The Bomber Dog Read Online Free PDF

was a lot safer than Dover – Hellfire
Corner, as everyone now called it because of all the damage it was receiving. Nathan
was worried about leaving his mum alone. He wished she could join Penny and be safe.
He wished they could have Grey with them to protect them, but he’d seen how
frightened his mum was of Grey, even though she’d tried to hide it.
    ‘Hungry?’ Nathan asked the
dog. Nathan certainly was. Grey padded close behind him as Nathan went to see what
there was in the pantry.
    ‘Sit!’ Nathan said as he
opened the pantry door and reached inside.
    Grey looked at Nathan, then at the bit
of chicken in Nathan’s hand and back at Nathan.
    ‘Sit!’
Nathan said again.
    But Grey didn’t. Nathan
wasn’t even sure that Grey understood what the word meant, and he didn’t
want to frighten him by trying to push his bottom to the ground.
    Nathan sat down on the kitchen
floor.
    ‘Sit!’
    Grey looked at the chicken and then at
Nathan. He sat down.
    ‘Good dog!’ Nathan cried,
and he gave him the piece of chicken, which Grey gulped down in a single swallow,
seemingly without chewing it at all.
    Nathan scrambled to his feet to get more
chicken and Grey stood up and followed him. He wasn’t quite sure what it was
he’d done to get the chicken but he definitely wanted more.
    ‘Sit!’ Nathan said, and his
hand unconsciously lifted as he said it.
    Grey watched Nathan’s movement,
looked at the chicken and sat.
    ‘Yes!’
Nathan said as Grey gulped down the food. The dog was a quick learner, at least when
there was chicken involved. Maybe the dog had been taught the command before, maybe
he had once had a family, Nathan didn’t know.
    He wanted to take Grey for a walk but he
didn’t even have a collar or a lead for him. He improvised by making an extra
hole in his own belt to use as a collar and used the washing line, doubled over a
few times, as a lead.
    At first, Grey backed away when Nathan
tried to put the collar on, but Nathan dropped a scrap of bread on the floor, and
while Grey was busy gobbling it up Nathan managed to get the collar safely buckled
around his neck. He threaded the washing line through the belt as a makeshift lead.
Grey looked unimpressed.
    ‘Come on now,’ Nathan said.
‘You have to wear it.’
    When Nathan tried to
get Grey to go the way he wanted him to go, Grey didn’t like it at all and
started to pull in the opposite direction.
    ‘This way,’ Nathan said,
holding out more bread to Grey. ‘Bread doesn’t grow on trees you
know,’ he murmured as they headed out of the house and down the road.
    Grey just gave him a look, but then he
caught sight of the park just ahead. He was very fond of running on grass and
chasing squirrels and he dragged Nathan towards the park so hard that he had to
cling on to the lead with both hands.
    ‘Whoa, slow down there,
stop,’ he pleaded.
    But Grey wasn’t listening. He was
a strong dog who knew where he wanted to go, and as soon as they reached the park,
in they went.
    Grey ran fast and Nathan had no choice
but to let go of the lead or end up being dragged into a hawthorn bush.
    As he watched Grey run
on without him, Nathan worried that he was going to lose him. What if the dog
didn’t come back?
    He spotted a ball that had been left
half hidden under the bush and picked it up.
    ‘Grey, Grey, Grey …’ he
yelled, as he waved his hands in the air.
    The dog stopped for a moment to look
over at him but didn’t come back.
    ‘Fetch!’ Nathan threw the
ball into the air. Grey followed it with his eyes and the next moment he was running
across the grass chasing after it.
    He’d never played ball before but
he liked it just as much as chasing squirrels, and he soon got the idea that if he
brought it back to Nathan then Nathan could make it fly through the air for him to
chase all over again.
    Nathan soon found out that when it came
to meeting other dogs, Grey wasn’t the least bit wary. Nathan watched as he
bounded overto the other dogs in