The Bomber Dog Read Online Free PDF Page A

in the bottom of the bath.
    Grey was still outside when Nathan
stripped off his clothes and climbed in, but a moment later he was there, staring
intently at him. The dog looked at the bath water, put his head down and drank some
of it, sneezed a little at the surprising warmth of it, then sat down and gazed at
Nathan holding the sponge.
    Nathan found it very
unnerving sitting naked in the tin bath with Grey staring at him. At times the dog
tilted his head to one side and looked at him as if he was trying to work out what
on earth was going on. Grey’s coat had been covered in ash and soot the night
before and it was matted and dirty. He looked as though he’d never had a bath
in his life.
    Nathan wasn’t sure how Grey would
react to being washed. Some dogs hated water and others loved it.
    He stood up, stepped out of the bath and
pulled a towel down from the kitchen pulley rack.
    ‘In you go, Grey,’ he said,
pointing at the bathwater.
    Grey bent his head and lapped at the
water in the bottom of the tin bath again, but he didn’t get in.
    Nathan reached down and splashed his
fingers about in the water.
    ‘It’s
nice,’ he said. ‘Go on.’ He pointed at the water again, but Grey
clearly had no intention of getting in and stayed firmly where he was.
    Nathan sighed. ‘Sponge bath
then.’
    He dipped the sponge in the bathwater,
rubbed coal tar soap on the sponge and then squeezed it over Grey’s back. The
soap certainly made Grey’s fur smell a lot nicer than it had previously.
    ‘That’s it, you’re
OK,’ he told Grey, as the dog turned to look with interest at the river of
soapy suds running down his back. Nathan laughed. Grey did seem to be a bit
bewildered by it all, but at least he wasn’t running away.
    Nathan lathered the soap deep into
Grey’s fur and then sponged it off with plenty of clean water. At last, all
rinsed off, it was time to dry him.
    However, before he could get another
towel from the pulley rack, Grey started to shakehimself
vigorously and sprayed water everywhere; all over the walls, the range and the
floor. Nathan did his best to mop it up, and then dried Grey as thoroughly as he
could with the soggy towel.
    Grey really seemed to like being dried;
he made little sounds of happiness deep in his throat, which made Nathan smile.
Before he’d washed him he’d thought Grey was mainly a dark charcoal grey
all over, but now he found that parts of his coat were actually quite pale, and as
the fur became properly dry he discovered that the dog was in fact sable coated.
    ‘You really are a beautiful
dog,’ he told him. And judging by the way Grey held his head up proudly, he
thought he’d probably agree.
    ‘You know what you need? You need
a brush,’ Nathan said. Nathan himself used a comb on his hair and he
didn’t think his mother would appreciate him using her hairbrush on Grey, but
the scrubbing brush turned out to beperfect. As he ran the bristle
brush down Grey’s sable coat he smoothed out any remaining matting and knots
in his fur.
    Grey lifted his head to encourage Nathan
to concentrate on his favourite brushing place – under his chin.
    ‘More there?’ Nathan said as
he obediently brushed the spot.
    The dog’s pointy ears – one grey
and standing straight up, the other white-tipped and flopping down – were velvety
soft, softer than the rest of his coat. Not that the rest of his coat was rough,
especially after all the brushing, but it didn’t have the buttery softness of
his ears.
    Nathan laughed when he was brushing the
dog’s tummy and found a tickle spot that made Grey sneeze.
    He’d only known Grey a very short
time but already he was starting to wish the dog could be his. But that wasn’t
possible because he was leaving for army basic-training camp tomorrow.
    Nathan wished that
Penny could meet Grey. She was crazy about dogs and he was sure she’d like him
just as much as he did. But at least Penny was with animals at their
grandparents’ smallholding and it