Home Front Girls

must have a pet, surely you could choose a prettier one?’
    ‘He will be pretty when he’s had a bath and a brush,’ Lucy said with a determined glint in her eye. ‘He’s coming home with me and that’s the end of it. I just have to work out how I’m going to get him there now, but I’ll walk him home if I have to.’
    ‘But you don’t even have a collar and lead,’ Dotty pointed out sensibly and Lucy’s face fell. ‘And although he’s scrawny, he’ll be too heavy for you to carry him far.’
    Lucy nodded, knowing when she was beaten, but it broke her heart to leave him to fend for himself.
    ‘Sorry, boy.’ She scratched him beneath his chin and he arched his back with pleasure. She sighed. ‘Come on then. We may as well get on. I just hope that he’ll be all right.’
    Annabelle sighed with relief, glad that Lucy had come to her senses. But her relief turned to astonishment when the dog fell into step with Lucy and began to trot along beside her.
    Lucy chuckled with delight. ‘Looks like I don’t need a collar and lead. I think he’s made his mind up too.’
    Annabelle sniffed. ‘Well, he’ll have to stay outside when we get home,’ she said irritably, thinking that Lucy had lost her marbles. ‘There’s no way Mummy is going to allow him into the house smelling like that! He could be covered in fleas as well, ugh!’ She marched on, hoping that the dog would get fed up of following them, but by the time Primrose Lodge came into sight he was still ambling along with his eyes fixed adoringly on Lucy.
    ‘Actually, I think he could be quite cute if he were to be cleaned up a bit,’ Dotty smiled.
    Annabelle snorted. ‘It would take more than a clean-up to improve that ugly creature!’
    They were walking up the drive to Annabelle’s home by then and Lucy began to feel nervous. What if Miranda was horrified at the sight of him? But then she decided that if this were the case she would just set off and walk him home. It was a good way off admittedly, but if the poor thing had been roaming the streets he was probably used to walking long distances by now.
    They decided to enter by the back door and as they went through the gate they found Miranda on her knees in the garden pruning the roses.
    She smiled in welcome, but as her eyes settled on the dog she asked, ‘So who is this then, and where did he come from?’
    ‘He’s a stray and I’m going to adopt him,’ Lucy answered with her chin in the air. She was expecting Miranda to scold her as Annabelle had, but to her surprise the woman’s eyes filled with sympathetic tears.
    ‘Oh the poor thing,’ she muttered as she hurried up the path to stroke him. ‘There are so many strays about now, it’s heartbreaking. He looks as if he’s starving. Bring him into the kitchen and I’m sure we can find him something to eat.’
    Annabelle’s mouth gaped in amazement. ‘But he smells like an open sewer!’ she objected.
    ‘Ah, but he won’t if we give him a good bath, will he?’ Miranda appeared to be almost as enamoured of the little dog as Lucy was. ‘But first things first – let’s get him fed, bless him. I think I’ve got some corned beef and a cold potato or two left over from last night.’
    Within minutes the new arrival was wolfing down his meal as if he couldn’t believe his luck. Meanwhile Miranda had fetched the old tin bath from the shed and was filling it with warm water.
    ‘You’ll have to give him a name,’ she told Lucy. ‘We can’t just call him Dog, can we?’
    ‘Hmm . . .’ Lucy stared thoughtfully off into space for a moment before saying, ‘I think I’ll call him Harry. It was my grandpa’s name and he was such a lovely man.’
    ‘I think it suits him,’ Miranda agreed but Annabelle had to be contrary.
    ‘You can’t call a dog Harry,’ she objected. ‘It’s a person’s name. What’s wrong with Rover?’
    ‘Nothing at all, but I like Harry and that’s what I’m going to call him.’
    ‘Then Harry it is,’ Miranda said as she coaxed the dog towards the bath.
    Fifteen minutes later, with his fur – which they saw now was a lovely red-gold colour – gleaming, Harry was unrecognisable. He had been dried and brushed to within an inch of his life, and although he was still frighteningly thin, even Annabelle grudgingly had to admit that he was actually quite cute.
    ‘See! Didn’t I tell you he was lovely?’ Lucy laughed as she bent to his level and hugged him. He returned her show of