“Inu just means dog,” Mum said. “The Shiba bit isn’t so clear, though. There’s a kind of tree with the same name that goes reddish-gold in the autumn, so that could be it. Or some people think it means small. In one of the old Japanese languages, Shiba means small and they’re quite small dogs.” She laughed. “Kin only looks big because I was so little…”
“Can you get them in this country?” Emi asked thoughtfully. It would be really cool to have a Japanese dog. And she quite liked the idea of taking a dog like that for walks in the park, where people asked each other what breed their dogs were. She always asked the owners if she didn’t know – most people loved talking about their dogs.
“People are just starting to breed them over here.” Mum looked at Emi and Ben. “You know I called Mariko at the weekend?” Mariko had been a friend of Mum’s since they were students together. She was Japanese, too, and came to stay with them sometimes. “Another friend of hers – Kaii – is breeding Shiba Inus. She was telling me that Kaii doesn’t live very far from here. In fact, he’s got a litter of puppies right now…”
Ben grinned. “Mum! Do you mean we could have one?”
Emi was far too excited to say anything – she just gave Mum the most enormous hug.
Chapter Two
“A Shiba Inu?” Emi’s best friend Jess shook her head as they walked through the school playground. “I don’t think I’ve ever heard of them! What do they look like?”
“Really, really gorgeous…” Emi sighed happily. “They’re not very big, but they’re sort of solid-looking, if you know what I mean? Chunky, I suppose. Ben said Mum’s old dog looked like a fox, because they’ve got quite pointy faces and hers was an orangey-red colour. But you can get black and tan Shiba Inus, too, and even white ones.” She giggled. “Mum showed us some photos online and there was a white Shiba Inu puppy – he looked like a snowball with ears. Their fur’s not really fluffy, but it sticks out a bit, he was so roly-poly and cute…”
Jess laughed. “You’ve fallen in love, Emi!” Then she shivered. “Ooooh, talking of snowballs, I wish the bell would go. I’m frozen. I wouldn’t be surprised if it actually snowed soon. I really wanted us to have a white Christmas, but all it did was rain in the school holidays…”
“Maybe we’ll get a snow day off school instead – that would be good. Imagine playing with a puppy in the snow…” Emi couldn’t think of anything better.
“So, do you know when you’re going to get the puppy?” asked Jess. “And can I come over to see it? Please?”
Emi put an arm round her friend’s shoulders. “Course you can! But I don’t think we’ll be getting the puppy for a little while. Mum called the friend of her friend who’s the breeder, though, and we’re going to go and visit one weekend – Mum said it would be too tricky to fit it in after school. And this weekend we can’t, because we’re going to Dad’s. We’re seeing his new flat for the first time. You know he moved, too, right?”
Jess nodded. Her parents didn’t live together, either – it was one of the things that she and Emi had in common – that and the fact that they both loved animals. Jess had three cats at her dad’s house and guinea pigs at her mum and stepdad’s. They both understood what it was like having two families and two houses. Jess knew all about having to remember which house you’d left your homework book in and sometimes forgetting which family was picking you up from school.
“Mum said none of the puppies could come home with us for a few weeks anyway,” Emi explained. “They have to be at least eight weeks old before they can leave their mother and they aren’t quite that big yet. Nearly though!”
“When you get the puppy, will you be able to take him to your dad’s, too?” Jess asked thoughtfully.
Emi shook her head slowly. “I don’t think so. It’s a pretty tiny flat. Dad’s going to have to sleep on the sofa while we’re staying, so we’ll all fit. And mostly we’re going to go by train to get there. Dad can come straight from work to meet us at the station. It’s not far from the flat, he says. If he came to get us from our house by car we wouldn’t get there till really late. I’m not sure a puppy would like going on a train much.”
“You’re going by train on your own?” Jess sounded envious.
“With Ben.” Emi sighed. “He’s going to be a nightmare. Mum and Dad keep saying he’s got to look after me, so it’s like the ultimate excuse for him to be a bossy big brother. ‘I’m in charge, you’ve got to do as I say, you’re only nine, blah blah blah…’”
Jess sniggered and Emi grinned at her. “Well, he is like that!”
Emi stood between Mum and Ben on the doorstep of Kaii’s house. She was feeling a strange mixture of excited and sad – they were going to meet their new puppy for the first time, so of course she was excited! But she wished Dad was with them. It had been brilliant going to see his new flat last weekend. She’d really missed him when they hadn’t seen him for a few weeks because of his move. Dad had played computer games with them, and he’d dragged them out to the woods near his new flat, and even though Ben had said walks were boring, it had been really fun. They’d chased about and jumped over a stream. Emi had nearly fallen in, but Dad had caught her just in time.
There was a little wood near their new house, too, Emi remembered, as she listened to the sound of barking on the other side of the door. They’d be able to take their new puppy on walks there soon! Maybe Dad would get a pet as well, she thought, as Mum smiled down at her. But not a dog – not when he was out at work all day. They were really lucky that Mum mostly worked from home, so they wouldn’t be leaving their new puppy alone too much.
“Hello! Erika, yes? And Emi and Ben? I’m Kaii.” He beamed at them as he opened the door. His sweater was covered in dog hair but Emi was hardly looking at him because, peering nosily around his legs were two beautiful dogs. The larger dog was black and tan, but the smaller one was the same golden-red colour as Kin, her mum’s old dog. Seeing the Shiba Inu breed for real, instead of in a faded photo, Emi realized that they were so much more beautiful. Their pointed, pricked-up ears made them look really clever. They had whitish fur around their dark eyes, too, which made them stand out. Both of the dogs were staring at Emi now, with their heads on one side, as though they were trying to work out what they thought of her.
Kaii was laughing, Emi suddenly realized, and so were Mum and Ben. Emi looked up at them, her face going red. What had she done?
“It’s OK,” Kaii said, smiling. “I was just saying why don’t you come in? I don’t think you heard a word I said, though. You like them, then?”
“They’re beautiful!” Emi told him, as they followed him inside. “And they look really clever.”
“They are,” he agreed. “And they make good pets, too. They’re very loving. But you do have to be quite firm with them, otherwise they walk all over you.”