A Sheepdog Called Sky Read online

“Well, that’s why I’m going in now. To have a look at these photos and get more details from her.”

  “I’m coming too,” said Jasmine. “She can’t have him. She can’t take Sky away.”

  Mum walked over to her and put her hands on Jasmine’s shoulders.

  “I’m sorry, Jas, but I can’t take you with me.”

  “But I have to come!”

  Mum shook her head. “This could be a tricky situation and it has to be handled professionally. I need to go on my own.”

  “But I have to be there. Sky is my dog!”

  Mum opened her mouth as though she was about to say something, and then closed it again. Jasmine stared at her. She knew what Mum had been about to say. Sky wasn’t her dog. Sky had another owner, and that owner was about to claim him back.

  “Jasmine, what are you doing?” called Tom, walking towards her. “I’ve been waiting ages.”

  Jasmine turned her back on her mother. “Let’s go to the den,” she said to Tom. “And afterwards, let’s go to your house. I’m not coming back here again.”

  Jasmine was almost speechless with anger as she and Tom walked across the horse paddock with Sky.

  “How could she?” she said. “She’s a traitor, going to see this woman. And she wouldn’t even let me go with her. I’ve got a right to go. I’m the one who’s been looking after Sky all this time.”

  “Why would an owner wait nearly a month after their dog had disappeared before they looked for it?” said Tom. “It doesn’t make sense. I bet her brother isn’t really the owner. I bet she just wants to get a dog for free and she’s gone round all the vets asking if they’ve had any stray collies brought in, until she found one that had.”

  Jasmine gazed at him, open-mouthed. “Yes!” she said. “Of course! And that’s why she’s pretending to be the owner’s sister, not the owner. Because then it won’t look so suspicious if she can’t answer all the questions.”

  “But even if her brother is Sky’s owner,” said Tom, “they won’t give Sky back to him, will they? He left him in a hedge to die.”

  “Exactly,” said Jasmine. But then a thought struck her. A thought so terrible that she stopped dead in her tracks. Sky pulled on the lead, trying to keep on walking, and Jasmine automatically gave the command, “Stay close!” Sky turned and looked at her enquiringly, and then moved back to stand beside her.

  “What?” asked Tom. “What’s wrong?”

  “What if his owner didn’t leave him to die?” said Jasmine. “What if there was a storm, or fireworks, or something else that spooked him, and he ran off and got caught in the hedge and couldn’t get free, exactly like the other day? What if his owner really loved him and he’s been searching for him ever since?” A huge lump rose in her throat so that she could hardly speak. “I thought he was my dog, but what if he’s not? What if he had another owner who loved him and has been missing him all this time?”

  The lump in her throat was so big by now that she couldn’t speak any more. She quickened her pace, Sky trotting beside her. Tom walked beside her too, and he didn’t say anything. That’s because he knows I’m right, thought Jasmine, and there’s nothing he can say to make me feel better. Sky is going to be taken away from me, and there’s nothing anyone can do about it.

  At the end of the field, they climbed over the gate and Tom headed towards their den.

  “Do you mind if we don’t go to the den?” said Jasmine. “I don’t really feel like it today. Can we just keep walking?”

  “Sure,” said Tom, and they carried on towards the woods.

  After a minute, Tom said, “I don’t think that’s right.”

  “What’s not right?”

  “What you said about Sky running off from his last owner and getting stuck in that hedge.”

  “Why don’t you think it’s right?”

  “Well, Sky wasn’t stuck when you found him, was he?”

  “No,” said Jasmine. “But he could have wriggled free eventually, and then been too weak by that time to get out of the hedge.”

  Tom pushed out his bottom lip thoughtfully. “Maybe,” he said. “Did it look like he’d been there a long time? Was the ground all bare around him? Did it look like a dog had been frantically trying to get free for ages?”

  Jasmine pictured the scene in her mind’s eye. The tiny little puppy in the hedge, whimpering for help.

  “No,” she said. “I don’t think so. I don’t remember the ground being bare. And also,” she said, her eyes growing large as she looked at Tom, “it would have been really smelly if he’d been there for ages, wouldn’t it? If he’d been using it as a toilet all that time?”

  “Really smelly,” agreed Tom.

  “And it wasn’t. I mean, it was a bit smelly – he was a bit smelly, poor thing – but not like he’d been there for long enough to turn a healthy dog into a starving one.”

  “And also,” said Tom, “if he’d been there all that time, I bet someone would have found him earlier. I mean, you heard him whining, didn’t you? And he was quite near the track.”

  “And that track’s a public footpath,” said Jasmine. “Lots of people use it. Dog walkers. I bet another dog would have found him and alerted their owner.”

  “Exactly,” said Tom. “So I don’t believe he got stuck there. I think he was already starving, and someone just left him there to die.”

  “But how can we prove that?” asked Jasmine. “What if these people are really good liars, and Mum believes them?”

  “They must need to have proof,” said Tom. “And why would anybody want a dog back if they’d thrown it out in the first place? I don’t get it. Maybe,” he said, turning to Jasmine, “maybe this woman wants to report her brother for cruelty, and that’s why she’s got in touch.”

  “Maybe,” said Jasmine doubtfully. “But then why didn’t she just phone the RSPCA?”

  Tom shrugged. “I don’t know.”

  They walked around the woods for a while, but it wasn’t a happy walk. Sky seemed to be able to sense that something wasn’t right with Jasmine, and he stayed very close, glancing at her frequently.

  After a while, Tom’s phone beeped in his pocket. He looked at the message.

  “I have to go home for tea,” he said. “Are you coming?”

  Jasmine thought for a moment. Then she said, “No, I’m going to carry on walking for a bit. I’ll go home later. But thanks anyway.”

  Privately, she had no intention of going home for many hours yet. She hoped her mum would get very worried about her. It would serve her right.

  Once Tom had gone and Jasmine had no one to distract her, it was impossible to stop the terrible thoughts from flooding into her head. What if Sky really had just run off and got stuck in that hedge? What if the owner or his sister was right now showing Mum all the photos they had taken of Sky as a much-loved puppy, photos that proved Sky was really theirs?

  Or, even worse – so terrible that it gave Jasmine physical pain to think about it – what if Sky’s owner had been cruel to him and starved him, but now, for some reason, he wanted him back? What if he had proof that Sky was his, and convinced Mum that he was a kind owner, but then when he got him back he planned to shut him up and starve him again?

  Jasmine climbed the gate that led out of the woods into a field on the other side. She walked across the field, faster and faster, Sky trotting to keep up with her. She was blinded by tears and by the terrible visions in her head. She didn’t know where she was going; she only knew she had to keep walking. As long as she and Sky were together, away from anyone who would try to separate them, that was all that mattered.

  Suddenly her left foot, instead of landing on solid ground, sank deep into a rabbit hole. Jasmine lost her balance and crashed down, twisting her trapped ankle and falling with a thud on to the hard ground.

  The pain in her ankle was so extreme that, for some time, she just lay on the ground, crying out and moaning. Then she felt Sky licking her nose. Still moaning in pain, she lifted her arm to stroke him. Gingerly, she heaved herself up to a sitting position so she could inspect the damage.

  She was shocked to see that her ankle was already swollen. Was it broken? If she had broken it, how could she care for Sky?

  The ankle hurt even more when she touched it. The swelling was hurting her foot, so, very carefully, she unlaced her trainer and took it off, wincing as every movement sent fresh pain shooting through her body. She had no strength left to take off her sock. She just sat on the ground, moaning in pain, with Sky licking her face and hands, trying, she was sure, to make her feel better.

  “You’re such a good dog,” she said. “And you do make me feel better. You really do.”

  Slowly and carefully, she shifted all her weight on to her right side and, using her hands to push herself upright, tried to stand. When she put even the smallest amount of weight on her swollen ankle, it hurt so much she almost threw up. Eventually she managed to get herself into a standing position, but as soon as she tried to put any weight on her injured ankle, the pain was unbearable. How was she going to get home?

  If she had still been in the wood, she might have been within reach of a makeshift crutch, but here, there wasn’t a stick in sight. She was well and truly stranded. And she couldn’t stand on one leg for much longer.

  Placing her hands on the ground, she carefully lowered herself back to a sitting position.

  How long would it be before they came looking for her?

  She had told her mum she was going to Tom’s. Nobody would be expecting her at home for hours. And she had told Tom she was going home, so he wouldn’t be expecting her at all. Even when they did start searching, it might be hours before they found her. And rainclouds were gathering in the sky.

  Sky licked her face. And suddenly
Jasmine had a thought.

  What if…?

  Might it be possible? Might Sky be able to find Tom?

  It would be much more of a challenge than any game of hide and seek they had played before. Sky would have to go back to the wood before he would even pick up Tom’s scent.

  Would he do this on his own? And if he did get to the wood, he would have to trace the scent all the way through the wood and across a big field to Tom’s house. Luckily, there were no roads to cross, but still, it was a long way for Sky. And if he reached Tom’s house, how would he let Tom know he was there? Jasmine couldn’t bear to think of Sky sitting patiently outside the house for hours, alone and unnoticed.

  Sky gave a little bark and made an impatient movement.

  “You want me to get up and walk, don’t you?” said Jasmine. “But I can’t walk.”

  Sky circled her, nose to the ground, tail wagging. He looked as though he had plenty of energy.

  “Would you like to do a job for me, Sky?”

  Sky licked her face again.

  Jasmine made up her mind.

  “Lie down,” she commanded.

  Sky didn’t even need the hand signal any more. He lay on the ground, fully alert, his tail sweeping across the grass from side to side, his eyes completely focused on Jasmine’s face, awaiting his next instruction.

  “Find Tom,” said Jasmine, sweeping her hand away towards the woods. “Find Tom!”

  Sky sprang to his feet. He trotted off towards the woods, sniffing at the ground. Then he turned to look back at Jasmine.

  “Find Tom!” she called, sweeping her hand away again. “Find Tom!”

  Sky put his nose back to the ground and continued across the field. At the gate that led into the woods, where Jasmine and Tom had parted, he started to wag his tail and sniff excitedly at the grass.

  “You’ve found Tom’s scent,” said Jasmine. “Good dog, Sky.”

  She said this very quietly, so as not to distract him from his task. She didn’t want him to think he’d completed the job already.

  Sky slipped under the gate and trotted off into the woods. Jasmine watched him until she could no longer see him through the trees.

  Once he was out of sight, she felt acutely alone. Without Sky to focus on, the throbbing pain in her ankle was much harder to bear. She lay on the ground and looked up at the heavy grey clouds amassing above her. There was nothing more she could do. Exhaustion overwhelmed her and she closed her eyes.

  Jasmine woke up, stiff and aching, on the cold, hard ground. It was getting dark. Her ankle throbbed. Slowly and painstakingly, she manoeuvred herself into a sitting position. A vast purple bruise now covered her swollen ankle. How long had she been asleep?

  Was that voices in the distance, or was she imagining it?

  She heard light footsteps running through the grass, and the panting of a dog. She turned to see Sky bounding across the field towards her, barking joyfully. Behind him, at the edge of the woods, was Tom.

  While they were waiting for Dad to arrive in the truck, Tom told Jasmine what had happened. He had been up in his bedroom when he’d heard a scrabbling and whining at the front door. He had opened the door to find Sky on the step.

  “At first,” he said, “I thought you’d changed your mind and decided to come to my house after all. I called you, but you didn’t come, so I thought you must have sent Sky ahead to find me. So I told him to find you, and he just kept going back through the woods. I couldn’t believe you’d have sent him all that way, so I kept stopping and calling you. But Sky never stopped. He just kept on going, and he led me right here. He was amazing.”

  “He’s an amazing dog,” said Jasmine. “Aren’t you, Sky?”

  Dad took Jasmine to the hospital, where she was very relieved to discover that she had no broken bones, just a nasty sprain. She was told to get plenty of rest and treat her ankle with ice for three days. She wasn’t to put weight on it for a week. And she was given crutches, which made the situation seem a lot more fun.

  “I think we’d better get you a phone of your own,” said Dad, as they drove home. Seeing the look of delight on Jasmine’s face, he hastily said, “Nothing fancy, just a basic one, so you can call us if you get into any more sticky situations.”

  As they drove down the farm track, Jasmine saw Mum’s car in the farmyard. She felt sick again. What had happened at the surgery? Was Sky about to be taken away from her?

  When Jasmine walked into the house on her crutches, Manu’s mouth fell open.

  “You’ve got crutches? That is so cool. Can I have a go? Give them to me.”

  Mum came running downstairs and enfolded Jasmine in a tight hug. “Oh, my goodness, Jasmine, what are we going to do with you? Come into the living room and put your feet up, and I’ll get some ice for your poor ankle.”

  “Dad’s getting the ice,” said Jasmine. “What did the woman say? Does Sky really belong to her brother? What’s going to happen?”

  But Mum wouldn’t tell her anything until she was lying on the sofa with her left foot raised on a pillow, ice packs on her ankle and Sky on the floor beside her. Jasmine gave Manu her crutches to play on, provided he played in another room. Ella sat at the dining table, hunched over Mum’s laptop, books spread out all around her. Mum had suggested that she did her notes on a computer this time, to make them more chinchilla-proof. Ella had clearly forgiven the chinchillas, though, as they were both snuggled up in her lap.

  “They’re just so soft,” she said, when Jasmine expressed her surprise. “They’re very comforting animals. When they’re asleep, anyway.”

  “You must be starving, Jas,” said Mum.

  “What would you like? Pasta? Beans on toast?”

  “I’m not hungry,” said Jasmine. “Just tell me about Sky.” Manu’s head appeared round the doorframe. “These are the best things ever,” he said. “When your ankle’s better, can I keep them?”

  “Sure,” said Jasmine. “Mum, tell me about Sky. Please.”

  Mum sat in the armchair opposite Jasmine. “Well,” she said, “the woman who came into the surgery – Iris, she’s called – is the sister of Sky’s former owner. She brought in photos of him at two months old, and the dates she gave, of his age and of his disappearance, matched up with our dates.”

  Jasmine couldn’t speak. It really was going to happen. Sky was going to be taken away from her.

  “Her brother bought Sky on a whim, it seems,” said Mum, “as an eight-week-old puppy. Iris said he made a fuss of Sky at first – his name wasn’t Sky then, of course – but the next time she visited, two months later, Sky was tied up in a shed, and looked skinny and uncared-for. She lives sixty miles away, so she doesn’t see her brother very often.”

  “So why didn’t she report him then?” asked Jasmine, furiously.

  “Her brother told her that the dog had been ill with worms, and that was why he was thin and sick-looking. He said he was treating him.”

  “And she believed him?”

  “It sounds as though this man is a nasty piece of work, and I got the feeling that Iris was afraid to get on the wrong side of him. She said she phoned a few times, and he told her Sky was better. But when she came to visit today, there was no sign of him, and her brother told her he’d died. She was suspicious, and she asked which vet had been treating him. He gave her the name of my practice, so she came in on her way home to check his story. Of course, her brother had never been there, but when Iris told Linda about it and showed her the photos, Linda realised that the dog must be Sky.”

  “Why would he get a dog,” Jasmine said, “if he didn’t even want to look after it?”

  “Sadly,” said Mum, “all too many people do. They fall in love with a cute puppy, but have no idea of the hours they’re going to have to spend training and looking after it, every single day for the next fifteen years. Collies suffer more than most. They’re incredibly cute puppies, but they’ve been bred over centuries to be working dogs, not pets. They grow into extremely energetic dogs, who need very careful training and masses of exercise. People can’t cope with them, and then they blame the dog for being too demanding or badly behaved. Rehoming centres are full of collies whose owners just didn’t bother to consider what they were taking on.”