When Jackson and his father return from the pet store, Jackson finds Aretha in his room with her nose in his keepsakes bag. He knows she has something in her mouth, but she will not open it, even after he offers her the cookie. He figures she does not “want to eat stolen goods” (174). Aretha runs out of his room to the front door. Robin opens it, and Aretha shoots out, heading towards Marisol’s house. Jackson notes that Aretha loves Marisol’s seven cats.

He finds Aretha digging a hole in Marisol’s old sandbox. Marisol is outside, building a staircase for her cats to climb. She tells Jackson that Aretha brought her a statue of a cat wearing a baseball cap. It is the sculpture of Crenshaw that Jackson had put in his keepsake bag, but Jackson does not tell Marisol that. He downplays the statue’s significance, saying he made it as a kid and calling it lame. Marisol finds it “intriguing” and would like to buy it from Jackson, but he tells her to keep it as a “going-away present” (177). Marisol is alarmed at the idea of Jackson moving, telling him she loves his “weird parents” and would miss him and their dog-walking (177).