The Abandoned Puppy (5 page)

“I just don’t like it when they jump against the wire,” Kyra murmured.

“Biscuit and Choc do jump up, but they’re really little,” Zoe promised. “Cookie won’t, not till she’s worked out who you are, she’s a bit shy.”

“OK. Oh, Zoe, are these them?” Kyra stopped in front of the puppies’ pen, smiling at them delightedly. They were all asleep, for once, flopped in a sort of puppy pile in their basket. The pile heaved and wriggled every so often, and as Zoe gently undid the front of the pen, it struggled apart and turned into three hairy, whiskery
brown-and-white puppies who frisked happily around Zoe’s feet.

“Do you want me to bring one of the puppies out?” Zoe asked. “Then you could stroke just one – you wouldn’t have them jumping about.”

Kyra nodded, and Zoe picked Cookie up. Cookie nuzzled at her happily. She’d been hoping that Zoe would come soon. She looked around curiously as Zoe carried her out of the pen, leaving her two brothers behind, looking rather
jealous. Cookie stared down at them, wagging her stubby little tail.

Zoe was carrying her to another girl, a taller girl with the same dark hair and eyes. Cookie looked at her with her head on one side – she looked very like Zoe. But she didn’t seem to be confident with dogs the way that Zoe was. She was looking rather nervous and, as she put out her hand, she patted her very quickly, as if she thought Cookie might snap.

Curious about this girl who looked so much like her favourite person, Cookie wriggled in Zoe’s arms, stretching towards the other girl.

“She likes you!” Zoe said laughing.

“Does she?” Kyra asked, sounding surprised, and rather pleased.

“Yes, she does,” said Zoe. “Do you want to hold her?”

“I don’t know…” Kyra looked uncertain. “OK, let me try.” Kyra nodded slowly, then let Zoe put Cookie into her arms.

Cookie snuggled up against Kyra’s chin, and slowly, Kyra petted her ears. The little dog closed her eyes.

“Oh, Zoe, she’s gorgeous.” Kyra smiled down at the puppy. “No wonder you’ve been spending so much time here.”

“She is, isn’t she?” Zoe sighed sadly. “And now I just can’t bear to think of letting her go…”

Chapter Seven

Cookie scampered down the outdoor yard, chasing after the jingly ball. It was her favourite toy. She loved the noise it made, even though she didn’t quite understand where the noise came from. It was definitely hers – Zoe had given it to her. It was the only toy she bothered to fight over.

Biscuit raced past her and dived on
to the ball, rolling over with it with his paws, and growling excitedly.

Cookie let out a sharp, furious bark, and jumped on top of him, scrabbling to get the ball back. Unfortunately, Biscuit was still quite a bit bigger than she was, and he wriggled and growled. Then somehow he was sitting on top of her instead, and he still had the ball, in his teeth now. He shook it backwards and forwards, still growling, so that it jingled madly.

“Stop squabbling, you two!” Zoe ran over. “Biscuit, Biscuit, look! Stretchy bone! Your best bone! Come on! Where’s it going?”

Biscuit sprang up, dropping the ball, and dancing round in circles as Zoe waved the blue rubber bone. Then she
flung it down the yard, and he galloped after it like a racehorse.

Cookie seized her ball gratefully, and sat down on Zoe’s feet, panting.

“You really love that, don’t you?” Zoe reached down and picked her up. “Look, there’s a nice sunny patch there. Let’s just sit and watch those two brothers of yours being mad…”

It was a beautiful warm May day, and Zoe had shorts on for the first time that year. She ought to have been feeling happy, but all she could think about was Becca. She’d be here soon. Which puppy would she choose? Zoe ran her hand gently down Cookie’s back, over and over, as Cookie shook the ball gently to-and-fro, listening to the jingly noises.

“What if she chooses you, Cookie?” Zoe whispered. “I’ve been trying not to think about it. It was bad enough just thinking about Becca having a dog, and me not being able to have one. But what if it’s actually you that she wants to take back with her?” She sighed, and leaned 
over, resting her cheek against Cookie’s wiry fur for a moment. “I suppose at least I’d still get to see you. That’s if Becca ever talks to me again, the way I’ve been this week. I’ve been awful.”

Cookie looked round at her for a moment, her eyes dark and sparkly. She licked Zoe’s hand.

“Thank you!” Zoe grinned. “Was that to tell me you don’t think I’ve been awful? I have, though. I was horrible, actually. I just can’t tell if it would be worse to never see you again, or to see you belong to someone else! I don’t know whether to hope that Becca chooses you or that she doesn’t.” This time Zoe heaved a massive sigh, so that Cookie turned round and stared at her. “Sorry! Did I shake you up and down?”

“Zoe!” Auntie Jo was calling her. “Becca and her mum and dad are here! They’re just getting out of their car. Go and say hello. I’ll bring these three in.”

“Oh! OK.” Zoe gently put Cookie down, and the puppy scampered off after the ball again. She walked slowly through the shelter to the reception area, where Becca and her parents were now talking to Susie, who was on the reception desk.

“You two can chat while we just fill these in,” Becca’s mum told them, smiling.

Becca couldn’t have told her mum how grumpy Zoe had been all week, Zoe realized gratefully. “Hi…” she said to Becca.

“Hi.” Becca stared at her, and then
she pulled Zoe over into the corner, as if they were going to look at photos on the wall of the dogs and cats who’d been rehomed recently. “Zoe, is there something going on?” she asked. “Are you mad with me?”

Zoe went red and looked at her feet. “No… I…” She didn’t know what to say.

“You are!” Becca cried out. “You’ve been acting really weird all week! What it it? What have I done?”

Zoe sighed. “Nothing. Nothing at all. I know I’ve been funny, but it isn’t your fault. It’s me. I’ve been jealous … jealous because you were getting a dog, and I couldn’t have one, not ever. We don’t have anyone at home to look after a dog, and Kyra hates them anyway. I’m so sorry I’ve been horrible.”

“Oh, Zoe.” Becca gave her friend a big hug. “Why didn’t you say?” she asked her, stepping back, her eyes round with surprise. “I’d have understood!”

“I suppose I just felt stupid. And mean,” Zoe muttered. “And I didn’t really want to talk to you about it. You were so excited…”

Becca sighed. “I didn’t think about it making you sad,” she admitted. “Did I go on and on?”

Zoe gave a very small giggle. “Yes. All the time.”

A voice behind them interrupted the awkward moment. It was Becca’s dad. “Are you girls ready?” he asked them. “I want to see these wonderful puppies you’ve been telling me about!”

Becca looked anxiously at Zoe, but Zoe nodded, managing to smile and look almost as though she meant it. “Come on!”

They walked down the passage to the puppies’ pen. Zoe spotted Auntie Jo coming back in from the yard, with the puppies in her arms. “There they are,” she told Becca’s dad, pointing. “They’ve been playing outside.”

The puppies saw them too, and
started to wriggle excitedly. Auntie Jo laughed and crouched down, letting them run down the passage towards the visitors.

Cookie dashed ahead, streaking towards Zoe on her tiny little legs. Zoe was desperate to pick her up and cuddle her. But she couldn’t. It was Becca’s turn.

But Becca wasn’t looking at Cookie, Zoe realized. She’d crouched down, and was holding out her arms. Biscuit was running straight up to her, and now he was standing up on his hind legs, his front paws on her arms, giving happy, excited little barks. He licked her cheek and jumped, as though she was the best thing he’d ever seen!

“He remembers me!” Becca cried
delightedly. “I’ve only met him once, but he really remembers me! Oh, Dad, do you like him? He’s called Biscuit, he’s the most gorgeous of all of them. Please can he be ours?”

Chapter Eight

Zoe watched, smiling, as Becca hugged Biscuit. He wriggled delightedly in her arms. So it would be a stranger who would be taking Cookie home, she realized sadly. She wouldn’t see her gorgeous little puppy grow up into a beautiful dog after all.

Cookie patted her paws hopefully at Zoe’s leg, asking to be picked up.
She could tell that Zoe was sad, but Cookie knew that she could make her feel better. When Zoe lifted her up at last, Cookie stood up in her arms, rubbing her whiskery nose against Zoe’s cheek. That always made her laugh.

“You’re so lovely,” Zoe murmured, but she didn’t sound much happier.

Cookie watched interestedly as the girl cuddling Biscuit gave him some crunchy treats, and carefully lifted him into a sort of box, like a small pen with a wire front. She shivered a little, burying her nose in Zoe’s neck. It reminded her of the box they’d all been shut up in. It felt like a very long time ago now.

Biscuit looked confused, and whined, but the girl fed him some more treats through the wire, and then the man with her picked the box up, and carried him away down the passage to the door.

Cookie gave a little whimper of surprise. They could go away? Biscuit was going with that girl, and the other two people? She didn’t understand. If they were allowed out of the shelter, why didn’t Zoe take her when she went? Perhaps she would! Perhaps they were all going! Cookie’s tail started to flick back and forth with excitement.

“Well, that was good, wasn’t it?” Auntie Jo said, sounding really pleased. “And I meant to tell you, Zoe, a really nice-sounding family called me asking about puppies, and they were interested
in getting a boy puppy – so that would be you, Choc.” She looked down at the puppy in her arms, who’d barked when he heard his name. “Yes, you! They’re going to come and see you tomorrow, aren’t they, sweetie? So we’re getting there.”

Zoe nodded. So that would leave just Cookie. And she wouldn’t be there for much longer either, Zoe was sure.

“Oh, look, there’s your mum and Kyra,” Auntie Jo pointed out, and she turned to open the front of the pen, and put Choc back in.

Zoe sighed, and walked towards the pen to put Cookie in too. She’d forgotten that Mum was coming to pick her up early. She wanted them to go and do some shopping – Zoe
needed new school shoes. Zoe had tried arguing that Mum could just buy them for her, but Mum had said no.

Cookie twisted in her arms, struggling frantically, and whining. She wasn’t going back in the pen – she wanted to stay with Zoe! Someone had already taken Biscuit away. Only Zoe could take her.

“What’s the matter?” Zoe gasped, holding the puppy tightly, and backing away from the pen, as that seemed to be what was upsetting her.

“Is Cookie OK?” Mum asked worriedly. She and Kyra had just come into the passage between the pens, and now she was hurrying towards Zoe.

“She got really upset when I was trying to put her back in the pen.”

Zoe cuddled Cookie close against her shoulder. She could feel the little dog’s sides heaving, she was shaking so badly. “Perhaps she’s sad about Biscuit going?” She wrinkled up her brow. “It’s OK, Cookie. It’s OK,” she whispered. But then her eyes filled with tears. “I’m telling her everything’s going to be all right, but it isn’t,” she said miserably, looking between Auntie Jo and Mum. “Biscuit’s gone to a new home, and Choc will probably go too, tomorrow, and then it’ll be just Cookie left. And someone will choose her really soon, and we’ll never see her again.”

Auntie Jo frowned. “I wonder if she does know what’s happening. Some dogs really do seem to understand, far more than you’d think they could. Maybe that’s why she doesn’t want to go back into that pen.”

“But she has to,” Zoe said dismally.
“What are we going to do? Do you think she’d be better if we moved her into a different pen?”

Auntie Jo glanced at Mum, and shook her head. “No, to be honest, I think it would just be better if she went back with you.”

“But then it would just be harder for her to come back.” Zoe blinked, not really understanding what her auntie was saying.

“Or we could keep her?” her mum said, putting an arm round Zoe’s shoulders, and gently patting Cookie.

Zoe looked puzzled. “But there’s no one to look after her in the daytime.”

Her mum glanced at Auntie Jo. “We’ve been talking about that. I told your auntie I was worried about how much you were falling in love with Cookie. That you were going to be really upset when she went to her new home.”

“And I said you were so good with dogs, you really deserved to have one of your own,” said Auntie Jo.

“So we’ve come up with a plan,” said her mum.

“I’m going to have her here at work with me in the day, Zoe,” Auntie Jo explained. “She can have a basket under my desk, and I’ll take her for a walk at lunchtime.”

“And Kyra?” said Zoe, flashing her sister a look.

“I don’t feel scared of Cookie,” said Kyra. “She’s a little sweetheart. Mum told me how much you’d bonded with Cookie – it was actually my idea we should have her. That’s why I wanted to meet her last week.”

“Really?” Zoe stared round at them all, her eyes like saucers. “You mean it? We can have Cookie? So – so we could take her home now?” Zoe whispered, hardly daring to hope that they’d say yes.

Auntie Jo smiled. “Well, she obviously doesn’t want to go back in that pen. I can stay here and make a big fuss of poor old Choc, so he doesn’t mind being on his own. And you can borrow some food bowls and things, until you can get your own.”

Zoe nodded, thinking how much pocket money she had saved up, and how she was going to spend all of it at the pet shop on the little puppy. Cookie was going to have the nicest things she could find.

“You’re coming home with us,” she whispered to Cookie. “You really are.”

Cookie nudged Zoe’s cheek with her damp black nose, and looked hopefully at the door.

“Look at them! They’re having such a good time,” Zoe said, laughing at the two little brown-and-white dogs – Biscuit and Cookie. Who would have thought it? They were standing at the bottom of a huge tree, right at the end of their extending leads. And they were both jumping up and down, barking themselves silly.