The Puppy who was Left Behind

Chapter Eight

Sunny felt the boat start to move away from the bank. He climbed out of his basket and came to stand next to Anna, putting his paws up on the bench seat that ran round the side of the bow and peering over the side.

Anna stroked his black head and sighed. “I wish you could help us find Fred, Sunny. Couldn’t you sniff him out for me?” Then she frowned. “I wonder if you could? I’ll have to ask Grandad. If you did, I promise we’d take him straight home – no more Fred trying to make you play chase. Honest.”

Then she sniffed. She’d give anything to be chasing around the park with Fred now. She wouldn’t even mind being stuck at home, bored, while Mum was working, just as long as Fred was there with her.

“I shouldn’t have said yes to coming on the boat, should I?” she said to Sunny, tears rolling slowly down her cheeks. “It wasn’t fair on you or Fred.” She gave Sunny a last pat, and then climbed up on to the little bench. She lifted her hand to shield her eyes from the sun, scanning the bank eagerly as they drew away into the middle of the canal and began to sail slowly around the bend. The other boats hid the bank, and Anna suddenly couldn’t bear that they were leaving. Fred was still there, somewhere! “Fred!” she yelled, again and again. But he didn’t come. Anna put her hands over her eyes and cried.

Fred felt the thrumming sound of the engine more than he heard it. He was so tired after his frightened dash away through the woods, and his hours cramped up underneath the tree, that he’d slept far later than he usually would.

His first thought when the engine growled was that he was very, very hungry and why hadn’t Anna come to find him for some breakfast? He would go and look for her right now. He twitched and stretched under the canvas awning, pushing his front paws out along the deck. But the feel of the heavy canvas over his head and shoulders was wrong, and his legs still ached a little. As he began to wake up properly, he had the feeling that something wasn’t right.

Then he remembered.

He wasn’t with Anna. He was on the other boat, hiding. The wrong boat! And that growling loudness was the sound that boats made when they moved! He had to get off, now, before this boat took him away from Anna!

Frantically, he scrambled out from beneath the awning and dashed to the side of the boat. Then a great shudder of relief ran through him, and his tail swished gladly back and forth. The boat was still moored up against the bank. It hadn’t moved, even though he’d heard the engine noise.

Fred half-jumped, half-scrabbled his way out on to the bank. He needed to get back to Anna. Even if it meant Sunny growling at him and Grandad and everyone else being angry, he didn’t care. Anna was what mattered. Even if she was cross with him, he wouldn’t mind, as long as she was there. He’d missed her, and he was hungry, and he wanted her to feed him. No one else.

Fred pranced down the towpath, his tail wafting happily. Should he jump straight back on to the boat, or should he bark and let Anna see him and call him on board? If he barked, he might set Sunny off growling at him. Perhaps it would be best to just jump into that little bit of the boat outside the door, and sit quietly and wait?

He hurried eagerly along past another boat and looked curiously at the people sitting on it. The lady got to her feet and waved her arms at him. But Fred ran on.

Then he stopped, staring at the space where Anna’s boat was meant to be.

They had gone. Without him.

Anna had left him behind. Fred walked to the edge of the bank, somehow hoping that he was wrong and the boat was there after all. But it definitely wasn’t. That had been the engine noise he’d heard – it had been them leaving.

He could still hear it. Not too loud, but there. Perhaps they had only just gone? Fred leaned out over the edge of the bank, trying to see, his paws scrabbling on the grass. There they were! He could even just make out Anna, standing at the front of the boat.

He was about to bark, to tell her to come back for him, when he saw that Sunny was with her. She was stroking his head. Running her fingers over Sunny’s ears, the way she did with his.

Fred watched, his tail sinking down between his legs. She wanted Sunny instead of him. He had caused so much trouble, and knocked things over, and made people shout at him. Anna’s mum and dad had taken him away because she didn’t want him any more.

But then, just as the boat began to turn, Anna suddenly stepped up on to something. Fred could see her better now. Sunny disappeared, and Anna stood there, peering at the bank as though she was looking for something.

For him?

She was crying. She was brushing tears away from her eyes, and she was calling… He could only just hear her over the engine noise, but he was sure that she was. Her voice had gone all growly and strange – the way it was when she was upset.

Fred barked and whipped round, racing down the bank after them. He hardly heard the lady on the next boat calling him frantically as she climbed over on to the bank. He didn’t realize that she was trying to catch him as he shot past her. He only knew that he had to get to Anna.

The Hummingbird was pulling around the shallow bend in the canal now. Fred barked and barked as he ran, and he saw Anna look round and spot him.

“Fred!” she screamed excitedly. “Grandad, stop! Fred’s there!”

Grandad turned to look at the bank and swung the tiller over to move in towards it. But the heavy boat took time to change course, and to Fred it didn’t seem to be changing direction at all. He could see that Anna was shouting and waving, and she didn’t look cross with him at all. But why wasn’t she coming back for him? Maybe she couldn’t…?

Fred watched the boat for a couple more seconds, seeing it still drawing further down the canal. Taking Anna away from him.

Then he jumped into the water.

The water was cold and dark and unwelcoming and he didn’t want to be in it at all. But if it was the only way he could get back to Anna, then that was what he would do.

He paddled away with his front paws. This was the first time he had ever been in deep water, and he could feel the weight of it in his coat, dragging him down. And no matter how hard he tried, he didn’t seem to be getting very far. The cold seemed to sink straight into his cramped legs, but he kept paddling as hard as he could.

“He’s in the water!” Anna screamed. “Grandad, where’s the life-ring?” But Grandad couldn’t hear her shouting over the noise of the engine. Anna would have to fetch the life-ring herself. There was no time to lose. She spotted the life-ring attached to the roof and leaned over to reach it.

Grandad had told her never to walk round the narrow shelf that ran round the outside of the boat, but it was the only way she could get close enough to Fred to throw him the heavy life-ring. She hooked it over her arm and stepped out on to the shelf, gripping the rail that ran along the roof of the boat.

As she edged her way round, she could see Fred struggling as he hit the Hummingbird’s wake. He gasped and snorted as he swallowed a great mouthful of water.

“I think he’s sinking,” Anna wailed, clinging on to the rail with one hand. She threw the life-ring as close to Fred as she could, but it fell short. She started to haul it back, glancing worriedly at Fred still struggling in the rough water thrown up behind the boat.

Maybe I should just go in after him, Anna thought, starting to pull off her shoes. She could swim pretty well, even though she knew the canal was nothing like a nice heated swimming pool. Grandad could throw her the life-ring and pull them both in. There was no way she was going to let Fred drown.

But then a black shape shot past her and there was another huge splash, followed by a steady sound of paddling, as Sunny cut through the water.

“Go on, Sunny!” Anna yelled.

Gran hurried out on to the bow deck. “What’s going on? I just saw Sunny jump into the canal! Anna, come back down off there!”

“It’s Fred!” Anna pointed into the water. “Sunny’s rescuing him!”

“Oh my goodness,” Gran murmured. “Geoff, look!” she called, banging on the cabin roof. “The dogs are in the canal.”

Grandad looked out across the water and his eyes widened. He waved back and steered the boat into the bank.

They all watched as Sunny paddled calmly round behind the boat and up to Fred, who was gasping and struggling in the cold water. The puppy rolled his eyes sideways, wondering what Sunny was doing. He whined as he felt Sunny grab the folds of skin at the scruff of his neck. But he didn’t pull away. He could feel that Sunny was helping him. Once he’d got a good hold on Fred, Sunny turned, swimming him back towards the bank.

Anna jumped off the boat as soon as it drew into the side, stumbling as she hit the grass.

“Go and help them,” Gran called, grabbing the ropes and stepping after her. “Don’t worry. I’ll hold on to these.”

Grandad shut off the engine and jumped after Anna, and they ran down the bank, just as Sunny and Fred were reaching the side.

“Good dog, Sunny! Come on!” Grandad yelled. “Good boy!”

“Come on, Fred!” Anna called, watching him anxiously. He was so still in Sunny’s grip, she couldn’t even tell if he was breathing. But as Sunny bumped him gently against the bank, Fred seemed to wake up, scrabbling frantically for dry land. Grandad put his arms under Fred’s front legs and hauled him on to the bank, where Fred wriggled gratefully on to Anna’s knees. She hugged him tightly.

Sunny leaped out with a helping heave from Grandad and shook himself all over. Then he leaned down and sniffed at Fred, nudging him up.

Fred struggled up obediently, shaking the water out of his coat. Sunny pulled at the leg of Anna’s jeans with his teeth, so that she got to her feet, too. Then he set off back to the boat, herding them like a sheepdog, circling round Fred and Anna as they walked back down the towpath.

“What are you doing, Sunny?” Anna giggled.

“He wants everybody safely back on the boat,” Grandad said, chuckling.

“He rescued Fred,” Anna murmured. She could feel her cold, damp dog shivering against her legs. She was almost sure that Fred wouldn’t have made it out of the canal on his own. And she was only realizing now how amazing the rescue had been. “Sunny doesn’t even like Fred!”

Grandad nodded thoughtfully. “He may not like Fred fussing at him, but Fred’s part of his family, I suppose.”

“I’ve got towels,” Gran called. “I’ve tied the boat to those trees, just for the minute. Come inside. We’ll get the dogs dried off and I’ll make some tea.”

Sunny stood watchfully by as Anna helped Fred back on to the boat. Then she and Grandad dried the dogs with the old towels Gran had found.

Gran passed Anna a mug of sweet hot chocolate, and looked down worriedly at the two dogs. “I wish we could give them a hot drink, too.”

“Fred looks a lot better now he’s drier,” Anna said, sipping at her hot chocolate. Fred was leaning against her lovingly and she could feel that he wasn’t shivering so much. “Oh! We have to call Mum and Dad! We have to tell them we’ve got Fred back. And that Sunny’s a hero dog.”

Sunny shook his way out of the towel that Grandad had wrapped round him and stood up, shaking his ears as though they still felt watery. Then he nudged Fred with his muzzle again.

Fred wriggled back to his feet. He licked Anna’s cheek lovingly, but he followed Sunny into the saloon, towards Sunny’s big wicker basket. Fred stood looking at it uncertainly, his tail waving a little. He knew he wasn’t meant to go in Sunny’s basket. But the bigger dog pushed him gently into it and climbed in after him, curling up round the Setter puppy as though he was trying to keep him warm.

Sunny glanced at them all, and then let out a deep, huffing sigh and closed his eyes, as though he was finally happy with where everyone was.

“Look at them!” Anna whispered, crouching down to see. “You’re right, Grandad. Sunny’s decided that Fred’s his family now.”

Fred peered over the edge of the basket, making sure Anna was still there. He stretched, and wriggled a little, and licked her hand. He was back, and Anna was with him, and everything was all right. Then he snuggled up against the big dog and went to sleep.