Pinky’s family has decided that they want to get a pet, but what kind? Pinky wants a dog but he is outvoted three to one in favor of a cat. The decision is sealed during a trip to the supermarket. There, in front of the store, is a girl giving away free kittens and Amanda has chosen one before Pinky is even out of the car.

At home, Pinky’s sister Amanda announces, She’s really mine. I was the first one to hold her and that makes me her mother. Pinky doesn’t care. He wants a dog. But that’s before Patches, as Amanda has named the kitten, sneaks into Pinky’s room each night and Pinky finds himself having a change of heart.

In Pinky and Rex and the Just-Right Pet, the twelfth book in the Pinky and Rex series, James Howe once again illuminates a family situation recognizable to all