A Home for Rascal by Holly Webb Read Free Book Online

Chapter One
Wonderful News
    “You mean it? A real puppy?” Ellie whispered, smiling so wide that it almost hurt. She had been asking for a dog for ages, ever since her sixth birthday, which was just a bit more than two years ago. Auntie Gemma had given her a book about dogs, with pictures of all the different breeds. From then on, Ellie had been desperate to have a dog. But Mum and Dad had always said things like I don’t think we’ve got the space and not till you’re older . This was a total surprise.
    There was so much noise in the kitchen after Dad’s big announcement that he didn’t actually hear what Ellie said, although he couldn’t miss the smile.
    “Now we just have to decide what sort of dog we want,” said Dad.
    Ellie’s older brother Max was yelling and jumping around. “We need a really big dog! One we can run in the park with.” And her big sister Lila was tugging on Dad’s sleeve. “A red setter – they’re gorgeous, and they’ve got fur the same colour as my hair!”

     
    Ellie frowned. Just like Lila to want a dog to make her look pretty, as if it was a new bracelet or something! Anyway, Lila was beautiful already. Lots of people who had red hair didn’t like it, and people teased them – all the boys at Ellie’s school called her Ginger – but no one ever called Lila names. They wouldn’t dare.
    “We’ll talk about it when I get home from work,” said Dad. “I’ve got to go now, or I’ll be late. Bye, all of you! Don’t drive Mum mad!” It was only the end of the first week of the Easter holidays, and Ellie’s mum had already joked that she couldn’t wait for them to go back to school.
    Ellie looked down at the drawing she’d been doing. Her dog magazine had agorgeous Jack Russell on the cover, and she’d been trying to copy it. It seemed a pity that Lila and Max both wanted to have a big dog. She had been hoping for a more cuddly sort of puppy. Something small, that she could pick up. Maybe it would even sleep on the end of her bed! A red setter would hardly fit in Ellie’s tiny room!

    Lila started rooting through Ellie’s pencil case. “Please can you draw me a red setter, Ellie? Here, if you mix the orange and the brown crayon together, it’ll be the right colour.”
    “I can’t remember what they look like,” Ellie muttered.
    “You know you can draw anything. You’re so clever!” Lila beamed at her. “Please! I can describe one. Um. Floppy fur and a long, feathery tail.”
    Ellie began to draw a dog that wasn’t really any particular kind.
    “No, the fur’s a sort of orangier colour than that.” Lila held out the end of her ponytail. “Almost the same colour as mine, look.”

    Max peered over at the drawing. “That’s good, Ellie. But we don’t want one of those fluffy dogs. Think of all the brushing!”
    Lila sniffed. “Some of us don’t mind brushing our hair. It’s only you that doesn’t know what a comb looks like.”
    Ellie ignored them as they started arguing. Lila and Max were only a year apart and they fought all the time, although it had got a bit better since Lila started secondary school. Ellie went on drawing, but she still didn’t think she’d got the red setter quite right. She’d have to look it up in her dog book later. Still, Lila seemed to like it, and she went off to put the drawing on the pinboard in her bedroom.
    Suddenly, there was a loud banging and scrabbling at the front door, and Ellie dashed along the hall, calling to her mum, who was hidden away in the little room under the stairs where she kept her computer.
    “I think it’s Christy, Mum, can I go for a walk with her and Bouncer?”
    Bouncer was a big golden Labrador who belonged to Ellie’s best friend Christy, and most mornings during the holidays Ellie went to the park with them. Mum poked her head round the door and smiled at her. “Course you can. Just think – it won’t be long before you can take our dog with you, Ellie!”
    Ellie grinned back. That