The Victory Dogs

by Megan Rix

  Chapter 16

  Like his brother, Henry’s favourite place to visit was Lordship Rec. The Wards’ suburban garden was small and he always had to stay on his lead when they were walking down the road, but at the park he could run and run and run until he could run no more. Plus, Lordship Rec had a million interesting smells to sniff at and dogs to play with and squirrels to chase, not to mention the ducks and swans on the lake – which unfortunately he was forbidden to go after.

  He was very excited when Amy came round because often, when she did, he and Sky would get taken for a walk to look for someone called Misty.

  He waited by the front door, his tail wagging happily, as his lead was clipped to his collar and Amy said the word he liked most of all: ‘Walk.’

  ‘Heggerty,’ Michael called out. ‘Heggerty, do you want to come for a walk?’

  Amy went to find the yellow Labrador, but smiled when she saw the dog lying fast asleep in the two-tier Morrison shelter the Wards had recently been given. It looked like an oversized silver steel-framed dining table with mesh sides that could be opened and it took up most of the dining-room floor. Mr Ward had put Heggerty’s bed inside it, so she’d be safe at night, and she usually had the soundest of sleeps – or at least it seemed so judging by her contented snoring.

  They’d only had the shelter a few days as Morrison shelters hadn’t been available at the start of the war. But Heggerty had already got used to it, and she took herself off to her bed in the Morrison shelter when she felt like a nap during the day.

  The Anderson shelter, in the back garden, was now also the chicken coop and the goat house. They all went in it every night to sleep and so at the first sign of trouble the goats and chickens headed for the safety of their home – which also just happened to be bombproof!

  As soon as Henry saw the direction they were going, he started pulling on his lead, urging Michael and Amy onwards. Why were they going so slowly? Didn’t they know they were going to the best place ever? Why weren’t they running down the road as Henry would have been doing if he didn’t have the lead round his neck?

  But Michael and Amy were too busy chatting about the War Dog demonstration to pay attention to Henry. Lieutenant Colonel Richardson had accepted Amy’s invitation to come and see the work that the NARPAC search-and-rescue dogs were doing. Ellie had screamed and grabbed the letter when Amy told her.

  ‘You actually wrote to Lieutenant Colonel Richardson? And he actually said he’d come?’ she said in disbelief. ‘If he gives the go-ahead, the War Dog Training School could really happen!’

  ‘Ellie has it all planned out,’ Amy told Michael. ‘And she’s been in touch with all the other NARPAC groups to let them know about it and invited anyone with a dog who’s been part of a search-and-rescue mission to come along too.’

  ‘Sounds like we’re going to need more chairs,’ said Michael.

  But Amy was sure people wouldn’t mind if they had to stand. ‘It’s for such a good cause.’

  Henry panted as he strained against his lead.

  ‘Slow down, Henry,’ Michael told him. ‘You don’t want to strangle yourself!’

  Henry looked over his shoulder at Michael and slowed down a little, but the smell of Lordship Rec got to be too much, and then another smell – an even better smell – reached him and he pulled even harder.

  As Henry and Michael reached the front entrance of the park, Howl and Daniel were just leaving through a smaller gate at the side of the park that Daniel preferred to use.

  The dogs could sense each other from across the park and were wildly excited. But Michael was busy chatting to Amy and told Henry to ‘Calm down now’, not noticing Daniel and Howl in the distance.

  On the other side of the park Howl was almost yanking Daniel’s arm off and then he started howling. But Daniel was eager to get back to the safety of the station and dragged Howl out of the park.

  As Howl disappeared, Henry jumped up at Michael and Amy, biting on his lead.

  ‘Henry, stop it!’ Michael told Henry firmly.

  ‘What’s got into him?’ Amy asked. She looked down at Sky who wasn’t pulling in the slightest. ‘Good girl, Sky.’

  ‘This isn’t like you at all,’ Michael told Henry.

  Howl whined as he looked back at the park. But Daniel wouldn’t stop.

  ‘Come on, Soldier,’ he said.

  Back in the park Henry’s wildly wagging tail gradually slowed and then drooped and finally dropped. He looked up at Michael and then back at the place where Howl had been but was now gone from. He whined.

  The sight and smell of Henry was almost too much for Howl to bear, and he desperately didn’t want to be parted from his brother so soon.

  He pulled back on his lead and pressed his claws into the ground to try and stop Daniel from separating them. But Daniel was so much stronger than him and forced him onwards. They turned the corner and Howl couldn’t see the park any more, but the smell of Henry was still in the air. And it was too much. As they crossed the road opposite the station, he pulled against his lead again and this time the frayed string broke and he was free and racing over the busy road and back the way they’d come.

  ‘Soldier, stop!’ Daniel shouted as the dog ran into the road and Daniel ran after him.

  The driver of the red London bus slammed on his brakes, but it was too late. Daniel cried out in pain as he was knocked to the ground.

  The driver was shaking as he climbed down from his bus in shock. Had he fallen asleep at the wheel? He’d been so tired. Everyone was so tired. He and his fellow bus drivers were determined to keep London moving. Most people didn’t have cars and without public transport the city would come to a standstill. But just before the accident he’d been thinking how good it would feel to be tucked up in his bed, fast asleep. He didn’t know if he’d closed his eyes for a moment − he couldn’t be sure.

  ‘He came from nowhere,’ he said. ‘Nowhere.’

  Howl stood on the opposite side of the road and whimpered, his brother forgotten as a new smell overrode all others. The smell of Daniel’s blood on the road.

  Cars and bicycles stopped and people came running to help the man lying in the middle of the road, who looked like a tramp.

  ‘What happened?’ they asked each other.

  ‘Just came out of nowhere.’

  ‘First that dog and then him …’

  ‘Drunk, do you think?’ a butcher’s errand boy said as he climbed off his bike and looked down at Daniel, lying crumpled in a heap.

  Howl stood trembling and confused on the other side of the road, staring at Daniel lying still on the ground. Still trembling, he went to stand beside him. He sniffed at the blood. The butcher’s boy kicked out at Howl and shouted at him, mistakenly thinking Howl was going to lick up the injured man’s blood.

  ‘Get out of it!’

  Howl whimpered and skipped back out of the way of the boy’s feet, but did not leave.

  Then the ambulance arrived and Daniel was lifted on to a stretcher and put inside it as Howl took a step closer, but was brushed out of the way. He barked and whined as the doors closed and the ambulance drove off, bells clanging. He ran after it, not wanting to lose Daniel, until he could run no more. A car horn honked at him, and he narrowly avoided being hit himself, and still he ran on.

  But the distance between him and the ambulance only increased until it was impossible for Howl to catch up. The ambulance disappeared into the distance and the dog threw back his head in total misery and uttered a long, sorrowful howl.

  When it was dark, he returned along the roads he’d run down earlier after the ambulance. He headed back to the darkness of the
hidden parts of the Underground alone, back to the only home he’d ever known.

  The smell of Daniel was everywhere. Howl climbed on to the bedding Daniel used, wrapping himself in his scent, and went to sleep miserable and more alone than he had ever been.

  Chapter 17

  Some search-and-rescue dogs, like Grace and Sky, seemed to know almost instinctively what it was they were supposed to do on a rescue mission. But others needed a little more help.

  Henry would have willingly gone with Sky and Michael on their rescue missions, but first he needed to be assessed by Ellie.

  ‘Come on, Henry, come with me,’ Ellie said, waggling a rope toy in front of him. Henry took one end in his teeth and they were soon having a gentle tug of war.

  Ellie nodded to Amy in the corner and she dropped two dustbin lids on the floor with a loud clatter.

  Henry looked over at where the sound came from, but almost immediately went back to playing with the rope toy.

  Ellie gave a thumbs up to Michael. If Henry had been frightened by the loud noise, she’d have been concerned. A rescue dog needed to be able to concentrate on his work however many loud sounds there were going off around him.

  Ellie threw a ball for Henry.

  ‘Fetch!’

  Henry raced after it as Ellie nodded to Amy in the corner again. This time she fired a noisy starting pistol. Once again Henry looked over, but it didn’t stop him from picking up the ball and running back to Ellie with it. He dropped it at her feet and looked up at her hopefully, wagging his tail. Ellie laughed and threw the ball again.

  She looked over at Michael as Henry ran across the hall after the ball. He was sitting on a chair at the side, watching Henry like an anxious parent. This time she put both her thumbs up. Henry had passed the first part of the assessment with flying colours.

  But there were still more tests.

  Michael had taught Henry how to sit and also how to wait until he was called, which Henry still found extremely difficult. He was so desperate to move he was quivering with the effort, but he managed to stay where he was for the minute or so he was asked to do so by Ellie. She expected him to last for much longer than a minute eventually, but that would come with practice.

  ‘Just gradually increase the length of time he has to wait, but don’t expect too much too quickly and don’t worry if it increases and then goes back a step or two. It’ll come,’ she told Michael.

  Michael nodded. ‘We’ll work on it.’

  He knew that Henry needed to be able to wait when he was asked to do so because sometimes they might find themselves in a situation where he needed to keep still, like if there was an unexploded bomb. There might not be time to clip on Henry’s lead, or he might need to stay on the other side of the road, so it was crucial that he learn to wait without question.

  As well as ‘sit’, he had to learn ‘down’, where he lay down on command. Fortunately Michael and Henry had been practising for this day ever since Henry had come to live at the Wards’ house. Michael had trained Henry in basic obedience, and now Ellie put him through his paces as Michael watched him and tried not to bite his fingernails too much.

  When she’d seen enough, Ellie came over to Michael in his chair, all smiles.

  ‘He’s a fine dog,’ she said.

  Michael let out the breath he’d been holding and grinned from ear to ear.

  ‘Come on, Henry,’ said Ellie. ‘You’re not done yet.’ It was time to see what he was like at agility. This wasn’t strictly part of the assessment test, but Ellie thought Henry would enjoy it and she thought he might be good at it too. Henry definitely had some collie in his breeding line and collies were often particularly good at agility.

  Ellie was right. Henry excelled at it and had no fear of crawling through a narrow tunnel to find Michael and a treat waiting for him.

  ‘Good dog, Henry,’ Ellie told him. ‘Good dog.’

  She came over to Michael with Henry, who was excited and ready to do more.

  ‘He didn’t mind going in that tunnel at all,’ Michael said. He’d seen some dogs refuse to go down them.

  ‘He’s a real trooper,’ said Ellie with a smile. ‘Dogs can do rescue work equally well in the dark as in the daylight. They use their senses of smell and hearing to their fullest in the dark of course. One well-trained dog is equivalent to about twenty human searchers in good conditions and many more in poor ones.’

  ‘So how far could a dog detect a scent?’ Amy asked, coming to join them.

  ‘It depends on the conditions,’ said Ellie. ‘And of course we’re not in ideal conditions searching bombed houses, but if we were then a dog could pick up a human scent from about five hundred yards away.’

  Amy was very impressed.

  ‘Want to do some more, Henry?’

  Henry wagged his tail and followed Ellie.

  Plank walking, A-frame, jumps and soft tunnel work were next and Henry did them all with ease.

  ‘Let’s try him on the split kennel,’ said Ellie.

  Michael wasn’t sure Henry was ready for that yet; hardly any of the dogs were happy doing it. But Michael did as he’d been asked and helped to set the equipment up.

  ‘You call him,’ Ellie said.

  Amy held Henry until Michael called out: ‘Henry, come!’ and then she released him into the narrow tunnel, which split into two. Which one would lead him to Michael? Decision made, Henry squeezed his way into the dark tunnel and pushed open a flap at the end to reach a delighted and amazed Michael, waiting for him with treats and praise at the ready.

  ‘Good dog, Henry. Good dog!’ he said as Henry gave his face an excited lick. ‘First time!’ he said to Ellie.

  Ellie nodded. ‘He’s certainly got a lot of potential,’ she said.

  ‘He could do that in the War Dog demonstration,’ Amy suggested.

  Once Henry had passed his assessment, he joined Ellie’s regular training class, along with Michael.

  Henry loved the classes and was usually waiting at the front door ten minutes before it was time for him and Michael, as well as Mr Ward and Sky, to leave.

  One of the first things Henry needed to learn was to remain calm under fire, but this wasn’t a problem for him. He’d spent his whole life in the Blitz in London with bombs falling all around him. It was what he was used to. He practised this with the others, then he progressed on to taking messages and finding fake bomb victims buried under fake rubble.

  The training always focused round the same clear pattern: command, action and then reward.

  At home Michael hid Henry’s toys and then got him to find them, and when he did he was always given a treat. Henry loved playing hide-and-seek, and now this game proved an invaluable first step as he learnt to look for people and animals and let Michael know when he’d found them.

  One of the dogs at the training class was a four-year-old, glossy-coated German shepherd bitch.

  Her trainer, George, told Michael she’d come from Wood Green animal rescue centre and Michael realized she’d been the one of the feral dogs from the Underground.

  ‘Turning out to be a fine search dog, aren’t you?’ George said as he petted her proudly. He’d named her Lily and she looked up at George adoringly and wagged her tail. She was obviously very happy with her new search-and-rescue dog life and quite different to the angry, violent dog she’d once been.

  Henry sat in front of them, one ear up and one ear down, his head cocked to one side – ready to play whatever game they wanted him to play next.

  ‘You dog’s fast,’ George said and Michael and Mr Ward nodded.

  ‘He is that.’

  Henry was one of the fastest d
ogs anyone had seen when it came to the obstacle course. He was smart too: he didn’t need to be told over and over what to do; he picked it up in no time and often correctly guessed what Michael wanted him to do even before he’d asked him to do it.

  ‘Could do with more like him,’ said George.

  And Michael told him how there’d been two puppies living in the station. It was a shame they hadn’t been able to find the other puppy, as he or she would probably have had the same potential. But although Michael had looked, and Amy still looked when she went to the station at night, there’d been no sign of him. Just as there’d been no sign of Misty.

  Ellie got Henry to practise his scent skills over and over – which Henry was more than happy to do because to him it was all just one giant game. And she also made sure Henry learnt how to indicate clearly to Michael if he detected a scent, by barking, and Michael was instructed on how to carry out searches safely using Henry so that neither of them got injured – hopefully. Cut paws were an almost unavoidable hazard as there was so much broken glass everywhere on the bomb sites.

  The first rescue mission Henry was allowed to go on was a great success. He found a cat whose worried owner was delighted to have returned to her.

  His second mission was even more successful: Michael had checked a badly bombed house over and decided there were no humans or animals trapped inside it. But Henry didn’t agree and, even though he was sneezing and coughing from the dust, he kept running over to and barking at one particular spot.

  ‘Henry, come on, let’s go,’ Michael called to him. There were more houses that needed searching.

  But Henry wouldn’t come. Michael was just about to clip on Henry’s lead and force him to do as he was told when he heard a faint cry: ‘Help! Help us!’

  ‘OK, we’re here, you’ll be fine,’ Michael called out.

  Piece by piece, Michael removed bricks, wood and plaster. Mr Ward came to help him and under the rubble they found two small children.