The Puppy That Came for Christmas by Megan Rix Read Free Book Online

I said. But I hadn’t.
    â€œLook,” he said, and there she was, fast asleep, hidden among and dwarfed by her many toys piled in the corner.
    I burst into tears of relief. So much for “the sensible route”—fostering a puppy rather than having one of our own. I was already far more attached than I’d thought could be possible.
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    Soon into the new year, Jack Frost dumped snow all over the East Midlands countryside, and Helper Dog classes were canceled. So, with phone assistance from Jamie and Frank, I began to teach Emma at home.
    â€œHow’s it going today?” Jamie asked as he picked up the phone to another daily briefing from me.
    â€œGreat,” I told him, and filled him in on this and that.
    â€œThey can be a handful,” he said.
    I looked down at Emma. I was more than happy to have my hands full with her.
    â€œMake sure you fill in her progress chart and hopefully this snow will clear soon. Any problems give me a call.”

    Emma was so eager to learn, and my heart melted as I watched her work out what she was supposed to do and tried to do it. I taught her commands for “sit,” “down” and “roll over” (but only on the carpet as I didn’t want her rolling over on the shiny new—but hard—laminate floor). Jamie advised leaving her collar on at all times so she would just accept wearing it without becoming stressed.
    The one thing I wasn’t supposed to teach her was how to climb stairs. A little puppy’s joints are easily damaged by overstretching, but sometimes a puppy’s need to explore takes over, and one day I came out of the kitchen to find her two steps up. Then, the following day, she was five steps toward the sky and attempting the next when I caught her. At the sound of my tutting, however, she stopped and sat there, and it took me a moment to realize that the intrepid puppy, so keen to go up, hadn’t the first clue about how to get down again—except by looking plaintive and being lifted down by Mum. As soon as he could, Ian bought a stair gate. Another few pounds to the DIY store; I felt they should be rolling the red carpet out next time we went.
    Jamie had explained to me how the puppies were monitored for their suitability for differently abled partners. If the dog has strong joints, it could go to people who needed tasks doing where the dog had to stand on its hind legs a lot. He introduced me to Denise, a lady confined to a wheelchair with limited mobility in her arms, and her dog, Yogi.
    â€œHe’d been so well trained that he fitted in with us straightaway,” she said, “and ever since the first day I brought him home he’s been turning the lights on and off for me. Sometimes if it’s cloudy he does it without asking!” She smiled at the recollection. “He also presses the button at the pedestrian crossing, no problem. Before, I had to wait until someone came along and ask them to do it for me. Strangers in the street are always amazed when he does it. It makes me laugh to see their shocked faces. I laugh a lot more now I have him with me. He’s so funny.”
    Yogi put his head on Denise’s lap and she stroked him fondly.
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    Never mind the stairs, Emma still had a long way to go in all aspects of her training. She and I picked our way through the snowy garden—and, when it was blizzarding, around the living room—so that she would become habituated to being on the lead and resist the temptation to chew it. Plus there was the continual toilet training on the bark-chip area. She was pretty much toilet-trained within a week of arriving with us, apart from the odd accident, of course. Often, though, these were my fault for not taking her outside when she was most likely in need. Emma loved the beautiful snowy garden, though I only let her out for short stretches of time as I didn’t want her to get too cold.
    Helper Dogs insists that puppies are