Auntie Jo smiled. “Well, she obviously doesn’t want to go back in that pen. I can stay here and make a big fuss of poor old Choc, so he doesn’t mind being on his own. And you can borrow some food bowls and things, until you can get your own.”
Zoe nodded, thinking how much pocket money she had saved up, and how she was going to spend all of it at the pet shop on the little puppy. Cookie was going to have the nicest things she could find.
“You’re coming home with us,” she whispered to Cookie. “You really are.”
Cookie nudged Zoe’s cheek with her damp black nose, and looked hopefully at the door.
“Look at them! They’re having such a good time,” Zoe said, laughing at the two little brown-and-white dogs – Biscuit and Cookie. Who would have thought it? They were standing at the bottom of a huge tree, right at the end of their extending leads. And they were both jumping up and down, barking themselves silly.
“I wonder if Choc likes chasing squirrels too?” Becca said thoughtfully. “Maybe we’ll see him in the park one of these days.”
Zoe nodded. “I bet he does. And I bet he never catches them either.”
The squirrel was sitting high up in the tree now, looking down at the two dogs in disgust. They hadn’t come anywhere near getting him, and he clearly wasn’t very bothered. He almost looked like he was yawning.
Eventually, Cookie and Biscuit gave up on the squirrel and wandered back to Zoe and Becca.
“Cookie’s catching up on him,” Becca commented. “She’s nearly as big as he is now. She might even end up being bigger!”
“Maybe,” Zoe agreed. “They probably won’t finish growing until they’re about nine months. Perhaps even a year. They’re four months old now, so they’ve got five months more growing to do, at least. You’re going to be a huge dog one day, aren’t you?” she told Cookie affectionately, crouching down and ruffling her ears and stroking her back.
Becca giggled. Cookie might get bigger one day, but she and Biscuit were still tiny at the moment. Not that they seemed to think they were little at all. They strutted through the park as though they thought they were the most important dogs there.
“They wouldn’t fit in that box now,” Zoe said suddenly, looking up at Becca.
Becca shook her head. “I still don’t know how someone could have left them like that. But I’m just glad it was you and your Auntie Jo that found them.”
Zoe nodded, scratching Cookie under the chin, so that she closed her eyes blissfully, and her tail thumped on the ground.
“I know. Me too.”
Copyright
STRIPES PUBLISHING
An imprint of Little Tiger Press
1 The Coda Centre, 189 Munster Road,
London SW6 6AW
Text copyright © Holly Webb, 2013
Illustrations copyright © Sophy Williams, 2013
First published as an ebook by Stripes Publishing in 2014.
eISBN: 978–1–84715–470–5
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.
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