Emily's Dream Read Free Page A

who pop in on different days.”
    “But if one of the dogs was ill, you might be upall night – and then you’d have to do everything the next day as well!” Emily said worriedly. She’d seen how tired her mum got when one of them was sick and she didn’t get any sleep – it meant she wandered around like a ghost the next day, and Emily had to remind her about things like packed lunches and teeth-brushing.
    “Mmm. Luckily it doesn’t happen all that often, but it’s awful when it does. We’ve got a beautiful spaniel cross who took the whole night to have six puppies a few weeks ago. I was so tired the next day that I ended up feeding half the dogs cat food.” Lucy smiled. “Luckily they didn’t seem all that bothered.”
    Emily sighed blissfully. “There are puppies!”
    “Yes…” Lucy sighed. “They’re really gorgeous – but six more dogs to find homes for.”
    Emily nodded wistfully. “I’d love a puppy, but my mum’s right – my baby sister’s too little. If we had a dog it would have to be a nice, calm older dog who wouldn’t mind if Sukie tried to feed it Lego. Sukie’s my little sister,” she added. “She’s two.”
    “Oh, I see.” Lucy nodded. “Well, some dogs are good with little children, but not all of them. Your mum’s just being sensible.” She looked at Emily and Maya for a moment. “Do you want to come and seesome of the animals?”
    Emily nodded enthusiastically. Lucy hadn’t said yes to wanting a helper, but at least if she was letting them look around, it must mean she wasn’t totally against the idea?
    She followed Lucy in through one of the doors set around the edge of the yard, and blinked as they came in out of the bright sunlight outside.
    “This used to be the dairy,” Lucy explained.
    The long, low building ran all along one side of the yard. It was a line of pens, opening out on to a passageway, and each pen had a dog or maybe two inside. As they saw Lucy and Emily and the others, they leapt up excitedly, scratching at the wire fronts of the pens, and barking.
    “So many!” Maya murmured, as she looked down the long passage.
    “We’re quite full at the moment,” Lucy agreed. “Twenty-three dogs. That’s including the six puppies though.”
    “Do you get lots of visitors wanting to rehome them?” Maya’s dad asked, crouching down to let a pretty little Jack Russell lick his fingers through the bars.
    Lucy sighed. “Not enough, to be honest. That littleone – Posy, we call her – she’d make a gorgeous pet. But even though we put the details up on the website, we just don’t get enough people coming to see us. Four or five visitors a week, usually. We’ve had Posy for nearly a month now.”
    “Must be expensive to keep them all – the food, and paying to keep these pens warm.” Maya’s dad reluctantly said goodbye to Posy, and moved on to look at the elderly Labrador in the next pen. He was sitting down, about the only dog that was, but he was thumping his huge black tail on the concrete floor, and panting excitedly.
    “This is Barney. He’s a darling – his owner couldn’t look after him any longer, because he had to move in with his daughter’s family. It’s a huge change for an old dog like Barney, coming here, but he’s been so good.” Lucy stroked him, and Barney closed his eyes and slobbered happily. “He’s going to be hard to rehome. Everyone wants puppies, you see. Not a grand old man like Barney.”
    “You shouldn’t have brought me here, Maya,” her dad muttered. “I could take the lot of them home. He’s great.”
    “Anna would have a fit,” Maya pointed out. “Mum too. And Henry would never speak to us again.”
    Emily was further down the passage, murmuring lovingly to a little whippet, who was eyeing her shyly from the corner of the pen.
    “She’s so pretty,” she whispered to Lucy. “But so tiny and thin!”
    “Oh, be careful…” Lucy hurried down the passage to her. “Twinkle’s pretty nervous, and