CHAPTER XIDON AT A PARTY
The little silky poodle dog followed Don, for the dogs in the pound were not very friendly toward one another—at least most of them were not. You would have thought, being all in trouble together, that they would be friendly and kind, but the big dogs picked on the little ones, and the little ones snarled at the big ones, until there was so much noise that it sounded like a dozen dog fights going on at once.
But Don and the little poodle dog did not quarrel. They seemed to be good friends from the start.
“Oh, have you hurt your foot?” asked the poodle of Don.
“Yes, I stepped on some glass when the man with the net was chasing me,” said Don.
“Oh, that’s too bad,” the other dog said. “I’m so sorry. If you were at my house, now, my little mistress would put some salve and a rag on your foot, and it would soon be well. Oh dear! I wonder if ever I’ll see her again?” he sighed.
“See whom?” asked Don.
“My little mistress. I belong to a little girl,” the poodle explained.
“Why did you run away from her?” asked Don.
“Run away? I didn’t!” cried the silky poodle. “I went out on the front steps to get a breath of fresh air this morning, and when I stood there a bad boy came along, picked me up, and ran off with me. He wanted to take me away, and sell me. I’ve often been stolen that way,” said the poodle. “I’m a very valuable dog, you know.”
“You really have been stolen, and carried away?” asked Don, in surprise.
“Oh, yes,” answered the poodle. “Then my little mistress, or her father, would put an advertisement in the paper, saying that whoever had taken me away could have some money if I were brought back, and I would then be taken home.
“So when this boy grabbed me up off the stoop I thought I was stolen again. But a policeman saw the boy take me, and the policeman ran after him. So the boy dropped me and ran, and I got lost, trying to find my way home again. Then the dog-catcher came and took me in his wagon. Oh dear! It’s too bad. Were you ever taken away like that?” he asked Don.
“No,” answered Don. “I ran away.”
“Ran away!” exclaimed the poodle. “Why did you do that? Didn’t they treat you kindly? Did they whip you?”
“Oh, no,” said Don. “My master, Bob, was very kind to me. I was never whipped. But I wanted to have some adventures, so I ran away.”
“Did you have any adventures?” asked the poodle, whose name was Rex.
“Many of them,” replied Don. “This is one. I wonder if we shall ever get out of here?”
“Oh, I think so,” answered the poodle. “My little mistress, or her father, is sure to come looking for me.”
“Well, I wish some one would come for me, or that I could find my way back to the farm,” said Don, sadly enough. “I’d never run away again—never!”
It was not at all nice in the dog pound. There was water to drink, but it was not clean, and it was very warm, for the sun shone on it all day long. And there was hardly anything to eat.
Once in a while some scraps of food were thrown in to the dogs, but there were so many of them, and they were so fierce and strong, the most of them, that little dogs, like Rex, and lame dogs, like Don, got nothing at all.
“And I am so hungry!” whined Rex. “Iwould just like to have some nice chicken bones now, wouldn’t you, Don?”
“I’d be glad to have even a dry crust of bread,” said Don, sadly.
His foot pained him more than ever now, and he could walk about only a little, and very slowly.
“I am so sorry for you,” said Rex. “When my little mistress comes for me I know she’ll help you. Maybe she’ll take you home when she takes me.”
“Oh, I couldn’t expect that,” said Don. “But I would be glad if I were back in the hole in the lumber pile, with my friend Jack. I thought that was bad enough, after my nice kennel, but I would be glad of it now.”
“I wouldn’t like to live that way,” said Rex. “Did you have a blue silk cushion to sleep on, when you were home?” he asked.
“No,” said Don, “but I had some nice, clean straw. I like that better than a cushion. But now I am going over and get some of that water. Even if it is warm and muddy, I must drink it.”
“And I’ll have to take some, too,” said Rex. “But I wish I had some nice, cool, clean water out of my little white dish at home.”
Even dogs cannot have what they want, especially if they run away, or get lost, so Don and Rex had to make the best of what they could get.
Don, and his new friend Rex, had to stay in the pound several days. Each day they liked it less and less, for they grew hungrier and hungrier. They saw several of the dogs taken away by those who owned them, but no one came for Rex, and of course no one came for Don. For Bob did not know where his pet was, and the little mistress of Rex did not seem to think of looking in the pound for him.
Many, many times, in those days spent in the pound, Don wished over and over again that he had never run away from Bob.
“Those were happy days!” sighed Don.
He even wished for the time he had spent with Jack, the stray dog. But Jack was more lucky than Don—he had not been caught and taken to the pound.
“I don’t see why some one doesn’t come for me,” said Rex one day, as he and Don were talking together in one corner of the pound. Don’s foot was growing better now.
“Perhaps they may come to-day,” said Don.
“I hope so,” spoke Rex. “I need a bath very much. I like to be clean. And I am so hungry for a good meal, and for some nice food to eat, and cold water to drink.”
“So am I,” Don said. “But I don’t believe we shall get either, very soon.”
However, good luck was coming to Don andRex. It was the very same afternoon that they saw the gate of the pound open, and the dog-catcher come in. With him was another man and a little girl.
“Here are some stray dogs,” said the pound-keeper. “Maybe your pet is in here, little girl.”
Rex gave one look at the visitors, and then he let out a joyful bark, and wagged his tail very hard.
“What’s the matter?” asked Don.
“There’s my little mistress come for me!” barked Rex. “Now I’ll be taken home and cared for.”
“I wish that was going to be my luck,” said Don, sadly.
“Bow wow!” barked Rex, running up to the little girl. She looked at him once, and then she cried:
“Oh, father! Here he is! Here’s my own Rex! I’ve found him again!” and, all dirty as Rex was, the little girl picked him up in her arms and hugged him tightly. Oh, how happy Rex was!
“So that’s your dog?” asked the pound-keeper.
“Yes, I’ve found him!” cried the little girl, happily.
“So it is Rex,” said her father. “I wonder how he got here?”
“We found him on the street,” said the pound-keeper,“and we have to pick up all stray dogs, you know.”
“I know—yes,” said the little girl’s father. “But now we’ll take Rex home with us, Alice.”
“Oh, yes, father. And I must give him a good wash. I think he is hungry, too. Look how thin he is!”
“He must have had a hard time,” said the man, patting Rex on the head. “I wonder what has happened to him since he was taken away?”
“Oh, if I could only tell you!” thought Rex, but of course he could not speak man or girl talk. The little mistress of the silken poodle started out of the pound with him in her arms. But this did not suit Rex. He did not want to go away from Don that way. Poor Don felt very sad and alone, as he saw his little friend being taken away, while he had to stay in the pound.
Rex struggled so hard, that the little girl had to put him down.
“Why, Rex, what is it?” she asked. “Don’t you want me to take you home, and away from this place?”
“Bow wow!” barked Rex, which meant: “Yes, thank you, of course I do. But I have a friend here,” and he ran up to Don, and stood so close to him that, in a minute, the little girl’s father guessed what the little poodle dog meant.
“Your pet has made a friend while in the pound,” said the man. “See, Alice, he likes that big dog.”
Then Rex took hold of the shaggy hair of Don’s leg, for that was as far up as he could reach, and he tried to pull Don toward Alice.
“Look!” exclaimed the little girl. “Oh, father! I believe Rex wants us to take that other dog with us!”
“It does look so,” spoke the man. “I guess this big dog, whatever his name is, has been kind to Rex.”
“Bow wow! Indeed he has!” barked Rex, but of course Alice and her father could not understand his talk. They did understand his actions, however, for Rex did not seem to want to go away without Don.
“Oh, father! Could we take him with us?” asked Alice, as she patted Don on his big head. He looked up at her with his big, kind brown eyes.
“Well, yes, I suppose we could keep another dog,” said the man. “Only he is so big he’d have to stay out in the stable, with the horses. You couldn’t have him in the house, as you do Rex.”
“Oh, please let’s take him home!” begged Alice.
“All right,” answered her father with a laugh. “We’ll take the big dog home too,” he said to the pound-keeper.
“I am glad of it,” said the pound-keeper. “I was sorry I had to bring that dog in, for he looks as though he had been in a good home. I’m glad you’re taking him.”
So Don was led out of the pound, and he walked along beside the man, while Alice carried Rex in her arms.
Outside the dog pound was a big automobile. Alice and her father had come in that.
“See, James!” cried Alice to the chauffeur. “I have Rex back again.”
“So I see,” spoke the chauffeur. “Hello, Rex!” and he patted the poodle on the head, for he knew him well.
“Bow wow!” barked Rex. Then to Don he said: “Now we are all right. I’ll have my blue silk cushion to sleep on, and we’ll both have all we want to eat, and good water to drink. Aren’t you glad to come home with me?”
“Yes, indeed I am—and thank you very much,” said Don, in his dog talk, to Rex. “But are we to ride in that auto?” he asked. “I never have been in one, though once one almost ran over me.”
“Of course we are to ride in it,” said Rex. “I hardly ever walk. Jump in!”
“If Squinty, the pig, could only see me now!” thought Don, as he rode away with Rex.
The first thing that happened to Don and Rex, when they got to the place where the poodle dog lived, was that they each had a nice bath. Rex, being so little, had his in the house, but Don got his scrubbing out in the automobile garage, under a hose. And oh! how good it felt—the cool water splashing on him. Then he was dried in the warm sun, and given a good meal.
“Now I am happy again,” thought Don. “But still I would like to go back to the farm, and my little master Bob.”
For several weeks Don lived in the barn back of the house where Rex had his home. Sometimes Don was taken into the house, and allowed to play with Rex, for Rex was very fond of his big dog friend. And often Rex came out to the barn.
One day Alice came out to the barn with a red ribbon in her hand.
“James, where is Don?” she asked the chauffeur.
“What do you want with him, Miss Alice?” asked the man who steered the auto.
“I want to tie this red ribbon on his neck, to make him look pretty,” she answered. “I am having a party this afternoon, and I want Don to come to it a little while, and do some of histricks. He can do more tricks than can Rex. Oh, there you are, Don!” cried Alice, as she saw the big dog. “Come and have a nice ribbon tied on you, and then you may come to the party!” she said.
When the bow was fastened on his neck, Don was led into the house to the party. And a very wonderful thing happened there.