Buttons the Runaway Puppy

Chapter Five

By the time the ambulance arrived, Mr Jenkins was looking very slightly better. There was a touch of colour in his cheeks. Buttons sat next to him, watching over him and every so often licking his hand.

The ambulance men were very impressed that Buttons had fetched Sophie, Tom and Michael. They stroked her, and said how clever she was.

Mr Jenkins smiled, and then his face fell. “Buttons! What’s going to happen to her? There’s no one to take her!”

“We can arrange for her to go to the shelter for you, for a while,” one of the ambulance men suggested gently.

“No, no, she’d hate that…” Mr Jenkins stared at Buttons worriedly.

Buttons whimpered, not knowing what was wrong.

“Careful now,” the ambulance man warned, trying to soothe the old man. “Don’t upset yourself.”

“Tom, can’t you ring Mum and Dad?” Sophie begged. “We could take Buttons; I’m sure they’d say ‘yes’ if we explained what had happened.”

Mr Jenkins nodded gratefully. “That would be wonderful.”

Tom grabbed his phone out of his pocket. Sophie watched nervously as he explained everything to Mum. “She said to bring her back with us,” he said at last, smiling. “She wasn’t sure, but she said OK.”

“Go with Sophie, Buttons,” Mr Jenkins whispered, as the ambulance men carried his stretcher away down the path. “There’s a good girl.”

The ambulance sped away with its blue lights flashing, and Buttons whimpered as she stared after it, watching until it disappeared round the corner. Then she looked up trustingly at Sophie. Mr Jenkins had said to go with her, so she would.

Just at that moment, Mrs Lane, Mr Jenkins’s neighbour, came hurrying down the street. She had seen the ambulance, and she looked worried.

“Oh my goodness, was that Mr Jenkins?” she asked the children, and when they nodded, she dropped her shopping bag, and her face went pale. “I knew I should have made him see a doctor,” she murmured. “But he was so stubborn. Oh! The dog! What on earth are we going to do with her?”

“We’re taking her home with us,” Sophie said firmly.

Mrs Lane looked surprised, but rather relieved. “I can’t possibly take her, you know. She chases Felix,” she said very firmly.

Tom and Michael carried Buttons’s things out of the house, and Sophie clipped on her lead. Mr Jenkins had said to take everything they needed, and given them his door key to lock up afterwards.

“Don’t let her get out,” Mrs Lane advised as she stood watching.

Sophie, Tom and Michael smiled politely, and didn’t say anything, but as soon as they were round the corner – the boys laden down with baskets and bowls and Sophie holding Buttons’s lead and a bag of dog food – they exchanged glances.

“She really doesn’t like Buttons, does she…” Tom muttered. “I’m glad Buttons didn’t get left with her. She’d have been down at the dogs’ home before she could blink.”

“Buttons was only getting out and being naughty because she hadn’t been walked, but that wasn’t Mr Jenkins’s fault,” Sophie said loyally.

Sophie’s mum was standing at the gate watching for them. “Oh my goodness,” she murmured, as she saw everything the boys were carrying. “Look at all that stuff!”

Buttons looked up at her worried face and whimpered. Everyone was cross at the moment, and Mr Jenkins had gone away and left her. She raised her head to the sky and howled.

“You’d better bring her through,” Mum said, sighing.

Sophie coaxed Buttons in, and the boys carried all the things into the kitchen, putting them down next to their dad, who looked rather surprised to find a dog eyeing his sandwich enviously.

Dad shook his head, smiling a little. “Looks like you three have got your wish, even if it is only for a week or two. Because that’s all it is,” he added firmly. “She’s going back to Mr Jenkins, so don’t get too fond of her, will you?”

It was easy to promise that they wouldn’t get too fond of Buttons, but Sophie adored her already and soon she couldn’t imagine life without her. Having her to look after every day wasn’t boring or hard work, as Dad had warned them. Tom borrowed a DVD on dog-training from the library, and Sophie and the boys started to teach her to walk, heel, sit and stay. They’d always thought of Buttons as rather a naughty dog, because whenever they saw her she’d slipped her lead or tripped someone up. When they’d first taken her for walks, Sophie had held on to her lead so carefully, convinced that Buttons would keep trying to dash off. But although she did pull at her lead a bit, she didn’t run away at all. And she was brilliant at the obedience training.

“Labradors are very clever,” Dad said, after he’d watched admiringly as they put Buttons through her paces for him. She’d even sat for a whole minute with a dog biscuit between her paws, until Sophie told her she was allowed to eat it.

Buttons was happy, too. She had been very confused that first day, with a new house and a new garden and new people, even if her own basket and her bowls were there. And to start with she had missed Mr Jenkins terribly. Everywhere smelled different and strange, and she followed Sophie around as though she was glued to her.

On Saturday night, Mum had looked at her sad little face and big, round black eyes, and sighed. “I suppose she’s going to have to sleep in your room, Sophie. But not on your bed!” she added, as Sophie rushed to hug her.

Although Buttons still thought about Mr Jenkins, she was so happy living with a family who had as much energy as she did. It was the walks that made things so different. An early-morning quick run before breakfast with Sophie. Sometimes a trip down to the shops during the day. And then a proper long walk later on. Up to the common, or along the canal bank. On the Saturday a week after she’d come home with them, the whole family went in the car to a big wood a few miles from the town, and Buttons had a blissful time chasing imaginary rabbits.

That evening when they got home, Sophie sent Rachel an email. She had to type rather slowly, with Buttons sitting on her lap and staring curiously at the computer.

Sophie stopped typing, and stroked Buttons’s soft ears. It was true. Buttons did feel like her dog. “You’re the nicest dog I’ve ever met, do you know that?” she whispered to her, and Buttons turned round and licked her nose lavishly. Sophie giggled, and made yeeuchh noises, but really she’d never been happier.