Sam the Stolen Puppy (2 page)

Emily hardly ate any Christmas lunch. She kept disappearing from the table to check on the puppy. He had a little bit of turkey, and some carrots, but Dad said he couldn’t have any Christmas pudding.

“And Emily, you really mustn’t give him anything from the table. We don’t want him learning to jump up and steal food!” Mum got up to start clearing the plates. “Have you thought of a name for him yet?” she asked, as she went over to the sink.

Emily looked thoughtfully at the puppy, who was having a fight with a piece of wrapping paper, rolling over with it and growling. “I think I’m going
to call him Sam,” she decided. “He looks like a Sam.”

“That’s a nice sensible name,” Dad agreed. “We don’t want to be yelling, ‘Here, Fluffikins!’ across the park, do we?”

Emily giggled. “Actually, I think Fluffikins is a cool name, Dad, thanks!” She knelt down next to the puppy. “You’d like to be called Fluffikins, wouldn’t you?”

The puppy made a disgusted noise, and spat out a small ball of wrapping paper at her.

Emily grinned. “OK, Sam it is, then.” She leaned forward, resting her chin on her hand, watching the puppy nosing around her feet, sniffing and snorting quietly to himself. Then he
climbed on to her foot and looked up at her hopefully, one paw in the air. Emily giggled. “Hey, Sam,” she said, reaching down to pick him up.

Sam gave a delighted sigh, and firmly stamped up and down on Emily’s lap until it was just right. Then he flopped down and fell fast asleep in seconds.

Emily watched his tiny body twitching as he slept. She still couldn’t believe he was hers. How could anyone be so lucky?

Chapter Two

The Christmas holidays seemed to race past even faster than usual with Sam to play with. In no time at all, Emily was back at school. She spent the first day worrying about what he might be doing, and whether he was lonely without her. When Mum and Jack came to pick her up, Emily raced ahead. Mum had to keep calling
to her to slow down.

“Come on, Jack!” Emily called crossly, as he stopped again. He was counting snails, and it took ages to get anywhere. Emily was desperate to get home and see Sam, she’d really missed him. It didn’t help that Jack had spent most of the walk so far chatting away about what a fun time
he’d
had playing with Sam while Emily was at school. It wasn’t fair. Sam was
her
puppy! But Emily supposed she couldn’t really say Jack wasn’t allowed to play with him. Actually, in a way she was glad that Jack had been there, because otherwise Sam might have been lonely. She just hoped that Sam had missed her a little bit!

Back at the house, Sam was padding about, feeling confused. He hadn’t seen Emily in ages. She’d been away before, but never for this long. He didn’t understand about school, even though Emily had explained it all very carefully the night before and promised him that she would be back.

Sam sniffed carefully under the sofa, in case Emily was hiding there. No, just a lot of fluff and some Lego bricks. He sneezed. Then he trotted out into the hallway, and gazed up at the stairs. He couldn’t quite manage the stairs yet, and he wondered if she was up there. But normally, if Emily was going upstairs, she took him with her.

Sam whined, and then tried a hopeful little bark. No Emily came
running. He sat down and rested his nose on the first step, tired from searching. It had been quite fun playing with the little boy, but it wasn’t the same. He wanted Emily back, she was his special person.

Emily hopped about on the doorstep, waiting for Mum and Jack to catch up. Why were they taking so long? She dropped her school bag and knelt down to peer through the letter box, hoping to catch a glimpse of Sam.

“Ohhh!” There he was, flopped down next to the stairs, fast asleep.

“Emily, what are you doing?” Mum asked, as she and Jack came up the path.

“Looking at Sam, he’s so cute, he’s fallen asleep…”

They opened the door very quietly and crept in, shushing Jack, who wouldn’t stop chattering.

Sam heard the door click shut and sprang up, barking excitedly. She was back! He was so excited he ran round Emily in circles, jumping on all four paws and squeaking to show her how happy he was.

Emily picked him up, and he licked her all over, desperate to welcome her back.

Emily kissed the top of his head, rubbing her cheek over the soft golden fur. “I can hardly hold him, he’s wagging his tail so hard,” she giggled.

“I think he might just have missed you a little bit,” Mum said, with her head on one side, pretending to think about it.

Emily smiled to herself. She didn’t want Sam to be sad, but it was nice to know he’d missed her too.

It wasn’t long before Sam was old enough to go out for walks. He loved
it, and so did Emily. The problem was, Sam got so excited by being outside that he spent the whole time barking and yelping and jumping up and down, so that by the time they got home he was so tired Emily had to carry him.

“I think Sam needs some
dog-training
classes,” Dad said, as he watched Sam running in his sleep after a particularly exciting walk one weekend. He’d tied his lead in a knot round Emily’s ankles, and then pulled her over when he went racing after a squirrel.

Emily nodded, but she looked a little anxious. “Will they be very difficult classes?” she asked.

“No, don’t worry, I’m not suggesting we train him to jump through hoops or
anything. Just the basics. How to walk nicely on the lead, sit, stay, that kind of thing.”

“Ohhh.” Emily brightened up. That did sound very useful. Sam was gorgeous, and great fun to take for walks, but he wore her out too.

Dad found out that there was a
dog-training
class held in the local park on a Saturday morning, which was perfect. It meant he and Emily could take Sam together. Now that she knew they wouldn’t have to do anything too hard, Emily was very excited about it. She begged Mum to buy a special packet of puppy treats to take with them for when Sam did really well.

Jack was very upset that he wasn’t allowed to go, even though Mum
promised that he could do something special with her. He threw a massive tantrum on Saturday morning, and Emily felt a tiny bit guilty. Jack really did love Sam too.

“I suppose we could all go,” she told Dad as they walked down the front path with Jack staring out of the window after them, tears still trickling down his face.

Dad shook his head. “That’s sweet of you, Emily, but Jack’s too young. This class is for us almost more than it is for Sam – teaching
us
how to teach
him
. We wouldn’t be able to concentrate on the class properly if Jack was with us. He’d never stop chatting!”

Emily giggled. Dad was right. Maybe she could hold a special
dog-training
class in the garden later, and show Jack what they’d learned.

The park was very close, but Emily was feeling tired by the time they got there. Sam seemed to want to do anything except walk in a straight line. He definitely needed training!

Luckily, Lucy, the instructor, was very nice, and she reckoned that Sam would soon get the hang of it.

“You’re starting young, which is exactly right. He’s a lovely little dog,” she said, patting Sam. Lucy thought it was best for Emily to do the training, and Dad to watch and help out. “It’ll be easier if he has one person in charge, then he won’t get confused,” she explained.

Emily had been looking forward to telling Mum and Jack everything they’d done, but when they got home, Jack wasn’t interested. “Don’t want to see,” he muttered, when Emily tried to show him how Sam walked to heel.

Mum gave her an apologetic look. “Still grumpy,” she mouthed, and sighed. “So, the class went all right then? Did Sam do as he was told?”

Dad and Emily exchanged an
embarrassed look. “
Some
of the time,” Emily said. “He did stay for a little while, but he wasn’t very good at the bit where he was supposed to sit and look at a dog biscuit, and not eat it until he was told. He had four!”

Sam sat under the kitchen table, panting to himself and showing all his teeth in a big doggy grin. He
liked
dog-training…