The Rescued Puppy

Chapter Four

On that first afternoon of the holiday, Georgia and Adam had been so eager to get down to the beach that they’d hardly taken anything with them. But the next morning, the first real full day in Woolbridge, they took everything. Swimming things, towels, spades, snacks, rugs and Adam’s enormous inflatable alligator. They struggled down the path, laden with all they could possibly need, and Mum and Dad followed them with folding chairs and the picnic.

It was another beautiful sunny day, and Mum insisted on covering them with suncream as soon as they’d set up a base camp next to a large rock. She looked doubtfully at Lucky. “I suppose he’ll be all right. But if he starts to look hot, you must bring him back over here and he can lie down in the shade of the rocks.”

“OK, but he’ll probably just splash in the sea like he did yesterday,” Georgia pointed out. “That’ll keep him nice and cool.”

Lucky was already running up and down the water’s edge, barking excitedly at seagulls, who shrieked back crossly. One of them settled down to float on the greenish water, not very far out, and glared at him.

Lucky splashed into the sea, so it came halfway up his short legs, and barked a challenge. But the seagull only bobbed up and down, and kept on staring. Lucky took a few more steps in, shivering a little as the water came up to his chest.

Georgia had been sitting rubbing suncream into her arms and watching Adam, who was kicking a football around further up the beach. But now she suddenly noticed that Lucky was in the water. She raced down to the edge of the sea, but Dad was there already.

“It’s OK, Georgie. Lots of dogs are good swimmers. We mustn’t let him go out too far, but don’t scare him now. We don’t want him to think the water’s something to be frightened of.”

Georgia frowned. Actually, she thought maybe they did. What if Lucky got swept away by a big wave? And that seagull looked like it wanted puppy for breakfast. It was staring at Lucky evilly with its tiny yellow eyes.

Lucky looked round, pleased to see Georgia so close, and then took another step forward. Strangely though, his paws didn’t seem to find any ground to step on, and all of a sudden he was swimming, doggy-paddling as though he’d been doing it for ever. Rather surprised at himself, he paddled around in a little circle, almost forgetting about the seagull.

“He’s swimming! He’s swimming!” Georgia yelled. “Lucky can swim! Dad, look!”

The seagull flapped its powerful wings and fluttered away with loud, frightened squawks, and Lucky barked after it.

“Sorry, Lucky!” Georgia splashed into the water. “I forgot you were chasing him. You’re such a clever boy! How did you learn to swim, hey? Come on!” She dog-paddled along with him, even though she was in such shallow water that her knees kept hitting the sand. “Do you think he can swim a bit further out, Dad?” she called.

Dad shook his head. “Maybe not yet – he might get tired quickly, like he did with walks at first. He’s never done it before, remember. Just splash about in the shallows with him.”

Adam came running down the beach to join in, and they spent the next hour swimming out to sea and then back to the beach and letting the little waves carry them up on to the sand, while Lucky swam and splashed and barked delightedly around them.

They were worn out by lunchtime, so much so that Lucky went to sleep in the shade of the big rock after he’d eaten his dog biscuits and had a big drink of water. Adam and Georgia lazed around reading while their sandwiches went down – Mum said they had to wait for a while before going back in the sea.

“It’s been ages since lunch…” Adam moaned. “Can we go swimming again?”

“It’s only been about ten minutes!” Mum laughed, and Adam sighed.

“All right. I’m going to blow up my alligator.” He lay down on the rug and started to puff fiercely, till the alligator was longer than he was. “Now is it swimming time?”

Mum looked at her watch. “Yes, I suppose so. Oh, Lucky!”

Lucky had just woken up, and found an enormous green thing next to Adam, which definitely hadn’t been there when he went to sleep. He raced over and barked at it madly, chasing round and round it, kicking sand at everybody.

“Ugh! Stop him!” Mum coughed, and Adam snatched the alligator up above his head, while Georgia grabbed Lucky.

“Lucky, stop, shhh! It’s not a real one, silly. It’s for swimming. Come on, Adam, let’s show him. The sea’ll wash the sand off us, too.” She carried the squirming puppy down to the water’s edge, and Adam launched the alligator into the waves.

“We’ll have to be careful Lucky doesn’t burst it with his claws,” he said, holding the alligator steady.

Georgia leaped on board and lay down. “You can tow us,” she suggested, holding on to the side. “Come on, Lucky.” She held out an arm, expecting the puppy to swim towards it, but instead he splashed into the water, paddled out to her, then scrambled up on to her back.

“You’re a raft!” Adam yelled, and Georgia giggled, trying not to wriggle too much and tip Lucky off. His claws tickled.

They swam up and down, taking turns on the alligator, and then pulled it up on to the beach and lay there on the sand, letting the tiny waves wash over their toes.

The sun was so hot, even when they were half in the water, that Georgia almost fell asleep. She was just wondering how it was that the water seemed as warm as a bath now, when it had been freezing when she first dipped her toes in that morning, when Adam suddenly sat up and yelled. “Look! The alligator!”

She turned over and sat up. “What’s the matter?”

“I wasn’t watching. The tide’s come in,” Adam groaned. “The waves have taken it out. I’ll have to swim after it.”

Georgia stood up. “I can’t even see it. Oh no! Adam, you can’t swim right out there.”

The alligator was only a little green spot, about thirty metres from the shore where they’d be far out of their depth.

“Dad!” Adam called. But their dad still had all his clothes on, and even though he was heading over towards them, and Mum was standing up on the rug looking worried, neither of them looked like they were about to dive into the sea.

“Dad, can I swim out and get the alligator?” Adam begged. But Dad shook his head.

“I’m really sorry, Adam. It’s drifted too far. You promised not to go out of your depth, remember? Maybe someone in a boat will come past and pick it up for us.”

Adam and Georgia looked hopefully out to sea, but there were no boats around to go alligator-hunting, and the inflatable was bobbing further and further away.

Then Adam grabbed Georgia’s arm and pointed. A little golden head was suddenly bobbing through the dark-green water. Lucky could see the inflatable, and he knew that Adam wanted it back. He wasn’t quite sure why Adam wasn’t going to get it himself, but he knew he could help.

“Lucky, no!” Georgia gasped. But Lucky was already way out into the sea, swimming along happily.

“He’s too far out,” Georgia murmured worriedly. “What if he gets caught in a current and swept right out to sea?”

Adam nodded. “Let’s swim as far as we can – then we can help him back.”

They swam as fast as they could, to where their toes were only just touching the bottom. Mum and Dad were looking on. Although Georgia and Adam had promised them not to go out of their depth, secretly Georgia knew that if Lucky started sinking, she’d follow him right out into the deep water. And she was sure Adam would do the same.

But they didn’t need to. Slowly but surely, the alligator was bobbing back towards them, Lucky’s sharp teeth gripping the white tow rope.

“You star, Lucky! You rescued my alligator!” Adam grabbed the rope too, and Georgia hugged Lucky, who snuggled wearily into her shoulder. It had been a long swim, and his legs were very tired. But he had done it! Georgia and Adam were happy, he could tell.

“Georgie, you get up on the alligator with him, and I’ll pull you along,” Adam suggested.

Georgia nodded and heaved herself up on to the inflatable, carefully keeping Lucky’s claws away from the plastic. Adam towed them back in, with Georgia proudly holding Lucky in front of her.

Mum and Dad were waiting for them on the beach, smiling with relief.

“I can’t believe what a good swimmer he is!” Mum said, stroking Lucky’s soaking wet ears.

“He’s a champion,” Adam said proudly. “We’d have lost my alligator for sure if it wasn’t for Lucky.”

Georgia turned over in bed and yawned, and then giggled as a damp nose was pressed into her ear. “Hello, Lucky! Is it time to get up?” She wriggled up in bed, and pulled open the curtains to look out of the little window right next to the bunks.

“Oh!” Georgie wrinkled her nose disappointedly. The sparkling blue sea of the day before had disappeared. The sky was cloudy and the sea had settled to a dull greyish brown – it didn’t look like a day for sunbathing or swimming at all.

“Oh well,” Georgie murmured. “Never mind, Lucky. Maybe we can go exploring along the cliffs instead.”

She got out of bed, and threw on jeans and a T-shirt. She could already hear Mum and Dad moving around downstairs, and she thought she could smell toast. Lucky would need to go out into the tiny garden behind the cottage for a wee, too.

“Wake up, Adam,” she called, tickling the foot that was dangling down over the edge of the top bunk as she went past.

Adam growled something, but his duvet humped up as if he was at least partly awake.

“Let’s go and explore the cliffs this morning,” Georgia suggested a few minutes later, as she sat down at the table for breakfast. Lucky was already sitting hopefully by her foot, waiting for toast crusts.

But Adam shook his head grumpily. “No! I really want to go down to the beach at Woolbridge. You said we could, Dad! They’ve got rides on the pier there, and everything. I was talking to those boys we saw on the beach on our first day, and they said it’s excellent there.”

Georgia frowned. “But we wouldn’t be able to take Lucky! Woolbridge Beach doesn’t allow dogs in the summer, Mum said.”

“Anyway, it’s not such nice weather today,” Mum put in. “It feels more like a day for walking along the cliffs than going to the beach. We’ll do that another day, Adam.”

Adam muttered something under his breath, but Mum managed to distract him by passing him chocolate spread for his toast, which was a holiday treat.

After breakfast, they set off along the path that led from the cottage, winding through the bracken and brambles along the top of the cliff. Lucky danced ahead, tugging on his extending lead, and winding himself in and out of the brambles as he investigated all the interesting sandy holes.

“Let’s take him off the lead,” Georgia suggested, after she’d unwound him from the bramble bushes for the third time. “There’s no one else up here.”

But before Dad could answer, Lucky uttered a sharp little woof and looked round at her excitedly.

“What is it?” she asked, and then she gasped. “Oh, look! A rabbit!”

A small sandy-brown rabbit was peering back at them from the middle of a bramble bush. It looked terrified.

“Poor thing!” Georgia whispered. “It’s so scared. Lucky, you mustn’t chase it!” But Lucky was already darting forwards, the cord of his lead getting longer as he raced after the rabbit, which turned tail and dived down a nearby hole.

“Oh, Lucky!” Georgia tried to pull him back, but he had his nose in the hole, and was barking frantically. He’d been within a metre of a real rabbit, and now it had disappeared! He could smell it still, but he couldn’t see it. He dug and scrabbled, but he couldn’t get any further in, the hole was too narrow. Eventually he gave up and slunk sadly back to Georgia. For some reason she seemed cross, but he had no idea why.

“That rabbit was terrified! You shouldn’t have chased it, Lucky!”

Adam snorted. “Come on, Georgie, he’s a dog! That’s what dogs do! Spaniels were bred for hunting.”

“But Lucky’s a pet, not a hunting dog! What if he gets to like hunting things and starts chasing cats?” Georgia snapped back. “Then he’d be in real trouble. Imagine Mrs Winter next door if he chased Percy!” Percy was Mrs Winter’s enormous fluffy Persian cat. Georgia sighed, looking down at Lucky, who was watching her with confused eyes and slowly wagging his tail. “Oh, it isn’t your fault, Lucky. I’m not really cross. It was such a cute rabbit, that’s all.”

“Anyway, that answers the question about letting him off the lead,” Dad pointed out. “Have you noticed how close we are to the edge of the cliff?” He crouched down, pushing aside some clumps of yellow flowers to show the animal holes dotted around between them – and the little sandy slope trailing down to the edge. “If a rabbit popped up in front of Lucky and ducked into one of those holes just there, he’d be over the side of the cliff before you could even call his name.”

Georgia shuddered. “I suppose you’re right. OK, we’ll keep the lead on.”

Lucky wandered on, sniffing hopefully for more rabbits, but they all seemed to have hidden themselves away. For the rest of the walk he had to make do with leaping at the butterflies, lots of tiny little blue ones, which kept flying around his nose in a most unwise manner.