On the other side of the door, Toby scrabbled and yelped, clawing at the wood panels. He could hear Ruby! She’d come to find him!
As the door opened, a small brown-and-black ball of fur hurled itself at Ruby, barking and yapping.
She picked him up, laughing and crying at the same time. “Toby! Where did you go? We looked everywhere for you! Oh, I missed you!”
Toby licked her face lovingly, then went back to jumping and wriggling, and wagging his tail so hard his whole back end wagged too. He leaned dangerously far out of Ruby’s arms to lick Dad too, and even licked Jake.
Jake laughed. “Yes, you’re happy now, aren’t you, pup?”
“Thank you for finding him,” Ruby said shyly, so quietly that Jake could hardly hear her over the mad barking.
“That’s all right. He didn’t have a collar. I suppose he must have lost it.”
“He was wearing one.” Ruby nodded. “My little sister fell over, you see, and I was helping Mum cheer her up. I hooked Toby’s lead over a branch, and by the time we’d sorted Anya out, he was just gone!” Her voice squeaked with fright as she remembered it. “I bet you went off chasing squirrels, didn’t you?” she asked Toby. “The woods were full of them.”
Then her eyes widened, as Mickey lumbered into the hallway to see what was going on. “Oh! You’ve got a dog, too.” She looked worriedly up at Dad, and then at Jake. “I’m really sorry if Toby fought with him…”
Jake laughed. “Actually, he tried being a bit bossy, but Mickey stood on him. After that he was very good!”
“Stood on him?” Ruby gasped, looking at Mickey. He was huge. He looked like he could squash Toby.
“Just on one ear, just for a moment. His way of showing Toby who was in charge, I think. Has he been difficult with other dogs before, then?”
Ruby shuddered. “He barks at them. It’s like he thinks he’s as big as they are.” She looked down at Toby, who’d wriggled out of her arms and was dancing round Mickey’s legs, nuzzling him playfully. “But he’s being so nice with your dog now!”
Jake grinned. “Maybe he just needed a lesson on who’s in charge of the pack. Have you tried puppy parties?”
Dad shook his head. “I’ve not even heard of them. Is it like training? We’re booked in for a class that starts in a couple of weeks.”
“Oh well, the people running your training might do puppy parties too – you should ask. It’s like a safe place for young dogs to get to know each other. It teaches them how to get along, and work out who’s in charge. But you’re there to step in if there’s any problems.”
“You know lots about dogs,” Ruby said wistfully. She wished she knew as much. She felt like she’d let Toby down so badly, losing him in the woods, even if Mum had said it wasn’t her fault.
Jake smiled at her. “He really missed you, you know. Mickey distracted him last night, but when I woke him up to go out for a wee before I went to bed, he seemed miserable. And this morning, he just sat in the basket looking lonely – didn’t even want any breakfast. He didn’t want me, even if I have been a dog-owner for years. He’s your puppy.”
Ruby nodded, watching as Toby wove in and out of Mickey’s legs. Then he stopped suddenly, looking round, as if he was checking that Ruby was still there.
She crouched down, and he raced over to lick her hand quickly, before going back to his game.
“See?” Jake nodded at Ruby. “Your dog.”
Ruby smiled. It was true. And she was going to make sure she never lost him again.
Dad had called home to let Mum and Anya know that they’d found Toby, so Ruby wasn’t that surprised to find Anya in the front garden waiting for them. She was standing on the bottom of the gate, peering over the top, and she waved madly as soon as she saw the car.
For once, Dad had let Ruby carry Toby on her lap instead of putting him in his travel crate. Every so often, as they drove along, he turned and looked up at her, as though to check she was still there, and he kept giving her hands loving little licks.
“Toby, Toby!” Anya flung open the gate, and rushed over to them, with Mum chasing after her.
“Oh, Ruby, I’m so glad you’ve got him back,” Mum said, smiling through the car window.
Ruby got out of the car, and Toby licked Anya, very gently. He could see that the white patch on her face meant he had to be careful.
“Good boy,” Ruby whispered. She went in through the gate, expecting Toby to jump down and race around the garden, like he usually did. But this time he stayed snuggled in Ruby’s arms.
There was nowhere else he would rather be.
About the Author
Holly Webb started out as a children’s book editor, and wrote her first series for the publisher she worked for. She has been writing ever since, with over sixty books to her name. Holly lives in Berkshire, with her husband and three young sons. She has a pet cat called Marble, who is always nosying around when she’s trying to type on her laptop.
Other titles by Holly Webb:
Lost in the Snow
Lost in the Storm
Alfie all Alone
Sam the Stolen Puppy
Max the Missing Puppy
Sky the Unwanted Kitten
Timmy in Trouble
Ginger the Stray Kitten
Harry the Homeless Puppy
Buttons the Runaway Puppy
Alone in the Night
Ellie the Homesick Puppy
Jess the Lonely Puppy
Misty the Abandoned Kitten
Oscar’s Lonely Christmas
Lucy the Poorly Puppy
Smudge the Stolen Kitten
The Rescued Puppy
The Kitten Nobody Wanted
The Lost Puppy
The Frightened Kitten
Copyright
STRIPES PUBLISHING
An imprint of Little Tiger Press
1 The Coda Centre, 189 Munster Road,
London SW6 6AW
Text copyright © Holly Webb, 2012
Illustrations copyright © Sophy Williams, 2012
First published as an ebook by Stripes Publishing in 2012.
eISBN: 978–1–84715–280–0
The right of Holly Webb and Sophy Williams to be identified as the author and illustrator of this work respectively has been asserted by them in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988.
All rights reserved.
Apart from any use permitted under UK copyright law, this publication may only be reproduced, stored, or transmitted, in any forms, or by any means, with prior permission in writing of the publishers or, in the case of reprographic production, in accordance with the terms of licences issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency.
A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
www.stripespublishing.co.uk