Alfie All Alone Read Free

and he tripped over it as he tried to race over to her. Her friends were all really jealous, and Alfiegot petted and stroked by everyone. Then they’d head home and Alfie would watch TV with Evie on the sofa. He soon decided on his favourite programmes, and he got very good at singing along to the theme tunes in a tuneful howl.
    Mum hadn’t been so sure about getting a dog, but Alfie won her over very quickly. He loved people, and he followed her round the house as she did the housework. He was far better company than the radio! And whenever she sat down, he rested his head on her feet.
    Of course, Alfie didn’t have to work hard to charm Evie’s gran. She was always popping over to see him and Evie, and it was great to have her to askabout dog-training tips. It only took Alfie a few days to learn about asking to go outside and Gran warned Evie not to give him too many doggy chocolates as a reward, as he was starting to look a bit tubby!
    Once Alfie could meet up with other dogs, Evie took him round to Gran’s house to be introduced to Ben and Tigger. Alfie was a little shy at first – they were a lot bigger than he was, especially Tigger – but after half an hour he was chasing them round the garden. Ben the spaniel soon worked out a good way to calm Alfie down when he was being too puppyish and excitable – he sat on him! Evie panicked the first time he did it, but Gran said it would probably be goodfor Alfie to have an older dog bossing him around, and that Ben wouldn’t hurt him.
    Evie and Dad soon got into the habit of taking Alfie for an evening walk after dinner. It gave Mum the chance to snooze on the sofa in front of the television. Now that the baby was getting really big, she was tired a lot of the time. Dad and Evie always took a ball with them, or Alfie’s favourite, a frisbee. Dad had spotted it in the pet shop and bought it for when Alfie was bigger, but once Alfie saw it, he didn’t want to wait. So what if the frisbee was almost as big as he was? He was very good at catching it – he could do massive leaps into mid-air, twisting and turning and snatching the frisbeeas it fell. Then he’d haul it over the grass back to Evie, and sit panting exhaustedly for a minute, before yapping for them to throw it again. A couple of times he’d worn himself out so much that Dad had to carry him home and lay the exhausted puppy in his basket. Evie was so happy that Alfie had become part of the family – she couldn’t imagine life at home without him now.

Chapter Three
    One night, Alfie was curled up snugly in a nest of duvet on top of Evie’s toes. He was twitching happily in his sleep, dreaming of breakfast, when he was woken by the sound of Evie’s parents talking. He sat up and listened carefully – it wasn’t something he expected to hear in the middle of the night. Something interesting wasgoing on. He padded up to the top of the bed, and licked Evie’s ear.
    “Grrmmpf!” Evie wriggled and wiped the lick off her face. “Alfie! It’s the middle of the night, silly, what are you doing?” She yawned, and gave a little stretch. “Go back to sleep. It’s ages till we have to get up.” Then she turned over and snuggled her face back into her pillow.
    Alfie huffed through his nose irritably. Why wouldn’t Evie listen? Couldn’t she tell that something exciting was happening? He took hold of Evie’s pyjama sleeve with his teeth, very, very gently, and pulled.
    “OK, Alfie, what is it?” she asked sleepily. “Do you need a wee? Because if you think I’m taking you all roundthe garden to find a good place at this time of night you can think again!”
    Alfie yapped sharply, and tugged at Evie’s sleeve again. Then he dropped the sleeve and stood silently, his ears pricked up.

    Evie listened, and at last she understood why Alfie was behaving so strangely. Her parents weren’t just talking now, they were moving around too. Doors were opening and shutting quietly, and she could hear her dad on