The Rescued Puppy

Chapter Three

“I wish Lucky could come on the back seat with us,” said Georgia, as she gently placed the puppy in his travel crate in the boot. She caught Dad’s eye and sighed. “Oh, it’s all right, Dad. I know he can’t. But it’s just such a long journey! He’s going to be miserable stuck in that crate. And it would be so nice to have him to cuddle on the way.”

Dad shook his head. “Until he starts jumping around and being silly, and distracting me and Mum when we’re driving. Don’t worry. We’ll have a loo stop at the services, halfway there, and we’ll get Lucky out and you can take him to stretch his legs. He’ll probably go to sleep, now we’ve put his favourite blanket in the crate for him.”

“I hope so,” Georgia said, patting Lucky gently and rubbing his ears, before she closed the door of the crate. “See you soon, sweetheart.”

“You get in, Georgia. I’ll go and see what’s keeping your mum and Adam.”

But Adam was already stomping down the path, lugging his rucksack and looking grumpy. Mum followed along behind, shaking her head. “He’d repacked everything!” she told Dad. “And taken out half the clothes! It’s a good thing I checked. He had a skateboard in there instead!”

Dad blinked. “But I’ve got his skateboard packed – down the side of Lucky’s travel crate, I’m sure I have.”

Mum rolled her eyes. “Apparently he needs two.”

“Wow. Oh, wow…” Georgia breathed. She was standing in front of the cottage, with Lucky in her arms, staring out at the sea. He hadn’t minded the car journey that much – he’d slept most of the time, like she had hoped. But he was definitely glad to be free of his crate.

They’d only just arrived, and Georgia and Adam had piled out of the car with Lucky to go and look around.

“It’s beautiful,” Georgia murmured.

The sun was shining, and it had turned the water to silver, as though a sparkling pathway was stretched across the sea, calling them down to the beach.

“It really is right next to the sea,” Adam said, grinning. He turned round to look at the cottage behind them, a small, white building, very low to the ground, as if it was trying to hide from the winds that swept across the clifftop. “And there’s the path down to the beach, look!” He pointed to a little path, half natural, but with steps carved into it here and there to make the steep climb to the sand easier.

“Can we go down…?” Georgia started to say, but Mum was waving to them.

“Come and help unpack. It won’t take long, and then we can all head to the beach.”

Georgia sighed and headed back to the car to get her rucksack. Lucky made a little whining noise, twisting in her arms to look at the glittering water. He wanted to go closer. He’d never seen anything like it before. Georgia hugged him tight. “I know, Lucky. I want to go and play down there too. Soon, I promise.”

She dashed inside, chasing after Adam, who was already stomping up the stairs. He flung open the bedroom door that Mum had pointed out, and yelled, “I’m having the top bunk!”

“Hey, not fair!” Georgia moaned from the doorway. Lucky wriggled out of her arms and went to explore. “Why do you get the top one? Can’t we swap halfway through the holiday?”

Adam climbed up the ladder to throw his bag on the bed and stared down at her smugly. “Nope. I bagged it. Get used to it, Georgie.”

Georgia stamped her foot crossly, and Lucky, who was sniffing around under the bunk bed, backed further underneath it, tucking his tail between his legs. They were fighting again. He hated it when they did that. Quietly, he sneaked along under the bed, making for the bedroom door. Then he bolted out as Georgia snapped at Adam, and stood shivering on the landing. He wanted to get away from the loud, scary voices.

Georgia and Adam’s mum had been looking around, checking out the different rooms and starting to put things away. She’d opened the door of the large airing cupboard at the top of the stairs, thinking to herself how useful it would be for drying off swimming towels. Then she’d closed it again, but she didn’t see that it had swung open a little as she walked away, and now Lucky nosed his way inside. It was warm and dark and safe next to the hot water tank, and no one was shouting in here. He curled up on an old towel that the last family must have left behind, and waited for his heart to stop thumping anxiously.

Back in the bedroom, Georgia suddenly stopped arguing, and smiled as a thought occurred to her. “All right. You can have the top bunk. I don’t mind.”

“What?” Adam glared at her suspiciously. “For the whole holiday?”

Georgia smiled even wider. “Yes. The whole holiday.”

Adam nodded slowly. “OK.”

Georgia sat down on the bottom bunk and patted it happily. “Lucky won’t be able to get up the ladder, you know. So I get him on my bed for the whole time.”

At home Lucky slept on either Georgia’s bed or Adam’s depending on how he felt. Sometimes he changed over in the middle of the night, but he was usually curled up on Georgia’s toes when she woke up in the morning.

Adam scowled. “Hey, that’s not fair…”

“You wanted the top bunk,” Georgia sang triumphantly. “Now you’ve got it!”

Adam slumped down next to her. “Huh. Cheat.”

“Nope, just cleverer than you. Hey, where is Lucky?” Georgia sat up, looking around worriedly. “He was exploring a minute ago. Oh no – he hates us fighting.”

Adam jumped up off the bed. “What if he ran outside? He hasn’t a clue where he’s going round here.”

They raced out of the bedroom, calling worriedly. “Lucky! Here, Lucky! Where are you, boy?”

“Have you lost him?” Mum popped her head out of her bedroom, looking anxious. “Oh, you two! I heard you fighting, did you upset him?”

Dad came up the stairs. “I’ve been unloading the car and I haven’t seen him come out of the door. He must be in the cottage somewhere. You really need to behave better around him, both of you. It’s part of being proper dog owners – you have to be careful not to frighten your puppy.”

“Sorry, Dad,” Adam and Georgia murmured, both looking guilty.

“He can’t have gone far,” said Dad. “Come on. I’ll check downstairs and you two have another look up here.”

“Maybe he’s under the bed!” Adam dashed back in to their room.

Georgia looked along the landing, wondering where she would hide if she were a frightened little puppy. Somewhere dark and cosy, probably. Under the bed was a good idea of Adam’s… Then she spotted the airing cupboard door, still slightly open, and padded quietly over to it. She swung the door open gently and crouched down to peer inside.

Lucky stared back at Georgia, his eyes round and watchful, and thumped his tail slowly on the towel.

“Hey, Lucky…” Georgia whispered sadly, looking at his worried little face. “We scared you, didn’t we? Come on out, sweetie, we won’t fight any more.”

Adam appeared behind her, and Georgia glanced up warningly, her finger to her lips. Adam nodded. “It’s OK, Lucky,” he whispered. “We’ll be nice.”

Lucky stood up and nosed at Georgia’s hands lovingly. She picked him up, and Adam stroked his ears gently.

“I’m really sorry, Lucky. Adam, we can’t fight while we’re here, OK?” Georgia looked at him seriously. “Or we have to try not to, anyway. We can’t risk upsetting Lucky and having him run off in a strange place.”

Adam nodded. “Holiday truce.” He grinned. “Mum and Dad will be pleased. Their quietest holiday ever!”

After the world’s speediest lunch – Adam and Georgia both claimed they weren’t hungry, but Mum refused to believe them – they finally got to go down to the beach for a first explore with Lucky. It was amazing. Because the beach wasn’t really close to the town, there was hardly anybody there – just one family building a sandcastle, and a group of older boys swimming up at one end.

“There’s a bigger beach just a little further along the coast down at Woolbridge, with ice creams and a pier,” Mum explained. “But you aren’t allowed to take dogs on to Woolbridge Beach in the summer.”

“I don’t mind.” Georgia gazed at the brown sand, which was striped with pebbles and framed by the tall, reddish-brown cliffs. “It’s lovely here. Just us and the sea. Do you think we could let Lucky off the lead? He’d have to go all the way back up the path to get lost.”

Dad nodded. “As long as we keep an eye on him.”

Lucky barked excitedly as Georgia unclipped his lead. He wasn’t used to being allowed to run off wherever he liked, and at first he simply raced up and down the sand, barking and jumping and chasing his tail.

Then he spotted an interesting pile of rather smelly seaweed that had been washed up on the tide, and left lying on the beach. Georgia could see a line of it, all the way along the sand – seaweed, and shells, and even a piece of beautiful emerald green sea glass that she slipped into her pocket as a souvenir.

Adam was already splashing about in the sea, but Georgia decided she needed a bit more time in the sun before having a dip in the chilly water. She wondered if it might be a bit cold for Lucky, too. But Sam, their obedience class teacher, had told them spaniels usually loved water.

Lucky started to dig furiously, loving the way the sand spurted up between his paws. It was much quicker to dig here than in the flower beds at home. But it did go everywhere. He stopped mid-hole to shake the sand out of his whiskers, and let out an enormous sneeze. Next he scrabbled a big pile of seaweed into his hole and covered it back over, scooting the sand back through his paws. Then he sat down on it happily, looking very proud of himself.

Georgia watched him, laughing. “Shall we go and see the water now?” she asked him. “Look, Adam’s paddling in it.”

Lucky stood up and followed her down to the water’s edge, where Adam was hopping in and out of the wavelets, whistling through his teeth at how cold it was.

Lucky watched interestedly, his tail wagging. He’d never seen so much water, and it moved! He backed away thoughtfully as the bubbly surf crept towards him, and then followed it back again, fascinated.

“Oh look, Adam, he loves it!” Georgia giggled.

The puppy crouched down, his paws stretched out in front of him, wondering if he could catch this stuff. This time, when the creamy water began to draw back from his paws, he jumped after it, splashing himself and Georgia with freezing cold water.

Georgia laughed, and Lucky shook himself in surprise. He hadn’t expected that to happen. But he liked it!

When the next wave came, he didn’t try to catch the water, he just jumped in and out of it, shaking his soaked ears and whining excitedly. Chasing the waves was almost as much fun as chasing squirrels!