The Rescued Puppy

by Holly Webb

  She dashed inside, chasing after Adam, who was already stomping up the stairs. He flung open the bedroom door that Mum had pointed out, and yelled, “I’m having the top bunk!”

  “Hey, not fair!” Georgia moaned from the doorway. Lucky wriggled out of her arms and went to explore. “Why do you get the top one? Can’t we swap halfway through the holiday?”

  Adam climbed up the ladder to throw his bag on the bed and stared down at her smugly. “Nope. I bagged it. Get used to it, Georgie.”

  Georgia stamped her foot crossly, and Lucky, who was sniffing around under the bunk bed, backed further underneath it, tucking his tail between his legs. They were fighting again. He hated it when they did that. Quietly, he sneaked along under the bed, making for the bedroom door. Then he bolted out as Georgia snapped at Adam, and stood shivering on the landing. He wanted to get away from the loud, scary voices.

  Georgia and Adam’s mum had been looking around, checking out the different rooms and starting to put things away. She’d opened the door of the large airing cupboard at the top of the stairs, thinking to herself how useful it would be for drying off swimming towels. Then she’d closed it again, but she didn’t see that it had swung open a little as she walked away, and now Lucky nosed his way inside. It was warm and dark and safe next to the hot water tank, and no one was shouting in here. He curled up on an old towel that the last family must have left behind, and waited for his heart to stop thumping anxiously.

  Back in the bedroom, Georgia suddenly stopped arguing, and smiled as a thought occurred to her. “All right. You can have the top bunk. I don’t mind.”

  “What?” Adam glared at her suspiciously. “For the whole holiday?”

  Georgia smiled even wider. “Yes. The whole holiday.”

  Adam nodded slowly. “OK.”

  Georgia sat down on the bottom bunk and patted it happily. “Lucky won’t be able to get up the ladder, you know. So I get him on my bed for the whole time.”

  At home Lucky slept on either Georgia’s bed or Adam’s depending on how he felt. Sometimes he changed over in the middle of the night, but he was usually curled up on Georgia’s toes when she woke up in the morning.

  Adam scowled. “Hey, that’s not fair…”

  “You wanted the top bunk,” Georgia sang triumphantly. “Now you’ve got it!”

  Adam slumped down next to her. “Huh. Cheat.”

  “Nope, just cleverer than you. Hey, where is Lucky?” Georgia sat up, looking around worriedly. “He was exploring a minute ago. Oh no – he hates us fighting.”

  Adam jumped up off the bed. “What if he ran outside? He hasn’t a clue where he’s going round here.”

  They raced out of the bedroom, calling worriedly. “Lucky! Here, Lucky! Where are you, boy?”

  “Have you lost him?” Mum popped her head out of her bedroom, looking anxious. “Oh, you two! I heard you fighting, did you upset him?”

  Dad came up the stairs. “I’ve been unloading the car and I haven’t seen him come out of the door. He must be in the cottage somewhere. You really need to behave better around him, both of you. It’s part of being proper dog owners – you have to be careful not to frighten your puppy.”

  “Sorry, Dad,” Adam and Georgia murmured, both looking guilty.

  “He can’t have gone far,” said Dad. “Come on. I’ll check downstairs and you two have another look up here.”

  “Maybe he’s under the bed!” Adam dashed back in to their room.

  Georgia looked along the landing, wondering where she would hide if she were a frightened little puppy. Somewhere dark and cosy, probably. Under the bed was a good idea of Adam’s… Then she spotted the airing cupboard door, still slightly open, and padded quietly over to it. She swung the door open gently and crouched down to peer inside.

  Lucky stared back at Georgia, his eyes round and watchful, and thumped his tail slowly on the towel.

  “Hey, Lucky…” Georgia whispered sadly, looking at his worried little face. “We scared you, didn’t we? Come on out, sweetie, we won’t fight any more.”

  Adam appeared behind her, and Georgia glanced up warningly, her finger to her lips. Adam nodded. “It’s OK, Lucky,” he whispered. “We’ll be nice.”

  Lucky stood up and nosed at Georgia’s hands lovingly. She picked him up, and Adam stroked his ears gently.

  “I’m really sorry, Lucky. Adam, we can’t fight while we’re here, OK?” Georgia looked at him seriously. “Or we have to try not to, anyway. We can’t risk upsetting Lucky and having him run off in a strange place.”

  Adam nodded. “Holiday truce.” He grinned. “Mum and Dad will be pleased. Their quietest holiday ever!”

  After the world’s speediest lunch – Adam and Georgia both claimed they weren’t hungry, but Mum refused to believe them – they finally got to go down to the beach for a first explore with Lucky. It was amazing. Because the beach wasn’t really close to the town, there was hardly anybody there – just one family building a sandcastle, and a group of older boys swimming up at one end.

  “There’s a bigger beach just a little further along the coast down at Woolbridge, with ice creams and a pier,” Mum explained. “But you aren’t allowed to take dogs on to Woolbridge Beach in the summer.”

  “I don’t mind.” Georgia gazed at the brown sand, which was striped with pebbles and framed by the tall, reddish-brown cliffs. “It’s lovely here. Just us and the sea. Do you think we could let Lucky off the lead? He’d have to go all the way back up the path to get lost.”

  Dad nodded. “As long as we keep an eye on him.”

  Lucky barked excitedly as Georgia unclipped his lead. He wasn’t used to being allowed to run off wherever he liked, and at first he simply raced up and down the sand, barking and jumping and chasing his tail.

  Then he spotted an interesting pile of rather smelly seaweed that had been washed up on the tide, and left lying on the beach. Georgia could see a line of it, all the way along the sand – seaweed, and shells, and even a piece of beautiful emerald green sea glass that she slipped into her pocket as a souvenir.

  Adam was already splashing about in the sea, but Georgia decided she needed a bit more time in the sun before having a dip in the chilly water. She wondered if it might be a bit cold for Lucky, too. But Sam, their obedience class teacher, had told them spaniels usually loved water.

  Lucky started to dig furiously, loving the way the sand spurted up between his paws. It was much quicker to dig here than in the flower beds at home. But it did go everywhere. He stopped mid-hole to shake the sand out of his whiskers, and let out an enormous sneeze. Next he scrabbled a big pile of seaweed into his hole and covered it back over, scooting the sand back through his paws. Then he sat down on it happily, looking very proud of himself.

  Georgia watched him, laughing. “Shall we go and see the water now?” she asked him. “Look, Adam’s paddling in it.”

  Lucky stood up and followed her down to the water’s edge, where Adam was hopping in and out of the wavelets, whistling through his teeth at how cold it was.

  Lucky watched interestedly, his tail wagging. He’d never seen so much water, and it moved! He backed away thoughtfully as the bubbly surf crept towards him, and then followed it back again, fascinated.

  “Oh look, Adam, he loves it!” Georgia giggled.

  The puppy crouched down, his paws stretched out in front of him, wondering if he could catch this stuff. This time, when the creamy water began to draw back from his paws, he jumped after it, splashing himself and Georgia with freezing cold water.

  Georgia laughed, and Lucky shook himself in surprise. He hadn’t expected that to happen. But he liked it!

  When the next wave came, he didn’t try to catch the water, he just jumped in and out of it, shaking his soaked ears and whining excitedly. Chasing the waves was almost as much fun as chasing squirrels!

  Chapter Four

  On that first afternoon of the holiday, Georgia and Adam had been so eager to get down to the beach that the
y’d hardly taken anything with them. But the next morning, the first real full day in Woolbridge, they took everything. Swimming things, towels, spades, snacks, rugs and Adam’s enormous inflatable alligator. They struggled down the path, laden with all they could possibly need, and Mum and Dad followed them with folding chairs and the picnic.

  It was another beautiful sunny day, and Mum insisted on covering them with suncream as soon as they’d set up a base camp next to a large rock. She looked doubtfully at Lucky. “I suppose he’ll be all right. But if he starts to look hot, you must bring him back over here and he can lie down in the shade of the rocks.”

  “OK, but he’ll probably just splash in the sea like he did yesterday,” Georgia pointed out. “That’ll keep him nice and cool.”

  Lucky was already running up and down the water’s edge, barking excitedly at seagulls, who shrieked back crossly. One of them settled down to float on the greenish water, not very far out, and glared at him.

  Lucky splashed into the sea, so it came halfway up his short legs, and barked a challenge. But the seagull only bobbed up and down, and kept on staring. Lucky took a few more steps in, shivering a little as the water came up to his chest.

  Georgia had been sitting rubbing suncream into her arms and watching Adam, who was kicking a football around further up the beach. But now she suddenly noticed that Lucky was in the water. She raced down to the edge of the sea, but Dad was there already.

  “It’s OK, Georgie. Lots of dogs are good swimmers. We mustn’t let him go out too far, but don’t scare him now. We don’t want him to think the water’s something to be frightened of.”

  Georgia frowned. Actually, she thought maybe they did. What if Lucky got swept away by a big wave? And that seagull looked like it wanted puppy for breakfast. It was staring at Lucky evilly with its tiny yellow eyes.

  Lucky looked round, pleased to see Georgia so close, and then took another step forward. Strangely though, his paws didn’t seem to find any ground to step on, and all of a sudden he was swimming, doggy-paddling as though he’d been doing it for ever. Rather surprised at himself, he paddled around in a little circle, almost forgetting about the seagull.

  “He’s swimming! He’s swimming!” Georgia yelled. “Lucky can swim! Dad, look!”

  The seagull flapped its powerful wings and fluttered away with loud, frightened squawks, and Lucky barked after it.

  “Sorry, Lucky!” Georgia splashed into the water. “I forgot you were chasing him. You’re such a clever boy! How did you learn to swim, hey? Come on!” She dog-paddled along with him, even though she was in such shallow water that her knees kept hitting the sand. “Do you think he can swim a bit further out, Dad?” she called.

  Dad shook his head. “Maybe not yet – he might get tired quickly, like he did with walks at first. He’s never done it before, remember. Just splash about in the shallows with him.”

  Adam came running down the beach to join in, and they spent the next hour swimming out to sea and then back to the beach and letting the little waves carry them up on to the sand, while Lucky swam and splashed and barked delightedly around them.

  They were worn out by lunchtime, so much so that Lucky went to sleep in the shade of the big rock after he’d eaten his dog biscuits and had a big drink of water. Adam and Georgia lazed around reading while their sandwiches went down – Mum said they had to wait for a while before going back in the sea.

  “It’s been ages since lunch…” Adam moaned. “Can we go swimming again?”

  “It’s only been about ten minutes!” Mum laughed, and Adam sighed.

  “All right. I’m going to blow up my alligator.” He lay down on the rug and started to puff fiercely, till the alligator was longer than he was. “Now is it swimming time?”

  Mum looked at her watch. “Yes, I suppose so. Oh, Lucky!”

  Lucky had just woken up, and found an enormous green thing next to Adam, which definitely hadn’t been there when he went to sleep. He raced over and barked at it madly, chasing round and round it, kicking sand at everybody.

  “Ugh! Stop him!” Mum coughed, and Adam snatched the alligator up above his head, while Georgia grabbed Lucky.

  “Lucky, stop, shhh! It’s not a real one, silly. It’s for swimming. Come on, Adam, let’s show him. The sea’ll wash the sand off us, too.” She carried the squirming puppy down to the water’s edge, and Adam launched the alligator into the waves.

  “We’ll have to be careful Lucky doesn’t burst it with his claws,” he said, holding the alligator steady.

  Georgia leaped on board and lay down. “You can tow us,” she suggested, holding on to the side. “Come on, Lucky.” She held out an arm, expecting the puppy to swim towards it, but instead he splashed into the water, paddled out to her, then scrambled up on to her back.

  “You’re a raft!” Adam yelled, and Georgia giggled, trying not to wriggle too much and tip Lucky off. His claws tickled.

  They swam up and down, taking turns on the alligator, and then pulled it up on to the beach and lay there on the sand, letting the tiny waves wash over their toes.

  The sun was so hot, even when they were half in the water, that Georgia almost fell asleep. She was just wondering how it was that the water seemed as warm as a bath now, when it had been freezing when she first dipped her toes in that morning, when Adam suddenly sat up and yelled. “Look! The alligator!”

  She turned over and sat up. “What’s the matter?”

  “I wasn’t watching. The tide’s come in,” Adam groaned. “The waves have taken it out. I’ll have to swim after it.”

  Georgia stood up. “I can’t even see it. Oh no! Adam, you can’t swim right out there.”

  The alligator was only a little green spot, about thirty metres from the shore where they’d be far out of their depth.

  “Dad!” Adam called. But their dad still had all his clothes on, and even though he was heading over towards them, and Mum was standing up on the rug looking worried, neither of them looked like they were about to dive into the sea.

  “Dad, can I swim out and get the alligator?” Adam begged. But Dad shook his head.

  “I’m really sorry, Adam. It’s drifted too far. You promised not to go out of your depth, remember? Maybe someone in a boat will come past and pick it up for us.”

  Adam and Georgia looked hopefully out to sea, but there were no boats around to go alligator-hunting, and the inflatable was bobbing further and further away.

  Then Adam grabbed Georgia’s arm and pointed. A little golden head was suddenly bobbing through the dark-green water. Lucky could see the inflatable, and he knew that Adam wanted it back. He wasn’t quite sure why Adam wasn’t going to get it himself, but he knew he could help.

  “Lucky, no!” Georgia gasped. But Lucky was already way out into the sea, swimming along happily.

  “He’s too far out,” Georgia murmured worriedly. “What if he gets caught in a current and swept right out to sea?”

  Adam nodded. “Let’s swim as far as we can – then we can help him back.”

  They swam as fast as they could, to where their toes were only just touching the bottom. Mum and Dad were looking on. Although Georgia and Adam had promised them not to go out of their depth, secretly Georgia knew that if Lucky started sinking, she’d follow him right out into the deep water. And she was sure Adam would do the same.

  But they didn’t need to. Slowly but surely, the alligator was bobbing back towards them, Lucky’s sharp teeth gripping the white tow rope.

  “You star, Lucky! You rescued my alligator!” Adam grabbed the rope too, and Georgia hugged Lucky, who snuggled wearily into her shoulder. It had been a long swim, and his legs were very tired. But he had done it! Georgia and Adam were happy, he could tell.

  “Georgie, you get up on the alligator with him, and I’ll pull you along,” Adam suggested.

  Georgia nodded and heaved herself up on to the inflatable, carefully keeping Lucky’s claws away from the plastic. Adam towed them back in, with Georgia pro
udly holding Lucky in front of her.

  Mum and Dad were waiting for them on the beach, smiling with relief.

  “I can’t believe what a good swimmer he is!” Mum said, stroking Lucky’s soaking wet ears.

  “He’s a champion,” Adam said proudly. “We’d have lost my alligator for sure if it wasn’t for Lucky.”

  Georgia turned over in bed and yawned, and then giggled as a damp nose was pressed into her ear. “Hello, Lucky! Is it time to get up?” She wriggled up in bed, and pulled open the curtains to look out of the little window right next to the bunks.

  “Oh!” Georgie wrinkled her nose disappointedly. The sparkling blue sea of the day before had disappeared. The sky was cloudy and the sea had settled to a dull greyish brown – it didn’t look like a day for sunbathing or swimming at all.

  “Oh well,” Georgie murmured. “Never mind, Lucky. Maybe we can go exploring along the cliffs instead.”

  She got out of bed, and threw on jeans and a T-shirt. She could already hear Mum and Dad moving around downstairs, and she thought she could smell toast. Lucky would need to go out into the tiny garden behind the cottage for a wee, too.

  “Wake up, Adam,” she called, tickling the foot that was dangling down over the edge of the top bunk as she went past.

  Adam growled something, but his duvet humped up as if he was at least partly awake.

  “Let’s go and explore the cliffs this morning,” Georgia suggested a few minutes later, as she sat down at the table for breakfast. Lucky was already sitting hopefully by her foot, waiting for toast crusts.

  But Adam shook his head grumpily. “No! I really want to go down to the beach at Woolbridge. You said we could, Dad! They’ve got rides on the pier there, and everything. I was talking to those boys we saw on the beach on our first day, and they said it’s excellent there.”