Dream Dogs - Poppy. Aimee Harper

       One

       Down the Plughole

      It was Saturday morning. As usual, Dream Dogs was busy. Bella sat in the window, cuddling her dog, Pepper, and watching as her mum waved goodbye to Miss Waldicott and her little West Highland terrier, Angus.

      “Same time next week, Suzi?” said Miss Waldicott. “Come along, Angus. Walkies!”

      The freshly washed little Westie barked and jumped up at the treat Miss Waldicott was holding out. The salon door clanged shut.

      Suzi wiped her hands on her pink Dream Dogs overall. “My back is killing me,” she sighed. “Angus is really too small for me to wash in our bath.”

      Bella gazed at the salon’s bath. It had been built on a special platform, so that her mum didn’t have to bend down too much when she was washing the dogs. But when the dogs were small like Angus, it was a bit of a problem.

      “You should wash him in the sink, maybe?” Bella suggested.

      They used the salon sink sometimes, for the really little dogs.

      Suzi shook her head. “He’s too big for that,” she said. “Typical, isn’t it? Most of my clients seem to be small dogs. And a special small dog-bath costs a fortune.”

      “Three thousand pounds,” Bella said, remembering her mum complaining about the cost of a small dog-bath when they had first come to Sandmouth to set up Dream Dogs. That seemed ages ago. They loved Sandmouth now, with its long sandy beach and Cliffside Primary and all of Bella and her little brother Louie’s friends nearby. It was weird to think that they had once lived in London.

      “Luckily they’ve come down in price a bit since I last looked,” said Suzi. She rang up the till and put in the twenty-pound note that Miss Waldicott had given her. “But they are still nearly a thousand pounds each. I can’t possibly afford that.”

      Bella checked out of the window. The pink Dream Dogs van and mobile dog-wash trailer was parked outside. She looked at the dark pink lettering underneath the Dream Dogs logo on the side of the trailer.

       Paws ’n’ Purrs. The Pet Shop for All Your Pet’s Needs.

      “Maybe you could ask the pet shop to sponsor you again,” Bella suggested. “Like they did with the trailer.”

      Suzi shook her head gloomily. “They wouldn’t sponsor me for a bath as well,” she said. “No, Bella. It looks like I’ll just have to put up with what we’ve got.”

      The salon door tinkled. Bella brightened. It was her favourite clients, Mimi Taylor and her little Pomeranian, Crystal.

      “Morning, Mimi,” said Suzi, smiling.

      Mimi put Crystal down on the salon floor. The little Pomeranian perked up her fluffy brown ears. She sniffed at Pepper in a friendly way, before scampering up and down sniffing at all the corners.

      “You’re letting Crystal run about more, I see,” said Suzi.

      “She hates it if I hold her for too long,” Mimi said fondly. “I must have been crazy, the way I used to carry her everywhere. She runs us all ragged these days!”

      Crystal gave a high-pitched bark and kicked out her back legs. For such a little dog, she was a feisty thing.

      “Come along, Crystal,” said Suzi. “Bath time. You are one dog that fits in my sink, at any rate!”

      Mimi settled on the window seat. Suzi put Crystal in the sink and started running the water while Bella fetched down a bottle of shampoo from the shelf.

      “We’ve had a week of it,” Mimi sighed. “The newspapers have been all over Idaho since he twisted his knee. Would he still play for Sandmouth in the new season? Is his career over? Honestly, it’s only a little sprain.”

      Mimi’s

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