The Lonely Kitten

Based on The Puppy Problem*

   It was a cool Thursday night in October, and Joey Rock and his little brother Tom had just finished eating a scrumptious home-cooked meal. Joey’s mother reminded him it was his turn to take out the trash, and to make sure the cans get taken to the curb because Friday is trash day.

   Joey got the bag of trash from the kitchen went out the back door to put it in the garbage. As Joey lifted the garbage can lid he heard a faint sound near the gate at the end of the driveway.

   “Mere, mere…”

   Joey froze, and slowly looked toward the gate, but he couldn’t see a thing. He waited a moment hoping he might hear the sound again, but it was silent. Joey noticed it was getting dark and he felt a chill in the air which made him want to go back inside. So he tossed the trash into the can, pushed the lid on tight, and dragged it through the gate placing it next to the curb.

   On the way back to the house Joey heard the sound again. “Mere!” This time the sound was closer to the back door, but Joey still could not see a thing. Joey waited for a moment, and then repeated the sound just for fun. “Mere,” he said.

   Joey opened the screen door and went back inside the kitchen to find his brother Tom putting the last of the dishes into the dishwasher. Joey told Tom about the sound he heard outside, which made Tom curious.

   “I’ll bet it’s a little critter looking for something to eat” Tom said.

   As the boys turned to look out the back door they both saw a little black and white kitten with paws resting on the bottom of the screen. The kitten cried out “Mere,” and the boys both repeated the sound.

   Tom opened the screen door and the kitten snuggled against his ankles.

   “Now what are we going to do?” Joey said.

   Mrs. Rock was listening to the conversation the boys were having from the dining room and thought she’d better check to see what was going on. The boy’s mother had a surprised look on her face when she walked into the kitchen and saw the little furry animal in her son’s arms.

   Tom looked up at his mother and said “It’s a little girl kitten mom! Can we keep her?”

   Mrs. Rock shook her head and chose her words carefully. “We don’t even know where this kitten’s mother is, or who it belongs to. And what will your father have to say when he gets home?”

   “Please, mom, I think she really likes me” said Tom.

   “I heard her first!” said Joey.

   The kitten made the sound again “Mere.”

   Tom handed the kitten over to Joey, who held it close to his chest. “Let’s call her Mere. What do you think, mom?”

   “I’ll tell you what I think,” said Mrs. Rock. “I’m not thrilled about having a cat running around the house, and I’m concerned about how we will take care of it. Not to mention that we haven’t even discussed this with your father yet.”

Decision Tool for the Lonely Kitten

Use the pyramid (hand-out) below to write about
 decisions for the class to explore from the Lonely Kitten story.

Decision Hierarchy Example courtesy of the Decision Education Foundation.

Weight & Rate Table

Copy and paste the table below into Microsoft Word.

Name:

Date:

Weight & Rate Table

The Lonely Kitten story

Be prepared to share your work with the class. E-mail your work to jbrown@haverford.org for credit.

* Acknowledgement:

Weight & Rate Table courtesy of the Decision Education Foundation - http://www.decisioneducation.org/

The Lonely Kitten story has been adapted from The Puppy Problem from the Decision Quality for Educators – Part II course of the SDRM certificate program at Stanford University.