Ellie the Homesick Puppy

Chapter Seven

Megan woke up and lay staring at the ceiling for a second. It looked wrong. Then she remembered she was in her new house. She felt a rush of excitement, until she looked down at the empty space at the end of her bed and remembered that Ellie was missing. She wished she could just go back to sleep and this would only be a dream.

She had been so hopeful yesterday evening when they’d got the phone call. They’d driven straight down to Selby Bridge, which was on the way back to their old house. It was a beautiful place, and they’d taken Ellie there before for walks. She and Mum and Dad had searched all the way along the riverbank, calling, and banging Ellie’s food bowl, something suggested by the friendly policeman that Mum had spoken to on the phone yesterday.

At last Dad had taken her hand. “Megan, it’s getting dark. I think we have to stop.”

“But we can’t! She was here!” Megan had protested.

“We can come back in the morning and look again,” Mum promised.

So Megan had to get up now. That man had definitely seen Ellie – there couldn’t be two lost Labrador puppies, could there? She climbed out of bed wearily. She felt like she’d been dreaming about Ellie all night. In the worst dream, the puppy had been in the middle of a road, and Megan could hear a car coming. She shivered.

Megan started to pull on her dressing gown, then suddenly she stopped and sat down on her bed again, staring wide-eyed at the photo on the shelf. It was a picture of her and Bella and Ellie playing in their old garden. She reached over and picked it up. How could she have been so stupid? Ellie had been at Selby Bridge. Halfway back to their old house!

Ellie wasn’t lost at all. She was trying to go home!

“Mum! Dad!” Megan went racing into their room. “Dad, where’s your mobile, we have to call the people at our old house. Ellie’s gone home!”

Her parents were still half asleep, and her dad blinked at her wearily. “What do you mean?”

Megan sat down on the edge of the bed and started to explain. “She was really upset about being at Gran’s, wasn’t she. She didn’t understand what was going on. She doesn’t know we’ve moved, Dad! She’s trying to get back to our old house! She’d got halfway yesterday morning. She’s probably home by now!” Megan suddenly frowned. “Oh, no. She’s going to find somebody else in our house.” Her voice shook.

Mum sat up. “Megan, I don’t think Ellie can have got that far. How could she find the way? It’s a lovely idea, but…”

“She got as far as Selby Bridge!” Megan pointed out.

“Yes, I suppose so…”

“You do hear of dogs doing that kind of thing,” Dad put in thoughtfully. “Maybe we should ring the house, just in case. But it’s too early right now.”

Mum and Dad made her wait a whole hour before they called. Megan had walked in circles around the kitchen; she couldn’t face breakfast. Now she was pressed close to Dad, trying to hear the phone conversation.

“She came to the door? Last night? No, we hadn’t thought of calling you before, it’s such a long way, you see. Nearly ten miles! That’s wonderful. Yes, yes, of course, I see. I’m sure she would be fine in the shed. Yes, we’ll come straight away. We’ll see you soon.”

“They’ve found her! They really have! Oh, Dad!” Megan was dancing now, jumping and flinging herself at her parents to hug them. Then she raced to get her boots on. They were going to get Ellie back!

Ellie lay on the rug in the chilly shed, wondering where she should go, now that she didn’t have a home any more. She didn’t want to go back to Gran’s. Sid didn’t like her, and she didn’t want to live with him. She would have to find somewhere new.

The problem was, Ellie didn’t want anywhere new. She only wanted Megan. But she certainly couldn’t stay here. Ellie scrambled over the tangle of old garden equipment that was still cluttering up the shed, sniffing out that fresh, cold breeze. There was a loose board in the wall! Ellie pushed it to one side and started to wriggle through. Her fur felt full of dust and splinters. She squeezed out the other side and shook herself briskly.

The new people had left the side gate open, and Ellie raced out down the side of the house. She didn’t want them to shut her up again. She was about to run straight out of the front gate, but something stopped her.

Lying on the path, half-hidden by the bins, was one of her toys. Her favourite toy. The red-and-white-striped knotted rope toy that Bella had given her. Ellie picked it up in her teeth and shook it happily. It was so good to chew, and she loved it when Megan pulled the other end and then they’d play tug-of-war together.

Madly shaking the toy from side to side, Ellie knew, with sudden, happy certainty, that Megan had not left her behind. Not on purpose. Megan loved to play with her, and stroke her, and talk to her.

Ellie trotted determinedly out of her old front garden, squeezing quickly through the front gate, and set off down the street. She wasn’t sure where she was going, but she was not going to give up. She reached the end of the road and looked around thoughtfully. She usually walked down here with Megan to pick up Bella on her way to school.

Bella! Bella loved her, and she loved Megan. Bella would know where Megan was! Ellie raced down the road, yelping with excitement, still carrying the rope toy.

As she turned the corner, she didn’t notice a familiar car driving down the road. The car pulled up outside the house and Megan leaped out. Without waiting for her parents, she went running up the garden path of their old house, and rang and rang on the doorbell.

What are you doing here? Megan said on the phone last night someone had seen you at Selby Bridge. How did you get all the way back here?” Bella flung open the gate. “Oh, Ellie, we’ve all been so worried about you! Come on, Ellie, come! Here, girl!”

Bella held open the gate and beckoned Ellie in.

Ellie picked up her toy and followed her. She trusted Bella not to shut her in a shed. Bella would help her get back to Megan, she was sure.

“Mum, Mum, look! Ellie’s here! It was her barking, I told you!” Bella and Ellie dashed down the hall to Bella’s mum in the kitchen. “I have to call Megan, please, Mum?”

“Has she come all the way from Woodlands Cottage? She can’t have done, it must be at least ten miles.” Bella’s mum was staring at Ellie in amazement. “She doesn’t have a collar, are you sure this is Ellie? You haven’t just stolen someone’s dog?”

“Mu-um! Of course it’s Ellie! Look, she’s carrying the toy that I bought her for Christmas. Besides, only Ellie would know to sit at the gate and bark three times. Oh, they’re not answering.” Bella put down the phone with a crash and stared at Ellie. “Is it really ten miles? How could she walk that far? And how did she know the way?”

“Well, dogs can be very clever,” her mum said doubtfully. “But I don’t know, to be honest. Because she was so desperate to find Megan, I suppose.”

Ellie barked, her eyes wide with hope. Megan! They had definitely said Megan.

“She heard you say it.” Bella laughed. “Are you trying to find Megan, Ellie?”

Ellie jumped up with her paws on Bella’s knees, and barked and barked, wagging her tail frantically.

“It’s OK, Megan will be here soon, I promise. She’ll come and get you. Or we could take her to Megan’s new house, couldn’t we, Mum?”

Her mum frowned. “That might not be a good idea. She could get upset. Why don’t we try ringing the house again?”

Bella nodded. “I have missed you, Ellie. But not as much as Megan has. She’s been searching for you all over the place.” She stroked Ellie’s soft head. “She’s going to be so happy to have you back.”

Megan sat in the car outside her old house, gulping back tears. Her mum was sitting next to her, trying to calm her down, and her dad was leaning over from the front seat.

“I know it’s hard, Megan, but I promise we’ll find her. Come on, this is good news. We know she was here last night! That’s a really good start.”

Megan nodded, but she couldn’t stop crying. “She came all this way to find us,” she whispered tearfully. “And then there was someone else in her house. Another dog as well! She must have thought we just didn’t love her any more. What if she’s gone off to find somewhere else to live?”

“I’m sure she won’t have,” Mum said firmly. “Ellie won’t give up. She made it this far, didn’t she? She’ll be around here somewhere, probably just a bit confused. Let’s go and try the park.”

But Ellie wasn’t in the park, or in any of the streets around their old house. They called, Megan’s dad whistled, and they stopped to ask everyone they saw. But there was no trace of her.

“She’s gone.” Megan had stopped crying now. She was almost too upset to cry. “We had our chance and now we’ve lost her for ever.”

“Megan!” Her mum crouched down and hugged her. “I never thought I’d hear you giving up. You have to keep going – Ellie needs you to find her.”

Megan nodded, biting her lip. Her mum was right. Ellie wouldn’t give up on her, would she? “Can we go and see Bella? Get her to look out for Ellie? She won’t know Ellie’s back here, and she could ask people from school if she sees them.”

“Good idea,” her mum said. “Let’s go back to the car – we’ll drive round.”

Megan rang Bella’s doorbell, thinking back to the last time she’d done that – on the final day of school, when Bella had been running so late she hadn’t come out of the house when Ellie barked. She’d been pulling on her coat when she opened the door, and she’d had a piece of toast sticking out of her mouth. She’d fed a little bit of it to Ellie.

Megan blinked. Why was there barking coming from inside Bella’s house? She didn’t have a dog…

Just then, the door flew open. “I knew it! Did you get my message? I’ve called about six times! Why didn’t you call me back?” Bella’s words were falling over each other in excitement, but Megan hardly heard her.

She was hugging Ellie – Ellie who’d leaped into her arms as soon as Bella opened the door. The puppy’s paws were on Megan’s shoulders in a golden furry hug, and she was licking Megan’s face all over.

Megan’s parents laughed delightedly, and Bella’s mum started telling them about Ellie’s sudden appearance.

Megan beamed at Bella. “We didn’t get any message, we weren’t at home, you see. The people from the new house had found Ellie, but she slipped out of the shed. They had to put her in there because they had a dog too, so – urrgh, Ellie, don’t lick my mouth!