I Saved A Lonely Puppy

• Clare Chadwick, Grade 7
• Short Story
• 2017

One bright day in the gutter of the roadside layed a small puppy trembling with fear and grumbling with starvation. I told the driver to stop the Coach, so he did and when he opened the door he realised what my reason for asking him to stop was. He saw the puppy and told me to keep him warm and then handed me some of his chicken he was going to have for lunch but even though he was so desperate to eat it he wanted the puppy to survive.
The puppy was small, probably around 2 weeks old or younger. It was shivering; its coat was damp from the light frost this morning with oil streaks along its back. I took a jumper out of my back pack and made it into a bag to hold the puppy comfortably and to keep it warm. I was about to pick it up, it suddenly looked at me with dark glassy eyes full of sorrow and emptiness. The driver told me to hurry up. I put the chicken in the bag and held it open. I watched the puppy's eyes open even wider. It stumbled as it got up and crawled into the bag. It went straight for the chicken and got on the Coach.
All the passengers were silently staring at me wondering what was in the jumper bag. Once I sat down the driver started the engine and we were on the road again. Suddenly there were questions being thrown my way asking, “What was in the jumper?” I told them it is a puppy and they all lent closer wanting to see it. I opened the jumper and the puppy yawned and stretched its stumpy front legs and just wriggled its back legs and tail, the puppy had a collar on. There was no phone number but there was a name, I thought "DOG" was a boring name, so I decided on "Spot" since there was a spot in the middle of its forehead. The spot was still pure white and symmetrical everybody sighed, the puppy was too cute. Spot’s eyes weren't glassy anymore; they glittered in the soft light. There were still tears stuck in the corner of her eye, she must have missed her old owner but obviously the owner didn't care about her.
Spot was so happy and lively, she made me feel like a hero. Once the tour finished and Mum picked me up she asked me “what was in the jumper”? I told her the whole story, to start with she didn't look too happy and then started to softly grin. Mum knows what type of kid I am so we headed home. When we got home the goats ran to the fence, they started to sniff the jumper that Spot was in. I took Spot out and they looked like they got a shock, by the looks of her she didn't look like them.
But never parted!