Edie Amelia and the Runcible River Fever Read Online Free PDF Page A

This must be the new vet, the one who had taken over from old Doctor Dogwatch, who was now caring for sickcamels and their first and second cousins at the Runcible Refuge for Distressed Dromedaries. She pushed open the surgery door, helping Mister over the step and pulling the pram and dog net in after her.
    â€˜If that’s a baby you’ve got in there you’ve come to the wrong place. Take it to Doctor Proudfoot over the road,’ said a woman’s voice from behind a screen.
    â€˜Oh . . . no, it’s my dog that needs help. He was in the pram because—well, it’s a long story,’ said Edie.
    â€˜Very well, very well. Just bring him around and I’ll take a look,’ said the voice.
    Mister didn’t seem keen on going, but after some gentle encouragement from Edie he allowed himself to be brought face to face with Doctor Arabella Stuart. She had long hair, wore a white coat and had on an elaborate metal headpiece from which a microscope was suspended in front of her right eye. Her other eye was pale, sort of green and watery, like a cat’s.
    â€˜Name, date of birth, place of residence,’ said Doctor Stuart. Her voice seemed cold,not warm and welcoming like old Doctor Dogwatch’s.
    â€˜Edie Amelia Sparks. Born exactly nine years and two weeks ago.’
    â€˜Not you, the animal,’ said the vet.
    Mister, apparently not fond of being called ‘the animal’, stood on Edie’s left foot.
    â€˜Sorry, I’ve been a bit fraught,’ said Edie, trying out a new word she hoped would have some appeal to a person in the medical profession. When she supplied the vet with Mister’s name, age and address she got another curt answer.
    â€˜Ah, Mister Pants. I know his file. Saw it the other day. Weighed a ton—just like him. What on earth have you been feeding him?’
    â€˜Lemons,’ said Edie, feeling really flustered. This was perfectly true: Mister Pants’s last trip to Doctor Dogwatch had been because he had swallowed a lemon then found himself in the tricky position of being unable to digest it.
    â€˜Help me get him up on the table,’ said Doctor Stuart. Edie explained what had happened at the Chompsters’ whileDoctor Stuart put blue drops in Mister’s injured eye and took a proper look.
    â€˜Bad news,’ the vet said. ‘I’m afraid he’s got a scratch on his cornea.’ She shone a light in his eye and peered through her microscope. ‘Your dog doesn’t seem to be the luckiest of animals.’
    â€˜But he
is
brave. And he can communicate with humans . . . well, me, anyway, so that makes up for it,’ Edie said loyally.
    Doctor Stuart raised the gadget from her eye so it sat on her head and pointed towards the ceiling. ‘You’ll need to put drops in his eye every four hours and we might just save it,’ she said. ‘Get down, please,’ she said to Mister Pants as she walked over to the sink and washed her hands.
    â€˜He won’t move till you give him his treat,’ said Edie. ‘Doctor Dogwatch used to have a bag of them. He also used to give me a . . . how do I put it . . . a special rate for Mister Pants.’
    Dr Stuart turned and looked straight through her without blinking.
    â€˜Look,’ blurted Edie, ‘I may as well admit it—I can’t afford to pay you. This is Mister’s eleventh trip to the vet this year so I don’t want my parents to find out there’s something else wrong with him.’
    â€˜I’m sure they’d understand,’ said Doctor Stuart.
    â€˜In case you haven’t noticed, the town’s in a Fever crisis and everyone’s a little short on understanding,’ Edie replied.
    Doctor Stuart looked down, studying Mister’s surgery card. ‘This address—The Pride of the Green—isn’t that the lopsided house with the purple front door? You’re the young