The Abandoned Puppy

Chapter Five

It sounds like the best Easter holidays ever!” Becca sighed enviously.

Zoe smiled at her as they walked into their classroom. “It was fab. I really missed going to the shelter this morning. I was looking forward to seeing you, but apart from that I could have done without school!”

“Me too, but I can’t see my mum letting me have the day off because I needed to go and visit the world’s cutest puppies…” Becca flopped down into her chair, and glanced over at the board. “Numeracy problems! Great start to the new term…” She got out her maths book, but went on talking in a whisper. “So is Cookie properly weaned now? She’s eating real puppy food?”

Zoe nodded. “Yup, they all still have a bit of milk, but they’ve started drinking water too. And Cookie’s really catching up with Biscuit and Choc. I don’t think she’ll ever be quite as big as they are, but she’s doing OK. I brought the photos Mum printed out – I’ll show you at break— Ssh! – Mrs Allan’s watching us right now.” She stopped talking and tried to look like she was concentrating on the problems that Mrs Allan had put on the board for them. Their teacher was usually lovely, but she always got extra strict when they came back after the holidays – as though she thought they needed to remember what school was like!

Zoe showed the photos to Becca and some of the other girls in her class at break time, and everyone said how gorgeous the puppies were. Lots of the girls said they were going to ask their mums and dads if they could come to the shelter and see the puppies, and maybe even adopt one of them. Zoe knew that most of her friends wouldn’t be allowed to – Lucy already had two dogs at home, for a start! But the more people who came to see the puppies the better. However much Zoe hated the thought of them leaving the shelter, she wanted them to have the very best of homes.

That afternoon, Auntie Jo had arranged to nip out from the shelter and pick Zoe up from school. Mum was going to fetch her after she finished work. Zoe got changed quickly in the staff loos – Mum hated her getting her school uniform messy – and then ran to see Cookie and the others.

Cookie was curled up in their basket, watching her brothers playing tug-of-war with a bit of old rope that someone had given them. They’d had it since the morning, and it was their new favourite toy. Bits of it were scattered all over the pen. She sighed a little, and rested her nose on her paws, wondering where Zoe was. Zoe had played with her every day since they’d come here from their old home. Actually, the little puppy couldn’t remember much of where they’d lived before they’d been at the shelter. The only thing she was sure of was that their mother had been at the old place. She still wondered what had happened, and why they had been taken away, but she didn’t mind, because now she had Zoe.

Except that today she didn’t, and she didn’t understand why. Zoe always fed her and her brothers. Zoe made a special fuss of them, even though she wasn’t feeding milk from her lap any more. Zoe still brought the food bowls, and watched to make sure that she was eating properly. Zoe even stopped Choc and Biscuit from trying to take her food if they finished theirs first.

Today the other lady had brought their food - Jo, the one who was always with Zoe. Jo had said nice things, and she’d stroked her, and said how good she was. But it wasn’t the same.

Cookie’s little ears pricked up sharply. Someone was running along the passage between the pens - someone with small, light footsteps. She jumped up in the basket and barked excitedly as Zoe appeared at the front of the pen, beaming at her.

“Oh! Did you miss me? I really missed you,” Zoe told her, opening the latch. “You too, yes, I missed you as well, you great big monsters,” she told Biscuit and Choc, patting them lovingly as they waltzed round her feet. But it was Cookie that she sat down next to, and Cookie she cuddled as soon as the puppy clambered happily into her lap.

“I missed you more,” Zoe whispered into her ears, as she stroked her. “I know I shouldn’t really say it, but I did.” She sighed. “There’s some people come to look round, Cookie. Try and look like a perfect pet, won’t you? You aren’t old enough to go for a couple more weeks, but if they like you, they might wait.”

She could hear them coming along the line of pens, now. A couple, who’d just bought a house together, and were thinking of getting a dog. They’d said they didn’t mind whether it was a puppy or an older dog, but when Auntie Jo had mentioned the three gorgeous little puppies they had got excited.

“They’ll be looking out for you.” Zoe sighed again. “They looked nice, I suppose. Nice-ish…” She couldn’t imagine anyone being a good enough owner for her lovely Cookie. No one except her, she realized, with a miserable little gulp.

“So they decided on Jasper?” Zoe asked as she helped her aunt to clean out the food bowls, feeling a bit surprised, but very relieved. Jasper was about five years old and was a mixed-breed, mostly Labrador. He wasn’t nearly as nice-looking as Cookie and her brothers, Zoe thought.

“Yes, they decided that they wanted a bigger dog after all,” Auntie Jo explained. “Don’t worry, Zoe. It won’t be hard to find homes for those three at all. They’re gorgeous. It’s the older dogs that it can be hard to place.”

Zoe nodded. “My friend Becca is going to get a dog soon. Becca said she’d love to come and see the puppies. She’s going to ask her mum and dad if they could come this weekend. That would be OK, wouldn’t it?” Her voice wobbled a little bit. “It’ll only be one more week till the puppies are old enough to go to new homes then…”

Auntie Jo looked closely at her. “Yes, they’ll be about seven weeks this weekend, as far as we can tell. It won’t hurt them to be split up from their litter after eight weeks. It would be lovely for one of your friends to come. Zoe, are you OK, sweetheart?”

“I’ll miss them, that’s all,” Zoe muttered.

“I know you will. Especially Cookie. You’ve looked after her so well. But she can’t stay here, Zo, you know that. It isn’t a good life for a dog, in a little pen like this, however much we love them.”

“I know. But it’s hard to think of someone else taking her home. I wish we could have a dog! I’d look after her so well!” Zoe burst out. Then she added quietly, “Don’t worry, I know we can’t…”

Auntie Jo hugged her, accidentally clanging two stainless steel dishes together behind her back, and making Zoe laugh.

“I’m so excited!” Becca raced up the steps towards Zoe, her mum following behind. She flung her arms round her. “Please can we see all the dogs? And the cats? I know we don’t want a cat, but I’d like to see them anyway. And the guinea pigs!”

“I’ll show you everything,” Zoe promised, giggling. She hadn’t seen her friend so hyper since her birthday party. She took them all round the shelter, saving the dog pens until last.

“You’re so lucky, getting to help here all the time,” Becca told her, cooing at the guinea pigs. Then she looked excitedly up at her mum. “Please can you show us the dogs now, Zoe? Mum and Dad said we might be able to get one really soon. That’s what Dad’s doing today – mending our garden fence so that there aren’t any holes round the bottom of it, and it’s safe for a dog to be in the garden. He said if we found a dog from somewhere like here, the shelter would want to come and check that we’d look after it properly.”

Zoe nodded. “Yes, Auntie Jo and the other staff go and look around everyone’s houses. They wouldn’t let you have a cat from here if you lived on a really busy road. Or if you had small children. You’ll be all right,” she added. “You want a dog and it’s only really small children that are a problem – you know, too small to understand about not pulling tails.”

Becca nodded.

“Doesn’t your dad want to help choose a dog?” Zoe asked curiously.

Becca’s mum smiled. “This is just a first look – so we can think about what sort of dog we’d like. Becca’s dad will come and see them if we tell him there’s a dog we really like the look of. But he started worrying about the fence last night, and he was determined to get it done. He didn’t want us to miss out on a lovely dog because the house wasn’t ready.”

Zoe smiled. It sounded as though Becca and her mum and dad were really serious about getting a dog. They weren’t just deciding to adopt one without thinking it through, like some people did. “OK, look, well here are the dog pens. It can get a bit noisy!” she warned Becca, as several of the dogs started to bark excitedly when they realized they had visitors.

“Oh, look…” Becca whispered, glancing from side to side. “So many! Freddie… Luca – he’s gorgeous, Mum, look! He looks like a German Shepherd. Oooh! Trixie!” Becca crouched down by the little spaniel’s pen. “She’s so pretty…”

She glanced up worriedly at Zoe. “How do people ever choose? She’s looking at me, like she really wants us to take her home, and I haven’t even gone halfway along the pens yet!”

“It is hard,” Zoe admitted. “If you think you really like any of the dogs, tell me, and I’ll ask Auntie Jo if you can go into the pen and meet them.”

“If I did that I’d never be able to say no,” Becca’s mum muttered. “What if we cuddled a dog and then said we didn’t want him? It would be heartbreaking!”

Zoe wrinkled her nose. She supposed she was more used to the shelter than most people. “I know it’s sad. But Auntie Jo and the others do find homes for all the dogs in the end. It does take a while for some of them, though.” She led Becca and her mum along the row of pens. “And these…” she stopped by a pen, “are the puppies we found abandoned.” She laughed as all three of them raced towards the wire of the pen. “The one with the darker brown patches is Choc and that one’s Biscuit…” She pointed to the puppy with the brown eyepatch. “And this one, with the pale brown patches,” she paused, “is Cookie.”

“Oh, wow…” Becca murmured. “They’re all so beautiful!”

“They are lovely,” her mum agreed. “They look very little, Zoe. Are they old enough to be rehomed?”

“Not for about another week,” Zoe explained. “But then it will be fine, although they still can’t go outside for a while after that. All the dogs in here have been vaccinated, but puppies have to have a last lot of vaccinations when they’re about twelve weeks old. Then they can go for walks. They’d be OK in the garden though,” she added.

“You know loads about dogs,” Becca said admiringly. “Please can we meet them properly? Mum, do you want to?”

Her mum nodded, smiling. “Definitely.”

Zoe swallowed hard, and opened the catch on the pen. It was a good thing that Becca and her mum liked the puppies. But it was one step closer to them leaving the shelter, and Zoe.

Cookie scrabbled excitedly at the wire. Zoe had been playing with them that morning, and then she’d disappeared. Now she was back!

But there were other people too. Another girl, like Zoe, and someone else. Cookie had never seen them before. She stopped wagging her tail quite so hard, and backed up a bit as Zoe opened the door. She wasn’t used to different people.

Zoe let Becca and her mum in, and Biscuit and Choc sniffed cautiously at them. Becca picked up the last bit of the rope toy, and whisked it along the ground, right in front of Choc, who quickly pounced on it, pretending to growl.

“He’s so funny!” Becca giggled.

“I think he’s the friendliest of the pups,” Zoe told her. She looked round for Cookie, who was almost hiding behind her, watching Becca and her mum with big, anxious eyes. “It’s all right, Cookie,” she whispered.

Cookie pressed herself against Zoe’s side, and sniffed cautiously at Becca’s mum’s fingers when she held them out. The new people smelled nice, but she didn’t know them like she knew Zoe. She didn’t mind if this lady stroked her though.

“She’s very sweet,” Becca’s mum said. “Is this the one you bottle-fed, Zoe? You can see that she adores you.”

Zoe smiled sadly. She loved it that Cookie acted like her dog, even though she wasn’t. She sighed. Cookie was going to have to learn to love somebody else. Gently, she lifted Cookie up, and put her on Becca’s mum’s lap.

Cookie froze, and sat motionless, her shoulders all hunched up under her ears. She looked round at Zoe worriedly, but she didn’t wriggle off. It was all right. Zoe was still there, very close. The lady stroked her ears, which was nice. She relaxed a little, and licked her hand.

“She’s a tiny bit shy, but she’s very loving,” Zoe said, trying not to mind someone else cuddling Cookie. She took a deep breath. “She’d be a brilliant pet. Any of them would.”

Cookie watched sadly, her ears flattening back, as they all got up. They were going, she could tell. She missed Zoe so much now that she didn’t stay all day the way she used to. Zoe had been here for longer today, but Cookie still hadn’t had her tea. Cookie liked it when Zoe brought her food, and sat with her while she ate. She always ate more when Zoe was there, because Zoe liked to see her eat, and she would tell her what a good dog she was, eating so nicely.

As Zoe was shutting the front of the pen, Cookie raced after her, scrabbling her claws against the wire netting and whining sadly.

“It’s OK,” Zoe whispered to her. “I’ll be back tomorrow. I promise.”

Cookie didn’t know what that meant, but she understood Zoe’s comforting voice. She stopped whining, and just stood up against the wire, staring after the girls as they walked down the passageway between the pens. She watched until the doors swung shut, and she couldn’t see Zoe any more. Then she dropped down, and sadly padded over to their basket, her claws clicking against the worn lino on the floor.