The Secret Dog (8 page)

Yvonne started to giggle. ‘By Jove, I think he’s got it!’

Now Josh was confused. ‘Who’s Jove?’

Yvonne touched his arm lightly. ‘It’s not important. It’s a line from one of my mum’s favourite movies.’

Josh decided to let this go. He took a deep breath. ‘I need help in English, history and maths.’

‘I offered to help with English before.’

‘I was too stubborn then.’

‘Now?’

‘My uncle says if I don’t improve my grades I can’t go on the commons after school.’

Yvonne looked at him, concerned. ‘You couldn’t finish Reggae’s training.’

Josh nodded. ‘Could we do two lessons a week?’

‘That’s a lot.’

‘The thing is, I’ve already told my uncle you’ve agreed.’

Yvonne punched him on the arm. Hard. She wagged her finger at him. ‘Josh McCrae.’

‘Uh, oh. Trouble on the way,’ Josh said, ducking as if something had been thrown at him.

Yvonne started to laugh. ‘You know, you’re not as rubbish at people as you think
 . . .
’

Chapter 12

One good thing about racing home every lunch hour to see Reggae, Josh thought, as he arrived back at the school library, was that he was in the best shape ever. He didn’t even get winded when he ran back to school.

He wasn’t out of breath, but he
was
tired. The night before he’d been up until three trying to figure out why Reggae had misbehaved when he’d been training her with Yvonne. Which really amounted to finding out what Josh had done wrong, as all the training books at the library agreed if your dog had a problem, it was your fault.

He finally decided that he’d come back to school early and look for a solution on the web. He often spent the last ten minutes of his lunch break at a library computer. He’d discovered the internet was a wonderful source of information about training Border collies. There were websites, videos on YouTube and special forums devoted to showing, explaining and even arguing about the best way to teach a working dog.

And Yvonne usually showed up before the end of the lunch break so they could walk to their next classes together. Sometimes, she’d even bring a sandwich.

He googled ‘dogs circling sheep’ and then clicked on a video on the Border Collie Boards forum.

A harsh voice interrupted his concentration. Josh looked up. It was Kearney and his troll-like sidekick, Angus. Kearney looked at him as if he were a dog that had done a very clever trick. ‘You can work a computer?’ Then he noticed what Josh was watching. ‘Getting a dog are you?’

‘My uncle promised he’d get me one if we had a good year,’ Josh lied.

‘That old miser?’ said Kearney, laughing. The librarian gave him a sharp look and he lowered his voice. ‘You’ll be waiting a long time, City Boy.’

‘City Boy,’ Angus repeated, chuckling. Angus thought pretty much everything Kearney did was clever. Even a remark that had been old five years earlier.

‘I’ve got a dog,’ Kearney bragged. ‘A working dog.’

Josh was interested in spite of his dislike for Kearney. ‘Really? What kind?’

‘It’s a Border. It’s black with a round white circle around his left eye. My dad gave him to me. I’m training him up.’

‘I bet that’s difficult,’ Josh sympathised.

‘Are you joking?’ Kearney said. ‘It’s easy peasy. He’ll beat your imaginary dog any day.’

On cue, Angus repeated Kearney’s joke. ‘Imaginary dog. Good one, Kearney.’

Josh found it difficult to imagine Kearney having the patience to train a dog. Especially him finding it ‘easy peasy’.

‘I’d like to see him sometime,’ he said.

Kearney rolled his eyes, as if Josh had suggested something far too ridiculous to consider. He and Angus left the library. Josh went back to his video, determined that Reggae would be ten times better than any dog Kearney owned and trained.

Josh heard the library door open and automatically checked to see if it was Yvonne. No. Disappointed, he turned back to the computer.

* * *

Josh’s next class was citizenship. It was boring, but at least the teacher didn’t call on him very often. She only paid attention to the smart kids who asked and answered questions. As he rushed through the hall, he caught sight of Yvonne’s stringy brown hair. There she is, he thought, pleased to see her. He was just about to shout out her name when he realised she wasn’t on her own. Eric, a tall blond boy who always had his hand up in class, was with her.

They were deep in conversation. Josh felt a bit like he’d stepped into a rabbit hole on the commons – his whole body seemed to be suspended in mid-air before gravity took hold of him.

That
was why she hadn’t come to see him in the library. She was in the middle of a brilliant conversation with Eric, probably talking about something he couldn’t understand. Instantly, Josh reversed direction. He took the other stairs up to the classroom.
His stomach still seemed to be floating, as if the hole he’d stepped into was a lot deeper than he’d expected.

Josh sat staring at the page in his textbook. His mind went back to Yvonne. So she’d found something better to do during lunch. It didn’t necessarily
mean
anything.

Then he pictured how absorbed she was in the conversation with Eric. He felt a sharp pang of feeling. Something he hadn’t felt for years. The last time was when he’d brought a friend home from school and his mother had been chatting away with him. Jealousy.

He shouldn’t kid himself. Yvonne had decided she didn’t want to be friends with him. It must have been the fiasco with Reggae the day before
 . . .

And then he’d asked her to tutor him.
Twice a week!
Josh closed his eyes with embarrassment at the memory. He was glad Yvonne wasn’t in citizenship. He didn’t have to look at her. And as it was the last class in the day, he could just go straight home afterwards. At least Reggae would be there for him.

* * *

‘Heel,’ Josh said firmly. Reggae fell into step beside him. Josh started to jog. There was nothing better than running after being cooped up in a classroom all day. He couldn’t imagine life without the commons.

Immediately, Josh felt guilty. If his mother hadn’t
died, he’d still be living in the city. He stumbled but managed to recover his footing. He had to forget about Yvonne and concentrate on the job at hand. He had a dog to train. Today it was long outruns.

As they neared their valley, he could see Reggae’s ears perk up. He knelt down next to her and tickled her under her ear. ‘Today it’s outruns,’ he explained. ‘An outrun is when you go off to your right or left to get behind some sheep. You’ve been doing short ones so far. But in the Gathering, the sheep will be so far away they may be invisible behind a hill or rocky outcrop. I’ll have to trust you to get behind the sheep, keep a good distance, and then bring the sheep to me. Okay?’

Josh knew Reggae couldn’t understand what he was saying. But
he
found it useful to tell her his goals for the day ahead – it helped him to focus on the job at hand. He suddenly realised he hadn’t done this the day before. He’d been too distracted by wanting to impress Yvonne to chat with Reggae.

Suddenly a whole number of images came together in Josh’s head. He remembered Reggae tugging on her lead as he walked with Yvonne. Twice. She’d missed running with him to the valley. Just like he’d missed Yvonne at lunch. That’s why Reggae had kept looking from him to Yvonne before circling the sheep! She was jealous.

He felt Reggae licking his hand, and Josh realised she was trying to get his attention. He’d been staring into space.

‘Sorry, pup,’ he said, tickling her under the ear.
‘I was just figuring something out. We’ll do your outruns now.’

* * *

As they ran across the commons together, Josh reflected happily on the afternoon’s work. Reggae had really got the idea of outruns. And
he’d
figured out why she’d misbehaved the day before.

Suddenly, ahead of him, he saw a crofter out with his dog on the path that intersected the one they were on. Josh dived to the ground. ‘Down, Reggae!’ he whispered urgently. Reggae stopped in her tracks and went down on her stomach.

Josh was pretty sure they hadn’t been seen, but just in case, he stayed down for at least a minute. Then he lifted his head to check what was happening. He was relieved to see that the crofter had continued on his way. But his dog was another matter. He started running towards Josh, barking frantically. Josh ducked and after a few tense moments, heard the crofter call, ‘That’ll do, Jay. No time for chasing rabbits. We’ll miss dinner.’ The dog’s barking continued, but now at a greater distance. By listening carefully, Josh could keep track of the crofter’s progress. After a couple of minutes, he lifted his head again. He could see that in a few moments, the crofter and his dog would pass over the next rise.

Josh left it a while after they disappeared before standing. This kind of thing was happening more frequently now, as the weather got better. He had to stay alert all the time.

They started again on their way. A few minutes later, Reggae suddenly veered away from his side and started to run towards a gorge on their left.

‘We’re not home yet,’ Josh shouted at her.

But Reggae kept running. Then she stopped and sat, her tail wagging furiously. It was as if she thought she’d done something extremely clever.

Josh ran towards her. Then he saw the fox cub. He was nuzzling his mother who was lying on the ground. She’d been shot. Probably earlier in the day.

‘Good pup,’ Josh said to Reggae.

Without picking her up, he checked the cub’s eyes. They were open. That was good. It meant he was more than a couple of weeks old, and had a chance of surviving without her mother.

Then he picked him up carefully by the scruff of the neck (he’d been bitten twice before by cubs). He examined his mouth (yes, sharp teeth) and her leg muscles (she could get around).

‘About six weeks old,’ he told Reggae. ‘So she’s not for us. We’ll take her to Joanne.’ The butcher’s wife would be delighted.

He put the cub down and started to search the ground for the den. If there was one cub still alive, there were probably others nearby. And Joanne always said the more, the merrier.

* * *

‘Go,’ Josh said. Reggae ran the few steps to her food bowl, and started to eat.

‘You’re doing well,’ Josh told her. ‘But you still have a long way to go. So do I.’

Josh knew that he’d have to get permission from the vet to take part in the Gathering. And because the Gathering, and the gruelling fank afterwards, was such a severe test for a dog, it would be no easy thing to get the vet to agree to let a dog as young as Reggae participate. Josh was pretty sure
he
could do the ten days of hard physical labour involved
 . . . 
but Reggae? She might
think
she was a lion, but she was just over a year old. And she still spent most of her time in the shed, sleeping.

It wasn’t just her fitness. There was still so much for Reggae to learn. She’d never practised driving sheep or splitting them. Even dogs with years of experience had trouble splitting sheep.

Josh looked up. Reggae was peering at him, with her head tilted. It looked like she’d been there for a while.

Josh rubbed her head.

‘It’s no big deal. I’m just a bit tongue-tied with the vet. I’ve never managed to say anything very much to him.’

The second time Josh had met the vet was when his uncle had called him to deal with a crack in their bull’s front hoof. Josh knew Calum was upset because of the expense, but
he’d
been really pleased to think he was going to see the vet again. He wanted to tell him about all the animals he’d rescued.

The scene came vividly back to Josh. He’d met the brightly coloured van in the yard.

‘Hi Josh,’ the vet said. ‘Up to any mischief?’

Josh had intended to tell him there and then about the animals he’d rescued from round the croft. But nothing would come out of his mouth. He just felt like a stupid little boy who wanted to speak to a king.

The vet must have realised he wanted to talk – so he waited – what seemed like forever. Then he shrugged, picked up his bag and went to tend the bull, saying over his shoulder, ‘I’ll be glad to hear what it is you’re wanting to tell me, when you’re ready.’

Josh followed him like an orphaned puppy to the crush, where the bull would be held still so the vet could work on him, and then back to the van when he’d finished, all the time trying to make some words come out of his mouth.

In the end he’d not been able to say a single thing. Except ‘bye’. He would have to say a lot more than that to persuade the vet to let Reggae take part in the Gathering.

Reggae was looking at Josh, keen to move on. She trusted him to make everything all right.

‘Don’t worry. I’m on top of this. I’ll talk him into it. Somehow.’

Chapter 13

Josh decided it would be easiest for him (and Yvonne) if they didn’t bump into one another for a couple of days. She was better off with Eric really.

By ducking into the classes they shared late and dashing off at the end, he’d avoided her the first half of the day. At the end of English, he’d seen her getting up to follow him, but he’d given her the slip in the crowded hallway.