Fly

Dive

We spent hours in the park, despite the tough lesson we had come from, it was still nowhere near as demanding as our agility lessons, so all of us had energy to spare. Lily, Joe, Jess and my girl had met up with Tom and we're now happily sat beside the lake, chatting idly in the afternoon sun. Cooper had come to join in our game of tag and was now hot on my heels trying to make me it.

I knew there was no way I could outrun him as I couldn't keep running in a straight line and my turns really slowed me down. I did know his weakness though; water. He detested swimming so I was going to have to go in to get away from my chaser. I was also faced with an unmissable opportunity to get my girl and her friends wet by diving in to the lake they were sat beside.

I changed the direction I was running in so I was able to get a good run up to the lake. From previous experience, I knew that the lake was very deep and I would be able to swim with no problem. With one final stride, I launched myself up into the air like I was trying to clear a jump in agility.

Falling toward the murky depths of the lake seemed to take forever. My front paws were already flailing around in front of me and I presumed my back paws were doing the same thing. It certainly wasn't the most graceful dive but that wasn't why I had done it. The impact caused a splash of gigantic proportions to cover the people sat by the side of the lake, my girl and her friends included.

My plan had worked: Cooper had stopped trying to tag me, and I had managed to cover my girl in filthy lake water. My lips formed in to a smile of achievement and I swam away from the scene of the crime happily.

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An hour later, the four of us were dry, clean and relaxed as we sat down on the chairs eating a pizza that the girls had ordered.

After my little 'stunt', I had been rewarded by the sound of laughter from all the other students and dogs in the park who hadn't been covered in the water. I was just glad I could make everyone's day and give them all something to smile about!

When all the pizza had been eaten, the girls headed off to bed. All of our tummies had been filled and a sleepy atmosphere filled the room. I managed to unintentionally start a yawning circle that left us all laughing. Today sure had been a good one. Tomorrow would hopefully be just as good.

Jumping down off the chair, I stretched my tired limbs and dragged myself to my bed. I landed in the soft cushion with a thud and the air being forced out the bedding made my fur fly around uncontrollably for a moment. I looked up when I heard Breeze's chuckle close by. She held Mr.giraffe in her mouth, her tail wagged with hope and she had a pleading look in her eye.

She dropped her toy in front of her and nervously opened her mouth. "C...can I st..tay with you t..tonight?" She stuttered. I looked at her before standing up and moving further to one side of my bed. I tilted my head as a way of telling her that she was always welcome. She clambered on to the bed next to me and, like the night before, we snuggled up together and fell asleep, both content and grateful.

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"Hey Poppy, come look at this". The voice echoed in my ears and I thought I must be dreaming. Then a familiar clicking sound made my ears stand alert. The voice I heard belonged to Lily and the clicking was from my girl's bedroom door opening. I raised my head to see what they were doing and where they were.

"That's sooo cute". I heard my girl squeak before the familiar sound of a camera taking a picture filled my ears. I raised my head and began to involuntarily wagg my tail at the sight of my girl walking toward me. I tried to move then saw the brown fur that reminded me that Breeze stayed here with me last night. That was what was cute!

I felt her stretch beside me so I gently nudged her with my nose. She turned her head to look at me and I looked back at her. There was an unspoken bond between the two of us; she was one of my best friends, only behind my girl and my adoptive sister, Mist.

Slowly, the pair of us got up and ate our breakfast. We would need all the energy we could get because we knew our agility lesson was going to be really tough today. Everyone in my class and a few from various other classes had been entered in to a show that was being held at the coming weekend. There was classes there that would qualify us for the agility at Olympia. There was also the qualifiers for Crufts coming up in 3 weeks and we all wanted to be ready. Everyone wanted to do well and the competition was going to be stiff.

By the time Breeze and I had finished our food, the girls had both left for school. I wondered what Breeze and I would do for the next seven hours. I was just about to turn to her to ask her what she wanted to do but I was beaten to it.

"Do you think we could work on heelwork to music today Storm? I'd like to learn some new tricks so I can impress Lily next lesson!"

"Yeah, no problem! Just let me grab my toy and then let's go!" I immediately stood up and jumped off my bed to search for my favourite toy. I found it soon after hidden at the bottom of the toy box.

Breeze was waiting by the door so when I came back we set off to go to the top arena where we could practise some tricks. We decided to take the long route to get there so we could warm up our muscles ready for the session I had planned. I knew that Breeze couldn't do any tricks while on her hind legs so we were going to work on that.

We were both surprised to see Amanda and Roxy in one of the rings at this time of the day; all students were meant to be in school right now. We were surprised even more when we both caught sight of the man standing in the corner of the ring.

"On second thought", I said to a rather tense Breeze. "Maybe we should just go do some agility..."

She was more than happy to agree and we headed off toward the agility rings. We both silently prayed that he hadn't seen us together because that would surely cause trouble for Breeze and Lily.

What neither of us knew though, was how much trouble it was to cause...