by Holly Webb
For Maddison
www.hollywebbanimalstories.com
CONTENTS
Title Page
Dedication
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Glossary
Other titles by Holly Webb
Copyright
“I’m ready to go!” Anna raced into the kitchen, dragging her wheelie suitcase, with a rucksack on her back. Her Irish Setter puppy, Fred, galloped behind her. He was very confused by the suitcase, but he liked the way it rattled.
“Are you really all packed?” Mum asked, looking at Anna’s bags. “That was quick. What are you taking?”
Anna peered behind her at the suitcase and laughed at Fred. He was trying to get his nose underneath to nibble at the wheels.
“Um, I can’t think of anything else to pack. Gran said not to bring loads. There isn’t a lot of space on the canal boat, so I’ve just got my jeans, some shorts and a couple of T-shirts and a sweater. But you’re coming over to visit on Sunday, anyway, aren’t you? So you can bring me some more clothes if I need them.”
Then she gasped. “Oh, but I need to pack for Fred! I didn’t think about that.” She looked doubtfully at her suitcase. There was no way Fred’s food and bowls were going to fit in there, let alone all his toys. And his cushion.
Her mum laughed. “I think your gran might not mind if he brought his own bag. Just not too many toys, OK?”
Anna sighed. It was going to be hard to choose which ones to take. She was always buying Fred things with her pocket money, so he had loads of toys. His favourites were definitely all the ones that squeaked – he would play with them for ages. If Anna was too busy to throw them for him to fetch, he would do it himself. He’d worked out that he could swing his toy around in his teeth and let go, then he would chase it down the hallway and fling himself at it, skidding along on the smooth wooden floor.
Perhaps she could set out a line-up for him and see which ones he chose? But then his favourite seemed to change every day.
“Come and have some breakfast,” her mum suggested. “We need to set off for the boat pretty soon.”
Anna put the bags in the hallway, and then returned to the kitchen, giving her mum a hug as she came in.
“Oh! That was nice, what was that for?” her mum asked, hugging her back tightly.
“I’ll miss you, that’s all. And Dad. I’m really looking forward to staying on the boat with Gran and Grandad, but it’ll be the first time I’ve stayed away without you.”
“You’ll have a lovely time,” her mum said reassuringly. “And you’re only on the boat tomorrow and Saturday before we come and see you.”
“I’ll have Fred as well!” Anna smiled, pouring cornflakes into her bowl and reaching for the milk jug.
Fred, who had been sniffing at one of his rubber bones that had somehow managed to get itself wedged under the fridge, leaped up excitedly as he heard his name. Anna was calling him!
He darted over to the table, skidding like he always did on the smooth floor, and hurled himself lovingly at Anna’s legs.
Anna squeaked and tipped the milk. It flooded over the edge of her bowl and across the table, dripping all over Fred’s feathery, dark red fur.
He looked up at her, his big dark eyes confused. Why was he all wet? What had happened? He shook himself, and drops of milk went all over the kitchen.
“Oh, Fred…” Mum and Anna groaned at the same time. It was something they said quite a lot.
“I hope he’s going to be all right on the boat,” Mum went on. “It’s such a small space, and he isn’t very good at being cooped up, is he?”
Anna looked down at her puppy, who was now licking the milky drops off his nose with a thoughtful expression. Then he gazed up at the table again, obviously wondering how to get himself some more.
“No!” Anna moved the bowl away from the edge of the table and shook her head at him sternly. Mum was right. Fred was a wide open spaces sort of dog. They’d known before they got him that Irish Setters needed lots of exercise – at least one really good long walk (or run, really) every day. Plus it was best if they had a garden to run around in.
That was partly why they’d chosen to get an Irish Setter, when they’d all talked about what sort of dog they’d like. Anna had originally thought it would be fun to have a tiny dog, like a Chihuahua. She’d imagined sneaking the puppy into her backpack and taking him to school. But her dad had pointed out that a Chihuahua probably wouldn’t be able to walk very far, and what they wanted was a dog to go on brilliant walks with.
Although their house was in a town, it was right on the edge and there was a big, wild sort of park close to where they lived. Then, if they got in the car, it only took about ten minutes to drive to a huge wood that they could explore.
And the only thing that would make all their walks even better was a dog…
Anna hadn’t minded not having a Chihuahua as soon as Dad had showed her the email from the lady who had the Irish Setter puppies for sale. There were photos attached and they were so gorgeous. Anna didn’t think she’d ever seen an Irish Setter before and she had never imagined a dog that colour – a sort of dark, autumn-leaves red, but with such a shine to it.
In the best photo, the puppies were all asleep, squashed up together in a basket so that Anna could hardly tell where one puppy ended and another began. Random paws and ears were sticking out all over the place, and one of the puppies was nearly falling out of the basket, but was so deeply asleep that he hadn’t even noticed.
When they went to see the puppies a couple of days later, Anna was sure that she could tell which one had been half out of the basket. He had the same huge, curly-haired ears. And when he had curled up in Anna’s lap and stretched himself luxuriously, his paws stuck out in that same clumsy way. As Anna ran her hand over his soft head, and he yawned and snuggled deeper into her fleece, she had known that he was just the right puppy for them.
Anna looked down at Fred – he was so much bigger now. “I’ll be able to take him for long walks along the towpath, won’t I?” she said to Mum. “He’ll love that. He might even want to swim! Irish Setters are supposed to be good in the water.” She reached down and stroked his ears. “I bet you’d be a great swimmer, wouldn’t you?”
Mum looked at the puppy, sipping her tea. “Actually, I’m not sure that’s such a good idea. The canal banks are pretty steep at the sides – they go straight down into the water. If Fred jumps in, he might have a hard time getting out again. And the canal’s deep. Fred’s probably better off waiting until we go to the seaside for his first swim.” She grinned at Anna. “Then he can go into the sea with you!”
“Mmmm.” Anna nodded. “I hadn’t thought about how he’d get out again. I hope he doesn’t want to jump off the boat. But Sunny never does that, does he?”
Sunny was Gran and Grandad’s black Labrador. He always went with them on their canal boat, the Hummingbird. He would sit in the bow or on the roof posing, with a noble expression on his face, so people on the towpath always wanted to take photos of him. He was also very, very well-trained. Anna and Mum had taken Fred to training classes, and he was pretty good, but he was a still a bit of a scatty pup compared to perfect Sunny. Anna was fairly certain that if she put a delicious plate of sausages down in front of Sunny and told him to guard it, he would stay there watching the sausages for ever, if necessary. He wouldn’t even sniff at them.
Fred, on the other hand, would wolf the sausages down in seconds, but Anna didn’t really mind. She did worry that w
hen she let Fred off the lead she wasn’t always sure if he’d come back again. At least, not if there was something more interesting going on – like a really nice bit of rubbish he wanted to eat first.
Dad said it was all about the voice, and Anna just had to try and sound firmer. But Anna had noticed that Fred didn’t always come back first time for Dad, either.
“So are you ready to get going?” Grandad asked, smiling at Anna.
Anna nodded excitedly. She was standing on the bank, ready to cast off the mooring ropes. And Grandad was at the tiller, about to start the engine. They were going to set sail at last!
Mum had had to head home after lunch and a quick cup of tea. She was an illustrator and she had a lot of work on at the moment, which was why Anna was coming to stay on the boat. She could have stayed at home, but Mum wouldn’t have been able to do anything very exciting with her, and Dad was out at work every day. Anna didn’t really fancy spending the time just watching TV or lounging around in the garden.
She would have loved to go off exploring with Fred, but Mum and Dad weren’t happy about her being on her own. Anna had tried to argue that Fred would be with her, but it hadn’t convinced them. Fred hadn’t helped much, either. He’d walked in while they were talking, carrying his lead as though he were an angelic dog. But when Anna had taken it out of his mouth, the lead had fallen apart, because he’d chewed it all the way through. After that it was quite hard to claim that Fred was supersensible and they would be fine…
Luckily, Gran and Grandad were spending the summer on their canal boat, the Hummingbird, and were going to be passing quite close to where Anna and her parents lived. They’d happened to ring up for one of their regular chats, and Gran had asked Anna if she was looking forward to the summer holidays.
“Sort of,” Anna had told her doubtfully. “But Mum’s got to work for the first bit of the holidays so she can get everything done before we go away.”
“Oh yes, she did tell me that,” said Gran. “She’s got a big piece of work to finish off, hasn’t she?”
“Yes.” Anna sighed. “It’ll be nice not having to get up and go to school, but it isn’t really going to feel like the holidays. Not if we can’t go out and do stuff. Usually we do trips and go off on our bikes with a picnic. Mum says she’ll try and arrange for me to go and see Lucy and Jenna – you know, my friends from school. But it isn’t the same if we can’t have them back round to our house, too.”
“Mmm, I see what you mean…” Gran said thoughtfully. “Anna, I’ll have to ask your mum and dad, of course, but would you like to come and stay on the boat with us for a few days? That would give your mum lots of time to get her work done and you wouldn’t be stuck inside all day.”
“Just me?” Anna gasped. “On the boat? Oh, I’d love it! Would we actually get to sail? I mean, we wouldn’t just be moored up on the bank?”
“Of course! Your mum and dad could drop you off, and then pick you up again a few days later, somewhere further down the canal.”
“Fantastic!” Anna said gleefully. “Oh… Oh, but Gran, I’ve just thought. What about Fred? I was planning to play with him lots in the garden. Mum’s going to be so busy – she said he’d just have to make do with a couple of short walks every day. If he’s just with Mum and there’s no one to play with him, he’ll get all naughty and jumpy and start chewing things. Well,” she added honestly, remembering the lead, “I mean, he’ll chew things even more than he does already.”
“Yes, I’d forgotten about Fred.” Gran was silent for a moment, and Anna could tell she was thinking. “I don’t see why you couldn’t bring him, too. You could take him for some lovely runs along the towpath. Perhaps you could race me and Grandad in the boat!”
Anna giggled. She would probably win. Canal boats were good, but they weren’t really built for getting anywhere fast.
She had passed the phone over to her mum, with a pleading, hopeful look, and it had all been arranged. Mum would drop off Anna and Fred at the boat on Thursday, the first day of the holidays, and she would stay for a week.
Anna had been to visit her grandparents on the boat before, but only for the day, and they had always stayed on the mooring – more like being in a house than a boat. So she was really excited to be setting off down the canal at last.
She heard the rumble of the engine starting up. Grandad was getting ready for them to pull away from the bank! Fred nuzzled the back of her knee with his cold nose and whined. Anna had kept him on his lead – there wasn’t a lot of space on the boat, and even though Fred was only five months old, he was already getting big. His long, plumy tail was just at the right height to sweep Gran’s ornaments off the shelves set into the side of the saloon – the boat’s little living room. Plus everyone seemed to keep falling over him, especially Grandad. He’d tripped over Fred at least twice, and then when Fred hid under the table, Grandad trod on his tail, which was sticking out.
But Anna’s real worry was the water. Even though it was a beautiful day, the canal still looked freezing. And deep. Anna wasn’t tempted to swim in it at all, but she had a horrible feeling that Fred might be.
When they’d first climbed into the little well deck at the front of the boat, he kept trying to lean over the side, sniffing excitedly at the water. Anna didn’t quite understand what it was that smelled so good, but then she didn’t think it was fun to eat slugs, either, which were another of Fred’s favourites.
It didn’t help that ducks kept swimming past and circling hopefully round the bow of the boat, just in case anyone fancied throwing them some bread.
The first time he saw the ducks, Fred froze, so excited he could hardly move. Once he’d decided they were actually real and not something that he’d dreamed up, he let out three huge, ear-splitting barks and yanked as hard as he could on his lead. He scrabbled frantically at the side of the boat with his claws, trying to throw himself overboard to catch the tempting feathery things.
“Fred!” Anna gasped, clutching at his lead. “Hey, come back!”
The ducks suddenly found something interesting to go and look at close to the other bank, and Mum had grabbed hold of Fred’s collar, helping Anna to haul him back.
Fred carried on growling for a bit, before he finally gave up and accepted that they’d gone.
“Wow…” Anna muttered. “I didn’t think about ducks. He was almost straight in. Is there such a thing as a dog lifejacket?”
She had a lifejacket on herself – Gran had explained that they knew she wasn’t silly enough to fall in, but accidents did sometimes happen and it was better to be safe.
“I’m sure you can get them. Does Sunny have a lifejacket?” Mum asked, glancing over at the black Labrador, who was sunbathing on the roof of the boat. He was asleep, or he seemed to be, but Anna noticed he had one eye half-open, as though he was keeping watch. She had a feeling he was partly watching for Fred, in case he did something awful.
Gran shook her head. “No… He’s actually a very good swimmer. And he’s so sensible, we’ve never thought we needed one.”
Anna sighed. “Was Sunny sensible even when he was a puppy?”
“I think he was…” Grandad frowned, trying to remember.
Anna nodded. It made sense. She found it difficult to imagine perfectly behaved Sunny as a puppy at all!
Gran shook her head. “He certainly wasn’t! Don’t you remember my best pink shoes?”
Grandad laughed. “Yes! How could I forget?”
Gran sighed. “Oh, they were lovely, those shoes. I still miss them. He chewed one of them to pieces! The other shoe was still perfect and somehow that made it even worse!” She gave Anna a hug and rubbed Fred’s ears. “Fred will settle down, don’t worry. I don’t think Irish Setters are quite as … obedient as Labradors, but he just needs to grow up a bit.”
Anna nodded gratefully, feeling a bit better. She looked up at Sunny, trying to imagine him with a pink shoe dangling out of his mouth.
Sunny snorted a little and laid his
nose on his paws, as though he’d never done anything like that in his life.
Fred gave up on the ducks after that. He didn’t understand why he wasn’t allowed off the lead. Usually when they went out to the woods or the park, he could go racing away. He loved to run, but there wasn’t a lot of running space on the boat. It was only a few paces wide, for a start. And there wasn’t a hallway to race up and down like there was at home. There didn’t seem to be a garden either, only the long pathway at the edge of the water.
Fred was just as unsure about the water as Anna was. He’d never seen so much of it in one place before and he definitely thought it looked cold, too. But when he’d seen the ducks, somehow he forgot to worry about that.
He peered up at Sunny, who was still snoozing on the roof. He didn’t understand how Sunny could sleep through the loud rattling rumble of the engine. Perhaps he was just used to it. If Sunny would only wake up, maybe they could go running together. Fred was pretty sure he would be the fastest. He always was.
Sunny was watching him, Fred realized. This was his boat, Fred could smell that it was. He huffed and turned round on Anna’s feet so that he wasn’t looking at the bigger dog any more.
He was starting to wish they were back home.
By the end of the day, Fred seemed to settle down to being on the boat. Anna had brought along his big cushion to make him feel more at home. Fred leaped on to it gratefully when Anna put it out next to her bed.
Anna had been a bit confused as to where she would actually sleep when Gran had invited her to stay on the boat, because she could only remember there being one double bedroom. She’d thought she might have to sleep in her sleeping bag on the floor somewhere, but Gran had laughed and promised her a proper bed.
That evening she explained that boats were all about saving space, and showed Anna how the table in the kitchen area folded down and the benches on either side of it slid round to make a comfy little bed. It was very clever. And it meant that Anna and Fred drifted off to sleep that night with Gran and Grandad sitting in their armchairs, watching television, but with the sound turned down so low that it mixed with the soft lapping of the water against the hull. Anna dreamed of floating off across the water in a tiny bed.
