The door clicked softly open and Alfie’s ears pricked up. It was the girl, Evie. “Sssh!” she murmured. “We mustn’t let Mum and Dad hear us, Alfie. You’re supposed to stay in your basket, but I bet you’re scared down here on your own. I’m taking you up to my bedroom instead. Mrs Wilson said you were very well house-trained, so I’ll put some newspaper down for you, OK? Mum would be cross if you weed on my carpet!” She snuggled him close as they crept up the stairs, and Alfie settled into her arms. This was much better than a basket, even a nice one like he’d been given.
Of course, Evie’s mum and dad soon worked out exactly what was going on, but they were so glad that Alfie was settling in, and making Evie so happy, that they pretended not to notice. From that night on, Alfie slept on Evie’s bed every night, snoring gently.
It didn’t take long for Alfie to become part of the family. He was such a friendly little dog. After a couple of weeks, when he’d had all his injections, he was allowed to go out for walks, which meant he could go to school to pick up Evie. She loved coming out to see Mum waiting with Alfie on his bright red lead. Usually it was twisted all round his paws and he tripped over it as he tried to race over to her. Her friends were all really jealous, and Alfie got petted and stroked by everyone. Then they’d head home and Alfie would watch TV with Evie on the sofa. He soon decided on his favourite programmes, and he got very good at singing along to the theme tunes in a tuneful howl.
Mum hadn’t been so sure about getting a dog, but Alfie won her over very quickly. He loved people, and he followed her round the house as she did the housework. He was far better company than the radio! And whenever she sat down, he rested his head on her feet.
Of course, Alfie didn’t have to work hard to charm Evie’s gran. She was always popping over to see him and Evie, and it was great to have her to ask about dog-training tips. It only took Alfie a few days to learn about asking to go outside and Gran warned Evie not to give him too many doggy chocolates as a reward, as he was starting to look a bit tubby!
Once Alfie could meet up with other dogs, Evie took him round to Gran’s house to be introduced to Ben and Tigger. Alfie was a little shy at first – they were a lot bigger than he was, especially Tigger – but after half an hour he was chasing them round the garden. Ben the spaniel soon worked out a good way to calm Alfie down when he was being too puppyish and excitable – he sat on him! Evie panicked the first time he did it, but Gran said it would probably be good for Alfie to have an older dog bossing him around, and that Ben wouldn’t hurt him.
Evie and Dad soon got into the habit of taking Alfie for an evening walk after dinner. It gave Mum the chance to snooze on the sofa in front of the television. Now that the baby was getting really big, she was tired a lot of the time. Dad and Evie always took a ball with them, or Alfie’s favourite, a frisbee. Dad had spotted it in the pet shop and bought it for when Alfie was bigger, but once Alfie saw it, he didn’t want to wait. So what if the frisbee was almost as big as he was? He was very good at catching it – he could do massive leaps into mid-air, twisting and turning and snatching the frisbee as it fell. Then he’d haul it over the grass back to Evie, and sit panting exhaustedly for a minute, before yapping for them to throw it again. A couple of times he’d worn himself out so much that Dad had to carry him home and lay the exhausted puppy in his basket. Evie was so happy that Alfie had become part of the family – she couldn’t imagine life at home without him now.
Chapter Three
One night, Alfie was curled up snugly in a nest of duvet on top of Evie’s toes. He was twitching happily in his sleep, dreaming of breakfast, when he was woken by the sound of Evie’s parents talking. He sat up and listened carefully – it wasn’t something he expected to hear in the middle of the night. Something interesting was going on. He padded up to the top of the bed, and licked Evie’s ear.
“Grrmmpf!” Evie wriggled and wiped the lick off her face. “Alfie! It’s the middle of the night, silly, what are you doing?” She yawned, and gave a little stretch. “Go back to sleep. It’s ages till we have to get up.” Then she turned over and snuggled her face back into her pillow.
Alfie huffed through his nose irritably. Why wouldn’t Evie listen? Couldn’t she tell that something exciting was happening? He took hold of Evie’s pyjama sleeve with his teeth, very, very gently, and pulled.
“OK, Alfie, what is it?” she asked sleepily. “Do you need a wee? Because if you think I’m taking you all round the garden to find a good place at this time of night you can think again!”
Alfie yapped sharply, and tugged at Evie’s sleeve again. Then he dropped the sleeve and stood silently, his ears pricked up.
Evie listened, and at last she understood why Alfie was behaving so strangely. Her parents weren’t just talking now, they were moving around too. Doors were opening and shutting quietly, and she could hear her dad on the phone to someone, sounding anxious. The baby was coming! It had to be that. Evie pulled her pillow up and leaned back against it, whispering to Alfie to come and sit with her. He burrowed in under her arm and they listened together in the dark. Someone was arriving downstairs.
“That’ll be Gran, I bet,” Evie murmured. “They said they’d ask her to come and stay with me when they had to go to the hospital.”
Alfie grunted in agreement. He liked Gran. She had dog chocolates in her handbag.
A few minutes later, the front door banged, and they heard someone coming back up the stairs. At last Evie’s bedroom door eased open, and Gran popped her head around.
“Hi, Gran!” Evie whispered.
“Hello, darling! I thought you might have woken up, with all the coming and going. I just came to check on you.”
“Alfie woke me up. Is Mum having the baby now?” Evie sounded anxious.
Gran perched herself on the end of Evie’s bed, and stroked Alfie’s nose.
“Clever Alfie. Yes, they think so. Don’t get too excited though – these things can take a while.” She smiled down at Evie, still cuddling the little dog, and decided that she’d been wrong to worry. Evie loved him so much, and a dog would be just what her granddaughter needed to keep her company over the next few weeks.
The next day Evie’s parents brought baby Sam home. Evie’s mum and Sam were both doing really well, and they didn’t need to stay in hospital. Mum said the noise of all the other babies in the ward was driving her mad, and she wanted to be home in her own bed.
Even though they were coming home as soon as they possibly could, the wait still seemed like ages to Evie. It was a Saturday, so she was at home, with Alfie and Gran. The day really dragged, even though as a treat they all walked to the fish and chip shop to get lunch. Gran stood outside with Alfie, who was blissfully breathing in the smell of chips, and Evie went in to get their food. When they got back, both Evie and Gran naughtily fed Alfie the odd chip under the table, so he was soon full and fast asleep.
Evie couldn’t help listening out for the car – Dad had rung to say they’d be home sometime that afternoon, they just had to wait for a doctor to give Mum one last check. Their road was pretty quiet, but Evie ran to the window to look at least ten times before she finally spotted their car pulling up.