by Holly Webb
Lauren and Mum watched too, and Dad left the pasta sauce he was stirring and came to peer over their shoulders, holding a tomatoey wooden spoon.
“It’s feeding,” Lauren whispered excitedly, seeing the little shoulders moving.
Mum nodded. “And as all the others are asleep, hopefully it’ll be able to keep feeding for a while.”
“Oh, that’s good.” Dad sighed with relief. “And good timing. Dinner’s ready.”
Lauren went to bed that night very reluctantly. She wanted to stay and watch the puppies, especially the tiniest one. She was still worried that it wasn’t getting enough milk. Because it wasn’t as big as the others, it couldn’t wriggle its way back to Bella’s teats when it got pushed away, like the others could. Instead of barging past its brothers and sisters, the littlest puppy would just whine miserably and go back to sleep.
“Can’t I stay up a bit longer? It’s the first day of the holidays tomorrow,” Lauren begged.
“It’s already an hour later than bedtime!” Mum pointed out. “You can come down early in the morning to see them. But now you need to go to bed.”
Lauren sighed, recognizing Mum’s no-argument voice. Still, she was sure she wouldn’t ever sleep.
Lauren woke up suddenly, to find her bedroom in darkness. So she had fallen asleep after all.
She sat up, hugging her knees. What time was it? It felt like the middle of the night. She glanced at her luminous clock. Two o’clock in the morning. Lauren shuddered. No wonder it was so dark. She lay down again, but she didn’t feel sleepy any more. Something was worrying her, and she wasn’t sure what it was. Then she realized – the puppies! Of course, how could she have forgotten about them?
She couldn’t hear any noise from downstairs. Bella and the puppies were probably fast asleep. But she couldn’t stop worrying that something was wrong, and that was why she had woken up.
It wouldn’t hurt to go and have a look, would it? Lauren smiled to herself – Mum had said she could come down early to see the puppies, after all. She probably hadn’t meant quite this early, but still…
She got out of bed and crept over to her door, quickly pulling on her dressing gown. As she ran across the landing to the stairs, she could hear her dad snoring. She hurried down the stairs, and into the kitchen. She could make out little squeaks and sucking noises – the puppies were awake and feeding, but that wasn’t really surprising. Lauren had been reading Mum’s puppy books, and it said that for the first couple of weeks they would need to feed every two hours.
Mum had left a small lamp from the living room plugged in on the counter, so Bella had a bit of light for feeding the puppies. Bella was lying on her side looking sleepy, but she thumped her tail gently on the floor of the pen as she saw Lauren.
“Hey, Bella. I just came to see how you all are,” Lauren whispered, kneeling beside the pen.
Bella closed her eyes wearily, as Lauren patted her head and leaned over to count the puppies. Then she counted them again. Only nine!
Where was the little puppy with the brown eyebrows?
“Oh, Bella, where’s it gone?” Lauren whispered, but Bella was half-asleep, and she only twitched her tail.
Lauren checked behind Bella, where the puppy had ended up before, but there was nothing there. She was sure the other puppies weren’t lying on the little one, and it couldn’t possibly have climbed out. Frantically, Lauren started to feel around the shadowy edges of the box.
“Oh!” Lauren gasped, as she touched something little and soft, pushed away in the corner. “There you are!” She picked up the puppy, waiting for it to squeak and complain, but it didn’t make a sound. “Oh, no, I didn’t wash my hands – I suppose it’s too late now.” Lauren lifted the puppy up to see better, and realized that it was saggy and cold in her hands.
“Oh no, please…” she murmured, and snuggled the puppy in a fold of her dressing gown. “Mum! Dad!” she yelled, as she raced back up the stairs. “We need to call the vet!”
Chapter Four
“It woke up a little bit while I was holding it,” Lauren explained to Mark, the vet. “Is it going to be all right?”
Mark put away his stethoscope and looked at the puppy thoughtfully. “You did really well to catch her when you did, Lauren. She’s a she, by the way.”
Lauren smiled, just a little. She had thought the puppy was a she – it was something about those cute brown eyebrows.
“It looks to me like she was slipping away,” Mark went on, gently stroking the puppy’s head. “Puppies can’t control how warm or cold they are, they need their mum to keep them warm. You cuddling her warmed her up again. The real problem is that she’s not strong enough to feed properly by herself. But you could hand-rear her.” He glanced up at Lauren, and her mum and dad. “I can’t promise she’ll make it. But it’s worth a try. It’s a lot of work, though.”
Lauren’s dad frowned. “What does hand-rearing mean, exactly? I’ve looked after puppies before, but I’ve never had to hand-rear one. Would we feed her with a bottle?”
“A baby’s bottle?” Lauren asked, looking at the tiny puppy. She was about the same size as a baby’s bottle!
Mark shook his head. “No, a special puppy one. I’ve got one somewhere.” He rooted about in his bag. “Here it is. I nipped into the surgery when you called and picked up some puppy milk replacement, and some advice on hand-rearing.” He handed Lauren’s dad a jar of white powder, and a leaflet. “You mix it with water, just like baby formula. Puppies can’t drink cows’ milk, it’s got the wrong mix of nutrients.”
Lauren’s dad read the instructions on the jar. “Every two hours?” he asked, sounding slightly worried.
“Only for the first week,” Mark reassured him. “After that you’ll probably be able to leave her without a feed through the middle of the night.”
Dad rubbed his eyes wearily – it was now four o’clock in the morning. He and Mum ran their own mail-order business from home, and he’d been up late checking orders. He nodded. “Well, that’s what we’ll do.” He glanced at Mum, who was looking anxious. “We can’t not,” he added gently.
Mum nodded. “Of course. It’s going to be hard though.” She smiled at Lauren. “A bit like when you were little.”
Mark smiled. “But puppies grow faster than babies. They stop drinking their mum’s milk at about seven weeks old. This little one should be feeding herself before you know it.”
Lauren nodded. If it worked… Mark hadn’t sounded absolutely sure that it would. But Lauren had already saved this puppy once, and if it was anything to do with her, the little one was going to make it.
“I’ll do it,” she said to her parents. “The feeding, I mean. I don’t mind.”
“You can’t get up every two hours in the middle of the night!” Mum said, sounding horrified.
Lauren went over to fill the kettle. “We should feed her now, shouldn’t we? Do we have to use boiled water? Like Millie’s mum uses for her little sister’s bottles?”
Mark grinned at Lauren’s parents. “It sounds like Lauren knows what she’s doing.”
Lauren beamed at him. She really wanted to help, but she had a feeling Mum and Dad weren’t going to be keen. “Do we have to keep the puppy separate from the others?” she asked, trying hard to think of anything else they might need to know.
Mark frowned. “I would for tonight. She’s obviously having trouble keeping warm, she’ll need a box and a hot-water bottle. Look, the leaflet shows you. But after tonight, she’d be better off staying with her mum and the rest of the puppies, if she can. Just take her out for her feeds. Best of luck, and if there’s any problems, give the surgery a ring.”
The boiled water took ages to cool down, and Lauren kept wanting to blow on it.
Mum went to prepare a box for Lucy, and Dad sat at the kitchen table reading the instruction leaflet Mark had left. “Small cardboard box. Blanket. Hot-water bottle,” he muttered. “We should have thought about all of this before, but it just never c
rossed my mind that we’d have so many and Bella wouldn’t be able to feed them all. Uuurrgh!”
“What?” Lauren turned round, still cradling the puppy.
Dad was making a face. “According to this leaflet, we’re going to have to help the puppy poo… They don’t do it themselves, apparently, so because Bella won’t be licking her after she’s fed, we’ll have to wipe round her bottom with wet cotton wool.”
Lauren made a face back. That was a bit yucky. But it didn’t put her off. She was going to do anything she had to, to keep the puppy going. Even if that meant making her poo.
“I think this water’s cool enough to mix the formula now. Not long till you can have some milk, Lucy.”
“Lucy?” Mum asked. “When did you name her?”
Lauren looked up. “I didn’t even notice I had! But don’t you think she looks like her name’s Lucy?”
Mum nodded, but she was frowning, and Lauren bit her lip. She had a horrible feeling that Mum hadn’t wanted her to name the tiny puppy in case she didn’t make it.
Lauren carefully spooned the powder into the bottle, and mixed in the water. “Wake up, little one… Does it say how to hold her, Dad?”
Her dad skimmed through the instructions. “Flat, on her tummy, not on her back like a human baby. Here, look, on a towel.” He laid a towel over Lauren’s knees, and Lauren set Lucy down on her tummy. Her paws splayed out and she scrabbled a little and let out a tiny squeak, unsure what was going on.
“It’s OK.” Lauren picked up the bottle, and gently put it against Lucy’s mouth.
“Squeeze the bottle a little,” Mum suggested. “She doesn’t know what it is. Let her taste a few drops of the milk.”
All of a sudden Lucy started to suck eagerly, as she tasted the milk in her mouth. Her tiny pink paws, with their little transparent claws, pattered against Lauren’s fingers, making her giggle. “Wow, she was ready for that.”
Lucy only took five minutes to down the bottle.
“Goodness, should we give her some more?” Mum asked.
Lauren shook her head. “No, this is how much Mark said for now. The tub of powder says how much you give for what size of puppy over a whole day, and then you have to divide that up between the feeds.” She gave a big yawn, and on her knee, Lucy did the same.
Mum laughed. “I think we should all go to bed. Especially if we have to be up at six-thirty to feed her again.”
Lauren looked up at her mum hopefully. “Mum, my bedroom’s lovely and warm, and if I have her box in there, I can keep an eye on her…”
“But we have to feed her so early. You don’t want to get up at half-past six in the holidays!” Dad smiled.
“I do, I really do!” Lauren promised. “I was the one who woke up and found her, Dad. I really want to help.”
Dad looked over at Lauren’s mum. “What do you think, Annie?”
Mum sighed. “I suppose so. But only for tonight, Lauren. Tomorrow, when she’s a bit stronger, Lucy can go back with Bella and the other puppies.”
Lauren nodded eagerly and picked up the cardboard box. Inside, Lucy was snuggling up against the well-wrapped hot-water bottle. She looked happier than she had all day, Lauren thought. She padded back up the stairs, yawning uncontrollably. She set the box down next to her bed, and fell asleep listening to the minute wheezy breaths from inside the box.
It was really hard to get up when Dad came in at half-past six, but Lauren dragged herself out of bed, and carried Lucy’s box downstairs to watch Dad make up her next feed. The trip downstairs hadn’t disturbed Lucy at all, she noticed with a smile. The puppy was still snoozing peacefully next to the cooling hot-water bottle.
In the kitchen, Bella was out of the puppy pen looking hungry, and Lauren fed her while Dad boiled the kettle.
“Can I feed Lucy again?” Lauren begged, and Dad handed her the bottle.
“You might as well – you certainly seemed to have the knack earlier!”
Going downstairs might not have woken Lucy, but the smell of the puppy formula certainly did, and she was gasping and squeaking with excitement as soon as Lauren held the bottle to her mouth.
After she’d cleaned Lucy up, Lauren took her over to Bella. She and Dad hovered anxiously, not too close to the puppy pen, watching to see how Bella would react.
“I hope Lucy will be all right,” Lauren muttered. “It said in that leaflet that sometimes the mum tries to lick the human smell away and accidentally hurts the puppy.”
Dad put an arm round her shoulders. “We’ll watch really carefully,” he promised. “And it’s not as if Bella’s a dog at a big breeder’s, who lives outside and doesn’t really know people that well. She’s part of our family. Hopefully our smell won’t upset her too much.”
“Look!” Lauren whispered.
Bella was sniffing thoughtfully at Lucy, and Lauren held her breath as Bella started to lick the little puppy. But Bella didn’t look at all upset, just a little surprised.
Lauren giggled. “I think Bella’s so worn out I bet she’d hardly noticed Lucy was gone!”
Over the next few days, Lauren was sure that Lucy had started to recognize her. If Lucy started squeaking in her box, she would calm down as soon as Lauren picked her up, but not if it was Mum or Dad. Lauren knew it was probably just that Lucy recognized her by smell as the person who usually fed her, but it still made her feel special. She couldn’t wait for Lucy to open her eyes, so that the puppy could see her as well as smell her.
Mum and Dad were supposed to be taking it in turns to do the night feeds, but Lauren couldn’t help waking up when she heard the alarm go off in their bedroom. And once she was awake, she just couldn’t stay in bed. Mum even stopped telling her off about it by the end of their second night of puppy-rearing.
Lucy was putting on weight now, although not as fast as the other puppies, who were fat and glossy-furred. She adored her feeds, but Lauren suspected she might always be a bit smaller than her brothers and sisters.
Lucy squeaked and sucked at Lauren’s fingers as Lauren scooped her up. She knew Lauren’s scent, and she was sure it was time for Lauren to feed her, and she was so, so hungry.
Lauren giggled as Lucy’s little pink paws flailed around. “I’m just waiting for it to cool down. You don’t want to burn your mouth!”
Lucy squeaked even louder. Where was the milk?
“OK, OK, here you go.”
Lucy sighed happily, and settled down to sucking. That was much better.
After the first week, Lauren and her parents could leave Lucy for six hours in the middle of the night without a feed. Dad said he’d do the midnight feed on his own – he was used to staying up late working anyway. Lauren had to admit it was really nice to get a proper night’s sleep again, even though she still had to get up super-early for Lucy’s morning feed.
Millie came to visit the puppies when they were about two weeks old.
“Can I feed Lucy?” she asked hopefully. “That photo you sent me of you feeding her was so cute. She’s even more gorgeous now her eyes are open, though.”
“She is, isn’t she?” Lauren agreed, handing Millie the bottle.
Lucy watched Lauren the whole time she was feeding, and Lauren could tell she was a bit confused why somebody else was holding her bottle.
“You have to burp her now, like your mum burps Amy!” Lauren told Millie, when Lucy had finished.
Now that the puppies were two weeks old, their eyes were open, although they still hadn’t really started to move around much. The really exciting thing was that their markings were starting to come through. Lucy had more brown on her face now, not just her pretty eyebrows, and all the puppies were changing every day.
Even though the puppies were still too tiny to really play with, Millie didn’t want to leave when her mum came to pick her up.
Lauren waved goodbye from the door, and sighed as Millie’s car disappeared down the lane. She really missed seeing her best friend every day.
“Lauren, I’ve
got some really exciting news,” her mum started, as she came back into the kitchen. “Hey, what’s the matter?”
“I just wish I could see Millie more often in the holidays, that’s all. Email and phoning aren’t the same as having a friend close by.”
Her mum gave her a hug. “This is going to be extra-good news for you, then.” She beamed at Lauren. “We’ve rented out the cottage. To a family with a boy the same age as you!”
Lauren blinked. The cottage was on the other side of the orchard, just beyond the farmyard. The old tenant had left ages ago, and Lauren had forgotten they were trying to find someone new.
“He’s called Sam Martin, and he’s got a little sister called Molly. Isn’t that wonderful? You’ll have a friend really close by!”
Lauren nodded slowly, but she wasn’t sure it was all that wonderful. What if she didn’t like this boy? And even if she did, he wouldn’t be as good a friend as Millie.
Chapter Five
“Oh, that sounds like the Martins at the door!” Mum fussed around the kitchen, putting the kettle on. “Would you open it, Lauren?”
It was two weeks after Mum had broken the news about the new neighbours moving in, and they’d said they were going to pop round that afternoon. Lauren still couldn’t help wishing it was a girl her age rather than a boy. And she didn’t want some strange boy and his little sister messing around with Lucy and upsetting her. Instead of opening the door, she quickly dashed upstairs with Lucy, and stashed her in the box she’d slept in on the first night. Mum still let her take Lucy upstairs occasionally, and Lucy couldn’t get out of the box yet, although she really liked trying.