A Forever Home for Tilly

  “Jack!” whispered Grace as Chloe hurried into the classroom ahead of them. “Chloe could be the perfect owner! She’s got loads of energy and she wants a dog who doesn’t shed hair. Let’s tell her about Tilly. Please!” she begged.

  To the dogs who’ve provided

  the inspiration for these books,

  particularly Candy, the cockapoo,

  who is as lively and loving as

  Tilly, and Callie, the GSD,

  who is smaller than Tiny

  but twice as cheeky.

  “Mum’s back with the dogs!” Grace jumped down from the kitchen window seat, from where she’d been keeping a lookout, and ran to the door.

  “Wait for me!” said Jack, going after her. Grace and Jack Taylor loved animals so much that they’d set up the Forever Homes rehoming service from the shed in their large garden. Whenever unwanted dogs or cats needed a new home, the nine-year-old twins took them in. They then cared for them until they could find them a forever home with a perfect new owner.

  At the moment, Grace and Jack didn’t have any animals to rehome so they were helping their mum. She ran Top Dog, a doggy day care and boarding business, from the family’s Victorian house. The twins’ home was always busy – as well as their mum’s clients coming and going, they had an older sister, Amelia, who was thirteen, and an older brother, Ollie, who was seventeen. There was also Tiny, the family’s German Shepherd cross, who was usually found sleeping flat out on the kitchen floor.

  Grace waved to her mum as she parked her dogmobile on the drive. The van was painted to look like a real dog. It had black-and-white patches, a stick-on nose and ears, and a long tail that curled across the back door. Grace and Jack loved it!

  “Hello, twins,” said Mum, who’d been out collecting the dogs that were spending the day with her.

  “The dogmobile sounds like it’s barking,” giggled Grace as the dogs woofed when her mum opened the back door. There were three today and they wagged their tails excitedly as Grace and Jack got them out of the crates they travelled in.

  “Here you go,” said Mum, handing the leads to Grace and Jack. “You can take them for a quick walk while I check on the boarders.”

  Jack’s dark hair flopped in his eyes as he bent to stroke two black-and-white spaniels called Meg and Jess. Grace, who had long wavy brown hair, fussed Lolly, the poodle.

  “Have a nice walk,” said Mum.

  Her ponytail swished from side to side just like a waggy tail as she headed into a new red brick building across the sunny courtyard from the main house. It was where her office and the dogs’ kennels were.

  “It’s fun helping Mum, but I wish we had a pet in to look after and rehome,” Jack said, as he and Grace set off along the street with the three dogs.

  Grace nodded. “It’s been a whole month since we last had an animal in.” She smiled as she thought about their last rehoming success. They had taken in a shy greyhound called Olive and had found her a home with a retired couple who loved to go for long walks. Olive was really happy in her new home.

  They were almost at the park when Jack stopped walking. “Listen.”

  Yap! Yap! A dog barked in a nearby garden. Yap! Yap! Yap!

  “It sounds like a puppy,” said Jack.

  Jack followed the barking to the corner house. The garden had a brick wall topped with a trellis. He stood on tiptoe and looked through the gaps. “It’s a puppy, a very cute one. Look, Grace!”

  Grace hurried over and stuck her nose to the fence. “Aww!” In the garden was a fluffy cockapoo puppy with wavy cream fur, floppy dark gold ears and a coal-black nose and eyes. It scrabbled at the wall with its front paws as if it desperately wanted to climb over and join them.

  “It looks lonely,” said Jack.

  Grace frowned. There were a few toys on the grass but they were much too big and too hard for a small puppy. “It hasn’t got any water,” she realised. “Do you think the owner has forgotten about it? I’m going to knock on the front door.”

  “We’re not allowed to knock on stranger’s doors,” Jack reminded her.

  “We can’t leave it out here without water. Maybe the owner’s forgotten it’s outside. We have to knock,” Grace decided.

  Grace and Jack ran to the door with the other three dogs and knocked. Nothing happened. They could still hear the puppy whining. Grace tapped her foot impatiently. She was about to knock again when she heard footsteps from inside the house and a tall woman, talking into a mobile phone, opened the door. She gave Grace and Jack a puzzled look.

  “I’ll call you back later,” she said, ending the call. “Can I help you?” she asked the twins.

  Grace’s eye’s widened at the messy house. The hall floor was coated with biscuit crumbs, scraps of material and a kind of soggy white stuffing. A trail of paw prints led along the hall.

  “It’s your puppy,” said Grace, trying not to stare at the mess. “It hasn’t got any water and it’s really upset. I think it wants to come inside.”

  The woman’s face hardened. “I put her out there because she keeps destroying things. This morning she took a packet of biscuits, ripped up my best cushions and chewed my handbag. She is an utter nuisance and I really wish I hadn’t bought her. She’s going to have to stay outside until she learns how to behave.”

  Grace blinked. “You can’t just leave her outside on her own!”

  “Puppies need lots of attention,” added Jack.

  “You’re just kids,” the woman scoffed. “What would you know?”

  “Actually, we know quite a lot,” Jack told her seriously. “We run our own pet rehoming business.”

  “Finding new purrrfect owners for purrfect pets,” said Grace proudly. “It’s called Forever Homes and—”

  “Look, kids, I’m really busy,” the lady interrupted. “I work from home and I haven’t got time to chat. I’ll put some water in the garden for Tilly but she’s going to stay out there.”

  “You can’t leave her outside all the time!” Grace protested. “That’s cruel! You shouldn’t have a puppy if you don’t have time to look after one!”

  “Grace!” whispered Jack, giving her his special look for when she was in danger of losing her temper. Politely, he said to the lady, “If you’re too busy to care for Tilly, we could help you to find a new home for her. We’ve rehomed lots of dogs at Forever Homes. Our mum runs Top Dog, a doggy day care business.”

  “So, there’s an adult involved with this rehoming business?” the lady said. Jack nodded. People who needed help with rehoming pets often seemed happier to use the twins if they believed their mum was in charge.

  “You can ring our mum and check. And there’s no charge! We run it like a business because it’s important to be professional, but we do it to help the animals, really.”

  The lady looked thoughtful. Grace decided to seize the moment.

  “We could take her away with us now if you wanted us to?” she said.

  The lady glanced behind her at the mess. “It’s very tempting. I had no idea a puppy could cause so much chaos. What’s your mum’s number? If you’re sure you can help with Tilly then I’ll give her a ring.”

  “We can definitely help!” said Grace. She beamed. “If you let us take Tilly away, I promise we’ll soon find her a perfect forever home!”

  Fifteen minutes later, the twins were on their way home, with Tilly sniffing at the other three dogs and tugging excitedly on her lead.

  “I don’t think she’s ever had any training!” said Jack, hanging on tightly.

  “She’s really sweet though,” said Grace. “I bet it’ll be easy to find her a home.”

  When they got back, Mum hurried out to meet them. “So, this is the new pup? She’s ado
rable,” she said. Tilly jumped around her legs and then rolled over to have her tummy tickled. Mum took the other dogs off the twins. “Right, I’ll let you get started on assessing her and then you can introduce her to Tiny.”

  Whenever the twins had a new animal for rehoming, the first thing they did was to run tests to work out what sort of personality he or she had. Then they could decide what his or her perfect owner would be like. They headed through the garden gate and down to their office in the shed at the bottom of the garden. Inside, there was a desk and large pinboard with photos of the different pets they had rehomed. Grace, who loved to paint and draw, had made a sign to hang over the door. It read “Forever Homes” in big blue letters and it was decorated with hearts, paw prints and bones. Underneath she’d written their motto, “Purrfect Homes for Purrfect Pets”.

  Tilly bounced inside and started to explore. She knocked over the bin and then jumped up at Grace, trying to lick her hands. Grace giggled.

  “No, don’t laugh,” Jack said quickly. “It’ll encourage her to jump up more. Just ignore her.”

  “But she’s only just arrived!” protested Grace.

  “I know, but she’ll learn more quickly if we start her training straight away.”

  Grace sighed but Jack was right. From now on Tilly should only have cuddles when she was being good. She completely ignored Tilly. After a few more attempts at trying to get her attention, Tilly flopped back to the ground with a puzzled expression on her face.

  “That’s better,” Grace praised. Instantly, Tilly leapt up again so Grace went back to ignoring her. Tilly tried leaping at Jack but he turned his back on her. It took several minutes before Tilly realised that to get any fuss she had to keep all four paws firmly on the ground!

  Jack got out the large blue notebook used to check animals in and out of Forever Homes. He wrote Tilly’s name in it next to the date. Meanwhile, Grace changed her identity tag.

  The twins knew that all dogs had to wear an identity tag in case they ever got lost and so they kept a supply of Forever Homes tags for dogs they were looking after. Grace removed Tilly’s old tag and fixed a new one on to her collar. It was engraved with the Forever Homes address and their mum’s mobile number.

  “Now for the personality test,” said Jack. “First, let’s see how brave Tilly is.”

  “I’ll get her attention,” said Grace.

  She talked to Tilly and patted her on the head while Jack crept behind her. Suddenly, he clapped his hands together loudly. At once, Tilly spun round.

  “Tilly,” Grace called, but Tilly wanted to know more about the clapping sound and ran to Jack. She sniffed his hands, her button eyes bright with curiosity.

  Jack clapped louder to see if she was scared of loud noises. Tilly wagged her tail and sniffed at Jack’s hands.

  “Good girl, Tilly!” said Jack, patting her. “It looks like you’re brave and bold.” He carefully noted that down in his book. “Right, now we need to know how playful she is. Give her a cuddle, Grace.”

  Grace scooped Tilly up and sat on the floor with Tilly on her lap. At first, Tilly snuggled into her arms, enjoying the cuddle. Jack went over to the toy box in the corner of the room. Tilly watched him as he riffled through it. Tilly began to wriggle away from Grace.

  “Don’t you want a cuddle?” she said as Tilly finally twisted free. She bounded over to Jack, pouncing on him and trying to take the soft ball he had in his hand. “No, looks like you want to play more than cuddle!”

  “Sit, Tilly.” Jack refused to let go of the ball, holding it just above Tilly’s head. At first she tried jumping up and pawing at him but Jack carefully held the ball just above her head. As her eyes followed it, she plonked her bottom down.

  “Good girl!” said Jack, immediately rolling the ball across the floor. “OK, you can get it!”

  Tilly dashed after it. Jack picked up another ball from the box and started to toss it from hand to hand. Tilly instantly lost interest in the ball she had and bounded back to him. Jack held the new ball up. Tilly jumped once but then sat down, her tail swishing eagerly, her eyes fixed on the ball.

  “That’s it, Tilly! Good dog!” said Jack, throwing it for her. He picked up his pen. “She’s very playful and a fast learner,” he said, making more notes. “Did you see how quickly she sat that second time when she wanted the ball?”

  Grace grinned. “She should be really easy to train.” She went over to get the ball from Tilly. “Come here and let me have that.” Tilly froze, watching her closely. When Grace was almost within reach, Tilly ran away with the ball, bumping into the desk.

  “Whoops,” said Grace. Tilly did a play bow with the ball in her mouth, her bottom stuck in the air. She wagged her tail and looked at Grace as if daring her to chase her.

  “Nope, I’m not chasing you,” Grace told her. “If you want to play, you can bring the ball here.”

  She turned away and picked up the two posters that had fallen off the desk. She was making them to advertise Forever Homes and they were almost finished. Tilly settled down with the ball between her paws, still watching her. While Jack wrote notes in his book, Grace got out her paints and spread the posters out on the floor. Ignoring Tilly, she began to add a trail of paw prints around the poster.

  Meanwhile, Tilly trotted over to the other ball and placed it next to the one she had been chewing. Then she fetched a small yellow bone from the floor and put it beside them. She sat back and looked at the arrangement. Then she went to the wastepaper basket, put her front paws on the edge and took out a crumpled sheet of paper. She added that to her collection. She looked and then nudged the paper with her nose as if she wanted it in a slightly different position.

  “What is she doing?” said Grace curiously. She’d never seen a dog do anything like that before.

  Before Jack could answer, a fly flew past Tilly’s nose. With a woof she leapt up. She ran across the paints. With a squeal, Grace jumped up. Her squeal excited Tilly who whirled around, spreading pawprints all over the shed.

  “Tilly! No!” cried Jack, grabbing her.

  Grace giggled. “Did you want to help me paint, Tilly?”

  “Pass me a towel, Grace,” sighed Jack. “Her paws are all painty now!”

  When Tilly and the floor were finally clean, the twins introduced her to Tiny in the garden. He was very big. At first, Tilly hid behind Grace’s legs, but Tiny lay down on the ground and wagged his tail. Tilly quickly grew bolder. She sniffed Tiny’s nose. Then she licked the sides of his mouth and rolled over, showing him her tummy.

  “Good girl,” praised Jack. “You’re telling Tiny he’s top dog.”

  Tilly pounced at Tiny. Tiny rolled over on his back and let Tilly pull at the thick fur around his neck. She made lots of pretend growls but Tiny understood that it was just a puppy wanting to play. In the end they jumped up and ran round together.

  “I think they’re going to be friends,” Grace said happily.

  When Tiny started to get tired, they took both dogs inside. Tilly explored the kitchen. When she got bored with that, she pounced on Tiny’s tail and started tugging at it with her sharp teeth.

  Tiny gave a plaintive woof.

  “Is she annoying you, Tiny?” said Jack, scooping Tilly up. He sat on the floor, stroking the puppy until she calmed down.

  Tired out by so much activity, Tilly’s eyes finally closed and she fell asleep in Jack’s arms. Jack and Grace sat on the floor, chatting until Dad came home from work. When he walked in, he looked at Jack in surprise. “Are you snoring?”

  Jack chuckled and pointed to his lap. “It’s Tilly, our new rescue dog. Don’t wake her!”

  “What a cutie!” Dad said, smiling down at Tilly. He tiptoed round the kitchen, quietly pulling out saucepans as he began to prepare the evening meal.

  A little while later, Mum came in with a dog bed and a crate as well as some Tillysized toys. “How are you getting on with her?”

  “She’s a bit of a handful,” Grace admitted.

&
nbsp; Jack nodded. “Our tests suggest she’s very clever, lively and friendly but she’s also going to be the sort of puppy who gets up to mischief and makes a mess. We’ll have to match her with someone who doesn’t mind an untidy house and who will give her lots of attention and exercise.”

  Grace sighed. “An owner like that might not be so easy to find.”

  Their mum and dad exchanged smiles. “Well, if anyone can find her a home, I’m sure you two can!” Dad said.

  At school, the next morning, a new girl joined the twins’ class.

  “This is Chloe Simms,” said Ms Drew, the twins’ teacher. “She’s just moved into the area. Grace, I’d like you to look after Chloe and help her to find her way around school. Chloe, go and sit with Grace, Jack and Paul.”

  Grace smiled at Chloe as she sat at her table. Chloe grinned back. She had curly hair, freckles and such a friendly face that Grace immediately felt sure they were going to get on. The first lesson was art, Grace’s favourite subject. It turned out it was Chloe’s favourite subject too.

  “So, how come you moved house half way through the term?” Grace asked Chloe as they set out the paints and paper.

  Chloe sighed. “My mum and dad got divorced and Mum and I moved out.” She started to paint the watermelon that Ms Drew had put on the whiteboard for them to copy. “I didn’t want to move at first but I love our new house now. It’s near my grandparents and it’s got a huge garden and there’s a conservatory that Mum lets me use for my painting.” Chloe waved her hands as she spoke and knocked the jar of painting water over.

  “Ew,” said Jack, as brown sludgy water flowed towards him.

  “Quick, grab some paper towels before Ms Drew sees!” Grace hissed.

  Chloe pulled off her jumper and used it to mop up the mess. “Sorted,” she said, tossing the soggy jumper over the back of her chair.