by Holly Webb
Luckily for Buttons, the bolt was old and loose, but not rusty, and when she dragged at it with her strong, young teeth, it slid back easily enough. The gate opened, and Buttons sat in front of it, looking out at the street in amazement. She had done it!
Now all she had to do was find Sophie.
Buttons trotted out into the street. Then she stared back at the house, one last time, hoping the front door would open, and Mr Jenkins would come out, saying he was all right now. She wouldn’t even mind if he told her off for opening the gate.
But the door stayed firmly shut. Buttons looked up and down the road. She needed to find Sophie’s house. Maybe she could sniff her out.
“Naughty dog!” someone shouted, and Buttons raced off. She knew that voice – the angry lady with the cat. She wanted Buttons to come back, but Buttons wasn’t going to let anyone stop her now.
Buttons sped round the corner, looking back over her shoulder anxiously. No one was following. Good. She looked at the houses on either side of the road, and her tail drooped. How was she supposed to know which house was Sophie’s? She was sure it had to be along here somewhere – she could feel that she’d gone in the right direction. But working out exactly which house lined up with hers was beyond her.
Perhaps she could call Sophie? She barked hopefully, then louder and louder again. Nothing happened.
Buttons sat down in the middle of the pavement and howled. She would never find Sophie.
“Buttons!”
Sophie came running along the pavement towards her, followed by Tom and Michael. “I told you I heard her barking. There is something wrong, I know there is. Oh no, I hope she hasn’t been chasing that cat.”
Buttons ran up to them, wagging her tail gratefully. She’d almost given up.
“We’d better take her back,” Tom said. “Grab her collar, Sophie, we don’t want her to run into the road.”
But when Sophie tried to catch hold of Buttons, she backed off.
“What’s the matter, Buttons?” Sophie asked, feeling confused.
“She looks upset,” Michael commented. “She isn’t wagging her tail any more. She isn’t hurt, is she?”
Sophie crouched down and tried to call the puppy over. “Here, Buttons, come on. Good girl.” But Buttons whimpered, and looked anxiously down the street.
Sophie frowned. “I think she wants us to follow her. Come on! Show me, good dog, Buttons.” And Sophie grabbed Tom and Michael by the hand and dragged them after her.
Buttons ran along in front of them, turning every few steps to check they were following.
“I hope something hasn’t happened to Mr Jenkins,” Michael muttered.
“What do you mean?” Sophie asked in an anxious voice.
“I can’t think why else she’d be so desperate for us to follow her,” Michael explained reluctantly.
“Let’s go faster,” said Sophie, speeding up. “He looked awful when I took Buttons back yesterday.”
They reached the house, panting, and Buttons pushed open the gate. Then she ran to the door, and paced back and forth between the door and the open window, whining. Hurry, hurry! she tried to tell them. Let me in! You have to help him!
Sophie rang the bell, but she didn’t really expect anyone to answer it.
Buttons barked, sounding more and more desperate, and Tom pulled out his mobile. “Do you think we should call the police?” he asked. “Or try the neighbours?”
“Shhhh!” Sophie said suddenly. “Listen. I can hear something.”
Faintly, from inside the house, she could hear a voice. Even Buttons stopped barking. She listened too, and she heard Mr Jenkins saying, “Help! Buttons, are you there? Sophie, is that you?”
“He’s calling for help!” Sophie gasped. She scrabbled at the door handle, her fingers slipping. She was sure it hadn’t been locked when she’d brought Buttons back before.
“Not the police, an ambulance,” Tom muttered, when Sophie had got the door open and he saw Mr Jenkins lying at the foot of the stairs. “Don’t move him!” he called to Sophie, who was kneeling beside the old man, her hand on Buttons’s collar.
“I won’t,” Sophie said. “Mr Jenkins, Buttons found us. Did you send her to fetch us? She’s so clever, she made us follow her.”
Mr Jenkins looked up at her, smiling a little. “I knew she’d get help,” he whispered. “Good dog, Buttons.”
And Buttons licked his cheek, very, very gently.
Chapter Five
By the time the ambulance arrived, Mr Jenkins was looking very slightly better. There was a touch of colour in his cheeks. Buttons sat next to him, watching over him and every so often licking his hand.
The ambulance men were very impressed that Buttons had fetched Sophie, Tom and Michael. They stroked her, and said how clever she was.
Mr Jenkins smiled, and then his face fell. “Buttons! What’s going to happen to her? There’s no one to take her!”
“We can arrange for her to go to the shelter for you, for a while,” one of the ambulance men suggested gently.
“No, no, she’d hate that…” Mr Jenkins stared at Buttons worriedly.
Buttons whimpered, not knowing what was wrong.
“Careful now,” the ambulance man warned, trying to soothe the old man. “Don’t upset yourself.”
“Tom, can’t you ring Mum and Dad?” Sophie begged. “We could take Buttons; I’m sure they’d say ‘yes’ if we explained what had happened.”
Mr Jenkins nodded gratefully. “That would be wonderful.”
Tom grabbed his phone out of his pocket. Sophie watched nervously as he explained everything to Mum. “She said to bring her back with us,” he said at last, smiling. “She wasn’t sure, but she said OK.”
“Go with Sophie, Buttons,” Mr Jenkins whispered, as the ambulance men carried his stretcher away down the path. “There’s a good girl.”
The ambulance sped away with its blue lights flashing, and Buttons whimpered as she stared after it, watching until it disappeared round the corner. Then she looked up trustingly at Sophie. Mr Jenkins had said to go with her, so she would.
Just at that moment, Mrs Lane, Mr Jenkins’s neighbour, came hurrying down the street. She had seen the ambulance, and she looked worried.
“Oh my goodness, was that Mr Jenkins?” she asked the children, and when they nodded, she dropped her shopping bag, and her face went pale. “I knew I should have made him see a doctor,” she murmured. “But he was so stubborn. Oh! The dog! What on earth are we going to do with her?”
“We’re taking her home with us,” Sophie said firmly.
Mrs Lane looked surprised, but rather relieved. “I can’t possibly take her, you know. She chases Felix,” she said very firmly.
Tom and Michael carried Buttons’s things out of the house, and Sophie clipped on her lead. Mr Jenkins had said to take everything they needed, and given them his door key to lock up afterwards.
“Don’t let her get out,” Mrs Lane advised as she stood watching.
Sophie, Tom and Michael smiled politely, and didn’t say anything, but as soon as they were round the corner – the boys laden down with baskets and bowls and Sophie holding Buttons’s lead and a bag of dog food – they exchanged glances.
“She really doesn’t like Buttons, does she…” Tom muttered. “I’m glad Buttons didn’t get left with her. She’d have been down at the dogs’ home before she could blink.”
“Buttons was only getting out and being naughty because she hadn’t been walked, but that wasn’t Mr Jenkins’s fault,” Sophie said loyally.
Sophie’s mum was standing at the gate watching for them. “Oh my goodness,” she murmured, as she saw everything the boys were carrying. “Look at all that stuff!”
Buttons looked up at her worried face and whimpered. Everyone was cross at the moment, and Mr Jenkins had gone away and left her. She raised her head to the sky and howled.
“You’d better bring her through,” Mum said, sighing.
Sophi
e coaxed Buttons in, and the boys carried all the things into the kitchen, putting them down next to their dad, who looked rather surprised to find a dog eyeing his sandwich enviously.
Dad shook his head, smiling a little. “Looks like you three have got your wish, even if it is only for a week or two. Because that’s all it is,” he added firmly. “She’s going back to Mr Jenkins, so don’t get too fond of her, will you?”
It was easy to promise that they wouldn’t get too fond of Buttons, but Sophie adored her already and soon she couldn’t imagine life without her. Having her to look after every day wasn’t boring or hard work, as Dad had warned them. Tom borrowed a DVD on dog-training from the library, and Sophie and the boys started to teach her to walk, heel, sit and stay. They’d always thought of Buttons as rather a naughty dog, because whenever they saw her she’d slipped her lead or tripped someone up. When they’d first taken her for walks, Sophie had held on to her lead so carefully, convinced that Buttons would keep trying to dash off. But although she did pull at her lead a bit, she didn’t run away at all. And she was brilliant at the obedience training.
“Labradors are very clever,” Dad said, after he’d watched admiringly as they put Buttons through her paces for him. She’d even sat for a whole minute with a dog biscuit between her paws, until Sophie told her she was allowed to eat it.
Buttons was happy, too. She had been very confused that first day, with a new house and a new garden and new people, even if her own basket and her bowls were there. And to start with she had missed Mr Jenkins terribly. Everywhere smelled different and strange, and she followed Sophie around as though she was glued to her.
On Saturday night, Mum had looked at her sad little face and big, round black eyes, and sighed. “I suppose she’s going to have to sleep in your room, Sophie. But not on your bed!” she added, as Sophie rushed to hug her.
Although Buttons still thought about Mr Jenkins, she was so happy living with a family who had as much energy as she did. It was the walks that made things so different. An early-morning quick run before breakfast with Sophie. Sometimes a trip down to the shops during the day. And then a proper long walk later on. Up to the common, or along the canal bank. On the Saturday a week after she’d come home with them, the whole family went in the car to a big wood a few miles from the town, and Buttons had a blissful time chasing imaginary rabbits.
That evening when they got home, Sophie sent Rachel an email. She had to type rather slowly, with Buttons sitting on her lap and staring curiously at the computer.
Sophie stopped typing, and stroked Buttons’s soft ears. It was true. Buttons did feel like her dog. “You’re the nicest dog I’ve ever met, do you know that?” she whispered to her, and Buttons turned round and licked her nose lavishly. Sophie giggled, and made yeeuchh noises, but really she’d never been happier.
Chapter Six
Sophie had made her mum phone the hospital every day to see how Mr Jenkins was, and to pass on messages about how well Buttons was doing. Mr Jenkins had had to have an operation on his leg, but he was getting better quickly, and the nurses told her that he could have visitors. They even suggested that Sophie, Michael and Tom came, saying that he talked about them all the time and how clever they’d been to rescue him. Mr Jenkins’s son had rung the Martins to say how grateful he was to them for looking after Buttons. He begged them to visit too, as he wasn’t able to stay away from his family in Scotland for very long, and he was worried that his dad was lonely in the hospital.
So on Monday, just over a week after Mr Jenkins’s accident, Sophie and Tom and their mum knocked on the door of Mr Jenkins’s room. Luckily it was on the ground floor, as Michael was still outside – with Buttons.
Mr Jenkins was sitting up in bed, reading a newspaper and looking very bored, but he threw it down delightedly when he saw them.
“You came to see me!” he exclaimed. “Is Buttons all right?” he asked eagerly, and Sophie and Tom grinned at each other. Mum had checked with the nurses, and they’d said it was all right to move his bed closer to the window.
“We’ve got a surprise!” Sophie explained, as she helped to push the bed to the window. “Look!”
Just outside the window was Michael. Except they couldn’t really see him, because he was holding Buttons up in front of his face. She wriggled and woofed delightedly as soon as she saw her owner, and tried to lick the glass.
“Oh, I wish we could bring her in,” Sophie said sadly. “She’s so pleased to see you.”
“You’ve looked after her so well,” Mr Jenkins said, smiling. “I can’t wait to be out of this place and have her back home with me.”
Sophie nodded and smiled, but his words made her feel sick. How could she go back to only seeing Buttons when she walked past Mr Jenkins’s garden? She couldn’t bear it, after having Buttons almost for her own.
Sophie had known all along that Buttons would have to go home again. But the gorgeous puppy felt like a part of the family now. It was going to be so hard to give her up. She could tell from looking at Mr Jenkins how happy he was to see Buttons. The little dog was all the company he had, now his family had moved away. But Sophie felt like she needed Buttons too. And Buttons needed owners who could give her all the exercise a bouncy young dog had to have. It was so hard.
Sophie was very silent all the way home, and then she took Buttons up to her room (she wasn’t supposed to have her on the bed, but Mum pretended not to notice the hairs). Sophie stroked the puppy’s velvety ears, and sighed.
Buttons looked at Sophie, her head on one side, her dark eyes sparkling. She gave a hopeful little bark, and nudged her rubber bone towards her. Sometimes they played a really good game where Sophie pretended to pull the bone away, and Buttons pretended to do fierce growling. But maybe Sophie didn’t want to play that today.
Sophie tickled her under the chin, and Buttons closed her eyes and whined with pleasure. Sophie knew just where to scratch.
Sophie sniffed back tears. “I can’t give you back,” she whispered. “I just can’t.” But she knew she would have to soon.
“Do you really think we can?” Sophie asked excitedly.
Tom nodded. “I think so. She’s so good now. We’ve been training her to walk to heel and stay for nearly a month. Anyway, the common’s not too busy today, so hopefully she won’t be tempted to dash off and see any other dogs.”
“And we’ve worn her out a good bit already,” Michael pointed out.
“OK then.” Sophie knelt down next to Buttons, who was sitting, panting happily with her tongue hanging out. It had been a long, hot walk up to the highest point of the common. Sophie’s heart started to thump a little as she slipped the catch on Buttons’s lead. How would she react?
Buttons looked round in surprise. Then she gave a pleased little woof, but she didn’t make a run for it, as Sophie had dreaded she would. She gazed up at Sophie, as though she was checking Sophie had really meant to let her off the lead. Then she trotted off a few metres, found an enormous stick and dragged it back. She dropped it at Tom’s feet, and barked pleadingly at him.
“She wants to play fetch!” Sophie exclaimed. “We haven’t even taught her that. I told you she was clever!”
“You couldn’t find anything smaller?” Tom pretended to complain, but he flung the stick as far as he could, and Buttons chased after it, barking delightedly.
They played fetch for ages, then walked home, all tired but happy.
Mum was in the kitchen, stirring her coffee round and round, and looking sad.
“What’s wrong?” Sophie asked. She had a horrible feeling she already knew.
Mum smiled. “Oh, it’s good news, really. Mr Jenkins came home from hospital yesterday. He’s much better, and he asked if we could bring Buttons home.” She waved a hand at the counter, which was piled up with Buttons’s bowls, and the toys Sophie and the boys had bought her. “I’ve got everything ready. We just need to put it all in her basket.”
Sophie slumped into a chair, and Tom
and Michael leaned up against the counter, all staring at the sad little pile.
“I can’t believe she’s going,” Michael muttered.
“We just got her to come when she was called. We even let her off the lead today,” Tom said flatly.
“I know it’s hard, but we always knew she wasn’t really our dog…” Mum started. Then she sighed. “No, I can’t pretend I won’t miss her dreadfully too.”
Dad came in from the garden. “You told them then?” he murmured, seeing everyone’s miserable faces. “I’m sorry, you lot, but I told Mr Jenkins we’d be round some time this afternoon.”
Sophie’s eyes filled with tears, as she watched Dad pick up Buttons’s basket and start to pack the dog bowls into it.
Dad put the basket down, and came to give Sophie a hug. “You knew it wasn’t for always, Sophie. And you’ll still be able to see her. I bet Mr Jenkins would love you to visit.”
Sophie gulped and nodded, and Buttons nudged her affectionately, licking her hand. She wanted Sophie to cheer up, and come and play in the garden. They could do more of the fetching game, with a ball this time. But Sophie was reaching down to clip her lead back on. Buttons gave her a surprised look. Another walk? Well, that was wonderful, but right now? She was quite tired. She’d been planning to have a good long drink before she did anything else, but her water bowl seemed to have disappeared.