The Forgotten Puppy

by Holly Webb

Rina sat by the train doors, whining. What was she to do now? The lights had gone off when the doors slid shut and she was all alone in the dark train. She could still see, of course, but the train felt odd in the dark – too quiet. She didn’t understand what was happening. Emi was supposed to have been on the train and now she had lost everybody, even Mum.

  Rina lay down next to the doors, resting her nose on her paws and whimpering miserably. What if she was stuck here?

  Then a sudden beeping noise made her sit up. The doors! The doors made a noise like that! Rina looked up, but the doors didn’t move. The noise was from further down the train.

  She got up and went to look. A lady had opened a set of doors at the other end of the carriage and climbed on, with a big black bag. The lights came on again and Rina watched as the lady closed the doors and then moved down the train, humming to herself and picking up all the rubbish that had been left behind.

  Rina didn’t care if the lady saw her or was cross. She just wanted to get off the train now. The puppy padded down the gangway towards the lady and then stood next to her and barked.

  The cleaner had earphones in and she was humming along to her music. She only half heard the bark and then she looked down and noticed a dog right next to her – a dog that had appeared out of nowhere.

  The cleaner was so shocked that she dropped the rubbish bag. She didn’t like dogs all that much, especially when they crept up on her. She darted down the carriage and unlocked the doors, hurrying off the train to catch her breath and tell one of the platform staff that there was a fierce dog on the train and it had tried to bite her.

  Rina stared after the lady in surprise. She had no idea why she had run away. But she had left the doors open and that was what mattered. Rina raced forward and jumped off the train at once, before they could shut on her again.

  She stood on the empty platform, looking around uncertainly. Where should she go? Could Emi be here somewhere? Wearily, she walked along the platform, avoiding the patches of snow, and started to climb the steps at the end. She didn’t really know where she was going. But Emi definitely wasn’t on that train, so she would just have to keep looking.

  She padded along the tunnel-like footbridge to the other platform and then looked worriedly at the steps on the other side. They were quite steep, not like the stairs at home. She was used to those now and she could run up and down them without thinking. These steps were metal and open at the back, and they looked slippery. Rina picked her way down them carefully, wishing her lead wasn’t dangling down. It kept getting tangled in her paws.

  At the bottom of the steps was a ticket office and a waiting room, which looked warm and bright. But its glass door was tightly closed against the cold and Rina couldn’t see how to get in. She sniffed at the door sadly and then trailed past, looking out at the busy road that ran in front of the station.

  A tall man came hurrying in, glancing up at the clock outside the ticket office. He didn’t see Rina, but he tripped over her lead. He yelled as he almost fell over in the greyish snow that had been brushed to the side of the walkway.

  Rina didn’t stay to be shouted at again. First the man in uniform at the other station, then the lady with the rubbish bags and now this. Mum and Emi and Ben didn’t shout at her – or only the time that she’d chewed Ben’s trainers, and then Emi had given her a hug, even though Ben was cross. She scurried round the corner of the building and hid behind a ticket machine. There was a little gap there, just wide enough for a very small dog. She would stay there and wait for Emi, out of the cold wind.

  Rina wriggled herself comfortable – as comfortable as she could – and peered out, watching the people arrive for the next train. But the thud of feet and the muttering of the announcements blurred together and she rested her nose on her paws and fell asleep.

  “Dad, run!”

  “Emi, honestly, we won’t get to it in time. I’ve got to buy my ticket, remember. Don’t worry. There’s another train not long after.” He pulled out his wallet and started to tap the screen on the ticket machine.

  “It’s still there…” Emi pleaded, looking up at the departures board. “Couldn’t we try? It’s so cold now and it’s starting to snow again. I hate thinking of Rina outside in this weather, all on her own. Oh, it’s nearly going! Couldn’t we go and wait by it and just say that you’re coming in a minute?” She gazed across to the other platform, watching the train.

  Ben gave her a hug. “It’s only fifteen minutes till the next one, Emi. We’ll get home and find her. It’ll be all right.”

  “But what if we don’t?” Emi said miserably. “What if we’ve lost Rina forever?”

  Ben shook his head. “I bet she hasn’t gone far. I know Mum’s looked for her, but Rina’s probably scared being out on her own, that’s all. She’s not used to it. She’s hiding somewhere really close to home and she’ll come out when she’s feeling a bit less frightened and we’ll find her.”

  Dad pulled his ticket out of the machine.

  “Is it still there? Come on, then, let’s run!” cried Emi. “We’ve got to find Rina!”

  Rina twitched in her dream, thinking that she could hear Emi calling her name. Then she sprang up, shaking her head.

  She had heard Emi! Emi was close by!

  Rina stuck her nose out from behind the ticket machine, looking around desperately. She was still a little dazed from her cold sleep, but she could see the train on the other side of the station. Could Emi be on it?

  Rina darted out, yapping, calling to Emi to stop, to wait for her. But as she tried to run, something dragged at her, pulling her back.

  Her lead was caught! Rina whined out loud – Emi was just over there, she was sure of it. She had found Emi at last and now she couldn’t reach her!

  “Goodness me, what’s the matter? Are you lost?” An old lady was standing in front of her, looking down at her worriedly. “Poor little thing.”

  Rina ignored the lady, pulling again at her lead. She had to catch Emi!

  “Oh, you’re stuck. Stand still, silly thing. There.” She reached over and unhooked the lead from the piece of broken brick it was caught up on. “Now, who do you belong to? Oh!”

  Rina was gone, not even stopping to let the old lady stroke her. She was scrambling up those slippery metal steps and racing across the footbridge.

  But when she got to the top of the steps, the train was gone. She could just see it, in the distance. She had lost Emi again! Rina sat down at the top of the steps and howled and howled.

  “We were so close!” Emi sat down on the bench in the little waiting room and put her hands over her eyes. She knew it was stupid to cry about missing a train, but every minute mattered. What if Rina was hiding somewhere, just waiting for Emi to come and find her?

  Ben made a face. “I know – I think they could have held on, honestly. Thirty seconds earlier and we’d have caught it. What is that?”

  A high-pitched yowling was echoing across the station and all three of them peered out of the waiting-room windows, trying to see where it was coming from.

  “It sounds like a cross between a police car and a baby,” Dad said, smiling a little. “That is one miserable dog. Oh, Emi, don’t be sad, I’m sure there’s nothing wrong with him – it’s probably waiting in a car outside the station, that’s all.”

  “It sounds like Rina when we leave her behind!” Emi whispered, getting to her feet. “But it can’t be…”

  “It does sound like her,” Ben said, nodding.

  “Really?” Dad frowned. “It seems unlikely… She couldn’t have followed you on to a train, could she?”

  Emi and Ben exchanged doubtful glances. “Well, she has been to the station a few times to see us off. But she wouldn’t get on a train…”

  “I bet she would,” Ben said. “If she thought you were on it, Emi. You know she misses you loads.”

  “It is Rina…” Emi said, running to the door as a particularly loud wail echoed across the station. “It sounds just like her
. It is!”

  She darted out on to the platform, looking around wildly. And there, up at the top of the stairs, was a little dog, with her head lifted up, howling in misery.

  “Rina!” Emi screamed, and Rina stopped mid-howl and stared.

  Emi hadn’t gone after all. Emi was right there! Barking joyfully, Rina hurled herself down the stairs and into Emi’s arms.

  “You know, if we hadn’t missed that train, we might never have found her,” Emi said thoughtfully, looking at Rina sitting next to her on the platform. “I think about it every time I go on a train now.”

  It was several months later and Emi and Ben were with their dad at the station. But this time it wasn’t because they were going home – they were going on holiday!

  Dad smiled at her. “Aren’t you glad I was so slow getting my ticket that day? Have you got your ticket, by the way, Emi? And all your bags? I really don’t want to miss this train.”

  Emi looked down at the bags by her feet and counted them hurriedly. “No, it’s all right, I’ve got everything. I thought for a minute I hadn’t got Rina’s bag, with her bed and her bowls and all her toys, but I have.”

  “That dog’s got more luggage than you and Ben,” Dad said, grinning.

  “Thanks for letting her come on holiday with us, Dad.” Emi put an arm round his waist. “It’s going to be brilliant, taking her to the beach. Oooh, the train’s coming!”

  Rina stood up, looking at the train suspiciously. It was the first time she had been on one of these great loud things since Emi and Ben and Dad had brought her home. She still didn’t like trains very much. She hated going to the station to say goodbye to Emi. Though at least now she knew that Emi would always come back.

  But this time it was different. Emi was holding her lead and her bed was in a bag – Rina could smell it – just next to them. Rina was almost sure that she was getting on this train, too.

  “Are you ready, Rina?” Emi whispered. “We’re going on a trip.”

  Rina squashed herself tightly up against Emi’s leg as the train drew in and everyone picked up their bags.

  She was not going to let Emi get lost again…

  Other titles by Holly Webb

  The Snow Bear

  The Reindeer Girl

  The Winter Wolf

  Animal Stories:

  Lost in the Snow

  Alfie all Alone

  Lost in the Storm

  Sam the Stolen Puppy

  Max the Missing Puppy

  Sky the Unwanted Kitten

  Timmy in Trouble

  Ginger the Stray Kitten

  Harry the Homeless Puppy

  Buttons the Runaway Puppy

  Alone in the Night

  Ellie the Homesick Puppy

  Jess the Lonely Puppy

  Misty the Abandoned Kitten

  Oscar’s Lonely Christmas

  Lucy the Poorly Puppy

  Smudge the Stolen Kitten

  The Rescued Puppy

  The Kitten Nobody Wanted

  The Lost Puppy

  The Frightened Kitten

  The Secret Puppy

  The Abandoned Puppy

  The Missing Kitten

  The Puppy Who Was Left Behind

  The Kidnapped Kitten

  The Scruffy Puppy

  My Naughty Little Puppy:

  A Home for Rascal

  New Tricks for Rascal

  Playtime for Rascal

  Rascal’s Sleepover Fun

  Rascal’s Seaside Adventure

  Rascal’s Festive Fun

  Rascal the Star

  Rascal and the Wedding

  Copyright

  STRIPES PUBLISHING

  An imprint of Little Tiger Press

  1 The Coda Centre, 189 Munster Road,

  London SW6 6AW

  Text copyright © Holly Webb, 2015

  Illustrations copyright © Sophy Williams, 2015

  Author photograph copyright © Nigel Bird

  My Naughty Little Puppy illustration copyright

  © Kate Pankhurst

  First published as an ebook by Stripes Publishing in 2015.

  eISBN: 978–1–84715–619–8

  The right of Holly Webb and Sophy Williams to be identified as the author and illustrator of this work respectively has been asserted by them in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988.

  All rights reserved.

  Apart from any use permitted under UK copyright law, this publication may only be reproduced, stored, or transmitted, in any forms, or by any means, with prior permission in writing of the publishers or, in the case of reprographic production, in accordance with the terms of licences issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency.

  A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

  www.littletiger.co.uk

  Look out for Holly Webb’s 30th Animal Story, publishing April 2015