Free Buttons the Runaway Puppy by Holly Webb Page A

pretending not to have seen Buttons trip up Mr Jenkins.
    “Good morning!” Michael called politely, as the old man walked by, trying to hold Buttons back to heel. Mr Jenkins lived on the next road across from the Martins, with his garden backing on to theirs, so they saw him quite often. Theirmum always said hello when she passed him.
    “Hmmph,” Mr Jenkins grunted, and stomped on past.
    “You see! So grumpy!” Sophie whispered, as he disappeared down the path.
    “Yes, but I’d be grumpy too, if I’d just fallen in a bramble bush,” Tom pointed out.
    Buttons appreciated them saying hello, anyway. She looked back and barked in a friendly way as Mr Jenkins hurried her along. She liked those children. They always smiled when they saw her, and the girl had once asked politely to stroke her. Mr Jenkins had let her, and she’d said how beautiful Buttons was and scratched behind her ears as well.
    “Come on, Buttons,” Mr Jenkins grumbled, and Buttons sighed. He was cross with her again. She hadn’t meant to trip him up. There were so many good smells on the common, and she couldn’t help it if they were on different sides of the path. She’d had to go and investigate them all, and the silly lead had got itself tangled in his legs. It just showed that leads were not a good idea. She much preferred to run along without one. Especially if there were squirrels.
    They were coming to the part of the common with the trees now, and there was bound to be a squirrel. Buttons looked up and barked hopefully.
    “No, I’m not letting you off yourlead, silly dog,” Mr Jenkins told her, but he patted her lovingly on the head at the same time, and she knew he wasn’t cross any more. “No, because you’ll be in the next county before I catch up with you. I’m sorry, Buttons girl, we need to head home. My legs aren’t what they used to be, especially when I’ve been dragged through a bramble bush. Come on, home now.”
    Buttons whined sadly. She understood some words, and home was one of them. Not home already? It felt like it hadn’t been a very long walk at all. She wanted lots of walks – in fact a whole day of walks, with a few quick sleeps and a couple of big meals in between, would be perfect.

    “Look, Mum, Buttons is in her garden again.” Sophie nudged her mother’s arm as they walked past Mr Jenkins’s house. The summer holidays had started, and it was so hot that they were going to cool off at the pool. “She keeps scrabbling at the fence like she wants to get out. She was doing that yesterday, when I went past on my way to say goodbye to Rachel. I heard her barking loads when I was out in the garden, too.”
    Mum stopped and looked thoughtfully over the fence at Buttons. “Have you seen Mr Jenkins about recently?” she asked Sophie. “I haven’t for a while, and I do usually meet him in the shops every so often.”
    Sophie shook her head. “Not since that day in the park a couple of weeks ago, when Buttons tripped him up. I definitely haven’t seen him since school finished, and that’s a whole week.”
    She sighed. Only one week of the summer holidays gone. She ought to be looking forward to another five weeks off school, but yesterday her best friend Rachel had gone off to Ireland to stay with her family for the whole holiday. Sophie couldn’t imagine what she was going to do all summer, without Rachel’s house to hang out at. She was sick of Michael and Tom already. Not only were they her big brothers, so they thought they could always boss her around, but they were each other’s best friends. They didn’t want their littlesister tagging along the whole time. She and Rachel had promised to keep in touch by email and send each other lots of fun postcards and things. But it wasn’t the same as having your best friend living just round the corner.
    Buttons looked up at Sophie and barked hopefully. Walk? Please? she begged. She recognized Sophie, who often spoke to her when she went past. Buttons