The new Hemmings

Aftermath stray

"Shhh you'll wake her up" I hear Calum's voice as my eyes flutter open "too late" Michael says "good morning sleeping beauty" Luke says i sit up and notice a feel asleep on Calum "was I asleep on you all night" I say "yeah" Calum says "you could of moved me I probably squashed you" I say "no you didn't and you finally got to sleep I wasn't going to wake you" he says "so is the power still out" I say the boys all nod "and my phone died" Michael says I shake my head and laugh "on the bright side mums on the way home and the storms passed and it's looking pretty clear out there today just cloudy" Luke says "oh okay" I say all of a sudden the TV turns on so does the radio and all the lights "we have power" Calum says "phone charger now" Michael says running upstairs to his room I shake my head laughing "how's your leg" I say to Luke "yeah good" Luke says "that's good" I say "who wants coffee" I yell "yes please" I hear Liz's voice as the door shuts "liz" I yell running to her and giving her a hug "hi sweetie" she says hugging me back "where's my boys" she says "putting their phones on charge" I say she laughs "what a surprise, I'm guessing you guys lost power too" she says "yeah from about 8:30 ish and it only just came back on about 10 minutes ago" I say she nods, I walk into the kitchen and make everyone a coffee, after we drink our coffees we decide to head out the back to inspect the damage, to my surprise it isn't that bad a few things have blown over but not much we spend the next 10 minutes picking up rubbish and putting things back into place we open the shed and grab the table and chairs back out and place them back on the patio "can you hear that" Calum says we all go silent as we hear whimpers "I can't hear anything" Luke says "no I can" I say as I listen again I walk towards the fence and get to the gate at the bottom of the garden I unlock it and pull it open and see a wet cold shaking dog "Awh look" I say crouching down "don't get to close it might" Liz says but stops when she notices the dog come up to me and lick my face "hello there" I giggle picking it up "it's so cute" Calum says "I think it was out during the storm" I say stroking it "does it have a tag" Liz says "nope" I say "well we can't just leave the poor thing lets take it in and clean it up then we will take it to the local vets" Liz says I nod and take it inside we clean it up and establish it's a male he doesn't look very old either, we all climb into Liz's car and I sit passenger seat with him on my lap "he likes you he does" Calum says "you think so" I say smiling "yeah" Calum replies luckily the vets is only down the road so we don't have to drive to far we hop out and walk into the vets "hello there how can I help you" the blonde haired lady at the desk says "hi we found this little fella just outside our backyard this morning we have a feeling he got out in the storm last night but have no idea where he came from" Liz says "let's go check if he has a microchip" the lady says we nod and go into a room I place the dog on the counter top she runs the machine over his back *beep beep beep* "he does have one I'll give the owners a call" she says we nod and head back into the waiting room I sit on the floor and play with the dog which we now know is a puppy, the lady soon walks in with a sad look on her face "the owners kicked this little fella out last night and don't want anything to do with him anymore" she says "oh so what do we do now" I say with a sad look in my eyes "well we will take him and take him to the pound and they will either re home him or not" she says, I hand the dog to the vet as I go to walk out "wait hold on" liz says causing me to turn around "do you think we can have him" she says to the lady "I don't see why not we can just change the information on the microchip" the vet says my eyes widen "liz are you sure" I say "yeah why not he likes you anyway" liz says, we decide that we will keep the dog, me and the boys pick out a leash and collar and all the other stuff while liz gets the information changed on the microchip we find out that the dog is a border collie and is only 11 months old, we thank the vet and head home "Marley are you going to give him a name" liz says "wait why me" I say "he's your dog" liz laughs "I'm giving you full reign over this boy" she says "hmm i think I want a different name for him" I say "lettuce" Michael says I laugh "nah" I say "tomato" Luke says again I laugh and shake my head no "sauce" Calum says again it doesn't fit right then it suddenly clicks "ketchup" I say the boys all smile "ketchup I like it, it suits him" liz says "welcome to the family ketchup" I say stroking him and he bites the end of my cardigan.