This is another in my children’s series written for my Grand Daughter Winter.  Remember that the series is based on the imagined experiences of her toy dogs. Sausage of course is a Sausage Dog.  Lisa is a white French Poodle and Spots is what we call a “Bitsa” or a bit of this and a bit of that in breed. I hope your kids enjoy the story and of course all adults are welcome too.

 

 

 

Sausage had just finished his breakfast when there was an urgent rapping on the front door.  He wondered why they didn’t ring the bell he’d installed yesterday?  He liked to hear the bell chime, and wanted friends to visit so he could enjoy the ringing sound. It made him cross to hear they were knocking on the wooden door instead.

 

Sausage quickly put the dirty dishes into the kitchen sink for washing and shuffled to the front door.  “Stop knocking on the door, I’m coming!  Have you got ants in your pants?”

 

There was a loud giggle from the front porch.  Sausage paused in surprise.  It sounded like Lisa, but what would she be doing here so early in the morning?  She was supposed to be working at the animal doctor’s hospital today and he hadn’t expected to see her before evening.  He opened the door slowly.

 

Lisa burst through the door laughing.  “Really Sausage you are so funny!  You said I have ants in my pants?  Just take a look they’re too tight for ants to get inside so I don’t have ants in my pants.”

 

She kissed Sausage on the cheek and he turned a bright red with embarrassment.  He wished she wouldn’t kiss him like this, but then he would miss it if she didn’t he thought to himself.  Lisa waved a newspaper in his face.  “Have you seen the news this morning?”

 

“No, I’ve been eating my breakfast and don’t like to listen to news until I’ve finished.  They only report horrible things on the news and I want to enjoy my breakfast

 

“Silly fellow!” said Lisa. “How will you know what’s going on in the world if you don’t listen to the news or read papers?  Look at this news headline.”

 

Sausage peered at the headlines in the newspaper Lisa was waving in front of his face. The headline said ‘Spots the Dog Missing on Island Cruise.’  The newspaper had a story about Spots falling off the boat as the family he belonged to was on vacation in the Hawaiian Islands.  Water police had searched for Spot for two days, but they hadn’t been successful finding him.

 

Lisa marched Sausage to his bedroom.  “Come pack your suitcase, we’re going to Hawaii to search for Spots.”

 

Sausage gulped.  “We don’t have tickets, and you’re supposed to start work at the Animal Hospital today anyway Lisa.  What will the animal doctor say?”

 

“I talked to the animal doctor this morning and he thinks we should go.  He helped me buy tickets for both of us.”

 

“But I hate flying,” wailed Sausage.

 

“Well you’ll like it a lot after we’ve flown there and back,” said Lisa.  Come on, we have to hurry so I’ll help you pack.  The animal doctor is waiting for us outside in his car to take us to the airport.”

 

Soon they were at the airport and had booked their luggage through to Hawaii and taken boarding passes.  The animal doctor waved goodbye and wished them well in their search for Spots.

 

As soon as the airplane had taken off Lisa went to sleep, but Sausage sat holding onto the arm rests tightly.  Now and then they’d hit air pockets with a bump and Sausage would groan with fright.  He looked at Lisa to see if she was frightened, but she slept through the worst bumps and Sausage began to feel ashamed of his fear.  Why should he be afraid if no one else was?  He decided to enjoy the rest of this trip to Hawaii, and began playing video games on the screen in front of him.  Flying was not so bad after all!

 

They were met on arrival by a friend of the animal doctor who took them to his home.  He’d arranged for a boat to take Sausage and Lisa to a place on the ocean where spots had fallen overboard.  It so happened this was the boat Spots’ family had been on when he disappeared.  They talked with the crew to try and find out what had happened.

 

The boat captain told them he’d seen spots fall overboard.  One of the children had strayed too close to the edge of the boat and Spots had run over to see they were safe. Just then a huge wave swept over the boat and took Spots with it.  There’d been a lot of fishing boats and canoes there at the time and water police had questioned them all.  No one seemed to have seen spots.

 

One of the crew members seemed a bit nervous when Sausage was questioning him.  Lisa noticed it too.  “I think we’d better keep a close eye on that fellow, he seems to look guilty,” she said.

 

That night they decided to sneak out of their cabin on the boat and hide behind a lifeboat on deck.  It was very late and most of the crew had gone to bed but two men were to stay awake that evening.  One man was to steer the boat, and the other to watch over the boat.  The nervous man was one of those working that evening.  Just when Sausage and Lisa were getting very sleepy and thinking about going to bed they heard the two talking together.

 

“Sausage and Lisa seem to be very intelligent dogs, so we’d better be careful what we say in front of them.  They may find out we know what happened to Spots.”

 

Sausage nudged Lisa and both of them began to listen carefully.

 

“Yes, I remember how Spots was swept overboard by that wave and caught up in our fishing net hanging over the side.  Because he was unconscious no one knew where he was, so we taped his mouth shut and hid him in our cabin.  Then when the family left the boat after the search had ended we carried him into the city one night and sold him to the Chief of an island who was visiting.  We made a lot of money selling him.”  He pointed at the dark shape of the island they were passing. “I suppose he’s over there somewhere now.”

 

Lisa gasped in shock.

 

The men stopped talking.  “Did you hear a noise,” one of them asked.

 

“I’ll take a look,” said the nervous man as he began to walk around the ship looking over the sides as he went.  He walked right past Sausage and Lisa without seeing them in the dark, and returned to talk with the man at the steering wheel.

 

“The noise must have come from that fishing boat next to us,” he said.

 

Sausage and Lisa crept back to their cabin and sat in the darkness quietly for a while.  “What will we do?” said Lisa.

 

“We’ll talk about it tomorrow,” said Sausage

 

The next day they told the captain to return to town as they’d seen enough of the tour around the islands.  The captain was quite surprised, but agreed to take them back immediately.  The bad men were also surprised, and looked at Sausage and Lisa for a long time.  They were wondering if the two dogs had heard them talk about Spots during the night and decided to keep a close watch on Sausage and Lisa when they returned to town.

 

Soon they were back at the docks and began the long walk to the house of the animal doctor’s friend.  After a while Sausage nudged Lisa.  “I think we’re being followed,” he said.  They stopped and pretended to look in a shop window.

 

“Lisa, look at the reflection in the shop window and see if you can see who’s following us.”  Lisa stared in the shop window and tried to concentrate on the reflection rather than the beautiful dress on the model in the window. Then she saw two crew members standing on the other side of the street watching them.  “I can see them, let’s go,” she said.

 

When they returned to the animal doctor’s friend’s house he welcomed them and took them to their separate rooms.  They decided to trust him and told him about the discovery on the boat and the real reason they were there, which was to try and find spots and take him home to his family.

 

“We need to tell your story to the police, and I know someone in the police department who can help us get spots back again,” said their new friend.

 

Lisa had been peeping out the corner of the window while Sausage told their new friend what had happened.  “Two bad crew members are watching the house from across the road, what will we do?  If they see police come to the house they’ll warn the Chief who bought Spots and we may never see him again.”

 

“Don’t you worry,” said their new friend.  I’ll tell my police friend to come without her police uniform and the bad men will think she’s just come to visit me.  We can tell the real story about what happened to Spots and see what she suggests should be done to get him back again from the island.

 

That evening the police woman came in her best party dress.  The bad men looked closely at her, and Lisa who was peeping out the corner of the window saw them shake their heads.  They were not worried about this visitor.  It looked like she was going to a party at the house.

 

After they’d told their story that evening the lady police officer thought for a long time as they were eating their supper.  At last she spoke.  “I’ve some close friends on the island, and I’ll ask them to secretly find out if Spots is there, and how we can get him back.  Meantime I want you to tour around the city tomorrow.  The bad men will follow you everywhere and won’t think of going to the island to warn the Chief we suspect has our friend Spots.”

 

So the next day they went for a tour of the city.  Every time they’d stop and look at the reflections in a shop window they’d see the bad men standing on the opposite side of the street watching them.  “Good, that means they haven’t been to the island today, so the lady police officer’s friends will be able to find out where Spots is,” Sausage said to Lisa.

 

That evening the lady police officer returned to the house in her best party dress.  The bad men looked more closely at her this time, but then saw she was carrying a cake and some drinks.  They looked at each other and smiled.  “Two parties in one week!”

 

“I’ve good news for you, Spots is on the island and being looked after nicely by the Chief’s children.  He seems to like children, but they say he does look rather sad.”

 

Lisa began to cry. “Poor Spots! How can we get him back to his family again?”

 

“The Chief’s really a good man, but I’m sure he wouldn’t give Spots up as his children like the dog.  After all he didn’t know Spots was stolen when he bought him, and we don’t want to embarrass him.  The police are looking at the records of the two bad men across the street from this house, and they’ll arrest them for kidnapping once Spots is back in your possession.  If we arrest them before we get Spots I’m sure the Chief will hide him when he hears someone is attempting a rescue.”

 

“Now the police will not be able to get Spots back for you as islanders will protect their Chief and all he has in his house.  As far as the islanders are concerned Spots belongs to the Chief and they’ll hurt anyone who tries to take spots from him.”

 

“Then what can we do,” said Sausage.

 

“If you want Spots, you’ll have to rescue him yourself,” said the lady police officer.  “I’m sorry I can’t do anything more too help, but this evening the police will arrest those bad men over the street watching our house before they can get word back to the island.  You’ll than have to work out how to rescue Spots by yourselves before the Chief realizes you are trying to get him back and hide him.”

 

That night Sausage and Lisa didn’t sleep.  They were thinking about how to rescue Spots and run from the island before the islanders caught them.

 

Next day they took a tourist boat to the island and rented a room at one of the boarding houses.  In the evening they took a walk by the Chief’s home, and when Spots saw them he came bounding out barking at them to take him home.  The Chief’s children came running after Spots.  Lisa whispered to Spots before the children arrived, “Can you escape to the island boarding house room 7 this evening?”

 

“Yes said Spots happily,” as the children caught up with them.

 

“That’s a nice dog you have there,” Sausage said to the children as he turned to continue his walk with Lisa.  Spots looked very sad, but he returned to the Chief’s house with the children.

 

That evening at midnight Spots pushed open the door of boarding house room 7 and went to hide under the bed.  None of the dogs spoke during the night in case someone was listening and would report it to the Chief.  In the morning Sausage put spots in his suitcase and made holes in it so he could breathe.  Then they caught the early morning ferry to the mainland and headed straight for the animal doctor’s friend’s home.  Spots was glad to get out of the suitcase when they were safely inside.  They stayed there hiding for the rest of the day, and late in the evening their friend drove them to the airport with the lady police officer who was now in her uniform.  The lady police officer brought three tickets and saw them safely onto the plane back home.

 

As they settled back in their seats to enjoy the flight home Sausage turned to Lisa and smiled. “I think I like flying after all.”

 

When they arrived at the airport Spots’ family was there to greet them.  The animal doctor’s friend had phoned to report Spots had been found and was on his way home with Lisa and Sausage.  Spots family hugged Sausage and Lisa.  “Thank you,” they said as they hugged and cried happily. From now on we’ll consider you part of our own family.

 

Sausage looked at Lisa and smiled.  It had been worth all the trouble they’d gone to and he bent forward and kissed Lisa on the cheek.  Now it was her turn to turn red in embarrassment.  “Sausage!” was all she could say, but her eyes shone with happiness.

 

“© Copyright Ian Grice 2015, all rights reserved”

 

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