“I don’t know.” Rachel looked worriedly at Molly. “I suppose I just thought she belonged to those boys, the same way you thought she was ours. I never actually saw them call her or anything…”
“Do you think she could be a stray and that maybe she doesn’t belong to anyone? She’s ever so scruffy. Sorry, Molly, you’re beautiful, but you are scruffy,” Anya told her. “I mean, she needs grooming really badly and she’s covered in sand.”
“She’s too thin, as well,” Rachel pointed out.
Anya ran her hand over Molly’s domed head and Molly panted at her happily. “So – do you think she’s a stray?”
“Maybe…” Rachel nodded. “It seems that way, doesn’t it?”
“Poor Molly,” Anya whispered. “I wonder what happened – she’s so lovely and she’s still only a puppy.”
“Perhaps she got lost when her owners were here on holiday,” Rachel suggested sadly. “And they went home without her.”
“That’s awful…” Anya swallowed. “What am I going to do? I thought I was bringing her home and now it seems she doesn’t have a home at all.”
“Rachel, are you two all right out there?” Rachel’s mum came out of the kitchen. “Hello, Anya. That’s a sweet little dog. You had her with you on the beach, didn’t you?”
Rachel and Anya looked at each other and started to laugh. “Mum, Anya thought Molly was ours. She’s brought her back! And now we don’t know who she belongs to.”
“Oh!” Anya looked down at her watch. “I have to get back. I told Mum and Dad I’d only be a few minutes. I was just supposed to be going to look at the sea.”
“They’ll be terribly worried about you,” Rachel’s mum said, in a horrified sort of voice that made Anya feel much worse. “We’d better take you home at once.” She called out that she’d be back soon and closed the front door behind her. Then she hurried the girls and Molly down the street.
“Where are you staying, Anya?” she asked. “Can you remember the way?”
“Oh yes. It’s one of the cottages on the front, by the sea. I can go back by myself, honestly.”
But Rachel’s mum shook her head. “No, it’s all right, I’m sure you could, but I want to make certain that you get home safely.”
“Mum,” Rachel put in suddenly. “If Molly’s a stray, and we think she must be, can we keep her?”
Anya gasped – it was exactly what she had been thinking. If only she had said something first!
But Rachel’s mum shook her head firmly. “No, of course not. For a start, the cottage has a no-pets rule. And what would Alfie think if we came home and got him out of the cattery and there was a dog in his house? He’d probably walk out!”
Rachel sighed. “I suppose so.”
Anya took a deep, shaky breath and wrapped her hand more tightly around Molly’s makeshift lead. Until Rachel had spoken, she’d only had the idea in the back of her mind, but how amazing would it be if Molly could be hers? After all, no one else seemed to want her… Why shouldn’t they keep her?
“Would you like to stay with me?” she whispered to Molly, as she saw their cottage and hurried ahead. “Would you like to be my dog?” She knocked lightly on the front door of the cottage – the last thing she wanted to do was wake up Jessie. She needed Mum and Dad in the best mood possible.
The door swung open at once and Mum grabbed her into a hug. “Anya, where have you been? You said you’d only be a few minutes. I was about to go out looking for you!”
“Sorry, Mum…”
“Anya’s actually been really resourceful,” Rachel’s mum put in. “She found this dog and she worked out where we’d been staying, so she could bring the poor little thing back to us. Only the dog isn’t actually ours.”
“Is that the dog you were looking for earlier, Anya?” Dad asked, peering over Mum’s shoulder.
“Yes, but she doesn’t belong to the other family. We don’t know who she belongs to at all.” Anya crouched down and picked Molly up, showing her to Mum and Dad. “She’s so lovely, I can’t see how anybody would abandon her.”
“I’m sorry we can’t look after her ourselves until her owner is found,” Rachel’s mum explained. “But we had to sign a no-pets agreement for our cottage.”
“I think pets are allowed in this one,” Dad said slowly. “But we can’t have a dog here – what about Jessie?”
“Molly’s really friendly, Dad,” Anya explained. “She wouldn’t snap at Jessie.”
“She was very patient with the children on the beach the other day,” Rachel’s mum agreed.
“Couldn’t we just look after her for a couple of days, Dad?” Anya suggested hopefully. “I could take her to the vet’s to see if anyone’s reported her lost. And put posters up about her.”
She didn’t say what she was really thinking, which was, And then if no one knows about her, maybe we can just take her home with us…
Chapter Seven
Molly was lying on an old picnic rug that Anya had found in one of the cupboards in the living room. She was very sleepy, mostly because she was full. It was the strangest feeling, not to be hungry. She couldn’t remember the last time she hadn’t been desperate for food.
Anya and her dad had gone to the supermarket to get some dog food on their way to the fish and chip shop. Jessie had fallen asleep at last, but her tooth was still making her really miserable. Anya had begged Dad to let her buy a comb as well. She wanted to try and get rid of the worst of the tangles from Molly’s coat.
So now Molly was well fed and a bit less sandy and scruffy. There were still a lot of knots in her fur, though, as the comb hadn’t been up to it and several of its teeth had snapped off.
“I’ll buy you a proper dog-grooming brush when I go to the vet’s tomorrow,” Anya had told Molly, as she’d hugged her goodnight. Then she gave a tiny sigh. “I know I ought to hope that the vet knows who you belong to, but I really don’t. I want you to belong to me.” She gave Molly one last pat and went off upstairs.
Molly stared after her, wondering where Anya was going. She stayed on her blanket, but she kept her eyes on the stairs, watching until she fell asleep. She woke again a couple of hours later to find the house dark and quiet. She was all alone downstairs. Molly lay on the rug for a while, with her head on her paws. She was still sleepy, but she wanted to know where everyone was. Molly had lived without an owner for months now and it had felt so good to have Anya fussing over her. She had enjoyed having her fur combed, too, even when the comb caught in all the tangles and pulled. Somebody wanted her. Somebody cared enough about her to tidy her up and make her a comfy bed.
Molly got up and went to sniff at the bottom of the stairs. They were all up there, she thought. All of a sudden, Molly was desperate to see that Anya hadn’t disappeared. It had happened before, after all… People had gone away and left her. Quickly, she padded up the stairs, sniffing for Anya’s room. She found it almost at once, poking her nose round the door.
Anya turned over as her bedroom door creaked open and peered sleepily at the puppy. “Hello, Molly!” she whispered. “Did you come to find me? Aren’t you clever? Oh, you’re such a good dog.”
Molly scurried over to the bed. Anya leaned down to pat her and make a fuss. “Molly, come on,” she murmured. “Come on up here, good dog… That’s it!” She giggled delightedly, as Molly scrambled up on to the end of the bed and curled up blissfully by her feet. It was just the way she’d dreamed having a dog would be.