now,” said Bella gently. “I’m not going to hurt you.”
The dog’s tail waved again. It was breathing quite fast, like it was in shock. Bella climbed up the bank. The dog tried to follow, but scrabbled and slid back down. It wasn’t wearing a collar. Bella reached down and grabbed its muddy scruff. It was a big dog, and it was heavy. She wasn’t sure she could pull it out. But she was determined to try.
The dog panted hard. Its sides were heaving. Bella dug her heels in and pulled. Scrabbling and whining, the dog tried to climb the bank again. This time, it succeeded. It jumped clumsily up at Bella and licked her. This made Bella even muddier, but she didn’t care.
Pepper growled and hid behind Louie as the exhausted dog flopped down on the grass. Bella looked around for the dog’s owner. Apart from her and Louie, there was no one else in Chestnut Park.
“Where did it come from?” Louie asked, coming a little closer.
“Mud Monster Land,” said Bella, rolling her eyes. “Oh, and thanks for all your help. I couldn’t have done it without you.”
“I didn’t know it was a dog, did I?” Louie muttered. “It looked scary.”
“Let’s take it back to Mum,” said Bella. “We can wash it at Dream Dogs.”
She felt a little skip in her stomach at the thought of her mum’s dog parlour. Dream Dogs was Bella’s favourite place, with its pink walls and hanging plants and the smell of wet dog in the air. Washing the muck off to find out what kind of dog they’d found would be really exciting.
“Mum won’t let you wash it in Dream Dogs,” Louie said. “It’s too dirty.”
“That’s what Dream Dogs is for,” Bella pointed out. “Washing dogs. Remember?”
Bella teased Louie about mud monsters all the way back across Chestnut Park. The strange dog followed Bella adoringly. Pepper pressed himself close to Louie’s heels and growled every few steps.
“Pepper still thinks it’s a monster,” Louie said as they turned into their street.
“He’s just jealous,” Bella said.
It did look like Pepper was jealous. As soon as Bella unlatched the dog-gate between the door of Dream Dogs and the parlour, he trotted to his basket and lay down with his back to Bella.
“Mum!” Bella said. “You’ll never guess what we found!”
Bella and Louie’s mum Suzi looked up from where she was drying a little white West Highland terrier. Her eyes widened.
“It’s a dog,” said Bella proudly.
“Take it out before it—” Suzi began.
The rest of her words were lost as the muddy dog shook itself. Bella shrieked. Louie yelled. Suzi ducked. And mud went everywhere.
“BELLA!” Suzi groaned, staring at the Westie on her drying table. His fluffy white coat was covered in mud. “Now I’ll have to wash Angus again! You know better than to bring a wet dog inside that hasn’t shaken itself.”
Louie giggled.
“Oops,” Bella said, biting her lip. “Sorry.”
The muddy dog flopped on to the floor, adding to the mess. Suzi winced.
“I’ll wash the floor, Mum,” Bella said quickly. “And the walls, and whatever got dirty. But please can we wash this dog after Angus? It fell in the ditch in Chestnut Park and it hasn’t got a collar and I couldn’t see an owner and—”
The Dream Dog door tinkled open, interrupting Bella.
“Whatever happened?” exclaimed the old lady in the doorway. “Did you know there’s mud on the ceiling, Suzi?”
“Sorry, Miss Waldicott,” said Suzi. “We all just had a little…accident. I’ll have to give Angus a fresh rinse. I hope you’re not in a hurry.”
Miss Waldicott perched on the seat beneath the window. “No plans this morning,” she said. “I’m visiting my sister Grace this afternoon. She moved into Meadowbanks last month but she is finding it a bit hard to settle in, so I like to try and visit as much as I can.”
“The nursing home?” asked Suzi, lifting Angus back into the bath tub.
Miss Waldicott nodded. “It’s a lovely place—delicious home-made cakes,” she said. She leaned forward confidingly. “But I think Grace is missing her own little flat on the seafront and hasn’t spoken a word since she moved in. I’m sure she’ll be very happy at Meadowbanks but it might just take a little time for her to get used to her new surroundings.”
Suzi looked up from the bath. “It’s hard moving somewhere new, but I’m sure she’s in good hands.”
Bella pulled the muddy dog back on to its feet. “I suppose we’d better take you outside,” she said.
“You can bring her back when I’ve finished Angus,” Suzi called as Bella pushed open the back door. “Louie? Get some food and water. That animal must be hungry. Then we can wash her and you can tell me the whole story from the beginning. And on the subject of washing, Bella, go and change your clothes and wash your face and hands. You look nearly as bad as the dog! I’m so sorry, Miss Waldicott…”
The dog lay down on her side in the yard. She was still panting hard. The mud on her head had dried now, and the fur was hard and matted.
“So you’re a girl, are you?” Bella said. “We’ll give you a name as soon as we’ve washed you.”
The strange dog was bigger than Pepper, with triangular ears that flopped down and a square muzzle. Her coat looked thick, and she was very broad across her back and tummy. Bella guessed that her tail would be plumey and gorgeous once they washed it. But what was she? Bella wondered, as she headed upstairs to change. A collie? A Labrador?
When Bella came back, the dog still hadn’t touched the food that Louie had put down for her.
“She looked like she’d been in that ditch for ages,” Bella said, watching as the dog paced around the yard. “I thought she’d be hungry. Why isn’t she eating?”
“Bella!” Suzi called from inside the salon. “Amber’s here!”
Bella ran inside to see her best friend. Amber’s long hair was loose on her shoulders today, instead of tied up in plaits the way it usually was.
“Thank you, Suzi, dear!” Miss Waldicott was saying as she left with a freshly washed and dried Angus tucked under her arm.
Bella grabbed Amber’s arm as the salon door swung shut behind Miss Waldicott. “You’ve got to see this!” she said, towing Amber out of the back door.
“Is it a dog?” Amber asked, staring at the muddy
