Poor Gracie. All this little pooch wanted was a quiet house, with "the kitty sleeping on the windowsill, the big dog sleeping on the couch, the quiet fish going ploop-ploop." But then one day the painters came. In a "big, noisy truck," with "clangy ladders and big-person voices." Clearly, there was only one solution: "She barked and barked and told them to go outside. But do you know what? Gracie was put outside!"