To help him get over the death of his dog, Ely's parents send him to Grandpa's farm for the summer, but when Ely discovers a Tyrannosaurus Rex trapped in a cave on the farm, he tries to tame the dinosaur and convince the whole town that his new pet is not a threat.
Called a troublemaker by his human family, a reflective dog defends himself and then relates the family's adoption of an aristocratic but incompetent cat, who gives him a life purpose and new way of looking at his world.
Relates the story of the summer Josh spends while his mother is in the hospital awaiting the birth of his baby sister, and his pet chicken Semolina, who talks but only to him, is almost killed by a red fox.
When a girl brings home an octopus and wants to keep him as a pet, her daddy reminds her of the crocodile, seals, and other inappropriate animals she has already brought into the house to create chaos.
Dixie Lee brings home an alligator, a snake, and an owl as pets to protect her family from such spooky creatures as the churn-turners, the bogeyman, and the mist-sisters.
Although a young child puts off cleaning the bedroom because all the family's pets are asleep there, the sudden arrival of a zooming fly mysteriously gets the job done.
