Mum and Jack were sitting at the kitchen table, and Jack was wolfing down a big bowl of cereal. As he saw Emily walk in, his eyes went wide, and a spoonful of milk dribbled out of his mouth.
“That’s a dog!” he gasped.
“Yes,” Mum agreed. “He’s Emily’s. For Christmas. But I’m sure Emily will let you play with him too.”
Jack started to bounce up and down on his chair, laughing with excitement. “A dog! A dog a dog a dog a dog a dog a dog!”
“Watch it!” Mum reached over, and removed his cereal bowl to a safe distance. “Calm down, Jack.” She handed him a cloth, which he ignored entirely, still staring at the puppy.
“Why did Emily get a puppy and not me?” he asked, frowning.
“You’re a little bit young for your own puppy, darling,” Mum explained. “Father Christmas brought you a remote control train.”
Jack looked unconvinced. “I’d like a dog more,” he muttered.
Emily sat down on the very edge of a chair with the puppy in her lap. “He’s so lovely,” she murmured. “I can’t believe you really gave me a dog!” Suddenly she sat up a little straighter, clutching at the puppy to stop him falling. “What about that TV ad?” she said worriedly. “I saw it after I wrote my Christmas letter. It said you shouldn’t give dogs as presents.”
Mum and Dad exchanged looks. “It’s true, Emily, it’s not really the best idea,” Mum said. “People often think a cute little puppy would be a lovely present, and then when the puppy gets bigger, they don’t want the work of looking after it properly.”
“Because it is a lot of work, Emily, you’re going to need to be really responsible,” Dad put in.
Emily nodded seriously. She would be super-responsible!
“But we were planning to get you a dog anyway,” Mum went on. “We’d already contacted the people who bred your puppy, and we were waiting for the next litter of pups to come along. This little one just happened to arrive at the right time to be the perfect Christmas present.”
Emily hardly ate any Christmas lunch. She kept disappearing from the table to check on the puppy. He had a little bit of turkey, and some carrots, but Dad said he couldn’t have any Christmas pudding.
“And Emily, you really mustn’t give him anything from the table. We don’t want him learning to jump up and steal food!” Mum got up to start clearing the plates. “Have you thought of a name for him yet?” she asked, as she went over to the sink.
Emily looked thoughtfully at the puppy, who was having a fight with a piece of wrapping paper, rolling over with it and growling. “I think I’m going to call him Sam,” she decided. “He looks like a Sam.”
“That’s a nice sensible name,” Dad agreed. “We don’t want to be yelling, ‘Here, Fluffikins!’ across the park, do we?”
Emily giggled. “Actually, I think Fluffikins is a cool name, Dad, thanks!” She knelt down next to the puppy. “You’d like to be called Fluffikins, wouldn’t you?”
The puppy made a disgusted noise, and spat out a small ball of wrapping paper at her.
Emily grinned. “OK, Sam it is, then.” She leaned forward, resting her chin on her hand, watching the puppy nosing around her feet, sniffing and snorting quietly to himself. Then he climbed on to her foot and looked up at her hopefully, one paw in the air. Emily giggled. “Hey, Sam,” she said, reaching down to pick him up.
Sam gave a delighted sigh, and firmly stamped up and down on Emily’s lap until it was just right. Then he flopped down and fell fast asleep in seconds.
Emily watched his tiny body twitching as he slept. She still couldn’t believe he was hers. How could anyone be so lucky?
Chapter Two
The Christmas holidays seemed to race past even faster than usual with Sam to play with. In no time at all, Emily was back at school. She spent the first day worrying about what he might be doing, and whether he was lonely without her. When Mum and Jack came to pick her up, Emily raced ahead. Mum had to keep calling to her to slow down.
“Come on, Jack!” Emily called crossly, as he stopped again. He was counting snails, and it took ages to get anywhere. Emily was desperate to get home and see Sam, she’d really missed him. It didn’t help that Jack had spent most of the walk so far chatting away about what a fun time he’d had playing with Sam while Emily was at school. It wasn’t fair. Sam was her puppy! But Emily supposed she couldn’t really say Jack wasn’t allowed to play with him. Actually, in a way she was glad that Jack had been there, because otherwise Sam might have been lonely. She just hoped that Sam had missed her a little bit!
Back at the house, Sam was padding about, feeling confused. He hadn’t seen Emily in ages. She’d been away before, but never for this long. He didn’t understand about school, even though Emily had explained it all very carefully the night before and promised him that she would be back.
Sam sniffed carefully under the sofa, in case Emily was hiding there. No, just a lot of fluff and some Lego bricks. He sneezed. Then he trotted out into the hallway, and gazed up at the stairs. He couldn’t quite manage the stairs yet, and he wondered if she was up there. But normally, if Emily was going upstairs, she took him with her.
Sam whined, and then tried a hopeful little bark. No Emily came running. He sat down and rested his nose on the first step, tired from searching. It had been quite fun playing with the little boy, but it wasn’t the same. He wanted Emily back, she was his special person.
Emily hopped about on the doorstep, waiting for Mum and Jack to catch up. Why were they taking so long? She dropped her school bag and knelt down to peer through the letter box, hoping to catch a glimpse of Sam.
“Ohhh!” There he was, flopped down next to the stairs, fast asleep.
“Emily, what are you doing?” Mum asked, as she and Jack came up the path.
“Looking at Sam, he’s so cute, he’s fallen asleep…”
They opened the door very quietly and crept in, shushing Jack, who wouldn’t stop chattering.
Sam heard the door click shut and sprang up, barking excitedly. She was back! He was so excited he ran round Emily in circles, jumping on all four paws and squeaking to show her how happy he was.
Emily picked him up, and he licked her all over, desperate to welcome her back.
Emily kissed the top of his head, rubbing her cheek over the soft golden fur. “I can hardly hold him, he’s wagging his tail so hard,” she giggled.
“I think he might just have missed you a little bit,” Mum said, with her head on one side, pretending to think about it.
Emily smiled to herself. She didn’t want Sam to be sad, but it was nice to know he’d missed her too.
It wasn’t long before Sam was old enough to go out for walks. He loved it, and so did Emily. The problem was, Sam got so excited by being outside that he spent the whole time barking and yelping and jumping up and down, so that by the time they got home he was so tired Emily had to carry him.
“I think Sam needs some dog-training classes,” Dad said, as he watched Sam running in his sleep after a particularly exciting walk one weekend. He’d tied his lead in a knot round Emily’s ankles, and then pulled her over when he went racing after a squirrel.