‘Bailey,’ here doggy, they were calling over and over again. There was a level of hysteria in their voices. I looked at George.
‘Do you think it’s the dog we saw the other day?’ I asked. ‘You know the one you were so mean to?’
George looked contrite. ‘Shall we check round the house in case he came in here again?’ he suggested.
‘Good idea, son.’ I softened. We both ran through the open front door where Claire was sweeping the floor – trying to get rid of the never ending supply of sand the kids and we brought in.
‘What are you doing?’ she said, nearly tripping over us and her broom.
‘Meow,’ I shouted and then she heard the voices from outside. When she went out to see what was going on, George went to look for the dog and I followed Claire. I liked to be in the know after all.
‘Is everything OK?’ she shouted through the hedge when she reached the gap.
‘Oh, we’ve lost our puppy Bailey, he got out. Do you think he’s in your house?’
‘Oh no. Please, come over and we’ll look.’
A woman ran round to the front of our house in record time. Her face was red and her voice breathless.
‘I told my husband and kids to keep looking there, but if you don’t mind…’
‘Course not. I haven’t seen him but he might have got through the gap.’
‘Meow,’ he did, I said. But the woman didn’t seem to notice me as she started calling for Bailey again and running round our garden. I raised my whiskers, Claire raised her eyebrows.
‘Come inside, he might have snuck in,’ she offered. The woman stopped running around and followed Claire.
‘He’s only a puppy and hasn’t been with us for long, we adopted him, oh I’d never forgive myself if anything happened.’
‘I’m sure he’s fine. How long have you lived next door?’
‘A few months now. We moved in the midst of the pandemic which was tricky but we’d already arranged it, so anyway, BAILEY,’ she shouted at the top of her lungs. It made me jump.
I went to find George, who was with Gilbert.
‘No sign?’ I asked.
‘No.’
‘And I was by the back door so I’d know if he came through the house,’ Gilbert said.
‘Everyone is going crazy,’ I explained. ‘Bailey is fairly new to them, he was adopted. I hope you don’t feel too bad about not playing with him,’ I couldn’t help but add.
‘Dad, he went missing today, not when he came over to us, so don’t try to pin this on me,’ George retorted.
‘Right you two, instead of arguing how about we try to find the dog?’ Gilbert suggested. It was exactly what I was going to say actually as I swished my tail.
Jonathan came home with the kids and Claire dragged him next door, with Helen – Bailey’s owner – to see if they could help. From what we discovered, they were all going to scour the village and Claire was going to stay at their house in case Bailey came back. As they all headed off in different directions, it seemed to me that none of the humans had a clue how to organise a search. Luckily, I was an expert having searched for a fair few cats and children in my time.
Some of the searchers headed to the beach, which I thought was the logical choice but we couldn’t go because there were lots of dogs there. We hunted around the house and the garden, checking any hiding places there might be; under bushes, or perhaps he had found his way into a shed or outbuilding but no, there was no sign of him. By the time we returned to the front of the house everyone from next door were even more upset and Claire was going to knock on all the neighbours doors. Jonathan was charged with looking after the children and feeding them. They perked up at hearing this, because he was going to order them pizza. He offered to get some for the neighbours but they said they were too overwrought to eat. I felt very downcast. I didn’t like to think of Bailey lost and alone and I also didn’t like people being upset. Not at all.
It was starting to get dark, but there was still no sign of Bailey. The neighbours had all looked, in fact most of the village had been searching but there was no dog.
‘He can’t have disappeared,’ I said, scratching my head with my paw.
‘What if he went swimming and ended up in the other place,’ George suggested.
‘Can dogs swim?’ I asked.
‘Who knows?’ Gilbert said, ‘but I think they like water more than us cats, because we often see them running into the sea.’
That gave me an idea.
‘Remember when you were chasing Chanel and she tried to hide from you?’
‘Why are you bringing that up now?’
‘Oh I get you, Alfie,’ Gilbert grinned.
‘Again, why now?’ George stamped his paw.
‘Because she hid in a boat and the tide came in, what if Bailey has hidden in a boat?’
‘But the tide is out now and surely he’d have heard one of the adults calling for him, they were pretty loud,’ Gilbert pointed out,
‘Can’t hurt to look,’ I said, feeling excited now.
We bounded to the beach, which was dog free now thankfully. We started checking the boats, carefully trying to avoid the water. Just as we were running out of boats and patience, there was a family standing by a boat with a small cabin. They were peering inside.
‘’Where did he come frome?’ a woman said.
‘No idea, but someone’ll be worried,’ a man replied, and we then saw he reached in, and stood back up with Bailey in his arms.
‘’That’s him, we have to tell them that we know him,’ I said, excited that the dog was safe.
‘But, how?’ Gilbert asked.
‘Leave that to us,’ I said and George and I went over to them and starting meowing at the top of our voices. Gilbert looked uncertain but he joined in. Bailey barked, thankfully showing he recognised us. He wriggled in the man’s arm and tried to get to us.
We carried on mewing, running in circles and scratching at them, trying to convey to the couple to follow us. We yowled, ran around them, leapt up, and just as it was getting very tiresome, the man spoke.
‘Do you think the cats know where the dog lives?’ he asked.
‘I’ve never seen cats on the beach before,’ the lady added.
‘MEOW!’ I shouted, really, was that relevant now?
‘Do you know these cats?’ the man asked Bailey which was far more ridiculous than asking us, but thankfully Bailey barked again which they took to mean yes.
Finally they seemed to get it, which was a relief because I had sand in places where it really didn’t belong. Gilbert, George and I led the way and the couple with Bailey followed us. We took them to Bailey’s house, where we all stood on the doorstep together.
Helen opened the door, and burst into tears.
‘You’d think she’d be pleased,’ George hissed.
‘They’re tears of joy,’ I hissed back.
‘Oh goodness you found him. Where was he?’ Helen asked taking Bailey out of the man’s arms. He wagged his tail like crazy and licked her face. I couldn’t help but feel very pleased with myself.
‘He was asleep in our small boat cabin, lying underneath a blanket so we almost didn’t see him,’ the woman explained. ‘We found him when we went to clean up before a trip we’re taking tomorrow. All curled up he was. We had no idea who he was but then these cats appeared.’
They all stared at us and Helen noticed us for the first time.
‘Cats? They’re from next door, holiday cottage,’ Miranda said, her brows creased.
‘Well they were on the beach which is unusual and then they made an almighty racket before leading us here,’ the man said, scratching his head. You would think they had never encountered cats that saved the day before, the way they were acting.
‘I think we could go now,’ Gilbert said. He didn’t like too much attention. We started to make our way back to our house, Helen shouting thanks after us, inviting the boat couple inside for a drink and saying she had to let everyone know at the same time.