Adapted by Aaron Rosenberg
First published in Great Britain by HarperCollins Children’s Books 2017
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Text copyright © Dion Leonard 2017
Cover design copyright © HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd 2017
Photographs reproduced by Hermien Webb, reproduced courtesy of KAEM
Dion Leonard asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work.
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Source ISBN: 9780008244521
Ebook Edition © 2017 ISBN: 9780008244538
Version: 2017-05-09
To all dog lovers:
no matter where life takes you,
your dog will always be there for you.
Contents
“Is that right, girl?” another man asked, bending down to scratch her behind the ears. “Are you here to run with us?”
The dog didn’t know what to make of all this. There were a lot of people, more than she would have expected out here away from town and right on the edge of the desert. Most of them were dressed funny, but they were nice. Many of the runners stopped to pet her, and more than a few gave her scraps of food.
She was hungry. She was always hungry. She couldn’t remember a time when she hadn’t been hungry. These people seemed to like her, and when she danced around them they fed her. So she danced. And got fed. And everyone was happy.
Then she saw him. He wasn’t feeding her. He wasn’t laughing or shouting. He wasn’t even standing with most of the other people. He was off to the side, shifting back and forth on his big feet. He was tall and skinny, and dressed all in bright yellow. He looked funny, but he wasn’t smiling.
The dog didn’t know what to make of this tall man. But she decided that she wanted to find out more about him.
“Well, hello there,” Dion Leonard muttered, glancing down at the small bundle of sandy-coloured fur bounding around his feet. “Where did you come