Renni the Rescuer Read Free Page A

he came back to the garden with his clothes soiled, his hands dirty, but with an inexpressibly happy expression on his face. He closed the garden gate with a bang. Put down in the grass, Renni came to and performed a dance of joy around George. In his gaiety he ran over Kitty and sent her rolling. Kitty was ready enough to play with Renni, but she had to sneeze every time she came near him, for he smelled of street dust and burnt gasoline.
    From that day on George redoubled the care with which he watched over Renni. He screwed a spring latch onto the garden gate so that it sprang shut whenever a delivery man or anyone else went in or out.
    Renni was growing larger and larger. He could no longer be called a puppy, except as a pet name. He still had all the signs of puppyhood in his looks, his awkwardness and clumsiness, but he was no longer a pup. There was no way to tell whether he remembered theadventure in which he had almost lost his life. George declared that Renni was cured once and for all, that he would dodge any automobile and would be careful to keep off the highway. Mother Marie laughed. “Then why did you put the automatic lock on the garden gate?” she asked.
    â€œTo keep him from running around in the fields by himself,” said George in self-defence.
    The relations between master and dog became closer and more intimate from day to day. According to George, Renni realised that George owned him. As a matter of fact, Renni was firmly convinced that George was his personal property.
    If George was gone for a few hours Renni might condescend to frolic with Kitty, who was always challenging him, but in a little while he would refuse to be tempted further and would lie waiting in front of the house door or peeping out the garden gate, with his big sharp ears pricked up. Those ears were very expressive. If he had to wait too long he would give vent to an impatient whine and then lapse into his silent waiting.Once again longing would overcome him. He would lift his beautiful head and a soft, wailing howl would come from his rounded lips in long-drawn-out, high-pitched tones. They seemed to say, “Where is he? Why doesn’t he come? Won’t I ever see him again?” Renni’s song of mourning voiced every imaginable complaint.
    But he knew when George was coming, a long way off. Before he came into sight, before his steps could be heard by human ears, Renni’s eager tail would be thumping the ground loudly, he would be getting up to greet his master with an outburst of joy. He would spring up on George as high as he could, try to kiss him, dash around like a whirlwind, come back to him again and again, and would not begin to calm down until he had been praised and petted extravagantly. As long as this dance of joy went on, nothing and nobody existed except George—not Kitty or Mother Marie, or a bite of his favourite food, or furniture or rugs or anything. He upset chairs, rolled over and over, pulled at a rug until it wrapped itself around his legs and threw him down. When he knocked dishes clattering around him theydid not scare him or lessen his joyous madness in the least degree.
    Later on Renni fell into the habit of getting hold of some piece of George’s clothing—a cap, a shirt, a neckerchief; anything he could snatch up in a hurry he would take and stretch out on it just as though he had George safe forever, and now George could never leave him again. Anyone listening then could hear deep, soft, sighing breaths of joy and peace. As soon as George became aware of this habit he cut short the ceremony of greeting by throwing Renni something of his, and Renni was immediately satisfied.

Chapter III
    A BOUT THIS TIME A SORT of crisis arose between master and dog. Renni set his will against George’s. Neither had the least suspicion what was going on. Olga was the cause of it all. Olga was a pretty, flashily dressed girl whom George met in one of the city parks and found