Echo Come Home

by Megan Rix

  He looked at all the pictures of dogs, trying to find one similar to Echo, but there weren’t any that looked exactly like the little dog he’d named.

  ‘I’ll take a photo of him on my phone next time I see him,’ he told Tony, pulling his phone from his pocket and seeing that it had no power left.

  ‘Hey, Jake,’ Tony said, just as Jake was about to leave.

  ‘Yeah?’

  ‘Your dog might like this,’ he said, and he threw Jake an orange-and-blue ball that Jake squeezed. It was soft in the centre.

  ‘It squeaks when you do that,’ Tony told him.

  Jake grinned. ‘Thanks!’ he said.

  ‘Where were you?’ Jake’s mum cried, when he finally got home. ‘We’ve been worried sick. Helper Dogs said you’d left ages ago.’

  ‘Mum was just about to phone the police,’ Vicky told him. Her brother was so irresponsible.

  ‘Been at Tony’s,’ Jake said.

  ‘Who’s Tony?’ his mum wanted to know.

  Jake thought for a moment and then he smiled. ‘Friend from school,’ he said. He liked saying the words – and having a friend.

  Vicky and his mum stared after him as he headed up to his room.

  ‘But he doesn’t have any friends at school,’ Vicky said.

  CHAPTER 6

  ‘Can I take him for a walk?’ Jake asked, when he arrived at Helper Dogs on Monday afternoon.

  Echo immediately jumped up and ran over to the kennel door, then looked back at Jake, as if to say: ‘Come on then!’

  ‘Do you think he understands the word “walk”?’ Jake asked.

  ‘Looks like it,’ said Lenny.

  ‘Most of the dogs know at least fifty words by the time they leave here, some of them maybe even a hundred. Echo’s a very clever little dog,’ Becca said.

  Jake was really impressed. ‘I bet most people couldn’t understand a hundred different dog noises,’ he said.

  ‘We use signs as well as talking to the dogs because we know that whoever the dog is placed with will use one or the other of them, or both,’ Lenny told him. ‘But this one is most of the dogs’ favourite sign.’ He held both his thumbs up.

  Echo’s tail immediately started wagging and he came running over to Lenny and put his paw out.

  ‘It means “good dog” and is usually accompanied by a treat,’ Lenny said, as he pulled a little square of cheese from the treat bag on his waist and gave it to Echo.

  Jake loved the idea that Echo would know sign language too.

  ‘Can we go for that walk now?’ he asked, and made the sign for ‘walk’ by wiggling his middle and index finger back and forth.

  Echo jumped up as soon as Jake took his lead off the peg on the wall. Time to play!

  Lenny watched the two of them heading off together. If ever a boy and a dog were made for each other, it was those two.

  Jake pulled the squeaky ball Tony had given him from his pocket and threw it across the grass.

  ‘Fetch!’ Jake shouted, and he and Echo ran as fast as they could after the ball.

  ‘Good dog,’ Jake said, when they reached it. Echo picked it up in his mouth, looked up at Jake and wagged his tail.

  Jake pulled a bit of chicken from the paper towel he’d wrapped it in at lunchtime when the dinner lady wasn’t looking. Tony had given him a fish finger from his plate for Echo too and that was in another paper towel.

  Jake threw the ball in the other direction and the two of them raced after it once again.

  Echo thought the fish finger was just as delicious as the chicken.

  ‘Sit,’ Jake told him, and Echo tilted his head to one side. He’d heard the word ‘sit’ a lot today at the obedience class Lenny had taken him to.

  ‘Sit,’ Jake said, and then he made the sign for ‘sit’, which was a bit awkward as he really needed to use both hands. But Echo understood what he wanted and sat. ‘Yes!’ Jake shouted with happiness, as Echo jumped up, wagging his tail, and swallowed down the rest of the fish finger in one greedy gulp.

  Jake took lots of photos of Echo on his phone and texted them to his dad who was travelling around Italy for work.

  Sometimes in the school holidays he kept his dad company on his long-haul trips, sitting high up in the cab as they drove along the open roads. His dad would turn the radio up really, really loud and they’d both sing along to it as loudly as they could. Vicky said Jake sounded like a strangled crow when he sang, but his dad didn’t care.

  He always made Jake laugh and Jake missed him when he wasn’t there.

  Piccola canaglia, his dad texted back a few minutes later, which apparently meant little rascal in Italian.

  Echo was that all right. Jake sent him a thumbs-up emoticon.

  He’d marked off the days until his dad was coming home on the calendar on the fridge. Until then his dad would have to make do with photos of Echo. He was sure his dad would love the little dog when he met him just as much as Jake did.

  At school the next day Jake didn’t go straight to his desk, looking down at his feet and avoiding everyone’s eyes, like he usually did. Instead he went over to Tony and tapped him on the shoulder. He held up his phone so Tony could see the pictures of Echo he’d taken.

  Tony especially liked the ones of Echo with the squeaky ball that he’d given Jake.

  ‘He loved that!’ Jake grinned.

  He took his phone back as Miss Dawson came in and went to sit down at his desk at the front. He couldn’t wait for the weekend when he’d be able to spend all day with Echo and not just a few hours after school. But he was also worried. What if his real owner came forward and claimed him? What if Echo was gone before then?

  ‘How’s it going?’ Heather signed to Jake when he popped into the hearing club after school on his way to Helper Dogs.

  Jake showed Heather a photo of Echo on his phone and Heather signed ‘cute’ and ‘smart’.

  Jake smiled. Echo was definitely both those things.

  ‘Got to go,’ he signed and headed off to see the little dog.

  CHAPTER 7

  It had been a whole week since Echo had been caught by the dog warden and brought to the dog rescue centre. A lot had changed for the little dog in that time, but no one had come forward to claim him.

  Every morning he waited in his kennel for Jake to arrive and on Saturday morning Jake was there even before Echo had had his breakfast. Echo was so excited to see him he ran round and round in circles and then picked up a soft giraffe toy from his bed and brought it over to Jake.

  ‘He’s always very pleased to see you,’ Lenny said. And very sad when you go, he thought, but he didn’t say so because he didn’t want to upset Jake.

  The truth was Echo came alive when the boy was there and slumped when he left.

  ‘The seven days are up,’ Jake said, and Lenny knew immediately what he meant.

  ‘Yes, and no one came forward so now we can train Echo to be a hearing helper dog.’

  ‘So why did the person who had him before let him go?’ Jake asked, shaking his head. ‘And why didn’t they report him missing? If he’d been my dog, I’d never have given him up, not even for a billion pounds, and I’d never stop looking for him if he was lost.’

  ‘We don’t know,’ Lenny said. ‘And Echo wasn’t microchipped so there’s no way to find out who his original owner was.’

  No owner meant Echo could continue with his hearing helper dog training and hopefully one day become a hearing dog. Best of all would be if he became Jake’s hearing dog. Only …

  ‘What if he does belong to someone, but they didn’t microchip him or it didn’t work for some reason? What if there is someone out there looking for him?’ Jake said. What if someone loved him just as much as he did and was searching for him?

  But Lenny shook his head. ‘Karen, who runs the dog rescue centre, contacted all the vets and dog wardens and lost dog sites, just as she always does for all the animals that are picked up on the streets. She circulated his picture to everyone she could th
ink of, but no one knew of anyone looking for a dog matching his description.’

  Jasper, the ginger-and-white cat, came over for a stroke.

  ‘Jasper was another stray,’ Lenny told Jake. ‘He came here from the same rescue centre as Echo. That was a few years ago now and he’s made himself quite at home.’ He stroked the cat who rubbed one side of his furry face and then the other side against Lenny’s hand. ‘He shows the helper dogs how cats prefer to be treated, don’t you, Jasper?’ The cat purred, as Lenny continued to stroke him.

  ‘Echo seems to like him,’ Jake said, as the little dog wagged his tail at the cat.

  ‘Yes, and Jasper feels the same way. Sometimes he even tries to slip into Echo’s kennel when I open the door. Echo’s very friendly and the puppies here learn fast, but sometimes, for the rescue dogs who’ve been used to chasing cats, it’s a lot harder to stop them from doing so.’

  Once Echo had finished his breakfast, it was time for his training to properly begin. Jasper followed the three of them over to the training room, which was fitted out to look as much like a normal room in a house as possible.

  Becca was there waiting for them.

  ‘We need Echo to look at a person’s face when his name’s being called or signed,’ Lenny told Jake. ‘That’s why the name Echo is so good and will help him learn to pay attention quickly.’

  ‘Why?’ Jake asked.

  ‘Because of how it’s signed,’ Lenny said, and Jake’s eyes widened and then he grinned as he did the sign: two index fingers going outwards from his chest and then one index finger coming back. Like it was returning or echoing.

  ‘Echo!’ Jake called, as he did the sign, and Echo immediately looked over at him and Jake held up his thumbs to let him know he’d done well.

  ‘He’s very good at making eye contact,’ Lenny said. Some dogs needed a lot of practice before they actually looked someone in the eye.

  ‘Better than me,’ Jake agreed, and when Lenny looked over at him he looked down at his feet and then back up at him and grinned.

  Jasper nimbly jumped up on to the made-up bed in the corner of the room, lay down on the pillow and went to sleep.

  In the training room there was a doorbell on the back and front of the door, a phone on a small table, a smoke alarm on the wall, an alarm clock next to the bed that Jasper was now lying on and an oven timer beside an oven.

  ‘It’s harder for the dogs to learn what they need to do when the fire alarm goes off so we teach that last,’ Becca told Jake. ‘They have to know that they can’t lead their owner back to the fire to show them what’s wrong, but must lie down flat on the ground to clearly indicate that there’s danger.’

  ‘Let’s see what Echo can learn,’ said Lenny.

  When the oven timer went off, Jake made the sign for ‘Where?’ with both hands at waist height, palms up and then moving them in a small circle as well as saying the word.

  Echo looked up at him with his head tilted to one side and then looked over at where the sound was coming from.

  ‘Good dog,’ Jake said, as the two of them went over to the oven timer. He gave Echo a treat when they got there.

  Becca rang the doorbell on the outside of the door to the training room and Echo looked over in that direction.

  ‘Good dog,’ Lenny said, and he gave Echo another treat.

  Becca rang the doorbell again and Echo looked again and got another treat and lots of praise. Then the alarm clock went off and Echo looked over at that too.

  ‘We’re not expecting him to identify all the sounds yet and after a while we’ll make them harder to find and move them around so they’re not always in the same place. That’ll come after he’s learnt to alert you that there’s a sound in the first place.’

  Jake nodded as he listened to Lenny. There was no background noise of TV’s or radios at the centre to distract him. Plus the room had a carpet on the floor and curtains at the windows. Soft furnishings absorbed sound and made it easier to hear with his hearing aids.

  From what Lenny said there was a lot for the little dog to learn and it would take a great deal of concentration from him. Sometimes Jake got really tired at school when he had to concentrate hard to keep up with what was going on.

  While Echo took a nap, Jake did his homework in the Helper Dogs cafe. His mum had made him promise that the dog training wouldn’t distract him from his schoolwork. It was boring, but the thought of playing with Echo afterwards made him work harder than he ever had before and he was able to finish it quite quickly. Then it was back to the training room.

  ‘We try to keep the training short and fun with lots of food treats. Always more positive than negative,’ Lenny said. ‘Because we want the dogs to be confident and to think for themselves.

  ‘One of the first things I teach them is to fetch someone,’ Lenny told Jake. ‘The dog needs to alert a deaf person by touching them with their paw or nudging them with their nose. A bark won’t do if someone can’t hear it.’

  Echo was lying beside Jake and didn’t really want to go with Lenny when Lenny called him away.

  ‘Go on, Echo,’ Jake said, pointing at Lenny across the room, and finally Echo went, but he looked back at Jake all the time.

  ‘Fetch Jake,’ Lenny told Echo, as he pointed to Jake and Echo raced back to him, his tail wagging. Lenny shook his head. It wasn’t quite what he wanted, but it was early days yet.

  ‘Let’s try to teach Echo to alert you by putting a paw on your leg. You sit over there, Jake; a paw on the leg is easier for Echo if you’re sitting down. Now don’t look at him.’

  Jake sat down and turned away from Echo, as Lenny took the little dog by his lead and led him across to the other side of the room.

  ‘Fetch Jake,’ Lenny said. Echo raced back over, but Jake was facing away from him. Echo whined, but Jake didn’t hear him. Echo tried to get round in front of Jake, but Jake moved so he was still facing away from him. Echo was now very confused. Finally, he jumped up at Jake to get his attention.

  ‘Good dog!’ Lenny cried. ‘Good dog!’ It was just what he wanted. ‘Praise him, Jake.’

  And Jake threw his arms round the little dog and told him how good he was and the next time Lenny sent Echo to fetch Jake, and Jake wasn’t looking, Echo knew what to do. He put his paw on Jake’s leg and, when Jake looked round, he wagged his tail and led him over to Lenny.

  When Jake got home, he decided to have a go at making some home-made dog treats for Echo.

  ‘What’s that smell?’ Vicky said, as she and Mum came into the kitchen. She had just come back from ice skating with her friends.

  ‘Peanut-butter dog biscuits,’ Jake said. ‘I’m making some for Echo only there wasn’t any peanut butter left so I used peanuts and a little bit of groundnut oil and blended them together.’

  ‘We used to make home-made peanut butter when I was a girl,’ Mum said. ‘It’s much tastier than from the shops.’

  ‘They smell really good,’ Vicky said.

  ‘Taste good too,’ Jake said.

  ‘You’ve been eating dog biscuits?’ Vicky said in horror. ‘That’s disgusting!’

  Jake laughed. ‘They’re not so different from human biscuits. They don’t have anything we don’t eat in them only much less salt.’

  Vicky tried one and nodded. ‘Not bad at all,’ she said.

  Mum tried one too and gave a thumbs up as she chewed it.

  ‘I just hope Echo likes them,’ Jake smiled.

  CHAPTER 8

  On Sunday morning, Jake’s mum gave him a lift to Helper Dogs and decided to come in with him.

  ‘Just for a little while,’ she said, when she saw Jake’s less than enthusiastic expression.

  Echo was, as always, over the moon to see Jake and he ran round and round in circles as Jake and his mum headed towards the kennels.

  ‘Wish Echo’d make as much fuss when I turned up in the morning,’ Becca said to Lenny.

  ‘Jake’s probably the first person Echo’s loved or been loved by,
’ Lenny said, as Jake walked up to them with a big smile on his face. ‘I’d say they were made for each other.’

  ‘Me too,’ Becca agreed.

  Echo’s training was a breeze when Jake was working with him, but a much harder slog when it was anyone else.

  Echo stood on his back paws and wagged his tail and made excited, happy little whining sounds when Jake stopped outside his kennel.

  ‘Morning,’ Jake said, as Echo went just about crazy with joy. He gave the little dog one of the peanut-butter treats he’d made for him and as Echo gobbled it up he smiled. The little dog seemed to love them just as much as everyone else had.

  Jake’s mum watched him and Echo together. The little dog had changed her son from a boy who always seemed sad to one who usually had a smile on his face.

  ‘Hello there, Echo,’ she said, and, when Jake went to fetch a fresh bowl of water, she whispered ‘thank you’ to the little dog. Then she had a quick word with Lenny to thank him too.

  ‘Here you are, Echo,’ Jake said, coming back with the water.

  ‘See you later, Jake,’ his mum said. ‘Bye, Echo, bye, Lenny.’

  Jake gave Echo another of the peanut treats, which he gobbled down, and then he sat down and looked up at Jake with his head tilted to one side, his meaning crystal-clear.

  ‘They’re nearly all gone already,’ Jake said, as he gave him another one.

  He pulled the squeaky ball from his pocket and Echo immediately jumped up, his tail wagging, and looked over at the peg where his lead was hung.

  ‘Ten minutes’ play and then he needs to work,’ Lenny said.

  Jake grinned and grabbed the lead.

  Echo tried his best to walk on a loose lead, but playing was so much fun and he couldn’t wait to get to the field. Every now and again he forgot that he shouldn’t pull and strained on his lead as he tried to get there faster.

  At long last, they arrived. Jake unclipped his lead and threw the ball for Echo to race after. Echo picked it up in his mouth and came running back with it so it could be thrown again.

  Jake was sure the little dog would be happy playing ball all day, but Lenny had said they only had ten minutes so after that they headed back.