“Are these the puppies’ mum and dad?” Emi asked. She’d love to have a puppy that grew up like these two. She was sure they were grinning at her as well. One of them had his tongue hanging out.
“This is Daisuke and this is Kimi,” said Kaii. “Dai is the puppies’ dad, but Kimi’s their big sister. Cho, their mum, is with them in the puppy room at the moment. Would you like some tea first?”
Emi looked at her mum hopefully, and Mum smiled and shook her head. “No, that’s OK. Emi’s so desperate to see the puppies, I think she might explode if I say yes.”
“Come on, then. I’ve got a room for the mums and puppies at the back of the house – it leads on to the garden, so they can go outside when they’re big enough.”
It looked like Kaii had had the room built on to the back of his house specially, Emi thought, as he led them through. It must be a lot of work, breeding dogs.
“Here we are. Just come in quietly to start with – Cho’s very friendly, but she’s quite protective of her puppies. She’ll let you play with them in a bit, but we have to let her get used to you.”
Emi and Ben practically tiptoed into the room. In one corner another gorgeous golden dog was sitting upright, looking at them sharply. It seemed like she’d heard them coming and had sat up to see what was going on. And next to her, curled up asleep in the big basket, were four fat, furry, puppies, fast asleep.
“Don’t worry, they’ll wake up in a minute,” Kaii told them, as he watched Ben and Emi trying to peer over and get a good look at the pile of puppies. “They have a sixth sense – they always know when something interesting’s happening. See? I told you!”
One of the puppies, who was black and tan just like his dad, had popped his head up so quickly that Emi couldn’t help laughing. “He looks like a teddy bear,” she whispered to Ben and her brother grinned. It was the way the fur stood up all round their heads and paws, Emi decided. As the puppy climbed over his brothers and sisters to come and investigate, he looked like too much of a fluffball to be real.
The other puppies squeaked crossly and woke up as he stomped over them and then Emi gasped. There weren’t four puppies – there were five! Now that they were all moving, she could see another puppy who’d been snuggled up next to the mum, with the others on top. And this puppy was a gorgeous golden colour.
“Look…” She nudged her mum.
“I know, they’re so cute,” Mum whispered back. “Oh, look, they’re all waking up now. They’re coming to see us!” She reached out and one of the creamy-white pups sniffed her fingers curiously and then licked her.
The golden puppy let out a big yawn and scratched its front paws against the blanket.
“That tail looks like a little doughnut, curled up like that. Is the golden puppy a girl?” Emi asked Kaii. “She looks like a girl…”
“Yes! Well done. She’s pretty, isn’t she?”
Pretty! Emi wanted to tell him that the puppy was the loveliest dog she’d ever seen, but she didn’t want everyone to laugh at her again.
The golden puppy stumbled out of the basket and came to see what her brothers and sisters were looking at. There were new, interesting smells… Exciting smells! She trotted across the room and sniffed at Emi’s boots. Then she looked up with dark, sparkling eyes and put her fat little paw on Emi’s leg, as if she was saying, You belong to me…
Chapter Three
“What will you call her?” Jess asked with a little sigh. “You’re so lucky, getting a puppy!”
“We’re not sure yet,” Emi told her. “We keep arguing about it – it’s really difficult to choose. But I like one of the names Mum suggested, Rina. It’s pretty just by itself and it means jasmine in Japanese.”
Jess nodded. “That’s lovely! Oh, look, there’s your mum. Email me a picture of her, Emi! Have a good weekend.”
Emi waved as she dashed off to meet her mum at the school gate. First they were going to meet Ben (round the corner from his school, though, as he said it was far too embarrassing to be picked up by his mum and his little sister) and then they were driving over to Kaii’s house to bring their puppy home. There was a special new metal crate in the back of the car for the puppy to travel in, and at home there was a basket and food bowls and lots of toys.
When they had decided they were definitely going to get the little golden puppy, they’d gone shopping and Emi had darted excitedly round the pet shop, choosing everything the puppy could possibly need and more. Mum had persuaded her to put most of it back, though – the puppy didn’t need three leads, after all. Emi knew that really. It was just such fun picking out the different things and imagining the puppy using them and drinking from her new water bowl and playing with all the toys.
Ben had said he thought Emi was so excited she was going to try sleeping in the puppy’s basket, but that was just Ben being silly. She had stroked the furry cushion in it, that was all, and tried to think of a little golden puppy sleeping there, all curled up. The basket was going to be huge for the puppy, to start off with.
“Come on, Mum, let’s go!” Emi raced down the road, pulling her mum after her. “Ben had better be quick getting out of school…”
But Ben was already waiting for them and he looked impatient, too.
Emi sat in the back of the car, staring dreamily out of the window. She wasn’t seeing the streets they drove past at all – she was imagining walks with their puppy and sitting curled up together on the sofa. Or maybe on the floor. Mum wasn’t sure about dogs on furniture, but Emi was hoping she’d give in after a while…
The golden puppy heard the doorbell ring and jumped up. She knew by now what that noise meant. Voices at the door and then quite often people coming to see her and her brothers and sisters, and play with them. She liked that – most of the time. Some of the people scared her – they were too loud and picked her up too suddenly. She padded to the door and sniffed at it, hopefully. The day before, one of her brothers had gone away with the people who’d come to visit. She missed him. It had been strange, curling up in the big basket without him last night. She wondered if perhaps this would be the people bringing him back.
But when Kaii carefully opened the door, the golden puppy saw the girl again – the one she remembered from a little time ago. She had snuggled into that girl’s lap, she was sure. The girl had rubbed her ears and whispered to her. There had been a boy, too, and he’d thrown a jingly ball for her to play with. He wasn’t quite as warm and cuddly as the girl, but she’d liked him, too.
She danced up to Emi and Ben, yapping excitedly and whisking her little curl of a tail.
Emi looked at Kaii hopefully. “Do you think she remembers us?”
Kaii was smiling. “I think so. She hasn’t been that friendly to any of the other visitors. She’s been a bit quiet today, actually. I think she’s missing her brother. He went to a new home yesterday.”
“Ohhh…” Emi crouched down to stroke the puppy. “I hadn’t thought about that. You’re going to miss all your brothers and sisters when you come home with us…”
The puppy leaned into Emi’s hand, closing her eyes blissfully. It was definitely the same girl. She knew just how to fuss over a dog. The puppy leaned in a little more and then her claws skittered and scrabbled on the tiled floor and she flipped over.