The Secret Puppy

Chapter Seven

“Dad! Dad! You have to come!” Daisy dashed up to where her dad was huddled in his waterproof, watching Oliver, who was out on the river now.

“What’s the matter?” Dad looked worried, but Daisy laughed.

“Nothing! Nothing’s the matter, it’s a good thing! Barney’s new owner doesn’t want him. We can buy him! We could take him home with us tomorrow! You have to come and talk to Julie.”

“What? Slow down, Daisy, I don’t understand.” Dad was frowning, and for the first time since Julie had told her the news, Daisy stopped to think. She’d been so excited that Barney was for sale again that she hadn’t even considered whether her parents would say yes.

“Barney… The German shepherd puppy – the one I really like. I had to stop going to see him because he was going to belong to someone else, and it wasn’t fair on him. But he isn’t anyone’s now, Dad!”

“What are you two talking about that’s so important?”

Daisy jumped. Mum had come up behind her without her even noticing.

“Daisy says that the puppy…” Dad began. He sounded worried.

“It’s Barney, Mum.” Daisy’s words were tumbling over each other as she tried to explain. “The lady who was supposed to buy him changed her mind. So we can have him – can’t we? You said you were seriously thinking about getting a dog. Please, please can it be this dog?”

“But Daisy, a great big German shepherd?” Her mum sighed. “I know he’s cute and little and fluffy now, but think how big Lucy and Sally are! We couldn’t have a dog like that.”

“Why not?” Daisy swallowed hard. She couldn’t cry now. She needed to persuade them, and they’d never listen if she was crying.

“Well, our garden isn’t big enough. The house isn’t big enough either, come to that! Imagine a huge dog in our living room, Daisy. He’d take up the whole sofa.”

“He wouldn’t be allowed on the sofa, Mum. We’d train him properly, like Julie said. So he wouldn’t make a mess and stuff. He wouldn’t be like Millie’s dog.” Daisy dug her nails into the palms of her hands, forcing herself to sound calm and sensible. “There’s a dog-training class that meets in the same hall as Brownies, I’ve seen a poster. And we’re so close to the park. I’m nearly old enough to take him there on my own.”

Her mum shook her head. “I’m not sure about that.”

“Well, OK, with Oliver then. And I will be old enough soon.” She turned to her dad. “You said you wanted to go for walks with a dog, Dad!”

Dad sighed. “I do, Daisy. This is all just a bit sudden. And your mum’s right. We never thought of having such a big dog. German shepherds need loads of exercise, and they’re bred to be working dogs. I’m not sure they’re great pets.”

“But you don’t know Barney,” Daisy pleaded. “Not like I do. He’d be a wonderful pet.” She was losing, she could tell. Mum and Dad didn’t understand, they weren’t listening. Tears started to stream down her face.

“Don’t cry, Daisy.” Mum went to put an arm round her, but Daisy pulled away and ran off back to the tent.

How could this be happening? Barney could be hers, after all, but she was going to lose him.

Barney prowled up and down the run, the fur on the back of his neck prickling. He hated being back in his pen, even though he’d been pleased to see the other puppies again. He wanted to be back up at the campsite with Daisy.

Especially now. It was still raining heavily, and the wind was rising too. He didn’t like the feel of it. It was really howling through the pen, and whistling round the yard too, rattling all the doors and making the puppies jump and whimper.

He needed to go back to Daisy, and make sure she was all right. But Julie had carefully blocked up the hole under the wire fence, digging a board in so he couldn’t get out that way again.

He was stuck.

“You’ll just have to share Otto with me instead,” Oliver said, grinning. “I’ll let you feed him, if you like. Spiders don’t need walking all the time.”

He was smirking at her over his bowl of soup, and suddenly Daisy couldn’t stand it any longer. They’d been stuck in the tent in the pouring rain for ages, and Oliver was driving her mad. She’d tried being calm and persuasive and sensible, and everyone had treated her like a silly little girl who didn’t know what she was talking about.

Right. So she would be a silly little girl. It didn’t matter, anyway. Mum and Dad had refused to listen to any more discussion about Barney. Mum had said that no meant no, as though Daisy was about three. She had even gone to see Julie, and explained that much as they’d love a dog, they just couldn’t have one as big and demanding as a German shepherd.

“I hate you and your stupid spider!” Daisy screamed. She flung herself at Oliver, not even noticing that she’d spilt the tomato soup all down his front. His folding chair tipped over and they both fell to the ground.

“Daisy, stop it!” Mum yelled, and Dad pulled her off Oliver, looking furious.

“Look at the state of you both!” he snapped. “You’d better go to bed, Daisy. And you too!” he added, as Oliver sniggered. “You were teasing her. I’m going to be really glad to get out of this tent and get home tomorrow.”

Daisy zipped herself into her pod, changed out of her tomatoey hoodie and shorts, and crawled into her sleeping bag. She buried her face in the fleecy blanket she’d used to cover up Barney. It still smelled of him. She couldn’t stop crying now. She hated it that Oliver and Mum and Dad could hear her. Maybe the drumming of the rain on the tent and the howling of the wind would hide the crying a little.

Barney was so close. That was the awful thing. Just across the river and down the path. He would be curling up to go to sleep with the other puppies now. She could almost see him…

But they were going home tomorrow, and then she’d never see him again.

Barney shook his ears worriedly. Julie had closed the door out to the run when she’d come to bring the puppies’ supper, as it was raining so hard. But he could still hear it hammering on the roof, and the wind battering around the yard. All the puppies hated the eerie noises.

But he was the only one left awake now. The others had settled into an uneasy sleep, huddled together for comfort. Barney sat down by the wire fence of the pen and whined miserably. Something was wrong, he was sure of it. All this wind and rain. More than ever, Barney wanted to be with Daisy. He was scared and she would make him feel better, but that wasn’t the real reason he wanted to be with her. He was scared for her. The wind had been blowing round the tent even that morning, and he hadn’t liked the way it shook and juddered about. He needed to be there to guard her and keep her safe.

He jumped in fright as a particularly strong gust of wind whistled round the yard and blew the door of the puppy room off its latch. The bottom of the door creaked open, clattering against the wall. It was usually locked at night, but the horrible weather had meant that Julie was racing about, distracted, and she’d forgotten to lock it when she brought the puppies’ food over from the farmhouse.

The other puppies wriggled and whimpered in their sleep, but none of them woke up. Barney shivered as the cold wind cut through the room, but then his ears pricked up – or one of them did, anyway.

The door was open now! He could go and find Daisy!

If he could get out of the wire pen…

He scratched at it uselessly, but he only hurt his paws. And it was no good trying to dig under it, as he’d done outside. This was a solid floor. He would have to go over the top of the wire.

Barney stood on his hind paws, reaching up as far as he could. To his surprise, he was actually as tall as the fence now. His front paws hung over the top, and he could get his head over it, just. He kicked and scrabbled at the floor, trying to push himself up, but he wasn’t quite tall enough. Then his claws caught on the bar across the top, and he kicked harder – he was climbing! He scrabbled again, getting the other back paw up, and heaved himself over the edge of the pen, teetering on the top for a few seconds. Then, almost without realizing how he’d done it, Barney was on the floor – on the other side of the wire.

He looked nervously at the door. It was still banging to and fro, and it was dark and wet outside. For a moment he wished that he was back inside with his brothers and sisters, where it was warm and safe.

Then he shook himself. He needed to find Daisy. He marched across the floor, and nudged the swinging door hard with his nose.

Out in the yard the rain was hammering down so hard he could barely see. Barney shrank back against the wall, trying to think how to get to Daisy. When he’d found her before, he’d gone out of the side of the run instead, straight on to the path.

Ears laid back against the driving rain, Barney set out across the yard to where he thought he remembered the entrance was, his tail tucked between his legs. He’d never seen anything like this before. It had been a hot summer – so hot that all the ground was dry, and as he reached the path there were huge puddles where the water couldn’t soak in fast enough. Barney hurried round them, shivering as the rain soaked through his thick fur. He was fairly sure he knew where he was going now, but as he came closer to the river his ears laid back even further than before.

It hadn’t looked like this yesterday.

The hot weather had left it low and sluggish, but now the torrential rain had filled the river up again, so that it was racing along, sticks and debris jostling about in the dark water. It was starting to overflow its banks, too.

Barney hesitated at the end of the bridge. Water was lapping around his paws, but he knew that to get to Daisy, he had to go across. The river just seemed so much bigger and scarier now than it had before. It stretched out beyond the bridge on the other side too, and that was what made Barney move at last.

On the other side of the bridge was Daisy’s tent – and the water had almost reached it.