Ellie the Homesick Puppy (2 page)

“Naughty Ellie!” Megan giggled. “Sorry, Dad. I’ll clean her up…”

Dad shook his head. “Honestly, after she ate your mum’s shoe yesterday, you’d think she’d have had enough of chewing things. Just keep an eye on her, OK?”

Megan nodded apologetically, and started to peel the tape off Ellie’s muzzle. “Silly dog,” she muttered lovingly, as Ellie squirmed. “Yes, I know it’s not nice, but you can’t go round with
parcel tape all over you. There!”

After that the girls made a real effort to get on with packing, and for the next hour they hardly even chatted at all.

Ellie whined miserably. After Megan had taken the tape away and told her off, she’d sat so patiently, waiting for someone to play with her, or take her for a walk, or at least stroke her. But Megan and Bella just kept taking things off the shelves and putting them into those strange-smelling boxes. Ellie didn’t like it. This was her room, and it was changing. She liked it the way it was before.

“Oh, Ellie, are you bored?” Megan picked her up, hugging her gently. “I wish I could play with you too. But we won’t be much longer.”

“Actually, I told Mum I’d be back around now,” said Bella, hugging Megan and Ellie both at the same time. “I can’t believe you’ve only got tomorrow left!” She gulped. “I wish Mum hadn’t arranged for us to go and see my cousins, not on your last day. Call me soon? Promise! Bye, Megan!” Then she dashed out of the room and down the stairs, almost slamming the front door behind her.

Megan sat down limply on her bed, looking round at the piles of boxes, all labelled by Bella in her favourite glittery felt tips with her best spelling, which was dreadful. “It’s going to be brilliant,” she told Ellie again, but this time she didn’t feel quite so sure.

Packing up had been an adventure to start with, but by the second day, everyone was starting to get grumpy. It was such a huge job. The removals van was coming early the next morning, and everything had to be packed up by then. Megan could tell that her mum was panicking that they wouldn’t be ready in time.

She was trying to stay out of the way as much as possible, but it wasn’t easy with Ellie. Mum and Dad were far too busy to take her for a proper walk, and Megan wasn’t allowed to go out on her own, so Ellie was full of energy, and she couldn’t work it off properly. Already that morning she’d chewed a roll of bubble wrap into tiny pieces all over the living room floor, and she kept managing to be in everyone’s way.

“Mum, stop!” Megan yelled, as her mum lowered a box of books on to the hall floor.

“What? What is it?” Her mum straightened up, red-faced with effort, and peered worriedly over the top of the huge box.

“You were just about to squish Ellie with that!” Megan helped her mum put the box down on top of another one, then pointed to the space she’d been aiming for. Ellie was sitting there, wagging her tail and looking very pleased with herself.

Mum sighed. “You’re going to have to take her into the garden. I’m sorry, Megan, but Ellie’s going to get hurt in a minute. She’s better off outside.”

“Come on, Ellie!” Megan tried to sound enthusiastic as she led Ellie out into the garden. She’d found the
red-and-white
-striped knotted rope toy that Bella had given Ellie for Christmas in her basket, so at least they could play.

Ellie loved racing up and down the garden after the rope, it was her
favourite toy, although she didn’t see why she always had to give it back to Megan after she’d fetched it. It was much more fun to chew it to bits. She shook her head vigorously as Megan tugged at the toy, laughing.

“Give it here, you silly girl! I’m going to throw it again!”

“Megan, can you come here a moment!” It was Mum, calling from inside. With everyone already a bit grumpy, she knew she’d better go and see what Mum wanted, rather than pretend she hadn’t heard.

“I’ll be back in a minute,” she promised Ellie, and dashed inside.

Ellie shook the toy a few more times and growled at it, in case it was thinking of fighting back. At last she dropped it on the grass, nosing it hopefully. Where was Megan? This game wasn’t as much fun without her. Ellie left the toy and trotted up the garden to the back door.

The door was closed, but Ellie scrambled up the back step, anyway. The door didn’t always shut properly,
and sometimes she could open it, if she nudged it hard with her nose at just the right place. Ellie pushed at the door. She wagged her tail proudly as it swung open and trotted inside.

Ellie wandered along the hallway, listening for Megan. Ah! That was her voice, coming from upstairs. She bounded up the stairs to find her.

Unfortunately, Megan’s dad was coming down the stairs, with his arms full of pictures from the bedrooms that he needed to bubble-wrap.

Ellie yowled as he accidentally trod on her paw, and tried to shoot off through his legs.

Megan’s dad stumbled down the stairs, twisting his ankle. He landed painfully at the bottom.

Clutching his ankle, he looked up to see Ellie staring down at him.

“That stupid dog!” he yelled. “Megan! Ellie just tripped me up on the stairs. You’re supposed to be watching her! I thought Mum told you to put her outside.”

Megan and her mum had heard the crash, and they were already running along the landing.

“She didn’t mean to!” Megan protested, hurrying to pick up Ellie, who was whimpering in fright. “I’m sorry, Dad, she
was
outside. I can’t have shut the back door properly – it wasn’t her fault. Are you OK?”

“No,” her father muttered crossly, stretching his ankle. “Take that dog outside, now. Ow!”

Megan carried Ellie back into the garden. The little dog was shivering. She wasn’t used to being shouted at, and she’d never heard Megan’s dad sound so cross. Megan sat down on the garden bench and cuddled Ellie, whispering soothing words. “Ssshh, he didn’t mean it. I’m sorry, Ellie, I should have made sure you couldn’t get back in.”

Ellie snuggled into her fleecy top, still shaking. At least Megan wasn’t angry with her. She whined with pleasure as Megan stroked her ears.

She knew Megan would always be there to look after her.

Ellie rested her chin on Megan’s shoulder, as she lovingly stroked her head over and over.

“Megan!” Mum was calling from inside. Megan stood up slowly, carrying Ellie. She was growing so fast! She had been so small when they got her, it had been easy to hold her like this. But now she was getting to be a real weight.

“Oof, Ellie, my arms are going to fall off,” Megan teased her lovingly, as she carried her up the garden. She felt Ellie tense up a little as they went into the kitchen to join Mum and Dad. Obviously she remembered Dad shouting at her. “Hey, ssshhh, it’s OK,” she whispered. But Ellie buried her nose in Megan’s neck and whimpered.

“Is Ellie all right?” Mum asked. “She didn’t get hurt too, did she?”

Megan shook her head. “No, I think she’s just a bit upset. She didn’t know what was going on. I’m really sorry she tripped you up, Dad. How’s your ankle?”

Dad had it propped up on the chair in front of him, covered by a bag of frozen peas. “I’ll live. But this has made
us think, Megan. Mum and I have talked it over, and we’re sure it’s the right thing to do now…”

“What is?” Megan asked cautiously. From the way Mum and Dad were looking, she had a feeling it was going to be something she wouldn’t like.

“Ellie’s really been getting in the way while we’ve been packing, Megan,” Mum explained. “It’s going to be the same when the removal men are loading up, and when we’re unpacking at the new house, too. It’s just not practical having a puppy around. Dad could have been hurt really badly.”

“She didn’t mean to,” Megan pleaded. “She’s only little. She wasn’t trying to be naughty.”

“We know that, but we’re so busy, and no one has the time to exercise Ellie properly right now. So she’s even bouncier and sillier than usual! Aren’t you, hey?” Dad reached out very gently to stroke the puppy. “Oh dear, I really did frighten her,” he said
sadly, as he saw Ellie’s eyes widen nervously as he came close. “It isn’t fair on her.”

Megan gulped. She could see that they were right – she could hardly argue that Ellie wasn’t getting in the way, when Dad was sitting there with a hurt ankle. “But, what are you going to do?” she whispered. “You’re not going to make us give her back to Mrs Johnston, are you?” Mrs Johnston was the breeder who had sold Ellie to them. She felt tears starting to well up in her eyes. “Please don’t say we have to give her back!” she choked out. “It wasn’t her fault, I’ll be more careful, I promise!”

“Megan, Megan, calm down! Of course we’re not sending Ellie back.”
Mum laughed, hugging her and Ellie. “This is only for a few days while we move. We don’t want to get rid of Ellie, but when we first started planning the move, your gran said she could help out and have Ellie for a bit if we needed her to. So I rang Gran just now, and she said she’d love to have her. She’ll drive up and get Ellie, and take her back to Woodlands Cottage until we’ve settled in a bit, just for a couple of days. We’ll pick her up on Tuesday.”

“We’re all going to be so busy, you’ll hardly notice she’s gone,” Dad said encouragingly.

Megan held Ellie tightly, feeling the warm weight in her arms. She didn’t want to send Ellie away. Not when she was already upset. She was
sure Ellie would hate it.

“She won’t understand,” she said sadly. “I know she loves Gran, but she’s never stayed with her. She’s never stayed anywhere without me! She’ll think I’ve abandoned her… She’s really confused with all the packing already, and she doesn’t understand what’s going on. Couldn’t I just be really, really careful and keep her in the garden and not let her get in the way?” Megan begged. “I know Gran will look after her, but Ellie’s used to having me. She’ll be miserable somewhere else. And Gran’s got a cat – that’s not going to work! Sid will hate having Ellie in the house!”

Megan looked down at the puppy. Ellie quite liked chasing cats…

“I’m sure your gran will sort them out,” Dad said, smiling. “Sid and Ellie will probably be curled up on the sofa together by the time we go and pick Ellie up.”

Megan shook her head disbelievingly. “Please…?” she whispered.

Mum sighed. “I’m sorry, Megan. We’ve already had one accident. And I nearly squashed Ellie with that box this morning. This just isn’t the right place for a puppy right now. And the new house, too. We don’t really know what it’s like – there might be all sorts of places where she could get herself into trouble. We need to check everything out first to make sure she’s safe.”

Ellie gave an anxious little whine. She could feel that Megan wasn’t
happy, and she didn’t like it. She licked Megan’s cheek lovingly and looked at her with big, worried eyes.

Megan pressed her cheek gently against Ellie’s soft ears. It wasn’t just Ellie who was going to hate this. Megan had been counting on having Ellie to cheer her up over the next couple of days. It was going to be so hard to leave her old home and her best friend. And now it looked like she was going to have to do it all on her own.

Gran drove up from Westbury later that afternoon to pick Ellie up. Ellie had a special dog cage for travelling,
and it just about fitted on the back seat of Gran’s car. Megan carefully packed up Ellie’s basket and blanket, and her bowls and food – including her favourite bone-shaped biscuits. Then there was a bagful of toys, her lead, her blanket – the list went on and on.

“Goodness,” Gran murmured. “How many dogs am I looking after?”

“Thanks so much for doing this,” said Megan’s mum. “It’s a huge help.”

Ellie was trotting backwards and forwards after Megan as she carried all her things to make a pile in the hall. She was very confused about what was going on, but she’d seen Megan’s dad moving her travel cage into Gran’s car, so she thought she and Megan must be going somewhere with Gran. They had driven out for special walks in the woods with her before. It must be that. Though Ellie didn’t see why she would need her basket and everything else just to go out for the day.

“Right.” Gran finished her cup of tea. “We’d better be off then, if we don’t
want to get back too late. We’ll see you all on Tuesday.” She hugged Megan. “Oh, I’m so excited about having you all living so close. It’s going to be lovely.”

Megan hugged her back. She was excited too, but she couldn’t help worrying about Ellie. “Gran, you will make sure she’s not lonely tonight, won’t you? She usually sleeps on my bed,” she reminded her anxiously.

“I’ll do my best,” Gran promised. “I think Sid would leave home if a dog came and tried to sleep on my bed with him, but how about I give Ellie a hot water bottle?”

Megan nodded sadly, as she pictured Ellie spending the night on her own.

“It’s only for two days, Megan,”
Dad said, putting an arm around her shoulders. “Ellie will be fine.”

Ellie hopped into her cage happily enough, expecting Megan to come and sit next to her on the back seat. She would probably waggle her fingers through the door and tickle her ears.

But Gran was getting into the car without Megan. Ellie looked around anxiously, and barked to tell her she’d made a mistake. Gran looked back over her shoulder, and smiled. “It’s all right, Ellie. Shh-shh. Don’t worry, we’ll see Megan again soon.”

Ellie stared back at her. Yes,
Megan
. Gran must know what was wrong. Why were they going without Megan? She felt the vibrations as Gran started the car and howled in despair. Megan was being
left behind! Ellie stood up on her hind legs in the cage, trying to look out of the window, but she could only see the side of the car and Gran’s seat in front.

Megan was clinging to her mum’s arm, trying to stop herself racing after Ellie and yelling at Gran to stop the car. “Oh, Mum, listen to her howling,” she said miserably. “She’s so upset. Does she really have to go to Gran’s?”

Her mum just hugged her.

Ellie couldn’t see Megan, but she could hear her, and she sounded unhappy. She scrabbled frantically at the bars of her cage with her paws, desperate to get back to Megan.

As the car pulled away down the road, Ellie barked and barked.

At last, when it hurt to bark any
more, she stopped. She pressed her nose against the door of the travel cage.

Gran had taken her away from Megan, and Megan hadn’t wanted her to go. Of course she hadn’t! Ellie was Megan’s dog. Ellie didn’t understand what was going on, but she was absolutely certain about one thing.

She had to get back to Megan.