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and that made Emily crosser than anything – knowing that Mum was worrying about whether Sukie had eaten any tea, or if Toby had got into trouble with histeacher again, or what time Dad was getting home from work. Emily knew that Mum did have a lot to worry about, but she got sick of being the one that Mum
didn’t
have to fuss over. It would be nice if all Mum’s attention was on her for once.
    Mum patted her shoulder, and glared at Toby, and Emily took a deep breath of relief.
    “Toby, get off the computer now and go and get in the bath! If you argue with me about it again you won’t be playing on it tomorrow, either.”
    Toby stomped away growling, and James looked thoughtfully at the screen, and then at Mum, and decided it would be sensible to follow him.
    “Thanks, Mum.” Emily smiled at her gratefully.
    “Sorry you had to wait, sweetheart. Are you trying to do some homework?”
    “Ummm, not quite,” Emily murmured. “I think Poppy sent me an email, that’s all.” It was all very well having Mum’s attention, but actually, Emily didn’t really want to tell her about the petsitting and dog-walking plan just yet. She glanced around, trying to think of some way to distract her. Then she frowned, and looked up at the ceiling.
    “What is it?” her mum asked worriedly. “Can you hear something upstairs? Oh no, Toby and Jamesare probably splashing water all over the bathroom. Sorry, Ems, we’ll talk about your homework later.”
    Emily hadn’t actually heard anything, but she didn’t feel guilty about getting her brothers into trouble. They almost certainly were splashing water all over the bathroom. They couldn’t even
look
at water without splashing it.
    Happily, she clicked on the attachment from Poppy, and started trying to make up her leaflet. Poppy had sent her a photo too, one she’d taken of Emily and Billy a couple of months before. She’d called the file
A Satisfied Customer
. Emily grinned. That was a great idea.
    Emily had borrowed a couple of leaflets from the board in the kitchen where Mum pinned up the numbers for the plumber and other useful stuff, and she was planning to look on petsitters’ websites too, to get some more ideas.
    No one had a logo as nice as hers, she decided, a few minutes later. But there were an awful lot of petsitters, and they all seemed to have years and years of experience. Still, at least there didn’t seem to be anyone else very close by, although there was one lady in Millford who said she could do calming massage and aromatherapy for cats who were missingtheir owners. Emily wondered if she knew Poppy. She thought they might get on.
    Carefully, she checked all her spelling, and then twirled a strand of her dark, curly hair round her finger. Was she really ready to do this? It sounded such a good idea, but a bit scary too. Then she remembered how much fun it had been walking Twinkle and Barney with Maya at the weekend. She’d loved it, and Twinkle had too. Lucy had said that Twinkle hadn’t had a proper walk in ages. What if there was another dog out there like Twinkle, with an owner who couldn’t manage to exercise her properly? It would be brilliant to be able to help out dogs like that. She really wanted to.
    Maybe she should take out the petsitting bits in her leaflet, and just concentrate on the dog-walking, Emily mused. No matter what the others said, Emily wasn’t sure that people would really want to give their door keys to a ten-year-old while they were on holiday. And holidays only happened once or twice a year, too. If she had a couple of regular dogs to walk, that would be much better. Almost like having her own dog. Twinkle was gorgeous – but so gorgeous that surely she would be adopted soon. Lucy had already warned Emily not to get too attached toany of the animals.
    Emily smiled to herself, imagining taking a dog on some of her favourite walks – along by the edge of the stream that ran past Maya’s house would be great. It would be even