A Home for Rascal (2 page)
Authors: Holly Webb
They had found a breeder on the internet who lived in a farmhouse just outside town. Dad had called them and arranged to go and see the litter of puppies the very next day. He seemed just as keen as Ellie to get a dog! Ellie peered out of the car window, over Lila’s shoulder, to see if they were almost there yet. As the littlest she always had to sit in the middle seat.
They turned down a narrow track and
pulled up outside an old farmhouse. Ellie wrestled out of her seat belt and scrambled out of the car. They were about to meet their puppy!
A friendly-looking woman opened the door. “The Thomases? Here to see the puppies? I’m Liz. Come on through. The puppies have a little room just off the kitchen.”
Lila and Max chattered away to Liz, as she led them into the house. Ellie tried to follow them, but somehow everyone was blocking the door to the puppy room.
“Max, can I see?” She tried to squeeze round Max, but he wasn’t listening.
Ellie sighed crossly. Sometimes she hated being the smallest. Even Mum and
Dad were cooing over the puppies, and hadn’t noticed she was still in the kitchen. She wasn’t even going to get the chance to see the puppies before Lila and Max chose which one they were having!
She sat down on one of the kitchen chairs, and stared sadly at a dog magazine that was open on the table.
Suddenly, something damp pressed itself against her hand, and Ellie squeaked. Then the something nibbled her fingers hopefully. Ellie peered under the table.
There was a puppy down there!
He looked up at her hopefully with twinkly dark eyes, his floppy ears twitching as he put his head to one side.
Ellie giggled. His expression was so naughty!
“Are you meant to be under there?” she whispered.
The puppy whined apologetically and licked her hand. His tongue was all soft and slobbery.
Just then, Ellie realized that the excited chatter from inside the puppy room had died down.
“Hang on. Can everyone just check for me… There should be five…” said Liz, sounding worried. “I don’t believe it. He’s got out again. I don’t know how he climbs over the board in the doorway, none of the others can!”
Ellie looked down at the puppy.
“She’s talking about you, isn’t she?” The puppy stared back at her with big, innocent eyes.
Who, me?
he seemed to be saying.
Ellie reached for the puppy, feeling a tiny bit worried that he wouldn’t want to be picked up, but he seemed delighted to scramble into her arms. Cradling him against her shoulder, she stood up and walked over to the door.
“Um, is this who you’re looking for?” Ellie went red. She wasn’t very good at talking to strangers.
The puppy snuffled delightedly into her ear, making her squeak. Liz laughed and shook her head. “There he is! He’s a real little rascal. He’s obviously taken to you, though!”
“He’s lovely!” Ellie said shyly.
Liz nodded. “Yes, he is. He’s such a character. But he’s just a bit too bouncy for some people. He’s actually had one home already, with an older couple. I’m afraid they brought him back after two days. They took one of his sisters instead; she was a bit quieter.”
The puppy’s mum, Cleo, watched carefully as Ellie brought her baby back. She gave a sharp yap, as if she was telling him off. But then she licked the runaway puppy lovingly when Ellie placed him down next to her.
Ellie sat down on the floor of the puppy room. The puppies were all gorgeous, mostly white like her puppy, but with different splashes of black or brown. Hers was white all over, except for a couple of spots, and a brown mask over his ears and the top of his face. It gave him a mischievous look, like a burglar.
Ellie’s puppy went pattering off across the floor, stalking a red plastic ball that the biggest puppy was nosing at.
The biggest puppy, who was mostly white with just one brown ear, nudged the ball hard with his nose so that it went rolling away. The two of them scampered after it, but the rascally puppy dashed ahead and cornered the ball, his tail wagging frantically as he seized it in his jaws. He whisked round and came trotting back to Ellie. He then dropped the ball into her lap, looking remarkably pleased with himself. It was half-deflated, with a neat little set of teeth marks in its saggy side.
“He’s brought you a present, Ellie!” Dad commented.
“Dad, can we have this one? It’s definitely the nicest.” Lila was holding up a puppy with a black eyepatch like a pirate, which was wriggling and squeaking as she dangled it in the air.
Mum slipped a hand underneath the puppy. “Gently, sweetheart. They like a hand under their legs, or they feel nervous.”
Max looked up. “Hey, no, can’t we have this one?” He was playing tug-of-war with a rubber bone with the biggest puppy.
Ellie looked down at the naughty little puppy, who was now climbing into her lap after the ball. He heaved himself up her legs with a mighty effort and collapsed on top of the ball, his sides heaving. He gave an enormous yawn, then looked around him in confusion. Where was his ball now?
“I wish we could take you home,” Ellie whispered to him. She knew that Lila and Max would argue if she tried to ask for this
puppy instead, but a fiercely determined feeling was growing inside her. She usually didn’t mind not getting her own way. She was used to it, and it was never about anything all that important. But this was important!
“I think
this
puppy’s sweet,” she started.
“He’s really clever. And I think he’d make us laugh.”
“We don’t want a dog to make us laugh!” Lila said rather scornfully.
“Why not?” Dad replied. “He is very cute. And he’s really fallen for Ellie, look.”
The puppy had worked out where the ball was now, and he was curled up on Ellie’s knee, slumped over the ball, fast asleep.
“But Dad, I want this one!” Lila cradled the pirate puppy, who was wriggling grumpily.
“Ellie’s puppy’s cute, but it’s the littlest,” said Max. “We want a big, strong dog.”
Ellie looked down at the puppy in her lap. So what if he was little? He would grow!
“They’re all lovely.” Mum smiled, and gently patted Ellie’s puppy on the head. “But I agree, I think this puppy is the one for us.”
Dad arranged with Liz that they would come back tomorrow to pick the puppy up.
“Can’t we take him now?” Ellie asked hopefully.
“No, first we need to get him a basket, puppy food… Er … all those kinds of things,” Dad said uncertainly.
“I’ll give you a list,” Liz told them, smiling. “You’ll be surprised how much stuff you need, even for one very small dog!”
Lila and Max squabbled in the car all the way home. They certainly weren’t happy about their little sister getting to choose the new puppy.
“Will you two just stop it!” Dad snapped in the end. “How exactly did you think you were
both
going to get the puppy you wanted, even if we hadn’t chosen Ellie’s favourite? It’s not as though we’re getting two puppies! And this is a family
dog, remember – for all of us!”
“We should have picked mine…” Lila grumbled.
“Mine was better!”
“That’s enough!” Dad was using his I-really-mean-it voice, and Lila and Max fell silent.
Ellie tried not to smile too much. But she couldn’t help it. They were getting a puppy tomorrow! Her favourite puppy, the one who had liked
her
! And if Max and Lila were going to sulk, maybe she would be able to do most of the looking after!
As soon as they got back, Ellie begged to nip over to see Grandad to tell him their
exciting news. He lived round the corner from them, and he loved dogs too, even though he said he was too old to look after a dog these days. He had a cat instead, a big tabby called Freda.
“OK then,” said Mum. “But not for long, Ellie. We need to go to the pet shop, remember.”
“I’ll be back soon,” Ellie promised, as she opened the front door. “I just want to tell him our puppy’s coming tomorrow. I still really want to come and help choose everything!”
She hurried down the road to Grandad’s house and headed round to the side gate. In sunny weather like this, he was bound to be sitting out in the garden.
“Hi, Grandad!”
Grandad looked up from his deckchair, pleased to see her. “Hello, Ellie! You look excited. What’s the big news?”
“We’re getting a puppy! Tomorrow!”
“Your dad mentioned he was thinking about getting a dog. Well, that was fast work! So, what kind are you getting?”
“He’s a Jack Russell.”
Grandad nodded. “I had a Jack Russell, years ago. Smokey, he was called. They’re real little characters. You’re in for some fun.”
“Lila wanted a red setter, but Mum and Dad wanted a small dog. And then at the breeders today, one of the puppies found me, Grandad, and he went to sleep in my lap. And he’s the one we’re having. The puppy I chose!” Ellie frowned suddenly. “Smokey’s a really sweet name. I wonder what we’re going to call our puppy?”
Grandad laughed as Ellie went dancing round the garden. Then she dashed over and gave him a hug. “I have to go now. We’ve got to buy all the stuff we need. Come and see us tomorrow, won’t you? You have to meet our puppy!”
Ellie had hoped that it would be just her and Mum going to the pet shop, but Lila decided to come, too.
“This purple one’s nice.” Ellie pointed to a squashy dog bed with a paw-print pattern.
“You can’t give a boy dog a purple bed!” Lila said. “The red one’s good.”
Ellie didn’t see why red was any more boyish than purple, but she knew better than to bother arguing. She liked the red bed anyway, and so did Mum.
They were just trying to work out which colour of collar would suit the puppy best, when Lila’s mobile rang. “Mum, can I go round to Rosie’s?” she asked.
“As long as you’re home for tea,” said Mum.
“Don’t you want to get things for the puppy?” Ellie asked, but Lila had quickly put a blue collar back on to the hook and was already practically out of the shop. Ellie looked hopefully at Mum. “Can we get the red one?”
Mum smiled. “I think he’d look perfect in red.”
“We need a tag, too,” said Ellie, looking down at Liz’s list. She led Mum over to a little display of different collar-tags. “We could have a bone-shaped one!”
“That’s lovely.” Mum added the tag to her basket. “We’ll have to get it engraved with his name and our phone number.”
“But Mum, we still don’t have a name!” said Ellie.
When everyone was back home at teatime, Mum asked if they had any ideas of what to call their puppy.
“Ben,” Max said immediately.
Ellie’s nose wrinkled. Ben was OK, but it didn’t fit the puppy somehow.
“No, Lucky!” Lila protested.
“Lucky’s a stupid name,” Max growled. “Besides, half the dogs in the park are called Lucky. We want something different.”
Mum nodded. “I agree. But I don’t think Ben’s that different either. What about – um – Sidney?”
“No!” Ellie squeaked in horror. He just wasn’t a Sidney at all!
Dad laughed. “Well, what do you think then, Ellie?”
Ellie frowned. She wanted something just right. Something that fitted his naughty character and his burglar’s mask. Suddenly, she remembered what Liz had said when Ellie had found the puppy. “What about Rascal?” she suggested. “He has those markings across his face that make him look like a burglar.”
Mum murmured it to herself a couple of times, and looked over at Dad. “I like it. What do you think?”
He nodded. “Nice and different.”
Lila was frowning. “Lucky’s better. But I suppose it’s OK.”
Max grinned. “Rascal… He looks naughty enough for it to fit.”
Ellie nodded. “A real little rascal, that’s what Liz called him!”
