The Unwanted Puppy

by Tina Nolan

  Come to think of it, where was Honey?

  Eva glanced across the yard, and then walked to the front gate to look down Main Street. How come it was taking Annie so long to walk back?

  Puzzled, Eva was about to turn and go back when Karl came charging towards her on his bike. “George has heard a rumour. He’s just given me some mega bad news!” he cried, screeching to a stop.

  “Yeah, I know,” Eva said hurriedly.“Karl, did you see Annie by any chance?”

  “They want to close Animal Magic!” he cried, ignoring her question. He leaped off his bike, threw it against the gatepost and dashed inside.

  Handing Jess to Joel and leaving Karl to find out the details, Eva strode on up Main Street. In the Brookses’ front garden, Mr Brooks was mowing the lawn. Mrs Brooks was clipping her rose bushes.

  She saw Eva and stared.

  Eva felt the hate-rays. She hurried on, expecting to see Annie and Honey coming towards her any second now.

  But she got all the way to the old footbridge across the river without finding them. Now she began to panic, looking this way and that, checking that they weren’t on the golf course or along the river bank. “They can’t just vanish!” Eva muttered, wondering uneasily what Mrs Brooks would say if she found out that her daughter had gone missing with one of Animal Magic’s rescue dogs. Maybe Annie had had an accident. Or else Honey had run away!

  She was on the point of dashing back home for help when she saw a small movement in the long grass growing in the shade of the stone bridge. Then she heard a sharp, high yelp.

  “Honey?” Eva called, climbing carefully over some rocks.

  “Yip-yip!” came the reply.

  “Annie, are you there? It’s me – Eva!” She stumbled, but eventually reached the long grass. Under the shadow of the bridge she found her friend.

  Annie sat cross-legged, holding Honey in her lap. Her cheeks were streaked with tears.

  Eva sat beside her. “What’s wrong? Why didn’t you come home?”

  For a long time Annie didn’t answer. “It’s Honey!” she said at last.

  “Is something wrong? Is she hurt?” Eva asked anxiously.

  Annie shook her head and cried. “I adore her! I don’t want her to go. That’s why I didn’t bring her back!”

  It was Eva’s turn to be silent, as she watched Honey snuggle up to Annie in the peaceful shade.

  “Do you understand?” Annie asked.

  “Yeah,” Eva said softly. “Of course I do. It happens to me every time we takein a stray or a reject. I always long to keep every animal we rescue!” She eyed Annie warily. “I’ve just heard about your mum and dad’s plans to close us down.”

  “Oh no! I guessed they were about to do this!” Annie said miserably. “They’re always talking about it.”

  “Well, now they’re really going to go ahead and do it,” Eva said, realizing how hard it must be for her friend.

  “I hate them. I’m never going back!” Annie shook her head in disbelief.

  “You have to,” Eva argued. “Listen, it doesn’t make any difference – I’ll still be your friend.”

  Annie looked up uncertainly. “Sure?”

  “Deffo!” Eva insisted. “I mean, honest! We’re mates, Annie – whatever your mum and dad do!”

  “You busy?” Karl asked Eva that evening. He wandered into her room, hands in pockets, trying to look casual.

  A single thought had run through her head all evening. Animal Magic has to stay open! “Leave me alone, I’m tired!” she groaned.

  “Listen – about Honey. I’ve been thinking.”

  “Da-da-de-dah!” She blocked her ears.

  “It’s no good – I’ve got to make you see sense. I mean, what if Mrs Penny isn’t to blame? For instance, she could’ve given the box away after she’d finished with it. Or maybe…”

  “Tra-lah!” Eva sang. But he was getting through to her all the same.

  Karl frowned. “Right, don’t listen to the facts. Go right ahead and jump to conclusions!” He went out and banged the door.

  Eva sat on her bed deep in thought. OK, so Karl bossed her about, like all big brothers did. But maybe he was right this time and she was letting her feelings about Honey get in the way. There was a mystery behind this, and one that needed to be solved.

  But Eva would never admit this to Karl. No way!

  Instead, she sat cross-legged on her bed and made a plan.

  Next day at school in Clifford, Eva let Annie in on part of her secret. “After school today I’m going somewhere special,” she told her. “I can’t tell you where exactly!”

  Annie’s grey eyes sparkled. “That’s not fair. Tell me!”

  “Not until after I’ve done it.” Eva stood firm. “But if it works out, it’ll mean that the Honey mystery is solved!”

  The mention of Honey’s name sent Annie off into a daydream. “If … if only my mum would let me have a dog!” she sighed.

  “Likewise,” Eva murmured. “I’d love to have Honey for keeps!” Then she gave herself a shake. “Anyway, the point is, you don’t need to wait for me after school.”

  “Huh?” Annie broke out of her dream world.

  “Don’t wait for me when school finishes!” Eva hissed across the aisle.

  She tingled with excitement at the thought of what she planned to do, but she wouldn’t say any more.

  At the front of the room Mr Craven looked up from his desk. “Eva Harrison, stop gossiping and get on with your work!” he warned.

  The morning and then the afternoon dragged by. Eva’s nerves were on edge and she couldn’t concentrate – all she could think about was her plan. It seemed an age, but at last the school day ended. Children poured out of the classrooms into the playground, hurrying to catch their buses. But Eva hung back.

  “Get a move on or you’ll miss your Okeham bus,” her form teacher, Miss Jennings, told her.

  “It’s OK, I’m not getting the bus today,” Eva replied, pulling Karl’s city map out of her bag and slipping out by the side door.

  Once in Cannon Street, she headed quickly uphill towards the ruined castle, a major landmark towering over the houses and shops. From there, she looked down busy Castle Road, checked the map and walked on.

  Ten more minutes and she’d be there. Five more minutes... Eva began to recognize the streets which her dad had driven through the day before. She saw the park with the duck pond and the big houses behind high stone walls.

  “Beech Grove!” she said quietly, stuffing the map back into her school bag. She noticed the new bushes planted to either side of the front gate. “Mrs Penny, here I come!”

  The loud trill of the doorbell made Eva jump as she stood on the steps in her school uniform, waiting for someone to come to the door. Her stomach churned, her throat felt dry.

  She planned what she would say: Why did you dump your puppy? And if Mrs Penny’s answer was good enough, Eva would go on with: I know where she is. Do you want her back? This was her grand plan, but now that it came to it, she wasn’t sure that it was going to work.

  Anyway, no one came to answer the door. Eva peered through the stained-glass panel into the empty hallway. The whole house seemed still and quiet.

  She was about to give up when Mr Angry came stomping round the side of the house, like he had done the day before. “What do you want?” he demanded.

  Eva gasped. The lodger’s eyes were small and mean. He acted like he owned the place. “Is Mrs Penny in?” she asked in a small voice.

  Ignoring the question, the lodger came closer. “Don’t I know you?” he quizzed. He’d obviously seen her sitting in the van with Karl. “Didn’t you come here yesterday in the yellow van?”

  She took a deep breath and nodded. “My dad came to ask Mrs Penny if she’d lost her puppy.”

  The man blinked shiftily. “What puppy?” he asked. “The Pennys don’t own a puppy.”

  “A golden retriever, about twelve weeks old,” Eva insisted, though her legs were shaking. Why w
as this man so angry and scary?

  He shook his head. “Nah, you made a mistake.”

  “Can I just check?” Eva was about to ring the bell one last time when the lodger barged between her and the door.

  “Didn’t you hear me? You got the wrong house. Scram!”

  “Hey!” Stumbling back down the steps, Eva was forced to give in. She turned and ran down the drive and into the street.

  What now? She stood on the pavement and caught her breath. She couldn’t believe how the lodger had acted. She didn’t like how he’d talked, and no way should he have barged in front of her like that.

  “You OK?” a voice asked.

  Eva spun round on the pavement to see Karl standing there.

  “Don’t ask!” he grinned. “I knew you were up to something – I could tell by the look you’ve been wearing on your face all day. Then I saw you sneaking out of the side door when school finished.”

  “So you followed me?”

  Karl nodded. “I have to look after my kid sister,” he said, “especially when she’s cooked up some crazy, half-baked plan!”

  “I don’t believe a word that lodger guy said!” Karl said when Eva told him what had happened.

  “Me neither,” she agreed. “But what can we do?”

  “Nothing right now. It’s a pity Mrs Penny didn’t come to the door.” As usual, Karl stayed cool. He waited for Eva to stop shaking and calm down after her encounter with Mrs Penny’s lodger.

  “I don’t think she’s in, but we could wait here until she gets back,” Eva suggested, glancing up and down Beech Grove.

  “Yeah, and what do we tell Mum and Dad?” Karl pointed out. “That we went behind their backs to find Mrs Penny and got thrown out by the lodger?”

  Eva sighed. “Yeah, I agree – it doesn’t sound good.”

  “No, we have to get the next bus home. Mum and Dad have loads on their minds without us causing more hassle.”

  Reluctantly, Eva and Karl set off down the broad, tree-lined street. They brushed past low-hanging branches of pink blossom, stopped to let a car drive into its driveway, and then headed on towards Castle Road.

  “We can get the number 32 bus to Okeham on the corner,” Karl was saying.

  But Eva was only half-listening. She’d spotted a woman and a fair-haired boy talking to an old man with a walking stick on the other side of the road. The woman was pointing to a notice taped to a lamp post. The old man shook his head. The woman took the little boy’s hand and walked on.

  “Wait!” Eva called to the woman, hurrying across the road and waving frantically.

  “Eva, come back. We’ll miss the bus!” Karl yelled after her.

  But a strong gut-feeling drew her on to the lamp post where the notice was fixed. She reached it and began to read.

  “Eva!” Karl shouted, jogging after her. He drew level and his jaw dropped. “Honey!” he gasped.

  The notice showed a photo of a cute, golden-haired pup, and above its head was the word “lost” in large letters.

  “Come on!” Eva cried, skirting round the shaky old man with the stick. She raced around the corner on to Castle Road. “Hey!” she yelled when she saw the woman and the little boy. “Wait!”

  “Honey, it’s me, Scott!” Ruth Penny’s son picked up his puppy and hugged her tightly. He and his mum were in the kennels at Animal Magic. “Do you recognize me?”

  Honey licked his hands and cuddled close. She yipped and yapped and wriggled with joy.

  “Oh, Honey, I thought I’d never see you ever again!” Scott whispered, as he buried his face in the puppy’s soft golden fur.

  His mum stood beside Heidi and Mark Harrison, smiling and sniffling at the same time. “I couldn’t believe it when Eva ran up to us,” she said. “We were putting notices everywhere to try and find Honey, but without Eva and Karl we wouldn’t have stood a chance!”

  “So what exactly happened?” Heidi wanted to know. “Who dumped Honey on our doorstep?”

  “Tony Evans.” Mrs Penny began to explain.

  Heidi gave a puzzled frown.

  But Eva was buzzing with excitement. She jumped right in. “The lodger!” she cried. “It turns out he hates dogs because they bark and they can be vicious and he says they’re a pest. I mean, he really hates them!”

  Mark nodded. “Like Linda next door,” he muttered.

  “So he waited for Mrs Penny and Scott to go away for the weekend to see Scott’s dad.”

  “My husband’s working in Scotland at present,” Ruth Penny explained. “I asked Tony to take care of Honey for us. It was the first time I’d risked leaving her.”

  “And no one knew he had this thing about dogs, ’cos he kept quiet about it,” Eva rushed on. “Anyway, he sneakily grabbed his chance on Saturday morning. He found a box in Mrs Penny’s garden shed, stuffed Honey into it and drove out to Okeham, where he knew no one would recognize her. And that’s how come she ended up with us!”

  “Thank heavens!” Mrs Penny’s smiles won through her tears. “You’ve all taken such good care of Honey for us!”

  “That’s our job,” Heidi said quietly. “For as long as they let us do it.”

  “What do you mean?” Mrs Penny asked.

  Eva’s mum went on to tell Ruth Penny about the fight they had on their hands for Animal Magic to stay open.

  “Let me help!” Ruth said straight away. “I’ll get people in Clifford to sign letters of support. I’ll tell all my friends what a good job you do!”

  “Cool!” Karl said, sticking his head around the door and shoving Annie into the room. “See!” he told her. “I said we’d found Honey’s owners!”

  Annie sidled in and stood next to Eva.

  “I take it you’ll be looking for a different lodger now?” Mark asked Ruth.

  She nodded. “I’ve decided not to report Tony to the RSPCA, but I’ve already asked him to move on. Next time we’ll find someone who likes pets!”

  “So everything’s sorted.” Heidi glanced at Eva and Annie. “It’s time to say goodbye.”

  Scott Penny handed his puppy to Eva. “Say thank you, Honey!” he murmured.

  Honey nuzzled Eva’s cheek. She was as soft, silky and adorable as ever. It was hard to let her go. But Eva handed the puppy to Annie. “Now you,” she sighed.

  Annie cuddled Honey. “Goodbye!” she whispered.

  Scott’s blue eyes shone as he took Honey back. The beautiful puppy wriggled and wagged her tail. Goodbye!

  “And now?” Karl asked, holding the door open for Scott and his mum and watching them walk across the yard.

  In the background, dogs yapped and cats meowed.

  Heidi, Mark, Eva, Karl and Annie stood shoulder to shoulder under the painted sign that read, Animal Magic. “Now we get on with our job,” Heidi decided.

  “We match the perfect pet with the perfect owner!” Karl said.

  Eva grinned. “And we don’t let anything get in our way!

  There's always something

  going on at Animal Magic.

  Read on for a sneak peek!

  “‘Animal Magic – we match the perfect pet with the pefect owner!’”

  Eva Harrison read the words on the computer screen. “You missed out the ‘r’ in the second ‘perfect’,” she pointed out to her brother, Karl. They’d been working together for almost an hour, designing a leaflet for Animal Magic’s Open Day.

  Karl added the ‘r’ and scrolled through the rest of the leaflet. “Can I print it off now?” he asked.

  “Just a minute.” Eva read the whole thing over again. “‘We take in and care for unwanted animals and rehome them with caring owners.’ Yep, cool. ‘We make sure that no healthy animal is ever put to sleep.’ Yeah, that’s good. ‘In our first year we rehomed 124 dogs and 156 cats. We also found new owners for five horses, two goats, plus forty-two rabbits and thirteen guinea pigs.’” She looked at the photos underneath. There was one of three feral kittens, Treacle, Wilma and Snap, and another of a white rabbit called P
om-Pom. “Cute!” she murmured.

  “So can I print it?” Karl asked impatiently.

  “Wait!” Eva read on. “‘Animal Magic Open Day. Saturday 5th August. Meet a celeb!’ This is the best bit! ‘Soccer star, Jake Adams, will be here to meet you on Saturday at 2.00 p.m. Jake and his girlfriend, Marietta, are big fans of Animal Magic, so don’t miss your chance to chat and get Jake’s autograph!’ Can you believe it!”

  “I know, this really is cool!” Karl agreed, clicking the mouse to begin printing the leaflets. He and his best mate, George Stevens, were seriously into football. “I can’t wait to meet Jake!”

  “I already have,” Eva reminded him. It wasn’t often that she had one up on her older brother, but this time she did. “I was with Dad when he took Charlie to Jake’s house, remember.”

  “Yeah, no need to rub it in,” Karl muttered, keeping an eye on the printer as it churned out the leaflets.

  Eva sailed on regardless. “Jake lives at Okeham Hall, a massive mansion with a swimming pool. He came to the door with Marietta. I handed him Charlie and he said thanks. He said we were doing a great job.”

  “Yeah, yeah!” Karl sniffed. “Next you’ll be telling me that it was you who persuaded him to come to our Open Day!”

  “Yeah well, no, actually, that was down to Dad.” Eva had to admit the truth. “Jake invited us in. That was when Dad asked him to be our last-minute celebrity guest. Jake said yeah, he’d love to do it if it helps to raise our pro-feel—”

  “Raise our what?” Karl cut in.

  “Pro-feel – y’know, if it helps make us more well known.”

  “You mean profile!” Karl grinned.

  “Whatever.” Taking a stack of leaflets fresh from the printer, Eva blushed and made a quick exit. “Only two days to go!” she muttered. “I’d better post these through every letter box in the village.”