the kids sang once more, “ON THE TWELFTH DAY . . .” But nothing more happened this time than did the last.
    â€œWhat have you done with them?” Emma demanded.
    Norman chuckled. “Well, I just let them out for a little walk.”
    There was going to be no change in this heart, Emma knew, but something had to be done. Mrs. Stevens was playing the intro once again. Emma walked right up to Norman, who hugged old Scratch closer. Changes do not happen with fists , Emma reminded herself, but maybe they can be helped along now and then by a swift kick in the shin . And so she gave Norman one, stunning him and causing him to loosen his grip on old Scratch, which she snatched away.
    â€œON THE TWELFTH DAY OF CHRISTMAS MY TRUE LOVE GAVE TO ME . . . ,” the kids sang once again.
    There was a moment of silence, a very short moment, but to Mrs. Stevens and Coach Cullimore, to Mrs. Walsh and Dolores, and especially to the kids, it seemed a very long moment indeed.
    Then out of the fireplace, like the hero to the rescue she was, ran Emma with Scratch, which she held up high for all to see. “A CAT!” Emma shouted out.
    â€œA CAT!” the kids repeated, surprised and delighted. Mrs. Stevens finished playing with a flourish and laughed in relief, as Coach came up to her and gave her a kiss. The twinkle-eyed photographer from LIKE magazine snapped for posterity the picture of Emma holding up old Scratch, and the audience broke into thunderous applause—led by none other than Mayor Nobel Doyle himself!

18

A Triple Reunion
    The one person not applauding, of course, was Norman. He grabbed the ropes, closed the curtains, and ran to Emma to snatch old Scratch back. “Gimme my cat! Gimme my cat!” Unfortunately, this placed him right in the middle of many dogs, some of which had a very good memory of exactly who Norman was.
    The audience was still on its feet, many were still applauding, and all were excitedly chatting about what a great show they had just seen, when they suddenly heard a great disturbance from behind the curtain. There was growling and barking and squealing (this from Norman), and the curtain was being kicked into a great agitation. Suddenly old Scratch came bounding out from behind the curtain and jumped into the arms of the sheriff for protection.
    â€œWhat in the world?” more than one person asked. The answer came when Mike and Miranda opened the curtains to reveal Norman on the floor, desperately struggling under a pile of dogs, none of which were actually hurting him, some of which were just licking him—an act that Norman did not appreciate at all. Kids ran in and grabbed the dogs, taking them away, leaving Norman defeated on the floor. Next to him, obviously having fallen from his pocket during the struggle,