The mood in Ramona’s house grows grimmer, and she tries to lighten it with jokes at dinner but only ends up getting scolded. Picky-picky won’t eat the cheap cat food that Mrs. Quimby has to buy and whines, while Mrs. Quimby laments increasing costs and Mr. Quimby smokes. Ramona feels powerless to change the situation, but the mood lightens when Mrs. Quimby announces that a neighbor donated a pumpkin to carve for Halloween. Ramona proudly goes downstairs to get it and brings it up to the kitchen table. Everyone gets involved, and Ramona happily scoops out the seeds. Mr. Quimby is a skilled carver and creates a unique-looking face after getting everyone’s input. Ramona goes to sleep happy and relieved to have seen her family smiling again.

In the middle of the night, Ramona wakes up to a strange noise coming from the kitchen. She screams for her parents, who come right away. Ramona’s parents find the pumpkin half-eaten and Picky-picky sitting under the kitchen table. Mr. Quimby laughs, but when Ramona sees what happened, she becomes very upset. Beezus knows that the cat was hungry after refusing to eat cheap cat food and blames her parents for what happened.