And this is where Mary Anne goes full on Crazy Cat lady. For reals. Oh, you can't really tell on this cover image, but the cat dish has Tigger's name in quotation marks, and that bugged me even as a kid. It's like Tigger is her imaginary kitten or something.
So this one opens up with Mary Anne riding downtown with Dawn to go shopping for Tigger toys. She tells Dawn that all of her babysitting money is spent on toys for Tigger. Umm...my cats go crazy over the plastic rings off of milk jugs and twisty ties from my loaves of bread, stop wasting your money, MA. Plus, as they are speeding back to Bradford Court for the BSC meeting, Mary Anne has to stop by her house first to give Tiggs his new toys. I'm not sure Kristy would consider that an acceptable excuse to be late, but fortunately MA makes it just in time.
While we got out standard Chapter 2 intro to the BSC, we find out that this one falls during the Mr. Spier dating Mrs. Schafer period, and the Stacey living in NYC period, so Dawn is acting as treasurer. We also find out Jessi wears reading glasses, and I've never heard that mentioned before. It seems that at one time or another, AMM is making all of the members have reading glasses for one book. Oh, and MA thinks that Logan is "incredibly incredible" (excuse me while I make retching noises for a moment - I don't remember being one of those girls at 13, thank goodness). Anyway, Logan calls the BSC meeting needing a sitter for his sister and brother, however AMM writes it as "Ah need a sittuh." Sigh...you're killing me, Smalls!!!
Later that week, Mary Anne and Logan are having one of their "dates," consisting of them sitting on her front porch watching Tigger frolic in the yard. Logan is not allowed in the house when her dad is not there, and this is portrayed as one of Mr. Spier's super strict rules, but that actually seems like a reasonable rule for a 13 year old girl, even Kristy's mom thinks so. Logan is trying to talk about baseball practice, and Mary Anne keeps interrupting whenever "Bigger Tigger" (her nickname) does something cute, which is probably pretty often, because he is a kitten after all (I'm a crazy cat lady too...). Logan starts getting all huffy every time MA mentions the kitten, so basically, he acts like a 13 year old boy for once. Even my husband, who is contractually obligated to put up with me, gives me the look if I talk about the cats too much.
Logan leaves MA alone to revel in her kitten raptures, but eventually 5:30 rolls around and she has to go to the BSC meeting. MA starts to take Tiggs inside, but he gives her the sad kitten eyes, so she decides to leave him outside playing while she is across the street at Claudia's.
Honestly, this seemed out of character for Mary Anne, but I guess she wouldn't have to search for the feline if he was inside all the time. Wait, did I just spoil the plot? Sorry, y'all... Of course, when she gets back home, she calls for Tigger, but he never comes trotting home. She even shakes the cat food container outside, and he doesn't appear either (umm...my cats could be sound asleep upstairs in the master bedroom, but if I even nudge the food container, they are right behind me in about 5 seconds, so MA should know something is wrong at this point.) Once her dad gets home, she rushes at him all panicky, but he rationally says to give it time. MA goes to bed, leaving her window open of course, but no Tigger.
The next morning, with no furry arrivals on the doorstep, even Mr. Spier acts concerned, but tells MA to give it the rest of the day. Mary Anne goes off for her sitting job with Logan's sister and brother, Kerry and Hunter. Hunter has bad allergies, and like Abby, AMM uses that annoying "let's replace this character's 'n's with 'd's to signify he is stopped up" dialogue thing, which I hate. Do people really say "Oh doe!!" instead of "oh no!!" when they are congested? And wasn't there some version of Claritin or Zyrtec in the 90s? Ugh... Anyway, poor MA can't focus because she is worried about Tiggs, and when he is still not home after her job, she calls Kristy, who of course calls for an emergency meeting of the club. Because that will solve everything in Stoneybrook.
At the Missing Cat Summit, Special K decides that they should offer a reward for Tigger. Everyone digs in their pockets, plus raid the treasury as well, and come up with $30.00. Really? All the babysitting they do, plus the weekly dues, and the best they can do is $30.00? Pfftt. After the meeting, MA calls Logan to inform him of Tiggergate, and all he says is "Gee, that's too bad" and then starts talking about baseball again. Then, the next day, the BSC, a bunch of neighborhood kids, and Logan get together to search the neighborhood for Tigger, and when MA starts to get emotional, Logan asks her is she isn't overreacting a little. Yeah...not smart, Logan.
But wait, there's more of Mr. Jerky McJerkwad. Mary Anne gets a ransom note for Tigger, so another emergency meeting, naturally, which Logan actually attends. When MA starts crying during the meeting, Logan tells her to stop being so sensitive and acting like a girl. The other girls give him death glares while they comfort MA. However, Logan does redeem himself by coming up with a plan to catch the ransom note author, who turns out just to be a kid wanting to scam the reward money. Another dead end...
The next day, MA sits for Hunter Bruno again, and he ends up admitting that his sister found a kitten and is keeping it in her room. Mary Anne rushes in and finds Tigger asleep in a cardboard box in the closet. It turns out that Kerry found Tigger hanging out by a storm drain and thought he was abandoned, so she rescued him and tried to hide him from her parents (this was the cause for Hunter's allergy attacks as well). MA assumes that Logan knew about it and blows up at him when he comes home. He denies it, and confesses that he has been distracted lately because his coach has been all over him at baseball practice - there's no crying in baseball, Logan, man up. All is forgiven, and MA and Logan resume being the 'Brook's young teen romance du jour.
Oh, and completely unrelated to the plot, but has to mentioned - at some point Claudia is sitting for the Perkins' girls, and they are singing "Blue Suede Shoes" for her, and she mentions how she always thought the singer's name was Elbow Presley. Really, Claud? It kind of bothers me how stupid AMM would make Claudia look sometimes. That is all.
Fashion in the house!!
What Claudia wore: "Claudia mixes and matches the weirdest stuff and comes up with the coolest outfits. Like a loose blouse with a fake coat of arms on it worn over a short black skirt. Around her waist, a scarf. On her feet, short black boots. Dangling from her ears, dinosaurs. And her hair might be piled on top of her head and held in place with hairpins that look like seahorses." I totally want some dinosaur earrings now. Clarissa thinks dinosaurs are trendy, too.
Hey, Mary Anne, my "Tigger" likes to hide in grocery bags...
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