Dream Dogs

3

Nugget
Aimee Harper

Special thanks toThe Happy Dog Grooming Parlour, Farnham

Table of Contents

Cover Page

Title Page

Dedication

Introducing…

One Mud Monster

Two Gold!

Three A Very Big Surprise!

Four A Big Responsibility

Five Puppy Fun

Six Sophie

Seven An Idea…

Eight What Plans?!

Nine Meadowbanks

Ten After Her!

Top tips from vets!

Dream Dogs CRYSTAL

Take home all of the Dream Dogs

Acknowledgements

Copyright

About the Publisher

Introducing…

Name: Nugget

Breed: golden retriever

Age: 3

Colour: mud brown – to start with…

Likes: Barney the golden retriever

Dislikes: being on a lead

Most likely to be mistaken for: a mud monster

Least likely to be mistaken for: a show dog!

One Mud Monster

“Over here, Louie!” Bella shouted.

Across Chestnut Park, Bella’s little brother bent back his arm to throw the ball. Bella ran backwards, reaching up with her hands. Suddenly she stumbled and toppled over, landing on her bottom. The ball sailed over her head.

“Get off!” Bella spluttered, laughing as her little dog Pepper put his paws round her neck and tried to lick her face. “Your breath stinks!”

Louie jogged over. “It’s not his breath,” he said. “Pepper’s rolled in something smelly.”

“Yuck!” Bella wrinkled her nose and pushed Pepper off. She loved Pepper, but not when he rolled in things.

“You looked funny,” Louie sniggered. “Landing on your bum like that!”

“It was a bad throw,” Bella told him. She got up and brushed down her jeans. “How was I supposed to catch it?”

“Haven’t you ever heard of jumping?” Louie asked. “Oh, I forgot. Girls can’t jump.”

“Come back here and say that again!”

Bella chased Louie, laughing. Barking with excitement, Pepper followed her.

Chestnut Park was shaped like a large triangle. On one side were the backs of the shops and houses on the street where Bella and Louie lived. On another side was a busy road that Bella and Louis knew not to play near. On the third side was a row of much bigger houses, with large gardens and high hedges separated from the park by a stretch of woodland. Pepper loved the woods. Bella guessed that was where he’d found the stinky stuff to roll in.

Louie was running towards the trees. It was downhill part of the way. Bella ran faster, determined to catch him. At the last minute, Louie swerved. Bella couldn’t stop. She toppled into the straggly ditch that separated the woods from Chestnut Park. There was a nasty squelch as she sank into the thick brown mud. Somewhere out of sight, she could hear Louie laughing like a hyena.

“That is so gross!” Bella squealed, staring in dismay at the gunge on her knees and arms.

Pepper put his head through the tall grass on the top of the ditch. One of his ears pricked up and he started barking wildly.

“Be quiet, Pepper,” Bella grumbled, trying to rub the dirt off.

Pepper barked again, running up and down. His eyes were fixed on something near Bella. Bella saw what looked like a large lump of mud lying in the ditch. The lump got on to four legs and waved a long mucky tail at her.

“Louie, come quickly!” Bella shouted.

Louie’s eyes almost popped out of his head. “It’s a mud monster!” he shouted.

“Woof!” Pepper barked, almost beside himself.

“Don’t be silly,” said Bella. “It’s a dog. The poor thing must have fallen in the ditch and it couldn’t get out again!”

The dog was so caked in mud that it was having trouble opening its eyes. Louie kept a safe distance as Bella cautiously reached out her hand. The dog sniffed her fingers.

“Steady now,” said Bella gently. “I’m not going to hurt you.”

The dog’s tail waved again. It was breathing quite fast, like it was in shock. Bella climbed up the bank. The dog tried to follow, but scrabbled and slid back down. It wasn’t wearing a collar. Bella reached down and grabbed its muddy scruff. It was a big dog, and it was heavy. She wasn’t sure she could pull it out. But she was determined to try.

The dog panted hard. Its sides were heaving. Bella dug her heels in and pulled. Scrabbling and whining, the dog tried to climb the bank again. This time, it succeeded. It jumped clumsily up at Bella and licked her. This made Bella even muddier, but she didn’t care.

Pepper growled and hid behind Louie as the exhausted dog flopped down on the grass. Bella looked around for the dog’s owner. Apart from her and Louie, there was no one else in Chestnut Park.

“Where did it come from?” Louie asked, coming a little closer.

“Mud Monster Land,” said Bella, rolling her eyes. “Oh, and thanks for all your help. I couldn’t have done it without you.”

“I didn’t know it was a dog, did I?” Louie muttered. “It looked scary.”

“Let’s take it back to Mum,” said Bella. “We can wash it at Dream Dogs.”

She felt a little skip in her stomach at the thought of her mum’s dog parlour. Dream Dogs was Bella’s favourite place, with its pink walls and hanging plants and the smell of wet dog in the air. Washing the muck off to find out what kind of dog they’d found would be really exciting.

“Mum won’t let you wash it in Dream Dogs,” Louie said. “It’s too dirty.”

“That’s what Dream Dogs is for,” Bella pointed out. “Washing dogs. Remember?”

Bella teased Louie about mud monsters all the way back across Chestnut Park. The strange dog followed Bella adoringly. Pepper pressed himself close to Louie’s heels and growled every few steps.

“Pepper still thinks it’s a monster,” Louie said as they turned into their street.

“He’s just jealous,” Bella said.

It did look like Pepper was jealous. As soon as Bella unlatched the dog-gate between the door of Dream Dogs and the parlour, he trotted to his basket and lay down with his back to Bella.

“Mum!” Bella said. “You’ll never guess what we found!”

Bella and Louie’s mum Suzi looked up from where she was drying a little white West Highland terrier. Her eyes widened.

“It’s a dog,” said Bella proudly.

“Take it out before it—” Suzi began.

The rest of her words were lost as the muddy dog shook itself. Bella shrieked. Louie yelled. Suzi ducked. And mud went everywhere.

Two Gold!

“BELLA!” Suzi groaned, staring at the Westie on her drying table. His fluffy white coat was covered in mud. “Now I’ll have to wash Angus again! You know better than to bring a wet dog inside that hasn’t shaken itself.”

Louie giggled.

“Oops,” Bella said, biting her lip. “Sorry.”

The muddy dog flopped on to the floor, adding to the mess. Suzi winced.

“I’ll wash the floor, Mum,” Bella said quickly. “And the walls, and whatever got dirty. But please can we wash this dog after Angus? It fell in the ditch in Chestnut Park and it hasn’t got a collar and I couldn’t see an owner and—”

The Dream Dog door tinkled open, interrupting Bella.

“Whatever happened?” exclaimed the old lady in the doorway. “Did you know there’s mud on the ceiling, Suzi?”

“Sorry, Miss Waldicott,” said Suzi. “We all just had a little…accident. I’ll have to give Angus a fresh rinse. I hope you’re not in a hurry.”

Miss Waldicott perched on the seat beneath the window. “No plans this morning,” she said. “I’m visiting my sister Grace this afternoon. She moved into Meadowbanks last month but she is finding it a bit hard to settle in, so I like to try and visit as much as I can.”

“The nursing home?” asked Suzi, lifting Angus back into the bath tub.

Miss Waldicott nodded. “It’s a lovely place—delicious home-made cakes,” she said. She leaned forward confidingly. “But I think Grace is missing her own little flat on the seafront and hasn’t spoken a word since she moved in. I’m sure she’ll be very happy at Meadowbanks but it might just take a little time for her to get used to her new surroundings.”

Suzi looked up from the bath. “It’s hard moving somewhere new, but I’m sure she’s in good hands.”

Bella pulled the muddy dog back on to its feet. “I suppose we’d better take you outside,” she said.

“You can bring her back when I’ve finished Angus,” Suzi called as Bella pushed open the back door. “Louie? Get some food and water. That animal must be hungry. Then we can wash her and you can tell me the whole story from the beginning. And on the subject of washing, Bella, go and change your clothes and wash your face and hands. You look nearly as bad as the dog! I’m so sorry, Miss Waldicott…”

The dog lay down on her side in the yard. She was still panting hard. The mud on her head had dried now, and the fur was hard and matted.

“So you’re a girl, are you?” Bella said. “We’ll give you a name as soon as we’ve washed you.”

The strange dog was bigger than Pepper, with triangular ears that flopped down and a square muzzle. Her coat looked thick, and she was very broad across her back and tummy. Bella guessed that her tail would be plumey and gorgeous once they washed it. But what was she? Bella wondered, as she headed upstairs to change. A collie? A Labrador?

When Bella came back, the dog still hadn’t touched the food that Louie had put down for her.

“She looked like she’d been in that ditch for ages,” Bella said, watching as the dog paced around the yard. “I thought she’d be hungry. Why isn’t she eating?”

“Bella!” Suzi called from inside the salon. “Amber’s here!”

Bella ran inside to see her best friend. Amber’s long hair was loose on her shoulders today, instead of tied up in plaits the way it usually was.

“Thank you, Suzi, dear!” Miss Waldicott was saying as she left with a freshly washed and dried Angus tucked under her arm.

Bella grabbed Amber’s arm as the salon door swung shut behind Miss Waldicott. “You’ve got to see this!” she said, towing Amber out of the back door.

“Is it a dog?” Amber asked, staring at the muddy beast panting in the sunshine.

Bella nodded. “Of course it is!” she said in excitement. “Do you want to help wash her?”

Amber’s eyes gleamed. “Definitely!”

“Has she eaten anything?” Suzi asked as Bella and Amber led the dog back into the salon.

Louie shook his head.

“Oh well,” Suzi said. “Perhaps she’ll feel like something after her bath.”

Bella and Amber coaxed the muddy dog up the steps and into the bath. Pepper stared grumpily at Bella from his basket. Bella blew him a kiss as her mum handed her the shower attachment. She’d make it up to Pepper later.

“Here goes,” said Bella.

She directed the water at the dog’s back. Mud poured off.

“We’re going to block the plughole,” Amber gasped as rivers of brown gloop ran off the dog’s legs and back. “Hey, don’t sit down…We need to clean your tummy!”

Slowly, the water began to run clear. Bella fetched the shampoo. She and Amber rubbed it in. More mud cascaded down the plughole.

“What colour is she?” Amber said, peering at the dog’s wet back after ten minutes of scrubbing.

Bella ruffled up the dog’s fur as Suzi turned off the water. It gleamed beneath her fingers.

“Gold,” she breathed. “She’s a golden retriever, Amber! And she’s gorgeous!”

Three A Very Big Surprise!

The clean golden retriever sat patiently as Bella and Amber took turns with Suzi’s big dog-dryer. She kept trying to lie down, but Bella coaxed her up again so she could dry her all over.

“Look how bright she is now,” Amber said, switching off the dryer at last and ruffling up the retriever’s silky fur. “She’s like a big golden nugget.”

“Nugget!” Bella exclaimed. “That’s what we should call her!”

Nugget panted and wriggled as Amber and Bella kissed her and stroked her silky golden ears. Her shoulders and ribs felt bony, making Bella wonder when she’d last eaten. It was funny that her tummy was so fat.

“She’s probably got a name already,” Suzi warned, washing away the mud around the rim of the bath. “It’s been quite a day for her, but tomorrow I must take her to the vet so that they can check if she has a microchip. Then we’ll know if she belongs to anyone. We’ll also need to alert the police, or put up posters. Someone might be missing her.”

“We’ll do posters,” Bella said. “Can we borrow your computer and printer, Mum? And your camera?”

Suzi fetched her digital camera out of the drawer beneath the till and handed it to Bella. Bella snapped a picture of Nugget.

“We’ll make you a brilliant poster, Nugget,” she promised, lowering the camera. “Come on, Amber. We’ll do it upstairs!”

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