by Holly Webb
Jack sulked about the dog-training all weekend, but on Monday morning he suddenly brightened up. He seemed very eager for Emily to get off to school and leave him alone with Sam.
Emily couldn’t help wondering just what Jack was planning. It was obviously something to do with Sam. She got told off twice by her class teacher for not paying attention, and the second time he was really cross. So she wasn’t in a very good mood when Mum and Jack came to pick her up, and she got even grumpier when she saw Jack’s smug face.
“What have you been doing?” she growled. “You’d better not have spent all day messing around with Sam. He’s my dog!”
“Emily!” her mum said. “That’s not very nice!”
Emily stared at the ground, feeling even more annoyed with Jack.
Jack just beamed at her. “I’m doing dog-training too!” he announced proudly.
“Jack’s coming to dog-training?” Emily gave her mum a hurt look. “But Dad said—”
“Not your dog-training. That’s boring. My dog-training. I’m teaching Sam how to sing.” And Jack danced along the pavement, singing loudly to himself.
Emily sighed. Jack was so silly sometimes. “He’d have to be better than you!” she called after her brother.
Emily and her mum expected Jack’s singing lessons to last about a day, but surprisingly, he kept going. Every so often he would disappear off with Sam, and he got very huffy if anyone tried to join in.
Then one Friday afternoon, when Dad got home, Jack appeared in the kitchen looking very pleased with himself.
“Me an’ Sam have got something to show you!” he said, excitedly.
Mum and Emily exchanged a look. “Is this your singing?”Mum asked kindly.
Jack nodded. “You all have to listen. Sit down, Daddy,” he ordered.
Dad had been putting the kettle on, but he grinned, and found a chair. “Go on then. Where’s the star?”
Jack opened the kitchen door, and peered round. “Sam! Sammy! C’mon!”
Sam pattered in.
“Everybody ssshhhh!” Jack hissed. He sat down on the floor with Sam, and started to sing “Row, Row, Row Your Boat”.
Sam wagged his tail, lifted his nose up to the ceiling and barked along. “Ruff, ruff, ruff-ruff-ruff…”
When they finished, with a long howl from Sam, there was a stunned silence in the kitchen.
“Did I just imagine that?”Dad asked.
Emily shook her head. “No, he really did it!” She knelt down to make a big fuss of Sam. “You’re such a clever boy! I can’t believe you taught him that, Jack, that’s brilliant!”
“We’re going to learn ‘The Grand Old Duke of York’ next,” Jack said, pleased with the reaction he’d got. “But it’s a bit harder.”
The real dog-training classes started to go a lot better after the first couple of weeks – it was as though Sam suddenly got the hang of it. Emily felt really proud of him at the classes. He was so little compared to some of the other dogs, but he was one of the best ones there.
“Sam, sit!” Emily was standing just in front of him. Sam looked up at her enquiringly. Oh yes, he knew this one. He thumped his bottom down, tail swishing the grass happily.
“Good boy! Now, stay!” Emily turned and walked away.
Sam watched her uncertainly. He wanted to follow Emily, but he knew he wasn’t supposed to. He gave a little whine, hoping she might come back to him.
Emily looked round. “Stay, Sam!” she said firmly.
Sam sighed, and watched Emily with his head on one side, waiting. Yes! Now she was calling him. He leaped up and raced towards her, frisking round her legs happily.
“He’s doing really well, Emily, you’ve worked hard with him.” Lucy, the class instructor, was smiling down at Sam. “You gorgeous boy.” She tickled him under the chin, and Sam closed his eyes blissfully. “Right, everyone, we’re going to practise that a few more times.”
Emily told Sam to sit again, and walked back to the other side of the training area. Sam waited beautifully, and Emily glowed with pride. Quite a few people were standing with Dad, watching the class, and she imagined them all thinking how well behaved he was. One couple seemed particularly interested in the dogs, and Emily was sure she saw them point to Sam. They had a gorgeous pointer with them. Maybe they wanted to bring him to the class, although he looked a bit old. As Emily watched, the pointer half-turned to look at a dog walking behind him, and the man who was holding his lead yanked him back really hard.
The dog crouched back against the man’s legs with his shoulders hunched, looking miserable, and Emily gasped. That was so mean!
The man caught her watching, and smiled at her. Emily looked away quickly. She’d almost forgotten Sam, and she turned back to call him.
Sam had got a bit bored waiting, and he thought Emily had forgotten him too. He was creeping very slowly towards her on his bottom, with a “please don’t tell me off!” look on his face.
Emily giggled. He was so funny!
Emily soon stopped thinking about the couple with the pointer, she was too busy concentrating on Sam. At the end of the class Dad was full of praise for them both, and they were all walking happily back to the park gates when Sam turned round and yapped. The pointer was right behind him, and he wanted to say hello.
“Oh, sorry,” Dad said to the man holding him. “Is your dog friendly? Sam hasn’t met that many other dogs yet, he gets a bit excited.”
Emily glared. That wasn’t fair. Sam did like meeting other dogs, but they shouldn’t have been letting their pointer get that close if they didn’t want Sam to talk to him.
“Don’t worry! Bertie’s very friendly,” the man said, smiling.
Emily didn’t think the pointer looked that friendly. He looked as though he was too scared of being told off to do anything. He cowered away from the man, and something about the man’s too-nice voice made Emily shiver. She didn’t trust him.
“Your puppy is gorgeous,” the woman who was with him said. “Is he a pedigree Labrador?”
Dad said that Sam was indeed a pedigree dog, and mentioned the breeder he’d come from. The couple seemed very interested, and asked lots of friendly questions, but Emily still didn’t like them. She tugged at Dad’s hand, hoping to get him to leave, but he ignored her.
“Da-aaad… Can we go?” Emily muttered.
Dad looked down at her in surprise. “Wait a minute, Emily, we’re just chatting.” He frowned at her in a way that said “Behave!” and Emily scowled back. Couldn’t Dad see these weren’t nice people?
The woman crouched down to stroke Sam, and he backed away up against Emily and growled.
“Sam!” Dad sounded shocked, but Emily was glad. She didn’t want them touching him!
The woman smiled. “Don’t worry,” she said. “I probably smell of Bertie, and he doesn’t like it.”
Sam huddled close to Emily, still growling, but faintly so that only she could hear him. The woman didn’t smell of Bertie, she smelled of lots of dogs. Lots of unhappy dogs, and he didn’t want to be anywhere near her. He didn’t want to end up like Bertie.
Dad and Emily set off for home with Sam trotting along, walking to heel, like he’d been taught. Occasionally Emily had to remind him, but not very often.
Dad wasn’t noticing how well Sam was doing though. “Emily, that was very rude just now. You know better than that. What on earth’s the matter with you?”
Emily shrugged. It sounded a bit stupid, now they’d left the strange couple behind. “They just didn’t seem very nice,” she muttered. “I didn’t like them being so interested in Sam.”
“Emily, those people were perfectly nice. Don’t be so silly,” Dad snapped.
“But Sam didn’t like them either!” Emily protested. “Dogs are good at telling what people are really like!”
“Sam just picked up on your bad behaviour,” Dad said sternly. “I don’t want either of you being like that again. Now let’s get home.”
Emily walked alo
ng, glaring at the pavement as they turned into their road. Dad was being unfair, she was sure. She knew she was right not to trust them.
Sam looked up at her anxiously, sensing that something was wrong. Then suddenly the fur prickled on the back of his neck, and he looked behind him. His low growl jolted Emily out of her sulk, and she turned to see what Sam had seen.
The couple with the pointer were just walking past the end of Emily’s road, watching them…
Chapter Three
Now that Sam was walking so well on the lead, Mum let Emily take him on their walk to school on Monday morning. She said it wouldn’t be every day, though, she couldn’t cope with Sam and Jack!
They met lots of Emily’s school friends on the way, and they all fussed over Sam.
“He’s so cute!” Emily’s friend Ruby murmured, stroking Sam behind his ears. “You’re so lucky, Emily, my parents would never let me have a dog.”
Emily grinned, and gave Mum a quick, grateful look. She knew she was lucky. Then she stiffened, her heart jumping in surprise. It was those people again! The ones with Bertie! The Watsons, Dad had said they were called. She watched as they walked past on the other side of the road. Bertie looked even more sad than he had on Saturday – his head hung low and his tail drooped.
“What’s the matter, Emily?” Mum asked curiously, watching them too.
“N-nothing…” Emily didn’t want to sound silly, especially not with Ruby there. “I just saw someone from dog-training, that’s all.” She supposed they had every right to walk around the town. Maybe they just happened to live in a street near school, and Emily’s house, and the park… But she still had the strangest feeling that they were watching her. And Sam.
Emily tried not to worry about the man and woman with the pointer. Dad had been so sure she was being silly. But she couldn’t help looking over her shoulder every so often on the walk home from school, and the drive to her ballet class.
She gave Sam an extra-big cuddle that night as they settled down to sleep. Mum had been a bit worried about Sam sleeping on Emily’s bed, but he was really well house-trained now – and he howled if he was left downstairs! Emily was sure she slept much better with Sam curled up on her toes, although Dad had commented that they might need to get her a bigger bed when Sam was a fully-grown dog!
Sam loved sleeping on Emily’s bed, and he was quite certain that his basket was only for daytime naps. There was no way he was going to let Emily sleep without him guarding her.
That night, Sam was snoozing happily when his comfy nest of duvet suddenly wriggled. He opened one eye sleepily, and it wriggled again. This time he sat up and let out an indignant little woof. What was Emily doing? All he could see of her was a huddle of covers. He padded gently further up the bed to investigate.
Emily was muttering and moaning in her sleep, hitting at her pillow with her hands. Anxiously, Sam whined in her ear, trying to wake her up, but she didn’t notice him. Sam looked worriedly at her for a moment. Something was obviously wrong. He stuck his cold wet nose in the hollow under Emily’s chin, knowing that would wake her.
“Oh!” Emily sat up, looking relieved and scared at the same time. She hugged Sam. “Oh, Sam, that was horrible. I was having a really weird dream, about those people we saw in the park.” She shuddered, and Sam licked her sympathetically. He didn’t really understand what she meant, but she was obviously upset.
Emily shook her head, feeling dazed. She couldn’t remember the dream properly, just confused mind-pictures of lots of dogs barking sadly. But she knew it had been horrible, and she didn’t want to remember any more.
Sam snuggled up against her, trying to tell her that it would be all right.
“Oh, Sam…” Sleepily, Emily lay back down. “I do love you.”
Sam did understand that. Emily said it lots, and he knew it was very important.
I love you too, he told her firmly. And I’ll always be here. Now go to sleep. And this time he curled up by her shoulder, determined that nothing was going to hurt her, not while he was there to look after her.
But when Emily got home from school the next day, Sam wasn’t rushing down the hall to see her. Usually he met her at the door, barking delightedly, and wanting to be made a fuss of, but today there was no whirling, barking ball of golden fur. Emily checked upstairs while Mum tried to get Jack out of his coat. When she came back down, Mum had started making their tea, and was trying to explain to Jack why he couldn’t have fish fingers every day, and it had to be pasta sometimes. She didn’t really notice when Emily dashed out into the garden to look for Sam.
Sam wasn’t there. Emily hadn’t really expected him to be – Mum wouldn’t have left him out in the garden while she went to collect her from school – but she’d been getting a bit desperate. Sam wasn’t upstairs, and he definitely wasn’t downstairs, so if he wasn’t in the garden, where was he?
“Mum, I can’t find Sam!” Emily burst out, as she raced back into the kitchen.
“Don’t bang the door like that, Emily!”Mum said, with her head in the fridge.
“Sorry, but Mum, where’s Sam?”
“I should think he’s upstairs, having a sleep. I think that’s where he was when we left.” Mum still wasn’t really paying attention. “Or in the garden, maybe?”
“I’ve just looked in the garden!”
Emily grabbed her mum’s arm, desperate to make her listen. “He’s not upstairs either, I’ve looked. He’s not anywhere, Mum!”
“He must be…” Mum was actually paying attention now, but she didn’t seem to realize how serious this was. “He’s probably got shut in one of the rooms by accident, while I was vacuuming. Go and check all the bedrooms, Emily.”
Jack looked round from the table, where he was playing with his toy diggers. “No, Mummy, Sam’s with the lady,” he said helpfully.
Emily and Mum turned to stare at him, and Emily gasped in horror. “What lady?” she asked, barely able to speak.
Jack just shrugged. “The one that came to borrow Sam. When you were upstairs, Mummy.”
Mum knelt down by Jack’s chair and tried to get him to explain, but it was hard to get him to give any more details. He’d been riding his trike in the garden, and the lady had come in through the back gate. She’d said she was just borrowing Sam and she’d bring him back later.
“What did she look like?” Emily asked. “Tell me!”
“Just a lady!” Jack was sounding a bit cross and scared now. He didn’t understand why Emily was so angry with him, and Mum looked so panicked. “Oh!” He remembered something helpful. “She had red gloves,” he told Emily happily. “Sam didn’t like them, he tried to bite them.” He smiled at Emily, hoping she’d be pleased with him now, but she was crying, and he started to cry too. “When is the lady bringing Sam back?” he asked, miserably. “Mummy, when is Sam coming back?”
Emily’s mum phoned the police. It took ages, and she kept being put through to different people, but Emily and Jack stood next to her, listening hard and trying to work out what was happening. At last she put the phone down, and beckoned them over to sit on the sofa with her.
“Emily, the policeman I was just talking to, he’s in charge of an investigation at the moment. There’s – well, they think there’s a gang of what are called dog-nappers working in this area at the moment.”
“Dog-nappers?” Emily hadn’t ever heard the word before. Jack was just listening, wide-eyed and still teary. Emily wouldn’t talk to him, and he wanted Sam to come back, and he was miserable.
“Like kidnappers for dogs,” Mum said slowly, putting an arm round each of them. “Lots of pedigree dogs have gone missing round here recently, especially young dogs.”
“But what happens to them?” Emily whispered. She was still trying to understand what was going on – someone had stolen Sam!
Mum looked upset. She took Emily’s hand. “The policeman’s going to come round and ask us about what happened. We can ask him questions too.”
It s
hould have been exciting, having a policeman coming to their house, like being part of an adventure story, The Case of the Stolen Dogs. But it wasn’t. Emily would much rather have had Sam back and no adventure at all.
Jack was thrilled to have a real police car outside the house at first, but then the policeman wanted to ask him what had happened when Sam was taken, and he went completely shy and wouldn’t say anything. Emily felt like screaming at him – she was furious that he’d just sat there on his trike while Sam got stolen, and now he wouldn’t even help!
The policeman made notes about what Sam looked like, and said it was good that they’d let him know quickly. “But he’s a valuable dog, I’m afraid, and being so young as well, he’s going to be very easy for them to sell on.”
Emily looked at him, confused. “But we’ll get him back before he gets sold, won’t we? You’ll find him.”
The policeman just looked sad, and gave a funny sort of cough.
Mum didn’t say anything for a moment. Then she hugged Emily tighter.
“Emily, the police will do their best, of course, but the dog-nappers are very well organized. The gang seem to be able to make dogs just disappear.”
Emily swallowed. “So – we might never get Sam back…?” Tears rolled down her face, and her nose started to run. She didn’t care. She stared at the policeman, who looked so out of place in their living room. “You mean we might never see him again?”
Chapter Four
Shut away in the dark, Sam howled for Emily to come and find him. This was far worse than being left at home while they all went off to school, and playgroup, and shopping. He padded anxiously around the little wire pen, sniffing the strange smells. There were other dogs here. Sam could hear them, barking and whining, angry about being shut up in their pens. He was sure that there had been at least five different dogs living in this pen before him, too. He just didn’t understand why.