The Hero Pup

by Megan Rix

‘Nothing,’ Joe replied. ‘There’s nothing wrong with him at all. He’s just perfect.’

  ‘We’ll see about that,’ Mr Humphreys said doubtfully as Joe took Patch back inside.

  Once the puppy had had another drink of water from his bowl he looked up at Joe and his little tail wagged. He was ready to play again!

  Joe put his hand in the bag of puppy toys he and his mum had bought at the pet store and squeaked one of them. Patch was so excited by the sound that he tried to get into the bag to see what was in there.

  ‘Wait a minute,’ Joe laughed, and he pulled a colourful patchwork snake toy, which was soft-quilted and squeaked, from the bag, shook it and then threw it a little way across the room. ‘Here it is; go get it, get Squeaker!’

  Patch raced after the patchwork snake, stopped and put out his paw to touch it. When the toy moved, he hopped back, then put his paw out again. This time it didn’t move or squeak and he pounced, shook it and dragged it back to Joe.

  Joe laughed and laughed because Patch looked so funny carrying the snake, which was almost twice as long as him. It was the first time he’d laughed – really laughed – since they’d heard the news about his dad. The laughter sounded strange to his ears, but once he started he couldn’t stop. He laughed until tears ran down his face.

  Upstairs in her spare-bedroom office, Joe’s mum smiled as she brushed away her own tears.

  Patch dropped the toy in Joe’s lap and then half sat and half slumped on the carpet.

  Lenny had said puppies had a special way of sitting. It’s like they can’t be bothered to sit up properly. Now Joe was seeing the ‘puppy sit’ for himself.

  ‘Give, Patch, give,’ Joe said as he tugged a little harder, but not too hard.

  Patch immediately let go of the toy.

  ‘Good dog,’ Joe said, and he held the snake out to the puppy so they could carry on with their tugging game.

  Patch’s little tail stuck straight up as he held on to the snake and made soft play-growling sounds. He was totally engrossed in the game one moment and utterly exhausted the next. A second later Patch flopped down on his side and fell fast asleep.

  ‘Well, it has been a very busy morning for you,’ Joe murmured as he watched the little puppy sleeping. He wasn’t sure if he’d wake Patch up by moving, so he stayed where he was, just watching him. But, as the seconds and then the minutes on the wall clock ticked past and Patch still didn’t stir, Joe decided to risk going upstairs to grab his dad’s camera. He stood up as quietly as he could and kept looking over at Patch as he went up the stairs, but the puppy didn’t move.

  Joe picked up the camera and came back downstairs with it.

  His dad had loved taking photographs and he’d shown Joe how to take good pictures by making sure his subject wasn’t in the absolute centre of the frame and that the sun wasn’t too bright. Don’t want the shadows of your feet in the picture too, do you? his dad had said.

  Like a ghost? Joe had laughed.

  It had seemed so funny at the time, but not any more.

  ‘Do you want me to look after him for a while to give you a break?’ Joe’s mum whispered when she came downstairs at lunchtime and saw Patch lying on the carpet, still fast asleep.

  Joe shook his head. ‘I don’t need a break,’ he whispered back as he followed his mum to the kitchen for a sandwich. He was having too much fun spending the day with Patch to need a break.

  A quarter of an hour later Patch made a sleepy little sound, stretched out his paws, yawned and opened his eyes.

  ‘Hello, Patch,’ Joe said, and Patch crawled into his lap for a stroke. Whenever the little pup snuggled up to him, Joe could hardly believe how soft his fur was.

  A few minutes later Joe took his first photo of Patch having a long drink of water from his bowl. Then they both ran out to the bark area so Patch could do his business.

  ‘That’s it … This way, Patch, over here … good dog,’ he said.

  Once he’d finished, Patch scampered over to the flowers round the edge of the lawn and Joe took lots of pictures of the puppy sniffing at them. But he wasn’t quite quick enough to capture the moment that Patch sneezed after he’d sniffed the rosemary bush Joe’s mum had planted only the week before. It’s the herb of remembrance, she’d said.

  ‘That would have been an excellent shot, an award-winning shot,’ Joe told the puppy.

  Patch ran across the lawn towards the hedge and next-door’s garden. Behind the foliage Joe could hear Mr Humphreys whistling and the sound of water spraying from the hosepipe. The gardens in Joe’s road weren’t very big and in no time Patch had disappeared through the hedge.

  ‘No, Patch – come back!’ Joe called frantically as he ran after the dog.

  But Patch had seen the long, twirling green snake with water gushing out of it and he raced towards it, yipping his high puppy bark.

  Mr Humphreys hadn’t noticed Patch squeeze through the hedge or heard him yipping. ‘What!’ he cried in surprise as the puppy raced through his legs. ‘Get out of it!’ He dropped the hosepipe as he slipped backwards and toppled on to the wet grass.

  Now the hosepipe became even more exciting as it took on a wild life of its own. Patch’s little tail wagged and he yipped with delight as the water splashed around. He raced into the spray so he could get thoroughly soaked.

  Joe clambered over the back wall into Mr Humphreys’ garden.

  ‘I’m so sorry!’ he shouted as he ran to help his neighbour up. Patch rolled over in a puddle of water that the hose had left, totally in his element.

  ‘Get that puppy back to its own garden!’ Mr Humphreys yelled furiously. He was soaked to the skin, and covered in mud and grass stains too. He looked over to see where Patch had got through. ‘That needs to be repaired.’

  ‘I’ll do it straight away,’ Joe said.

  ‘No, I’ll do it,’ Mr Humphreys said crossly. ‘I’ll do a better job than you and I don’t want him getting through again.’

  Joe picked a soggy Patch up and took him back to their own garden and inside the house, where he dried him with kitchen towels. The dog yawned. He was tired after all the excitement and was soon sleeping again.

  ‘Little puppies need a lot of sleep,’ Joe’s mum said when she came down from her office a few minutes later to make a cup of tea.

  ‘Especially little puppies who’ve been in next-door’s garden and showered by the hosepipe,’ Joe added, and he told her what had happened.

  ‘Lucky Mr Humphreys wasn’t hurt,’ Joe’s mum remarked drily, and Joe grinned and nodded.

  ‘Just got a bit muddy,’ he said.

  While Patch twitched as he dreamt his puppy dreams, Joe sat down at the computer and wrote his first entry in Patch’s diary. He thought about the soldier called Sam that Patch would one day be going to live with and wondered what he might like to hear about.

  Suddenly he had an idea. Because it was called Patch’s diary he decided to write it as if Patch himself were telling Sam what he’d been up to.

  Today I came to live at my new house with Joe and his mum and Squeaker. Squeaker’s a toy snake and twice as big as me, but I’m much stronger …

  Joe added a photo of Patch holding Squeaker. Then he remembered the Mr Humphreys adventure.

  I also got to visit a very nice garden next door. Mr Humphreys has a snake called Hose that sprayed water everywhere. I loved playing with Hose, but Mr Humphreys fell over and got all muddy and a bit cross. He says he doesn’t want me in his garden EVER again, but I know he doesn’t mean it!

  Joe grinned at the memory.

  I think I’m going to like it here. Joe and his mum give me lots of cuddles and nice things to eat, but there’re still lots of things for me to learn before I can become a proper Helper Dog. ☺

  Joe pressed SAVE and then went to see what was for dinner.

  Far away a nurse helped Sam to hold his iPad to look at Patch’s first diary entry.

  ‘What a sweet-looking puppy,’ she commented.

  ‘It’s
a Helper Pup and his name’s Patch,’ Sam told her. ‘I’m hoping one day he can be my pup.’

  Now he had a goal to strive for.

  ‘If I can get well enough to leave the hospital, I’ll be moved to a specially adapted ground-floor flat where Patch can come and live with me,’ Sam explained.

  It wasn’t going to be easy, but he was determined to be strong enough to do so by Christmas. If he didn’t make it by then, Patch would probably be given to another soldier and he knew as soon as he saw Patch’s picture that he wanted the puppy to be his Helper Dog more than anything else in the world.

  ‘Well then, we’ll have to make sure you’re fit enough,’ the nurse said, pretending not to notice the pain on Sam’s face as he tried to move. The soldier had a long way to go yet.

  ‘I have to be,’ he said.

  Chapter 10

  In the evening Joe’s mum carried Patch’s crate up the stairs and Joe carried Patch up.

  ‘You’re sure you want him in your room and you don’t mind getting up to let him do his business in the garden in the middle of the night?’ she asked.

  ‘Sure,’ said Joe firmly.

  ‘It might be three or four times.’

  ‘I’m sure.’

  So Mum put the puppy crate next to Joe’s bed and went to fill Patch’s night-time water bowl.

  ‘I’m very proud of you,’ she said as she gave Joe a kiss on the forehead and Patch a last stroke. ‘If you need any help, just give me a yell.’

  ‘OK.’

  ‘See you in the morning then.’ She put the water bowl next to the crate and pulled the door to.

  ‘Night, Mum.’

  Joe yawned and opened the crate door. The piece of yellow blanket was still inside it along with the star toy.

  ‘In you go, Patch.’

  But Patch didn’t want to go in the crate and he headed off in the other direction towards Joe’s curtains.

  ‘Come on, you have to go into the crate.’

  Patch sat down in a puppy slump and looked at Joe with his head to one side. Joe smiled. He could see by his sleepy look that Patch wasn’t going to be able to stay awake for much longer, but he wasn’t going to go back in that crate, either.

  ‘Just a little bit more playing then,’ Joe said, and he rolled a soft ball across the bedroom rug for Patch to run after. Patch’s runs soon slowed to walks and then staggers, and the sleepy pup finally lay down next to the ball.

  Once Joe was sure he was fast asleep, he lifted Patch into the crate and pushed the door to before crawling into bed himself.

  He’d been asleep for a few hours when he heard a crying sound and was instantly awake.

  ‘It’s all right,’ Joe murmured into the darkness. For a second he thought Patch was crying because he missed his mum, and his brothers and sisters, in the same way that Joe missed his dad. But then he remembered Patch probably needed to go for a wee – and little puppies couldn’t wait for long. ‘OK, OK!’

  He picked Patch up and headed down the stairs and out into the garden to the bark area. It was a beautiful night and the stars were so bright that it wasn’t even dark.

  Joe watched Patch as he stalked one of his new toys, a brown woolly dog, and then ran at it and pounced. Then he stalked the dustpan brush, which was too heavy for him to pick up, but he managed to drag it along by its bristles, making little growling sounds as he did so.

  ‘Time to go back now,’ Joe yawned.

  Patch didn’t seem to be sleepy at all and wanted to carry on playing with the brush, even if it was the middle of the night.

  ‘Come on, Patch.’

  Finally Joe had to pick the puppy up and carry him back to his bedroom. He was about to put Patch back in the crate, but when the puppy whimpered he just couldn’t bring himself to do it.

  ‘You can sleep on the floor,’ Joe said, pulling the bedding out from the bottom of the crate.

  But Patch didn’t want to sleep on the floor either. He stood on his back legs and tried to get into Joe’s bed, whining to come up until Joe lifted him on to the bed.

  ‘Just don’t have any accidents,’ he told the puppy as they fell asleep cuddled up together.

  Joe woke up to find Patch’s little tongue licking his face. He smiled and then looked down at the bottom of his bed and frowned.

  ‘Uh-oh.’

  Mum found him stuffing his wet quilt into the washing machine while Patch played with a sock that had fallen from the washing basket. Fortunately Patch was only a small puppy and so the mess he’d made on Joe’s bed wasn’t too bad.

  ‘Sorry –’ Joe started to say.

  But his mum just smiled and shrugged. ‘It’s what happens when you have a baby animal in the house,’ she said.

  ‘Are you pleased he’s here?’ Joe asked her as she took Patch’s food down from the shelf.

  ‘Very pleased. You’re doing a good job with him, Joe. A very good job. Your dad would be proud of you.’ She smiled.

  ‘I wish he could’ve met Patch.’

  ‘Me too.’

  Joe shook some of the food Mrs Hodges had given them into Patch’s bowl and then added some of the Helper Dogs puppy food to it.

  ‘Here you go, little pup,’ he said, putting it in front of the dog.

  Patch immediately dropped the sock, put his head down and gobbled it all up.

  ‘Mrs Hodges said puppies are always hungry,’ Joe told his mum.

  ‘Looks like she’s right.’

  ‘I hope all of Marnie’s puppies are having as nice a time as Patch is,’ Joe said as Patch licked his bowl until it shone.

  Chapter 11

  Patch saw Mr Humphreys up the ladder in the garden and ran over to him, yipping excitedly.

  ‘When’s he going to get properly trained?’ Mr Humphreys said.

  ‘He’s too young even to go to puppy classes,’ Joe told him. ‘Besides, Patch isn’t really allowed out of our house and garden yet because he hasn’t been fully vaccinated. He’s having the rest of his inoculations at the end of this week, so for the moment we just spend all day, every day together, playing.’ Joe smiled, but Mr Humphreys looked alarmed.

  ‘Well, don’t bring him too close then, I don’t want to catch anything,’ he muttered, quickly disappearing down his ladder, which was just fine with Joe.

  Patch liked playing with Squeaker and the ball Joe had bought him, but he also turned almost anything into a toy to be played with – a cardboard box one day, a cushion the next. A plastic bottle made a nice rattly sound and so did a crisp packet. And there was always his own tail to chase.

  One afternoon, Joe tried to teach Patch to sit as he’d seen the other dogs do at the classes Lenny ran.

  ‘Sit, Patch, sit,’ he instructed.

  Patch looked up at him with his head on one side, not at all sure what Joe wanted him to do.

  ‘Sit,’ Joe repeated, and he squatted as if he were about to sit. But Patch still didn’t do as he asked.

  Joe sat down on the floor and Patch jumped on to his lap and licked his face. Joe sighed, gently put Patch back on the ground and stood up. Maybe teaching Patch wasn’t going to be so easy after all.

  Patch looked up at Joe and then he sat down.

  ‘That’s it! Yes! Sit!’ Joe shouted. ‘Good dog!’

  ‘You OK, Joe?’ Mum called from upstairs.

  ‘Yes, I’m just teaching Patch to sit,’ he called back up to her.

  Patch pounced on Squeaker and dragged the snake over to Joe for a game.

  ‘Sit,’ Joe said, after they’d been playing for a little while, and he lifted his arm like a pendulum up to his chest.

  Patch wagged his tail, unsure what to do.

  ‘Sit,’ Joe said, repeating the gesture, and Patch sat.

  ‘Yes!’ Joe cried. ‘Yes, yes, yes!’ and he ran into the kitchen to get Patch a puppy treat and Patch ran after him, very excited too.

  In the days that followed, Patch learnt to ‘sit’, then Joe taught him to ‘wait’ and held up his hand in a ‘stop’
gesture to show the puppy what he meant. Patch was very eager to learn, especially when there were tasty treats involved.

  ‘He’s so smart, Mum,’ Joe told her a few days later over lunch. ‘Look what he can do now.’

  Having already taught Patch to sit and stand, and also to wait and come when he was called, Joe had now taught him something new.

  ‘Get your lead, Patch, get your lead,’ Joe said, pointing in the appropriate direction.

  Patch trotted over to his lead, which lay like a snake on the floor, picked it up in his mouth and brought it back to Joe.

  ‘Yay, well done, Patch!’

  ‘He really is a fast learner,’ said Joe’s mum. She crouched down and Patch ran into her arms to be stroked. He knew he’d done well.

  At the end of the week Lenny came round to see how they were all getting on and to take Joe and Patch to the vet.

  Before they left, Joe showed him the photos he’d taken.

  ‘There he is in the garden with Squeaker, his favourite toy … and there he is sleeping. It’s funny when he snores.’

  Lenny was really impressed. ‘And you’ve added these to his diary?’ he asked.

  ‘Yes, but I wasn’t sure how many photos I could put in the diary,’ Joe told him. ‘How many do you think would be OK?’

  ‘All of them,’ said Lenny. ‘If I was Sam, there could never be too many.’

  ‘Right,’ said Joe. If he was Sam, he’d want to see them all too.

  ‘I think Head Office are going to be very interested in seeing this diary too,’ added Lenny.

  ‘What else can I teach Patch? He’s so clever and he loves learning.’

  ‘That’s because you’re making his learning fun,’ Lenny explained, giving Patch a hug. ‘You’ve got a natural-born dog trainer for a son, Mary.’

  Joe blushed.

  ‘He does seem to have a way with him,’ Mum agreed.

  ‘You’ve made a fine start to Patch’s Helper Dog training,’ said Lenny. ‘And he’ll be well ahead of all the others at pre-puppy class.’

  Lenny drove Joe and Patch to the vet’s in the Helper Dogs van as Joe’s mum had a meeting.

  ‘Who’s this then?’ the receptionist asked as she came out from behind her desk to say hello to Lenny.