Ellie the Homesick Puppy

Chapter Four

Ellie woke up in her damp basket. She eyed the hot water bottle worriedly. People didn’t like it when she chewed things. She looked up anxiously as the kitchen door opened, wondering if Gran would be very cross.

But she only laughed. “Oh dear, they did say you liked chewing things at the moment. It’s all right, Ellie, I know you didn’t mean to be naughty. It was probably silly of me to let you have it. I just didn’t think. Don’t be sad, little one, you’ll see Megan again soon.”

Ellie stared up at Gran with mournful eyes, as she tidied up her damp things. Even though Gran was being friendly, she didn’t want to stay here. If only she could go back home to Megan.

Ellie was good at finding things, and she was best at finding Megan. She smelled special, and Ellie could always find her. She knew when Megan was coming home from school – she could just feel it. She somehow knew when it was time to go and sit by the door, so she could be there to see Megan as soon as she got inside.

So it would be no problem to find Megan, Ellie was sure. But finding her meant she had to get out first, and she wasn’t at all sure about that.

Gran fed Ellie, then let Sid into the kitchen to give him breakfast. After that, she left the door open so Ellie could get out of the kitchen too. Gran watched them anxiously, but this time the cat and the puppy stayed out of each other’s way.

After a while, Ellie crept out of the kitchen, watching carefully for Sid. She was fairly sure he was in his favourite place – on the back of the sofa, so he could look out of the window and see exactly what was going on in the street.

The front door was very big and very solid. It had a handle, which Ellie couldn’t reach, even standing on her hind legs. The letter box was at the bottom of the door, but even though she could get her claws into it to scratch it open, it was only big enough for her nose and even that hurt. Ellie sat staring at the door hopelessly, then she gave her ears a determined shake. If she couldn’t open it, she would just have to wait until someone opened it for her.

She hung around the hallway all morning, waiting for the door to be opened and half-playing with her squeaky fish toy.

She was just scrambling underneath a chest of drawers, trying to reach the squeaky fish, when there was the shrill sound of the doorbell. Ellie jumped, banging her head on the bottom of the chest.

She could hear someone shifting around on the doorstep. This was her chance!

Ellie wriggled herself round under the chest, so that her nose was sticking out, and watched as Gran hurried to answer the door. It was the postman with a parcel. Gran opened the door wider to take the sheet of paper she needed to sign, and Ellie’s ears pricked up as she saw what was beyond it. Gran’s didn’t have a fenced-in front garden like Megan’s house did, just a flower bed and then straight on to the pavement. As Gran turned away from the door to rest the sheet of paper on the very chest Ellie was hiding under, Ellie darted out of the door.

Ellie’s heart was thumping as she hid herself behind an enormous clump of stripy leaves under the front window. She had expected the postman to see her and shout, and maybe try to catch her, but he was too busy chatting away with Gran. Still, Ellie was sure Gran would see her if she tried to run down the street now. Hiding was best. She watched anxiously as Gran gave the sheet back, and the door began to close. Was she going to notice?

Some strange sense made her look up just then, and she nearly gave herself away with a yelp.

Sid was staring down at her from his perch on the back of the sofa. He knew she was there. What if he mewed and Gran discovered she’d got out?

Ellie watched Sid nervously. Should she run now, and see if she could get far enough away in the few seconds she had left? But Sid wasn’t meowing to get Gran’s attention. He was sitting very still, just watching with disapproving eyes, the tip of his tail twitching very slightly.

The front door slammed shut. Ellie gulped. He wasn’t going to stop her. She supposed it made sense. He didn’t want her in his house any more than she wanted to be there. Ellie wagged her tail at him gratefully, and sneaked out from behind the bush and on to the pavement.

She needed to get away from Gran’s house fast, before Gran realized what had happened and came to find her. Ellie looked around, her tail wagging very slightly. She couldn’t help but be excited. She was heading back to Megan! She was going to find her, all by herself!

She was going home.

Ellie skittered quickly across the road, making for a little lane with high hedges that led down between some of the houses. She’d be out of sight from Gran’s house quickly here, she was sure.

Once she was in the lane she raced as fast as she could. They had gone down here on the walk yesterday; it was brambly and overgrown, with lots of hiding places.

Finally she ran out of breath and collapsed, panting, underneath a tangle of brambles. She lay in the leafy dimness, breathing fast, and loving the feeling of being out on her own. Walks with Megan were the best thing, of course, but it was fun not to have a lead on and to be able to go where she liked. The bramble bush smelled nice. Earthy, but sweet at the same time.

Ellie tried to work out which way she should go next. Where was Megan? Which way?

She rested her nose on her paws. It wasn’t that she was going to sniff Megan out exactly, that would be silly, she was much too far away for that. This was different from finding Megan’s scent. It was more of a feel. Megan – and home – was that way.

Ellie wriggled eagerly out from under the brambles and set off down the lane. She knew it was going to be a long way – longer than any walk she’d done before – but she wasn’t scared. She was Megan’s dog, not Gran’s, and she was meant to be with Megan.

Back at the house, Gran was searching anxiously for Ellie. She hadn’t missed her until a few minutes ago, when she had put out Ellie’s lunch, and she was hoping that the puppy was hiding in the house somewhere.

“Ellie! Ellie! Here, girl! Where are you?”

Gran crouched down to check behind the sofa, in case Sid had frightened her again. The cat was still curled up on the back of the sofa.

“Where can she be, Sid?” Gran muttered worriedly. “Oh, she can’t have got out when the postman came? I would have seen her, surely. And that’s the only time I’ve opened the door. But then where is she? I’ve looked everywhere.”

Gran thought sadly of Megan – they’d be leaving their old house about now, she expected. Megan would be so excited; how could she spoil their moving day by telling them Ellie was lost? But if she didn’t find the little dog soon, she would have to.

Sid followed as she went out into the hallway and opened the front door. Gran looked anxiously up and down the street, while Sid coiled round her ankles, purring lovingly.

He really didn’t like dogs in his house.

The lane led out on to a main road. It was a busy road, and it didn’t have wide pavements for people and dogs to walk on, like the ones Ellie was used to. She stood hesitating on the little patch of ground where the lane and the road met, and watched the cars whooshing past. She wasn’t supposed to go near cars. She had been very carefully trained to sit and wait at the edge of the pavement until Megan said to walk.

Cautiously, Ellie stretched out one paw on to the road, then jumped back with a frightened yelp as a car shot by in a speeding rush of air. Ellie looked around and decided that she wouldn’t cross, even though the lane went on over the other side of the road. She would walk along the edge of the road instead. She was fairly sure she would still be going the right way. She set off, but the edge of the road was only a narrow fringe of dusty grass below the hedges. Every time a car went past it ruffled Ellie’s fur, and the tyres screeched and scared her. She kept jumping into the hedge in fright.

Ellie was cowering in the hedge waiting for an enormous lorry to thunder past, when she realized that just in front of her was a hole. It was a gap in the thick hedge, leading away from this horrible, frightening road! Ellie darted through it and found herself in a field. This was much better. There were no cars, only long grass that was fun to run through. Ellie darted across the field happily. This was much the best way to go – no more roads, she decided, at least until she got close to Megan’s house, where there were roads all around.

Ellie reached the hedge to the next field and nosed along it, looking for a good place to scramble through. It was thick and prickly, but suddenly she found a small tunnel. Ellie wriggled into it – then stopped.

She was stuck! Her collar had caught on something. She pulled frantically, but the collar only tightened around her neck until it hurt. She tried again, and again, but she couldn’t break the collar, or the branch it had caught on.

At last, worn out from pulling, she sat still, whimpering a little. Something else must use this tunnel, and she didn’t want to be here when it came back. Pulling at the collar just wasn’t going to work – but when Megan had first put it on her, she had managed to get it off, hadn’t she? It had been a little big and it wasn’t now, but surely if she really tried? Instead of pulling forwards, Ellie wriggled backwards, twisting her neck so that she reversed out of her collar, wrenching it over her ears.

Ellie fell backwards, rolling over in the leaves. She had done it! Her ears felt like she had half pulled them off, but although her collar was still stuck in the hedge, she wasn’t. Ellie stepped out into the next field, her legs shaky with relief.

The next hedge was easy; she edged through it on her tummy and hardly even caught her fur. But as she wriggled through she could smell something strange on the other side… The field she came out in was full of cows. Ellie had only ever seen cows at a distance, and she’d never walked through a field full of them. They were very large. She stood watching for a moment, but the cows didn’t seem to notice her. Most of them were grazing, though a few were lying down quietly.

She took a cautious step out into the field, then started to trot quickly across it, keeping herself low to the ground and hoping the cows wouldn’t notice her. The problem was that they were scattered everywhere, so she had to go close to a few of them. Luckily, she scampered past so quickly that they hardly had time to turn their huge heads before she’d left them behind. But a few of them got nervously to their feet at the sight of the dog.

Ellie was nearly at the far hedge when she heard a heavy, lumbering tread behind her. She darted a look over her shoulder, her heart suddenly racing at double speed. An enormous black-and-white cow was thundering towards her, head lowered to show off short but business-like horns. It was staring angrily straight at Ellie, and it snorted at her in fury.

Ellie ran faster than she ever had before, racing at top speed for the hedge. She could feel the cow’s hot breath as it huffed and blew behind her. Its enormous hooves trampled the grass, inches away from her tail. Ellie let out a frightened bark. She had to go faster!