Ellie yawned. Megan and Bella kept fiddling around with those boxes and talking, and no one was taking her for a walk. She was bored. She slid off the bed and squeezed underneath it. There were always interesting things to play with under there…
* * *
‘I knew it!’ Megan’s dad put his head round the door five minutes later. ‘You two are sitting there chatting, instead of filling boxes.’
‘Sorry!’ Megan and Bella jumped up, and Megan grabbed a pair of trainers and stuffed them quickly into a box, just to look busy.
‘And what’s Ellie doing under there?’ Dad asked, peering round the end of Megan’s bed.
Ellie crept out from under the bed looking rather guilty, with half a roll of brown packing tape attached to her whiskers. It was very chewy, though she didn’t really like the taste, and it seemed to have stuck…
‘Naughty Ellie!’ Megan giggled. ‘Sorry, Dad. I’ll clean her up…’
Dad shook his head. ‘Honestly, after she ate your mum’s shoe yesterday, you’d think she’d have had enough of chewing things[41]. Just keep an eye on her, OK?’
Megan nodded apologetically, and started to peel the tape off Ellie’s muzzle. ‘Silly dog,’ she muttered lovingly, as Ellie squirmed. ‘Yes, I know it’s not nice, but you can’t go round with parcel tape all over you. There!’
After that the girls made a real effort to get on with packing, and for the next hour they hardly even chatted[42] at all.
Ellie whined miserably. After Megan had taken the tape away and told her off, she’d sat so patiently, waiting for someone to play with her, or take her for a walk, or at least stroke her. But Megan and Bella just kept taking things off the shelves and putting them into those strange-smelling boxes. Ellie didn’t like it. This was her room, and it was changing. She liked it the way it was before.
‘Oh, Ellie, are you bored?’ Megan picked her up, hugging her gently. ‘I wish I could play with you too.[43] But we won’t be much longer.’
‘Actually, I told Mum I’d be back around now,’ said Bella, hugging Megan and Ellie both at the same time. ‘I can’t believe you’ve only got tomorrow left!’ She gulped. ‘I wish Mum hadn’t arranged for us to go and see my cousins,[44] not on your last day. Call me soon?[45] Promise! Bye, Megan!’ Then she dashed out of the room and down the stairs, almost slamming the front door behind her.