“I suppose I just felt stupid. And mean,” Zoe muttered. “And I didn’t really want to talk to you about it. You were so excited…”
Becca sighed. “I didn’t think about it making you sad,” she admitted. “Did I go on and on?”
Zoe gave a very small giggle. “Yes. All the time.”
A voice behind them interrupted the awkward moment. It was Becca’s dad. “Are you girls ready?” he asked them. “I want to see these wonderful puppies you’ve been telling me about!”
Becca looked anxiously at Zoe, but Zoe nodded, managing to smile and look almost as though she meant it. “Come on!”
They walked down the passage to the puppies’ pen. Zoe spotted Auntie Jo coming back in from the yard, with the puppies in her arms. “There they are,” she told Becca’s dad, pointing. “They’ve been playing outside.”
The puppies saw them too, and started to wriggle excitedly. Auntie Jo laughed and crouched down, letting them run down the passage towards the visitors.
Cookie dashed ahead, streaking towards Zoe on her tiny little legs. Zoe was desperate to pick her up and cuddle her. But she couldn’t. It was Becca’s turn.
But Becca wasn’t looking at Cookie, Zoe realized. She’d crouched down, and was holding out her arms. Biscuit was running straight up to her, and now he was standing up on his hind legs, his front paws on her arms, giving happy, excited little barks. He licked her cheek and jumped, as though she was the best thing he’d ever seen!
“He remembers me!” Becca cried delightedly. “I’ve only met him once, but he really remembers me! Oh, Dad, do you like him? He’s called Biscuit, he’s the most gorgeous of all of them. Please can he be ours?”
Chapter Eight
Zoe watched, smiling, as Becca hugged Biscuit. He wriggled delightedly in her arms. So it would be a stranger who would be taking Cookie home, she realized sadly. She wouldn’t see her gorgeous little puppy grow up into a beautiful dog after all.
Cookie patted her paws hopefully at Zoe’s leg, asking to be picked up. She could tell that Zoe was sad, but Cookie knew that she could make her feel better. When Zoe lifted her up at last, Cookie stood up in her arms, rubbing her whiskery nose against Zoe’s cheek. That always made her laugh.
“You’re so lovely,” Zoe murmured, but she didn’t sound much happier.
Cookie watched interestedly as the girl cuddling Biscuit gave him some crunchy treats, and carefully lifted him into a sort of box, like a small pen with a wire front. She shivered a little, burying her nose in Zoe’s neck. It reminded her of the box they’d all been shut up in. It felt like a very long time ago now.
Biscuit looked confused, and whined, but the girl fed him some more treats through the wire, and then the man with her picked the box up, and carried him away down the passage to the door.
Cookie gave a little whimper of surprise. They could go away? Biscuit was going with that girl, and the other two people? She didn’t understand. If they were allowed out of the shelter, why didn’t Zoe take her when she went? Perhaps she would! Perhaps they were all going! Cookie’s tail started to flick back and forth with excitement.
“Well, that was good, wasn’t it?” Auntie Jo said, sounding really pleased. “And I meant to tell you, Zoe, a really nice-sounding family called me asking about puppies, and they were interested in getting a boy puppy – so that would be you, Choc.” She looked down at the puppy in her arms, who’d barked when he heard his name. “Yes, you! They’re going to come and see you tomorrow, aren’t they, sweetie? So we’re getting there.”
Zoe nodded. So that would leave just Cookie. And she wouldn’t be there for much longer either, Zoe was sure.
“Oh, look, there’s your mum and Kyra,” Auntie Jo pointed out, and she turned to open the front of the pen, and put Choc back in.
Zoe sighed, and walked towards the pen to put Cookie in too. She’d forgotten that Mum was coming to pick her up early. She wanted them to go and do some shopping – Zoe needed new school shoes. Zoe had tried arguing that Mum could just buy them for her, but Mum had said no.
Cookie twisted in her arms, struggling frantically, and whining. She wasn’t going back in the pen – she wanted to stay with Zoe! Someone had already taken Biscuit away. Only Zoe could take her.
“What’s the matter?” Zoe gasped, holding the puppy tightly, and backing away from the pen, as that seemed to be what was upsetting her.
“Is Cookie OK?” Mum asked worriedly. She and Kyra had just come into the passage between the pens, and now she was hurrying towards Zoe.
“She got really upset when I was trying to put her back in the pen.”
Zoe cuddled Cookie close against her shoulder. She could feel the little dog’s sides heaving, she was shaking so badly. “Perhaps she’s sad about Biscuit going?” She wrinkled up her brow. “It’s OK, Cookie. It’s OK,” she whispered. But then her eyes filled with tears. “I’m telling her everything’s going to be all right, but it isn’t,” she said miserably, looking between Auntie Jo and Mum. “Biscuit’s gone to a new home, and Choc will probably go too, tomorrow, and then it’ll be just Cookie left. And someone will choose her really soon, and we’ll never see her again.”
Auntie Jo frowned. “I wonder if she does know what’s happening. Some dogs really do seem to understand, far more than you’d think they could. Maybe that’s why she doesn’t want to go back into that pen.”
“But she has to,” Zoe said dismally. “What are we going to do? Do you think she’d be better if we moved her into a different pen?”
Auntie Jo glanced at Mum, and shook her head. “No, to be honest, I think it would just be better if she went back with you.”
“But then it would just be harder for her to come back.” Zoe blinked, not really understanding what her auntie was saying.
“Or we could keep her?” her mum said, putting an arm round Zoe’s shoulders, and gently patting Cookie.
Zoe looked puzzled. “But there’s no one to look after her in the daytime.”
Her mum glanced at Auntie Jo. “We’ve been talking about that. I told your auntie I was worried about how much you were falling in love with Cookie. That you were going to be really upset when she went to her new home.”
“And I said you were so good with dogs, you really deserved to have one of your own,” said Auntie Jo.
“So we’ve come up with a plan,” said her mum.
“I’m going to have her here at work with me in the day, Zoe,” Auntie Jo explained. “She can have a basket under my desk, and I’ll take her for a walk at lunchtime.”
“And Kyra?” said Zoe, flashing her sister a look.
“I don’t feel scared of Cookie,” said Kyra. “She’s a little sweetheart. Mum told me how much you’d bonded with Cookie – it was actually my idea we should have her. That’s why I wanted to meet her last week.”
“Really?” Zoe stared round at them all, her eyes like saucers. “You mean it? We can have Cookie? So – so we could take her home now?” Zoe whispered, hardly daring to hope that they’d say yes.