The puppy stood up, shaking her ears and looking bewildered. She wasn’t quite sure what had happened. But the girl reached down gently and picked her up, holding her close.
“Oh, look at her,” Mum laughed. “She’s all fluffed up and worried. She’s really cute. I do think she looks like a Jasmine.”
Ben nodded. “Maybe. But I’m not shouting ‘Jasmine’ in the middle of the park. Let’s go with Rina.”
“I can’t believe we’re bringing you home and we got to choose your name,” Emi whispered into Rina’s furry ear. “We’ll look after you so well, I promise.”
Emi was glad they’d gone to get Rina on a Friday night and now they had the whole weekend to get to know her. Kaii had suggested that it would be best to keep her in the kitchen at first, so she wasn’t too scared by the big, strange house. But Emi was pretty sure Rina wasn’t scared of anything.
Ben put her down on the kitchen floor when they first got home, and she went marching round the room on her little stubby legs, inspecting everything carefully. She stood by the glass back door and barked at a very surprised pigeon, and then they saw her tail wag properly for the first time. Because it was curled up so tightly over her back, she didn’t wag it the same way most dogs did. It just wobbled instead.
“Look at her tail!” Emi laughed. “It looks like a caterpillar wriggling!”
“That pigeon got a shock.” Ben peered out into the garden. “I think it might be up in the apple tree panicking now.”
But Rina looked very pleased with herself. She went back to exploring the kitchen, sniffing at her bed and all her new toys, and looking hopefully at her food bowl. She knew what that was.
“Yes, we’d better feed you,” Mum murmured and Rina danced up and down excitedly as she saw Mum opening the bag. After she’d gobbled down the food, she flopped into her new basket. It was too big for her – she looked a bit lost in the middle of it. She sniffed all around it worriedly and then looked up at Emi, Ben and Mum.
“I think she’s wondering where the other puppies are,” Emi said anxiously.
“Maybe,” her mum agreed.
“I’ve got an idea,” Emi said suddenly, rushing out of the kitchen. She shut the door carefully behind her and hurried up the stairs. She was back down a minute later with a huge teddy bear that she’d won in a tombola at the school fair, ages ago. It had dark-gold fur, almost the same colour as Cho, Rina’s mum. Emi laid the teddy bear down in the basket next to Rina and the puppy sniffed at it suspiciously. Then she climbed on to it, rather slowly, as she was very full of food, and slumped down, with her head pillowed on its fat, furry middle.
Emi smiled to herself. The puppy was already fast asleep.
Chapter Four
“I’m sorry, Rina.” Emi sighed and looked down at the puppy, who was nosing at her big rucksack. “You can’t come, sweetheart.” She put the T-shirts she was carrying into the bag and crouched down to hug the little golden dog. “I really wish you could. I’m going to miss you so much.” It was the following weekend, and she and Ben were going to stay at their dad’s. She glanced around the room. “Have I forgotten anything? Oh! Toothbrush!”
She darted into the bathroom and Rina galloped after her. The puppy had only stayed in the kitchen for a couple of days – it was clear that she wasn’t at all worried about her new home, even if she did miss the other puppies, especially at night.
The big teddy bear helped, though. Rina had moaned and whimpered for a little while when they had left her in the kitchen that first evening. Emi and Mum and Ben had all sat on the stairs listening to her and worrying. She had sounded so sad that Emi had almost cried. Then Rina had stopped, all at once, and there was no more noise till half past five the next morning. Emi hadn’t minded that. She’d gone downstairs in her pyjamas as soon as Rina had woken her up – it just meant an even longer day of playing.
Emi thought they might have to buy Rina a new bear soon, though. She’d chewed most of one arm off already. She pulled him round the house with her too, which was very funny to watch, as the bear was at least twice as big as she was. Emi had filmed her and sent the video to Dad, who said it was the funniest thing he’d ever seen. He was just sorry there was no room for a dog at his flat.
Rina hadn’t brought the bear up to Emi’s room, as she had enough trouble just getting herself up the stairs. They were quite steep for a dog with very small legs. She trotted after Emi to the bedroom and peered into the bag again.
She didn’t really understand what it was. It looked a bit like Emi’s school bag, which was worrying. When Emi had that bag it meant she was going away and she wouldn’t be back until just before dinner time. But it never seemed to need this much packing. And Emi was sad, Rina could tell. She kept hugging her, but too tightly, almost so hard Rina tried to wriggle away. Something was different.
“Emi, are you ready?” Mum called up. “We need to go – the train’s in twenty minutes.”
“Can we take Rina to the station with us?” Emi begged, as she hurried down the stairs to join Ben, with Rina jumping carefully from step to step behind her.
“I suppose so,” Mum agreed. “It’s not far. I can always carry her back.”
Emi reached up to get Rina’s lead down from the hook, and Rina twirled and danced and yapped in excitement. Emi’s mum had taken her for her last vaccinations on Monday, but she’d only had a couple of very short walks since then.
But why wasn’t Emi excited, too? When Emi crouched down to clip on her lead, Rina could tell she was still unhappy. She licked Emi’s nose, hoping to cheer her up and Emi giggled, but she didn’t sound quite right. She didn’t go skipping out into the front garden the way she usually did, either.
Rina stopped, pulling back on her lead as they reached the pavement and whimpering. What was wrong? She didn’t want to go out like this.
“Oh!” Emi squatted down next to her. “Do you think Rina can tell we’re worried about leaving her behind?”
“Maybe…” Her mum glanced worriedly at her watch. “Perhaps we should take her back inside. You’ll miss the train.”
“No.” Emi stood up and tried hard to smile. “It’ll be fine. I want her to see us off. Come on, Rina! Let’s go!” And she patted her leg encouragingly.
Rina sniffed cautiously at the fence post and then pattered out on to the pavement. She wasn’t sure what was going on, but Emi and Ben were both coaxing her along and there were such interesting outside smells…
Emi stared out of the window of Dad’s flat, watching an old lady walking along the street with her dog. The dog was quite elderly, too, Emi thought, and they were walking at a perfect pace for each other, slow and gentle. She heaved a huge sigh, so huge there was a big misty patch on the glass. She missed Rina so much. She couldn’t help thinking about her all the time.
She wasn’t sure if she wanted Rina to miss her or not. She didn’t want the puppy to be sad, but at the same time, it would be nice to know that Rina cared enough to notice if she wasn’t there. When they’d got on to the train, she had heard Rina howling on the platform next to Mum. She’d done the same thing the first few mornings when they’d left her to go to school. Mum called it her Shiba scream – she said that Shiba Inus were famous for it – it really did sound as though Rina was screaming.