The Brite Star Ranch A Brite Star Critters Book Copyright © 2020 by The Brite Star Foundation, Inc., a 501 (c)3 All rights reserved. Published by The Brite Star Foundation, Inc. 11411 Southern Highlands Parkway Suite 338 Las Vegas, Nevada 89141 Vincent W. Goett, Publisher ISBN:
Paperback Digital
978-1-62718-180-8 978-1-62718-176-1
No part of this publication may be reproduced in whole or in part, or stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without written permission of the publisher.
Missy lives at the Brite Star Ranch with her dad, Mr. G. Another person who lives at the ranch is Tom.His job is to take care of the animals that live at the ranch.
Brite Star Ranch is a fun place to live. Missy especially loves all the animals that live there. She likes to help Tomtake care of them. In fact, she loves the animals so much that she gets up early every day so she can visit them before she goes to school.
Missy’s best friends are Ken, Sam, Brooke and Whitney. The four sisters live next door to Brite Star Ranch. They meet Missy at the barn each morning so they can see the animals, too. Today when the girls met in the barn they discovered twonew animals . . . a llama and a raccoon. “Quick! Get inside and close the door!” Missy whispered.
“What’s the big hurry?” Kenasked. “We have a problem,” Missy said. “Dad says there are too many animals here at the Ranch. He says wecan’t take care of all of them. It costs a lot of money to get food for them. It takes a lot of time for Tom to do everything they need.”
“But, they need a place to stay,”said Brooke. “After all, they camehere. If they had a home, wouldn’t they go there?” Whit wasn’t listening. Bandit, the raccoon waslicking her hand. “It tickles!” she giggled. “We’ve got to find a place for Bandit and Lovey llama to stay,”said Missy. “Dad won’t let them stay here.”
Missy paced up and down. She stopped and looked out the big barn doors at the miles and miles of fields. Her friends surrounded her and waited for her plan. When Missy couldn’t come up with a plan the friends knew they had a big problem.
The animals needed more than just a place to sleep. Someone had to feed them and clean up after them. “Ugh. Gross,” said Sam. She wouldn’t be any help with cleaning up. “Let’s makea list, then wecan come up with a plan,” Kensaid. Their list was: Shelter, Food, Clean Water Every Day, Exercise, Medical. The medical wasgoing to be the hardest. Could animals run a temperature? Could they get a cold?
“Youforgot the most important thing,” Sam said. “What?” Ken asked. “Money. We can’t do most of this without money,” Sam explained. She wasright. Missy added Money to the list in very big letters. But, how could they get money? “We are in a pickle,” Whit said. Everyone agreed.
Solving the pickle would have to wait, though. The girls had to get to school. They waved goodbye to the animals and closed the big barn doors. Then they got on the bus to go to school.
As soon as the girls were gone, Elvis the bear gathered the animals around him. “We love living here at the Ranch, don’t we?” “Animals everywhere talk about whata great place this is,” said Bandit. “Then we need to do whatever we can to help Missy and her friends. Maybe Mr. G will let us stay then,” Elvis said. Everyone agreed to be on good behavior.
Ms. Betty started class by announcing a writing contest with a prize for the winner. That got Missy’s attention. “Aprize! Maybe it’s money!” she said. “Yeah, or maybe it’s stickers or gum. We don’t know whatthe prize is,” Samsaid. She often saw the dark side of things. “Oh, come on, Sam,”Kensaid, “let’s give it a chance. The prize might be cash that will help us with the animals. Maybe it’s a million dollars!”
After class Ms. Betty asked the girls about the contest. “What will you write about?” she asked. Missy smiled. “Well, wethink everyone needs help sometimes. It’s important to help others when wecan. We wantto help people and animals, too,” she said. “Great idea,” Ms. Betty said. “Helping others is very important.”
Missy and her friends wrote a book for the contest together and . . . they won! Mr. G was very proud of the girls. He planned a special barbecue to celebrate. They happily gave Mr. G their prize money. “Girls, I’m proud of you. Thank you for giving your prize money to help with the animals. All your animal friends are welcome here at the Ranch. They always will be!” Mr. G said.
The four sisters and their momwere enjoying the barbecue along with Missy, Mr. G and Tomwhen Mr. G said, “Hmmm, someone’s missing.” The girls looked around but they thought everyone was there. “Who’s missing, Dad?” Missy asked. Mr. G opened the barn door and all the animals camerunning out! “The guests of honor,” he said.
The girls did win the contest by writing about helping the animals. Then they made their story into a whole book—this book! The girls and the animals were asked to lead the Brite Star town parade that fall. It wasall very exciting. Best of all, now no animal is ever turned awayfrom Brite Star Ranch!
Think About It 1. What is one of Missy’s favorite things about living at the Ranch? 2. What kinds of animals live at the Ranch? 3. Why do Missy and her friends need to help with the animals? 4. What do Missy and her friends think is important to do for other people and animals? 5. Will more animals get to come to Brite Star Ranch now? Let’s Work Together! It’s a good thing to help other people . . . and animals. Sometimes it takes money to help. Sometimes it only takes your time. How can you and your friends work together to help others? I will . . . *Pay attention to people and animals around me who need help. • Help in any wayI can. • Encourage others to work as a team to help others. Helping others doesn’t always mean doing a big thing. It can mean being a friend to someone who is alone. It can mean serving meals in a homeless shelter. It can mean reading to a child so the momcan get chores done. Helping comes in all shapes and sizes. It feels good to help others!