Pet Worth. Part One.

“Come on kids, let’s go!!!”
My brother Jack and I were staying at Dad’s for the weekend. Mum and Dad had got divorced two months ago, and he moved to Pet worth with his new girlfriend Linney last week, and he invited Jack and me to stay with them for the weekend.
I stumbled downstairs with my suitcase and then went back upstairs to help Jack with his.
“I’m going to miss you guys,” Mum told me as she took Jack’s suitcase out to the car.
“It’s only for two days,” I told her. “You’ll be picking us up Monday morning.”
“It’s a good job it’s half term, isn’t it?” Mum said. “You’d think your father would offer to bring you back, wouldn’t you? Of course, Linney probably didn‘t want him to leave her for a few hours.” Mum carried on in a mock voice.
“Mum, Linney’s probably really nice once you get to know her,” I defended Dad’s girlfriend.
“Stupid woman with a stupid name,” Mum continued. “Normal women called Jacqueline usually shorten their name to Jack or Jackie, not Linney.”
“Shut up and get in the car,” I joked.
“Not talk to me like that, Natalie,” Mum scolded, but she smiled. She made sure Jack was strapped safely in the back, and then sat in the driver’s seat next to me. Pretty soon, we were on our way to Pet Worth.
The ride up to Pet Worth took four hours, if you counted when we stopped for something to eat, and then the many times Jack wanted to go to the toilet.
After about half an hour of driving around, I noticed something very odd about Pet Worth. Usually with a town, you see loads of people milling about. People walking along the streets, getting to work, going shopping or meeting up with their friends. But there were no one about. Absolutely nobody at all. Not one person. There’s usually also a lot of traffic on the roads, but we seemed to be the only car driving around. It was really eerie. It was like a ghost town or something. There was also something else very odd about Pet Worth. There seemed to be quite a lot of dogs and cats around. I swear I could see them wearing clothes, but it had been an early morning, and I was probably really tired, and imagining things. I looked in the back, Jack had actually fallen asleep.
Finally, we found the address that Dad had given us, and Mum pulled up to the driveway.
“We won’t get the suitcases out just yet,” Mum said. “I want to make sure this is where Linney and your father do live, and that we haven’t got the wrong address.”
I opened the back door and shook Jack awake. He stared at me dumbly for a few minutes, and then his eyes opened really wide.
“Linney and Dad!!” He exclaimed excitedly. He tried to get out of the car with undoing his seatbelt. I had to undo it quickly before he choked himself.
Before Mum could stop him, Jack had ran all the way to the front door and pressed really hard on the doorbell without letting go.
“Okay Jackie, you can let go now,” Mum pulled Jack away from the door. “I just hope it’s your father tat answers and not Linney,” Mum pulled a hideous face.
“Mum, are you going to make faces every time you say or hear Linney’s name?” I asked.
“Yes,” Mum giggled.
“And you call me and Jack childish.”
At that moment the front door.
“Good afternoon Steve, I trust you and Linney are well…” Mum started, but then she stopped. I looked at what she was staring at with her mouth wide open. It wasn’t Dad standing at the front door. Nor was it Linney. It was a dog. A black and white collie dog. Stood up on it’s back legs that had a pair of black slippers on them., wearing a pair of glasses, holding a newspaper in one paw, and a cigarette in the other. Also, the dog was wearing a brown jacket and a pair of blue jeans.