Toni’s Blog

When we found the puppy I didn’t suspect Carly and I would find so much more...

“But, Mummy, he’s looking for a home!” Carly’s huge blue eyes were pleading with me as she hugged the puppy in her arms.  “Can’t we keep him?  Oh, please...”

“I wish we could, sweetheart,” I said with a sigh.  “But we can’t afford a puppy and anyway, this one’s got a collar, which means he already belongs to someone.”

“Well he can’t like them much else he wouldn’t have run away,” Carly pouted.  “Anyway now he’s here, and he wants to stay!”

Carly was almost five, and with a very determined mind.

“And what would his family think?”  I said, a little more firmly.  “They’re probably very worried about him already, and maybe they’ve got a little girl who’s crying because her puppy’s run away.”

“She should look after him better then!” Carly insisted.  “Oh, Mummy, I’ll look after him really well.  Can he stay?”

Tears gathered in her eyes and I felt my heart turn over.

“I haven’t got anything special of my own to love,” she whispered tearfully.  “No puppy...and no Daddy...”

“Oh, Carly...” I hugged her, forcing back my own tears.  “I know, love...”

Eventually I managed to get her to go and play in the garden while I phoned the number on the puppy’s name tag.  I felt awful about having to say no to Carly, but since Mike had died a year ago, it was a word I’d found myself using more and more often...

When my husband had been taken into hospital with a severe viral infection it didn’t occur to either of us he wouldn’t recover.  It took a long time for me to accept that Mike had died, but for Carly it was even worse.  She was so young and my clumsy explanation didn’t really tell her why her daddy didn’t live with us any more.

A few months later Carly had gone into raptures over a puppy her friend had been given as a birthday present.  I knew then that a pet of her own would help ease the empty place losing her father had left in her heart, but I had to say no.  It was all I could do to make my widows pension and the occasional money I earned from dressmaking, stretch to feed us.  A puppy was out of the question.

The only thing I didn’t have to worry about was the two-bedroom cottage we lived in.  It had been Mike’s grandparents home, and when they’d died they’d left it to us.  The cottage was in a small close-knit village in Suffolk, the sort of place that boasted a warm community atmosphere and had a reputation for looking after its own folk.  During the last difficult months I’d found that reputation was certainly true.

Yet no matter how good my neighbours were I still couldn’t give Carly the things I wanted to.

“Sorry, darling,” I said to myself as I dialled the number on the puppy’s tag.  “But this puppy’s got to go back.”

The phone rang and rang and I was just about to put the receiver down when a deep male voice said:  “Canton Kennels.  Can I help you?”

“Oh, hello,” I said quickly.  “Do you by any change own a puppy called Lightening?”

“You’ve found him!” the man exclaimed.  “Oh, thank you, thank you - I thought something terrible had happened.  Look, where are you?  I’ll come and get him right away.”

I must have sounded a bit flustered as I gave him my name and address.

“Oh, I’m sorry,” he said, his voice calmer.  “My name’s Jack Canton, and I own the kennels.  I didn’t mean to sound so frantic, but Lightening’s very special to me.  He was the baby of the litter, you see, and very sickly.  It was touch and go whether he’d live.  So when he went missing this afternoon I just panicked.  I’d hate to lose him now.”

“Well, if you’d like to come and pick him up I’ll just go and prise him out of my daughter’s arms,” I said.  “But I warn you, Carly’s fallen in love with him.”

Jack Canton laughed.  “Then she’s got excellent taste.”

It was exactly ten minutes later when a car screeched to a halt outside the cottage.  I went around the side to open the gate for Jack Canton, then stopped dead.  I don’t know what I was expecting, but it certainly wasn’t the handsome man hurrying towards me.

“Hi, you must be Lynne Taylor,” he said with a warm smile.  He held his hand out and I took it automatically.  “I’m Jack Canton, and I must apologise again for my outburst on the phone.”

“That’s all right,” I replied easily.  “You must have been so relieved to know he was safe.”

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