by Anna Wilson
I waited in the kitchen for Frank and Molly to arrive with their dogs and the food Frank had made (which at that point I still had not seen, and which Frank was being decidedly vastly secretive about, which did alarm me somewhat, I have to say . . .). They came round the back of the house and Molly waited quietly at the bottom of the garden with the dogs, so that Mum would not freak out about the dogs being there. Then Frank brought the food into the kitchen, all covered up.
DING DONG!
‘Ssssh! She’s here!’ said Mum. The guests huddled into the sitting room and Mum shut the door on them and went to let Nick and April in.
‘Hello, April! Hello, Nick!’ Mum said, in a far-too-loud announcementy tone. ‘Oh you’ve brought Custard, how lovely.’ Then she did a massive wink and April started to get the giggles. What idiots we all are, I suddenly thought. The people in the sitting room think they are about to surprise April, April thinks she is playing a sort of trick on them because she already knows all about it, and I am bubbling with excitement because of the dogs. We are all total loonies!
Nick opened the sitting-room door and gave April a little push into the room, then he shouted: ‘SURPRISE!’ and all the guests shouted, ‘Surprise!’ too and ‘Happy Birthday!’ and chucked party streamers at April and let off the party poppers, and she went all teary and hugged everyone.
I grabbed Custard by the collar and Nick by the elbow and said, ‘Get April out into the garden as quickly as possible.’ Then I legged it out the back to join the others.
Frank was sitting on the bench, but apart from him, the garden was empty.
‘Where‘s Molly? Are you ready, Molls?’ I called out.
Molly peeped out from behind the shed, her face shiny and giggly with excitement. ‘The dogs are behind here!’ she said. ‘I’m keeping them quiet with some of those homemade biscuits. They love them!’
Custard was straining at his collar to go and join the others, so I let him go.
‘I’ll just grab some of the treats,’ Frank said, and whizzed into the kitchen, zooming back out again with a plate full of his homemade dog treats.
‘Nick!’ I called through the door, ‘Come on!’
Nick and April came out, clutching their glasses and laughing, the guests following.
It was then that Frank gave one of his megawhistles, and Honey, Titch, Meatball and Custard came bounding up to him from the bottom of the garden.
‘Jump!’ he shouted, and threw some special doggy burgers in the air.
All the dogs jumped to catch the food, but Honey leaped the highest and caught the whole of her burger, rather skilfully, I should say, in her mouth.
Then Frank said, ‘Sit!’ and the dogs all very obediently sat and received a mini ‘canine quiche’ as a reward.
‘This is amazing, Summer!’ Mum said. ‘Although I must admit, I was not prepared for all these dogs, there‘s not really enough room for everyone out here . . .’ She raised her eyebrows at the guests who were piling out of the house into our small garden.
‘But Mum,’ I said. ‘It‘s Honey‘s birthday too. We couldn’t leave her out.’
The guests were hanging out of the open sitting-room window, peering out of the utility-room door and perched wherever they could find a space on the patio. They watched and applauded as Molly, Frank and I then did a demonstration of a mini dog-agility routine that we had secretly practised at the (in other words at the last panicky moment) before the party. Nick had given me the idea when I had called him, and I must say, it was a superbly fabulous idea, as it was truly like as if actual Crafts had come to April‘s birthday party.
I have to say that little Custard stole the show when he did a brilliant job of following the other dogs through a slalom course we had made from broom handles stuck in the grass, and jumped over buckets and rolled on to his tummy and begged for a homemade dog biscuit.
The dogs were pretty exhausted after that and drank huge bowls of water before collapsing in a heap on the lawn. So Molls had been right – controlling them with games and food had worked Like A Dream.
‘Summer,’ said April, giving me a rare sisterly hug. ‘This is the best party ever. I can’t believe how much trouble you’ve gone to.’
‘It‘s not over yet,’ said Nick.
‘SURPRISE!’ we shouted for the second time that day, as Nick whirled April round to face Mum who had appeared with a truly fanterabulacious birthday cake make of chocolate and creamy layers which she had ordered from one of the poshest shops in town. (Thankfully that had not been part of our budget in the end!). Sitting on top of the cake was a small yellow puppy made of marzipan, which looked just like Custard.
Everyone burst into a round of SPONTANEOUS singing of and April cut the cake and made a wish and went all teary again.
‘It‘s a shame Honey doesn’t have a cake,’ said April, as she handed out slices of the chocolate one. ‘Maybe she could have a slice of this?’
‘NO!’ chorused Molly, Nick, Frank and I.
April looked upset.
‘What we mean is,’ Nick said, ‘there‘s no need, is there, Frank?’
‘Eh?’ I said, looking at Molly in a puzzled fashion. She pulled down the corners of her mouth as if to say, ‘Don’t look at me.’
Frank grinned and pushed past everyone to go back into the house. He emerged carrying a rather large something that was covered in a tea towel.
‘Da-daaaaah!’ he sang out in an fashion, and flung the tea towel off to reveal what was underneath.
‘Another cake?’ I said.
‘Yes!’ said Frank. ‘But this one really is for Honey!’
It was totally the most amazing thing I had ever seen – a mountainous cake made of dog food in three layers that got smaller towards the top, with those bone-shaped biscuits all around the edge of it to sort of hold it together. It looked like a fairytale casde (except that it was made of meat, which of course was pretty seriously in the realm of cakes, and I doubt anyone from a fairytale would actually have appreciated it, unless they were a fairytale dog). And best of all, on the top was a flag which Frank had made from a photo of Honey, stuck to a lolly stick. It was utterly stupendously hurrah-makingly WONDERFUL.
April burst out laughing and clapped her hands, Nick said, ‘Good effort, mate!’ and Mum looked rather overwhelmed and said, ‘What a lovely thing to do, Frank.’
Even Molly said, ‘So that‘s what you were up to, Masterchef! That is absolutely brilliant!’
As for me, I couldn’t help it, I was so overcome that Frank Gritter had made such an effort for the birthday of my beloved pooch that I rushed over and kissed him on the cheek!
It is not something I will now ever live down all the days of my life, I am sure, but there you are. Sometimes emotions can Get the Better Of You.
Luckily, before anyone could comment or say, ‘OoooooOOOOoooo!’ in a sneery way or ask me if Frank was my boyfriend, Nick burst into another Rendition of Happy Birthday, this time for Honey, and all the guests joined in.
Then we took the cake and gave the pooches a chunk each as a reward for their agility show.
After that everyone just Milled Around the place, in other words the party got a bit grown-uppish and boring. In fact I was just thinking that it might be a good time to ask if Molly, Frank and I could leave and go to the park with the pooches for a while, when April coughed loudly and tapped the side of her glass to get everyone‘s attention.
‘Thank you all for keeping today a surprise from me! As you no doubt know,’ she said, looking at me pointedly, ‘it is very difficult to keep secrets from me, as I have a habit of finding things out. . .’
Molly and Frank started sniggering uncontrollably at this point, but they quickly stopped when April glared at them too.
‘But,’ she went on, ‘I think you have all done a brilliant job. Thank you so much, Nick, Mum, Frank – and especially Summer and Molly.’
Everyone which was rather embarrassing-making, but quite cool too.
‘However!
’ April shouted above the noise and waved her hands to get everyone to be quiet again. ‘There is still one surprise left,’ she said, putting her arm around Nick and looking at him in a totally loved-up soppy way. ‘We have an announcement, don’t we, darling?’ she said to Nick, who nodded in a bashful way.
The guests began murmuring excitedly among themselves. I looked quizzically at Mum, wondering if she knew what April was talking about. Mum shrugged, but she had gone weirdly pink in the face as if she was going to cry . . .
‘Come on then, out with it!’ someone cried.
April looked at Nick.
‘You tell them,’ he said. ‘It‘s your party.’
‘OK,’ said April. Then she took a deep breath and announced: ‘We’re going to have a baby!’
‘YAAAAAY!’ I cried, leaping in the air and clapping my hands.
The whole party burst into hugely uproarious cheers and laughter and all the guests crowded round April, Nick and Mum to say congratulations, which made the garden into the most uncomfortable of squeezes, but was also rather lovely.
‘Wow,’ said Molly above all the hubbub and general chaos. ‘You’re going to be an auntie, Summer!’
‘Cool!’ said Frank. ‘Can I call you that from now on: Auntie Summer?’
‘Oh shut up, Frank,’ I said. But I was beaming like a loony from ear to ear.
‘Well, Honey,’ I said later, once the guests had gone and the mess had been cleared up and Mum had fallen asleep on the sofa with a party hat still on her head. ‘I don’t know about you, girl, but I certainly think this party has got to go down in pooch history, let alone any human-type version of history, as one to remember for ever and ever.’ I stroked my adorable pupsicle and gave her a tickle under her chin.
And Honey put her head to one side in that gorgeous way she has and looked me straight in the eye as if to say, ‘You can say that again!’
Try one of these easy dog food recipes and watch your pup smile.
250g minced meat, stir-fried in 1 tbsp vegetable oil
2 boiled eggs, chopped
150g cooked plain oatmeal
125g puréed green beans
125g puréed carrots
2 tbsp cottage cheese
Instructions Combine all ingredients and shape into ‘hamburgers’. Serve at room temperature.
250g boiled chicken, chopped
12g cooked brown rice
125g boiled mixed vegetables
3 to 4 tbsp unsalted chicken stock
Instructions Stir together and serve at room temperature.
1 (see page 250)
600g whole wheat flour
60g white flour
60g oatmeal
1¼ tbsp baking powder
1 tbsp honey
250g peanut butter
250ml milk
Instructions Combine flour, oatmeal and baking powder. Combine milk, peanut butter and honey in a separate bowl and mix well. Stir peanut butter mixture into flour/oatmeal mixture. Knead dough and roll out on floured surface to one centimetre thickness. Cut out treats using a cookie cutter. Place on aluminium foil on a baking sheet and bake in a 200 degree oven (gas mark 6) for approximately 15 minutes.
ENDNOTE
1. Be sure your dog has no wheat intolerance or nut allergy before cooking these, and if you are allergic to nuts, ask an adult to help you with this recipe.
Also by Anna Wilson
Puppy Love
Pup Idol
Puppy Power
Kitten Kaboodle
Kitten Smitten
Kitten Cupid
Monkey Business
First published 2011 by Macmillan Children’s Books
This electronic edition published 2011 by Macmillan Children’s Books
a division of Macmillan Publishers Limited
Pan Macmillan, 20 New Wharf Road, London N1 9RR
Basingstoke and Oxford
Associated companies throughout the world
www.panmacmillan.com
ISBN 978-1-4472-0608-8 EPUB
Text copyright © Anna Wilson 2011
The right of Anna Wilson to be identified as the author and illustrator of this work has been asserted by them in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
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A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
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