Buttons the Runaway Puppy Read online

  For Phoebe

  For more information about Holly Webb visit: www.holly-webb.com

  CONTENTS

  Title Page

  Dedication

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  About the Author

  Other titles by Holly Webb:

  Copyright

  Chapter One

  “Wait for me!” Sophie called after her twin brothers. She was pedalling as fast as she could, but they were so much bigger than she was, and they’d had enormous new mountain bikes for their birthday last month. There was no way she could catch them up if they didn’t slow down a bit. “Tom! Michael! Wait for me! Please!”

  Tom and Michael circled round and hurtled back towards her, braking and pulling up in a cloud of dust.

  “Come on, Sophie! You must be able to pedal a bit faster,” Michael told her, laughing.

  “Aw, now that’s not fair, Mikey, she’s only got little legs.” Tom grinned at Sophie, and she scowled back.

  “Can’t we have a rest for a minute anyway?” she begged. “I want to watch the dogs, and this is the best bit of the common for that. I want to see if any of the ones I know are out for walks today.”

  “Yeah, I don’t mind,” Tom agreed.

  Michael rolled his eyes. “Just for a minute. You’re dog-mad, Sophie Martin!” he told her, grinning.

  They wheeled their bikes out of the way of the path, and then slumped on a bench. All three of them stared out across the common, which was packed with dogs and their owners. This was definitely the best place for dog-watching: raised up on a little hill, they could see all the way around.

  “Look, Sophie, there’s that mad Red Setter you like.” Michael pointed at a dog frisking about on one of the paths, its dark reddish coat gleaming in the sunlight.

  Sophie giggled as she watched him running round and round in circles, and worrying at sticks. His owner was trying to get him to fetch a ball, but the big dog was having none of it.

  Tom sighed. “If I had a dog, I’d train it an awful lot better than that one. Poor thing doesn’t know whether it’s coming or going.”

  “I don’t think it’s very easy to train a dog,” Sophie said.

  “Of course it isn’t,” Tom agreed. “That’s why there’s so many badly behaved dogs around. People can’t be bothered to train their dogs properly, and they just let them do whatever they want because it’s easier than getting them to behave.”

  “OK then, if you could have any dog you want, what would you have?” Michael asked. “Mum and Dad keep saying that one day we can. Dad didn’t say ‘no’ straight away last time I asked.”

  Tom whistled through his teeth. “Nothing small and yappy. A dog you could take on proper walks. Maybe a Dalmatian.”

  “Mmm, I could go for a Dalmatian. Or a Golden Retriever,” Michael mused. “Wouldn’t it be great to get a dog now, just before the summer holidays? We’d have all summer to go for really long walks.”

  Tom nodded. “Don’t get your hopes up. What would you have, Sophie?”

  Sophie was staring back down the path that they’d come up. “I’d have a Labrador. But a chocolate one, like Buttons. I think that’s her coming up the path now. Oh dear…”

  “What’s she done this time?” Tom asked.

  Sophie put her hand over her mouth to stifle her giggles, as the chocolate-brown Labrador puppy danced around her owner, tangling him in her lead.

  “Whoops,” Tom muttered, and Michael bobbed up from the bench to see what was going on.

  “Ow, that must’ve hurt. Do you think we should go and help?”

  Buttons was standing on the path, looking down at her owner in confusion. What on earth are you doing down there? she seemed to be saying. Her owner unwrapped her lead from his ankles grimly, and started to heave himself up out of the bramble bush.

  Sophie looked at Tom and Michael. “We probably should, but Buttons’s owner is so grumpy, he might shout at us.”

  “He’s called Mr Jenkins,” Tom told her. “I heard one of his neighbours talking to him when we walked past his house the other day.”

  Michael nodded. “I think Sophie’s right, he’s probably hoping no one saw. We’d better be looking the other way when he comes past.”

  All three children stared innocently over the common towards the lake, pretending not to have seen Buttons trip up Mr Jenkins.

  “Good morning!” Michael called politely, as the old man walked by, trying to hold Buttons back to heel. Mr Jenkins lived on the next road across from the Martins, with his garden backing on to theirs, so they saw him quite often. Their mum always said hello when she passed him.

  “Hmmph,” Mr Jenkins grunted, and stomped on past.

  “You see! So grumpy!” Sophie whispered, as he disappeared down the path.

  “Yes, but I’d be grumpy too, if I’d just fallen in a bramble bush,” Tom pointed out.

  Buttons appreciated them saying hello, anyway. She looked back and barked in a friendly way as Mr Jenkins hurried her along. She liked those children. They always smiled when they saw her, and the girl had once asked politely to stroke her. Mr Jenkins had let her, and she’d said how beautiful Buttons was and scratched behind her ears as well.

  “Come on, Buttons,” Mr Jenkins grumbled, and Buttons sighed. He was cross with her again. She hadn’t meant to trip him up. There were so many good smells on the common, and she couldn’t help it if they were on different sides of the path. She’d had to go and investigate them all, and the silly lead had got itself tangled in his legs. It just showed that leads were not a good idea. She much preferred to run along without one. Especially if there were squirrels.

  They were coming to the part of the common with the trees now, and there was bound to be a squirrel. Buttons looked up and barked hopefully.

  “No, I’m not letting you off your lead, silly dog,” Mr Jenkins told her, but he patted her lovingly on the head at the same time, and she knew he wasn’t cross any more. “No, because you’ll be in the next county before I catch up with you. I’m sorry, Buttons girl, we need to head home. My legs aren’t what they used to be, especially when I’ve been dragged through a bramble bush. Come on, home now.”

  Buttons whined sadly. She understood some words, and home was one of them. Not home already? It felt like it hadn’t been a very long walk at all. She wanted lots of walks – in fact a whole day of walks, with a few quick sleeps and a couple of big meals in between, would be perfect.

  “Look, Mum, Buttons is in her garden again.” Sophie nudged her mother’s arm as they walked past Mr Jenkins’s house. The summer holidays had started, and it was so hot that they were going to cool off at the pool. “She keeps scrabbling at the fence like she wants to get out. She was doing that yesterday, when I went past on my way to say goodbye to Rachel. I heard her barking loads when I was out in the garden, too.”

  Mum stopped and looked thoughtfully over the fence at Buttons. “Have you seen Mr Jenkins about recently?” she asked Sophie. “I haven’t for a while, and I do usually meet him in the shops every so often.”

  Sophie shook her head. “Not since that day in the park a couple of weeks ago, when Buttons tripped him up. I definitely haven’t seen him since school finished, and that’s a whole week.”

  She sighed. Only one week of the summer holidays gone. She ought to be looking forward to another five weeks off school, but yesterday her best friend Rachel had gone off to Ireland to stay with her family for the whole holiday. Sophie couldn’t imagine what she was going to do all summer, without Rachel�
�s house to hang out at. She was sick of Michael and Tom already. Not only were they her big brothers, so they thought they could always boss her around, but they were each other’s best friends. They didn’t want their little sister tagging along the whole time. She and Rachel had promised to keep in touch by email and send each other lots of fun postcards and things. But it wasn’t the same as having your best friend living just round the corner.

  Buttons looked up at Sophie and barked hopefully. Walk? Please? she begged. She recognized Sophie, who often spoke to her when she went past. Buttons could sometimes hear her in the garden, too. Sophie had a sweet voice and always sounded friendly.

  “Poor Buttons, she looks really sad,” Sophie said, wishing she could stroke her. She knew Buttons was friendly, but Mum had made her promise not to stroke dogs without asking the owner first.

  “Thinking about it, I did see Mr Jenkins in the supermarket last week, and he was walking with a stick,” Mum said slowly. “I wonder if he hasn’t been able to take Buttons for walks, and that’s why she’s scratching like that. She wants to get out.”

  “Sorry, Buttons, we’re going swimming, or else we’d love to take you for a walk. Oh, look, I’m sure she knows what we’re saying, her ears just drooped, and she isn’t wagging her tail any more,” Sophie said as she waved goodbye.

  Buttons stared after them with big, sad brown eyes. She hadn’t been on a proper walk in a long time. Mr Jenkins was very good about letting her in and out of the house whenever she wanted, but he just didn’t seem to want to walk her right now. The garden was quite big – it went all round the house from front to back – but it wasn’t the same as walks. Buttons whined sadly, and scratched at the fence again. She thought she might be able to go for a walk by herself, if she could only get over this fence. Or under it, perhaps.

  “Buttons! Buttons!” She could hear Mr Jenkins calling, and her ears pricked up immediately. Maybe he was feeling better, and he wanted to go for a walk after all. She shot round to the back door, which Mr Jenkins was holding open for her.

  “There you are! You’ve been out a while, Buttons.” Mr Jenkins stooped down to pat her, holding tight to his stick.

  Buttons looked up at him hopefully, and then looked over at her lead, which was hanging on a hook above Mr Jenkins’s wellies. She gave an excited little bark, and wagged her tail so fast it blurred.

  “Oh, Buttons, I wish we could. I wish we could, poor little girl. Soon, I promise.”

  Buttons’s tail sagged, and she trailed slowly into the living room to curl up on her cushion next to Mr Jenkins’s chair. He sat down beside her, and stroked her head lovingly. Buttons licked his hand. She adored Mr Jenkins, even though he couldn’t always take her for walks.

  Chapter Two

  “If you’re going along the canal path, you have to be really careful,” Mum warned them. “Especially you, Sophie. No going close to the edge, promise?”

  “I’m not a baby, Mum! I’m sensible!” Sophie complained. “OK, I promise to be careful.”

  “All right then. Tom and Michael, you’ll keep an eye on her, won’t you? Don’t leave her behind.”

  Sophie’s older brothers nodded, eager to get out on their ride, even if it did mean taking Sophie, too.

  It was a gorgeous, sunny Saturday afternoon, and Mum and Dad were repainting the kitchen, so it was definitely a good time to be out of the house. The canal path was the Martin family’s other favourite place to go on walks and bike rides. They were lucky that it wasn’t far from where they lived.

  Despite what they’d said to Mum, Michael and Tom couldn’t resist speeding off ahead. Every so often one of them would double back to check Sophie was OK, and she was – she quite liked riding along on her own anyway. It meant she could stop and talk to the ginger cat sitting on the fence – he let her stroke him today – and admire the butterflies on a lilac tree that grew on the corner just as she came out on to the canal bank. She could do all these things without the boys telling her to hurry up all the time.

  Sophie pedalled along, keeping away from the edge like Mum had told her to. The canal was beautiful, especially with the sun sparkling on it like it was today, but beneath the glitter the water was deep and dark. She rounded the bend, expecting to see Tom and Michael coming back to check on her, but instead she saw a familiar-looking dog.

  Buttons!

  The pretty little Labrador was sniffing about at the water’s edge. Sophie cycled closer, smiling at Buttons’s big chocolate paws, and her floppy puppy ears.

  Sophie looked around for Mr Jenkins, but she couldn’t see him anywhere, and she had a horrible feeling that Buttons had run off. She wasn’t old enough or sensible enough to be off the lead – and she wasn’t, it was trailing in the mud. Buttons must’ve pulled it out of Mr Jenkins’s hand.

  Buttons hadn’t noticed Sophie. She was watching a stick that was floating down the canal, and wondering whether she could reach it, if she just leaned over a little. It looked like such a good one – big and long and really muddy – and it was ever so close. She leaned out over the water. If she could just get the end of it in her teeth… But it was still a bit too far away. She tried again, reaching a little further out.

  “Buttons! Don’t!” Sophie called. “You’ll fall!”

  Surprised by Sophie’s shout, Buttons stepped back quickly. But the edge of the canal bank was muddy and slippery, and her paws skidded. Panicking, she tried to scramble back up the bank, but she was sliding further in, and she couldn’t stop herself.

  Sophie flung down her bike, and raced to grab Buttons’s lead. She caught it just as both of the puppy’s front paws slid into the water. Sophie pulled hard on the lead, leaning right back – Buttons might only be little, but she was heavy. Just for a moment, Sophie wondered if Buttons might accidentally pull her into the water, too, but she finally hauled Buttons back on to the bank.

  She hugged the shivering puppy tightly. “It’s all right, Buttons. Oh dear, your paws are all wet. It’s OK, don’t worry,” Sophie murmured soothingly, trying to calm her down. Buttons buried her nose in Sophie’s T-shirt, breathing in her comforting smell. Sophie had saved her!

  “Buttons! Buttons!” Mr Jenkins was hurrying up, walking as fast as he could with his stick. “What happened, did she fall in?” he asked worriedly. “I saw you pulling her lead, are you all right? Is she all right?”

  He leaned down slowly to stroke Buttons, and she pressed herself against his legs, making frightened little whimpering noises. “Oh, Buttons, you silly girl, what have you been doing?” He looked up and smiled apologetically at Sophie. “She pulled her lead out of my hand and raced off. It’s the first time we’ve been for a walk in a while. Buttons is a bit overexcited to be out again.”

  Sophie smiled back at him, though her heart was still thumping. It had been a scary moment. “She didn’t go right in. She was just starting to slip, but I grabbed her lead before she did more than get her paws wet.”

  “Sophie! Are you OK?” Tom and Michael had come riding up, and they looked worried. The little sister they were supposed to be looking after was sitting on the canal bank with a wet dog, her bike flung down on the grass.

  “Were you messing about by the water? Mum told you to stay away from the edge!” Tom shouted.

  “Of course I wasn’t!” Sophie said indignantly.

  Mr Jenkins looked up at the boys. “Your sister stopped Buttons falling in. She’s a star. Ooof.” He slowly straightened up. “I think we were a bit ambitious with this walk, Buttons. Best leave it a couple of days more.”

  “Would you like me to walk Buttons home for you?” Sophie asked.

  Mr Jenkins smiled at her. “It’s very kind of you to offer, but you weren’t going home yet, were you? I don’t want to take you out of your way.”

  “That’s all right. Isn’t it?” Sophie asked Tom and Michael. “Mum wouldn’t mind if I went back, would she?”

  The boys exchanged glances. “We’ll come too,” said Tom. “That way we can whe
el your bike while you’re walking Buttons.”

  “Oh! I’d forgotten my bike,” Sophie admitted. “I was too excited about getting to walk such a gorgeous puppy.”

  “She is lovely, isn’t she?” Mr Jenkins agreed, as they all started to walk home slowly. “Bit of a handful at the moment though. She’s got so much energy.”

  Buttons was darting here and there, sniffing excitedly at the scents of other dogs and people. Sophie laughed as she followed her, but she could see that such a bouncy little dog would be hard work for Mr Jenkins.

  “I really need to take her to some dog-training classes, but we just haven’t been able to get out much recently. Soon though,” Mr Jenkins added, as he watched Buttons racing about.

  “Where did you get her from?” Sophie asked, wishing she could have a beautiful chocolate-coloured dog like Buttons.

  “She came from a breeder who lives over on the other side of town. I got my last two dogs from him as well, but they were golden Labradors. Buttons is the first chocolate one I’ve had.”

  “Buttons is such a brilliant name for a chocolate Labrador,” Sophie told him, giggling.

  “Ah, that wasn’t me. It was my granddaughter Phoebe’s idea. She thought it was really funny.”

  “Does she live round here?” Sophie asked. “I don’t know anyone called Phoebe at school.”

  “No.” Mr Jenkins shook his head, sadly. “My son had to move with work earlier in the year. They live in Scotland now. I try and get up to see them, but I do miss her.”

  Sophie nodded. “That’s sad. My grandad lives in France; we don’t see him much either. And my nan and my other grandad live in London, ages away. We phone them lots, but it isn’t the same as seeing them, is it?”

  Mr Jenkins sighed. “Not at all. Phoebe hasn’t even seen Buttons yet; I got her six weeks ago. I’ve sent some photos.”