Dad chewed a mouthful of cereal very, very slowly, and winked. He was obviously enjoying keeping them in suspense.
Mum shook her head. “Don’t tease Katie, Gareth! It isn’t fair!” She gave Jess a slightly anxious look as she said it.
“OK, OK!” Dad put down his cereal bowl, and beamed at Katie. “Yes.”
“Yes? Really?” Katie jumped up and down excitedly and ran to hug her dad. “When? This Christmas? We’re getting a puppy for Christmas!”
“But you can’t!” Jess cried. She pushed her plate away and stood up. “You just can’t, Dad! What about Misty? Katie can’t look after a dog properly, anyway! And what about all those adverts on TV about not giving dogs as presents? A dog is for life, not just for Christmas. All those poor puppies get abandoned every year, it’s wrong!”
Dad nodded seriously. “I know, Jess, sit down. You too, Katie. I haven’t finished explaining.”
Jess sat down, looking worried, and Katie sat too, though she was so happy she could hardly keep still.
Dad leaned towards them. “We’re not giving you a puppy for Christmas, Katie—”
Katie’s eyes opened wide with horror. “But you said…”
“We are getting a puppy, but he or she will be a family dog. Like Misty’s a family cat, Jess. You’re right that Katie’s a bit too young to have all the responsibility of a dog by herself.” Dad smiled at Katie. “There’s a lot of looking after, so don’t worry, there’ll still be plenty for you to do.”
Katie felt like butting in and saying that actually, she was sure she was old enough, but she decided it was best not to.
Mum leaned over to touch Jess’s hand. “Try not to worry, Jess. We know we’re going to need to be really careful when Misty meets the puppy. We’ll all do our best to make sure she doesn’t get upset.”
“And the puppy won’t arrive at Christmas, Katie,” Dad added. “We’re going to try and get one before Christmas, if we can, or maybe afterwards. Christmas is just too busy – it’s not a good time to bring a new dog into the house. Mum and I have agreed we’ll look around for someone with puppies for sale locally. Happy now?” Dad beamed.
Katie nodded blissfully, but Jess was staring at the table, twisting her fingers together. “I still think Misty’s going to hate it,” she muttered. She looked anxiously over at Misty, snoozing by the kitchen radiator on her favourite pink blanket. It had been Jess’s when she was little, and Misty had adopted it.
“What sort of dog shall we get?” Katie asked, ignoring her grumpy big sister.
She wished she could remember the puppy in her dream better.
“Nothing too big!” Mum said quickly.
“But not too small, either. We want to be able to go on some good long walks.” Dad sounded as though he was really looking forward to it. “Maybe a terrier? An Airedale, they’re great dogs, really friendly.”
“I’ve always liked pugs,” Mum said thoughtfully.
“The ones with the squished-up faces?” Katie asked, giggling.
Mum nodded. “I like the way their tails curl up,” she said, smiling. “What about you, Katie? This was your idea. What kind of dog would you like?”
Katie thought back to her dream. “What sort of dog has long ears?” she asked, wrinkling her nose as she tried to remember more. “A brown and white puppy with long ears. I dreamed about one like that last night.”
Jess sniffed, as though she thought that was silly. “You can’t get a dog because of a dream.”
“Why not?” Mum asked gently. “Katie’s been thinking about it a lot, Jess. That’s probably why she dreamed about a puppy.”
“Maybe it was a spaniel?” Dad suggested. He got up and disappeared into the living room. They could hear him muttering to himself as he searched the bookcase, and he came back with Katie’s dog sticker book. “Was he anything like this, Katie?”
Katie took the book and gasped with delight. There he was. A little brown and white dog, staring impishly out of the page at her, his eyes bright and alert. “A cocker spaniel,” she murmured, reading the caption. “Oh, yes! I mean, I’d love any dog – even one with a squished face, Mum! But I’d really, really love one of those…”
Chapter Three
A couple of days later, Katie was kneeling on the window seat in the living room, waiting for her dad to come home from work. As soon as she saw him walking down the road, she shot out of the front door and raced towards him.
“Hurry up, Dad, you’re so late! I’ve been waiting ages!”
Her dad looked at his watch. “It’s only six o’clock, Katie, that’s my normal time. Has your mum made a special dinner or something? What’s the rush?”
“Oh, well, it feels later,” Katie said excitedly. “We have to have dinner really quickly – we’re going to see some cocker spaniel puppies! Mum found out about them, the breeder only lives twenty minutes away!”
Luckily, Dad was as excited as she was, especially when he heard that Katie had seen pictures of the puppies on the breeder’s website, and one of them was brown and white, exactly like the one in Katie’s book. They both finished dinner ages before Mum and Jess, and Katie glared at Mum when she started making a cup of coffee afterwards.
“Mu-um!” she wailed. “We have to go! We said we’d be there by now!”
Jess was still slowly finishing her yoghurt, making each spoonful last, and Katie scowled at her, too. “You’re doing that on purpose!” she said accusingly. “You don’t even like yoghurt all that much, you don’t have to scrape the pot clean!”
“Go and put your coat on, Katie,” Mum said. “We’re obviously not going to get any peace until we go! Hurry up, Jess, you really are taking ages.”
Jess huffed, but put the pot in the bin and went to get her coat, too. She looked like she was about to have a spelling test, not going to see a litter of gorgeous puppies.
“What’s the matter?” Katie asked her in the back of the car. She was so excited about seeing the puppies, but Jess was sending out a black cloud of gloom right next to her. Katie couldn’t ignore it. “Are you jealous?” she whispered. “You’re being so grumpy.”
Jess looked like she might snap back, but then she sighed. “No. I’m just worried about Misty, that’s all.”
“She might like having a dog to make friends with,” Katie suggested hopefully.
But Jess looked doubtful. “We’ll see,” she murmured.
The puppies were just as lovely as Katie had imagined they would be. The breeder’s house had a conservatory at the back, which was being used as a puppy room. Katie could hear the puppies squeaking and yapping as soon as they got in the front door.
Mrs Jones, the breeder, laughed at Katie, who was hopping up and down with impatience as Mum and Dad followed her into the hall. “Come and see them,” she said, leading everyone through to the conservatory. The door was blocked off with a board at knee height to keep the puppies in their own space. They were tumbling around all over the room, while their mother watched them from a comfortable cushion.
Katie couldn’t see the little brown and white puppy she’d loved from the website. “There was one brown and white boy puppy in the photos. Has he gone already?” she asked anxiously.
Mrs Jones looked around the room. “Goodness, where has he gone? He’s the cheekiest of them all. Ah!” She smiled, and pointed. “Look! See that big cardboard tube?”