A Home for Rascal Read Online Free PDF Page B

garden. She’d brought him round for some advice. Grandad had kept Freda shut inside. Ellie wasn’t sure Rascal was ready to meet another cat just yet!
    “What’s he been up to?” Grandad asked her.
    “We took him for his first walk yesterday,to the park.” Ellie went red. “He was really naughty.” She told Grandad about the pond incident, which made him laugh.
    “Isn’t it normally the dog that gets all wet and muddy on a walk, not its owner?” he joked.
    “I’m taking him out again later, with Christy. I just hope he’s a bit better behaved. Everyone’s getting a little grumpy with him,” Ellie said finally. “He ate one of Dad’s slippers when we got home from the walk.”
    “Didn’t you tell him off?” Grandad asked.
    Ellie nodded. “Well, Dad did. I’m not very good at telling him off.”
    “But Rascal doesn’t think he’s your dad’s dog, Ellie.”
    “Oh … I see what you mean.”
    Grandad smiled. “If you’re going to have all the love and the cuddles, then you need to do the hard stuff, too. And I don’t just mean the falling in ponds, Ellie love. You need to be the one who makes Rascal behave.”
    Ellie watched Rascal trying to creep up on a butterfly. He was so gorgeous, but if he kept on being naughty, he’d be a terror when he was a grown-up dog. It was a big responsibility.

    “This is going to be so cool!” Christy beamed, as Ellie opened the front door. She went to untie Bouncer’s lead from the gate.
    Ellie nodded. “I know. But we’re not going anywhere near the pond, OK? I still smell of mud and I’ve had two baths since yesterday. Come on, Rascal!”
    He pattered out of the front gate, looking very smart in his red collar and lead. Dad had got the little bone-shaped tag engraved with Rascal’s name and their phone number.
    “He’s so tiny and Bouncer’s so huge!” Ellie laughed as Rascal sniffed interestedly at Bouncer. “Oh, Rascal, don’t sniff his bottom, that’s rude!”

    Bouncer sniffed Rascal back, and then gave him a friendly lick. His tongue covered Rascal’s whole head, and Rascal gave a confused sneeze. He let out a sharp, cross bark, and Bouncer stepped back, his tail between his legs.
    Christy burst out laughing. “Bouncer, you can’t be scared of Rascal – you’re ten times bigger than he is!”
    Bouncer lay down with his nose on the pavement, his tail wagging. Rascal gave the bigger dog’s nose an approving lick, and then they set off together down the road.
    Ellie and Christy smiled at each other. It looked like Bouncer and Rascal had sorted things out for themselves.

    Ellie ended up carrying Rascal most of the way to the park again, as he kept getting tangled up in his lead.
    “Has he done anything else awful lately?” Christy asked, as they approached the park gates.
    “No! Well, he chewed my sketchbook this morning. But only the edges…” she admitted.“I tried to tell him off, like Grandad said. It’s really hard. He looked so upset!”
    “He’ll turn into a monster if you never tell him off.” Christy shook her head.
    “I know. I really tried. Stern voice and everything, honestly.” Ellie sighed. “But he just gives me this really sad look… I’ve just got to try harder, I suppose.”

    That night, Ellie lay in bed smiling sleepily to herself. She had loved walking with Christy and Bouncer and Rascal. It was so much more fun now that she had her own dog. Even though he had barked at every dog they walked past, and tried to climb a tree, chasing after a squirrel that wasalmost bigger than he was!
    There was a gentle scratching at her bedroom door, and suddenly it swung open. Ellie sat up, her half-asleep brain thinking of ghosts, and her heart thudding.
    But the little white shape was no ghost. It was a puppy.

    “Rascal! How did you open the kitchen door?” Ellie whispered. “Did Dad not shut it properly?”
    Rascal put his paws on the side of her bed and looked at her hopefully. Ellie lifted him up. “We’ll get