A Pug Like Percy: A heartwarming tale for the whole family. Fiona Harrison

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СКАЧАТЬ snuggles in bed with a cuddly mum and man-to-man chats with the dad of the house in a shed at the bottom of the garden.

      But those thoughts seemed little more than fantasy to me now, and I closed my eyes tightly, wanting nothing more than to forget the world. My time here at the tails of the forgotten had been fine, nice even, but it was no substitute for a real home. Seeing all my friends apart from Boris adopted left me with a lot of questions, namely, what was wrong with me?

      Since revealing the story of how I had arrived at the shelter with Boris and Barney all those weeks ago, I had been unable to forget how Javier had ignored the way I begged him to take me with him and had gone over and over all the things I could have done to upset him. I knew Gabriella had never been particularly fond of me and perhaps that was the reason he had not fought to take me to Argentina, to start a new life.

      Doubt nagged away at me as I realised that even if I found a family who would take me in, there could still be one person who disliked me enough to send me away again. There were so many reasons a dog could end up at the tails of the forgotten, I wanted to howl in despair. It seemed to me we pooches were doomed no matter how adorable or well behaved we were. Feeling sad, I did what I always did in a crisis and gave in to the land of nod, hoping against hope that when I woke there would be a change in fortunes.

       *

      ‘Oh, isn’t he gorgeous,’ a woman’s voice murmured, gently waking me with a start from my slumber.

      Turning around, with sleepy eyes, I looked at the woman peering through the glass. Short and thin, her brown hair fell in soft waves around her shoulders and her blue eyes radiated a kind of warmth and love I had not seen in a long time. I felt a sudden sense of hope and, glancing up at Kelly, who was standing with a smile a mile wide next to this woman, I shook the sleep from my eyes, got out of bed and trotted over to the glass to let out a little bark of welcome. The woman grinned as she crouched down, her red-wool coat pooling on the floor behind her. She tapped excitedly on the glass.

      ‘Hello, young man.’ She grinned before turning to look back up to Kelly. ‘I think I’m in love. Can I go and see him, please?’

      Kelly laughed, fishing into her pocket for one of the treats she knew I loved. ‘Of course. This is Percy,’ Kelly explained to the woman as I snaffled the treat from her warm palm. ‘He’s very special to me – handsome, gorgeous and bursting with love, he’s my idea of a perfect man.’

      After picking me up, Kelly gave me a comforting squeeze and invited the woman to sit on the old easy chair in the corner. When she was settled, Kelly placed me gently on the woman’s lap and tickled me under my chin.

      ‘This is Gail,’ Kelly explained to me. ‘We’ve just been talking nineteen to the dozen about you, because like me, Perce, she’s a woman with excellent taste who loves pugs.’

      I barked appreciatively. This was the most promising news I had received since I had arrived. Shuffling around in Gail’s lap, so I could get a proper look at her, I drank in her appearance. She appeared to be in her late thirties, her skin was creamy white, and the few freckles on her nose gave her a cute, vulnerable appearance. But the soft lines around her twinkling blue eyes and the grey circles that were forming underneath told me life had not always been kind and that perhaps, like me, she was tired of battling to find her place in the world. I liked her immediately and, as Gail looked back at me, her blue eyes teeming with warmth, I felt a whoosh in my tummy and a pang in my heart. I sensed Gail was a woman who was simply bursting with love and, as I let out another little bark of excitement, she tickled me gently behind the ears and laughed.

      ‘How would you like to go for a little walk with me, Percy?’ she asked, gently. ‘I’d really like to get to know you better.’

      I rubbed my head against her arm with gratitude, to show my enthusiasm.

      ‘I think that means yes,’ Kelly said, holding out my lead.

      As Gail slipped it onto my collar, I walked obediently alongside her and out into the exercise yard. As I felt the chilly air on my face, I looked up at Gail and uncurled my tail so it could wag freely with unbridled joy. Nobody else had asked me to walk with them, and I was determined Gail would like me as much as I liked her.

      ‘So, Percy, Kelly has been telling me all about you,’ Gail said in a soft, soothing voice. She wrapped her scarf tightly around her neck as the wind gathered speed. ‘It sounds as though you’ve had a bit of bad luck.’

      ‘You’re not wrong,’ I barked in reply, all the while trotting eagerly alongside Gail.

      ‘I know what it’s like,’ she replied. ‘My family has had its fair share of bad luck too. It’s not fair, is it?’ Stopping at a bench, Gail sat down, then placed her warm hands around my little body to sit me on her lap. I breathed in the scent of her floral perfume and relaxed against her legs, the day’s cool temperatures making me shiver. In the three weeks since I had arrived, the weather had taken a decidedly wintery turn and I was enjoying the chance of some human warmth and comfort. ‘I’d love to take you home, Percy,’ she said as she gently stroked my head. ‘I don’t think I’m imagining things when I say I think we’ve developed a bond in the short while we’ve been together.’

      I snuggled deeper into her lap, to show her just how right she was.

      ‘The thing is, boy—’ Gail laughed gently ‘—once you’ve heard a bit about my family, you might feel you wouldn’t want to live with us so it’s only fair I tell you what we’re like.’

      The calm, relaxed and happy feeling I’d been enjoying since Gail had arrived left me.

      ‘My husband, Simon, and I have been together twenty years,’ she said nervously. ‘We met at a party, shortly after he moved to Devon, and we’ve never spent a day apart. When we married fifteen years ago, we were blessed with a beautiful little girl, Jenny, who’s twelve now.’

      At the mention of her daughter, I saw Gail’s eyes brim with tears. My little heart went out to her, and I gingerly rested my warm paw on top of her hand, urging her to carry on. The gesture wasn’t lost on Gail, who looked at me fondly, then buried her face in my fur.

      ‘Jenny’s beautiful, kind, loving, and we adore her,’ Gail continued, her voice thick with emotion, ‘but she has a heart condition, and on top of that, we’ve recently moved from Devon back to London. Well, I say back, Simon’s a plumber and originally from here so has lots of old pals, but I’m lonely with no job or friends and things are a little bit strained between us, if I’m honest.’

      As she finished, Gail gently raked her fingers through my fur and looked at me expectantly. Meeting her eyes, I saw they were filled with genuine warmth and I tried to make sense of everything she had just said. All I had ever wanted was to be a part of a loving family, and it was clear that Gail needed love and care as much as I did. Even though we had only spent an hour or so together, I already felt bonded to this woman who had showered me with affection since we met.

      But Javier’s actions had cast doubt in my mind. I wanted to go home with Gail, I wanted to start again and find love, but I was scared. What if it was all too good to be true? What if this new family forgot about me, what if they decided to move back to Devon and refused to take me with them because Gail hated her new life in London? I was unsure what to do and so I burrowed my way deeper into Gail’s lap, hoping to find the answers there. Nuzzling my face against her hands, I felt the love flood through her fingertips. I realised that nobody knew what the future may hold, but that I was already very attached to Gail. In that moment I tried to convey how much she already meant to me СКАЧАТЬ