A Dog With a Destiny Read Online Free

tropical storms which swept the area. Cruel and destructive, the storms cancelled out the daylight making flying dangerous and photography impossible. On Black Sunday, 1944, a sudden storm turned day into night in seconds. Out of 200 B-2s, four B-25s and A-20 bombers, eighteen per cent were lost in the air and on the ground. 5th Air Force alone lost thirty-seven. Those in the air either lost sight of the mountains or ran out of fuel.
    The storms were an unpredictable force of nature and the bane of the recon team. Smoky was not keen on them either. Bill soon learned that his dog could predict a storm several hours before it hit. Smoky would go very quiet and sniff the air before she began to whimper and then head for Bill’s cot. She knew the storms were bad news and did her best to warn the men. It was just another way she paid Bill back for taking her into his care.
    Of course, Bill and his friends were always looking out for Smoky too. One of the big health threats in the jungle was Scrub Typhus. Nine out of ten sufferers died and Smoky, being the perfect host for the ticks that carried the disease was in a vulnerable position. It was decided she would have a daily bath in Bill’s helmet to help keep her tick-free, and Smoky loved it. The relief of the tepid wash was a joy to her and she seemed to smile as Bill swished the water over her body. Carefully, Bill would lift her out of the make-shift bathtub and pat her dry, feeling for the telltale lump of the insects on her body. Bill’s heart was in his throat each time he started to examine her. He knew that if she was sick there would be no veterinary help available.
    Smoky had mastered the basics of Bill’s recall training: when he called her she returned immediately so he knew it was safe to let her run free in the jungle – she would always come back. And it was wonderful to watch her chase the birds and the giant exotic butterflies as she looked so happy and free. In those special moments, watching Smoky, it was as if the war was non-existent and it was a normal day in the sunshine, a day spent relaxing with friends, not a care in the world. A sudden burst of gunfire would usually bring everyone back to their senses and the moment of normality would pass as quickly as it had been conjured up. There were pressing realities that had to be faced up to.
    The scare of the Scrub Typhus made Bill and his friends face the fact that Smoky’s life was potentially in danger. They decided that Smoky had to be confined to barracks, only venturing as far as the tether tied to Bill’s bed would allow. And there were other concerns in the jungle too: pythons. A python would have found Smoky a tasty bite-size meal and Bill was well aware of that danger. There was also the constant worry of her being kidnapped by someone else. She liked to chase the native humpbacked hens and that’s probably how she ran into one of the local villages where the children discovered that she was far more intelligent than the average camp dog. Bill was used to losing sight of her for short periods of time but that day he was terrified she had gone forever. Unable to speak the native language of Papua New Guinea and aware that some of the tribes were cannibals, Bill had to face his fears and ask a group of local people if they had seen his dog. At first, the language barrier looked as though it would stifle his enquiries but then his short impersonation of Smoky barking, raising a paw and standing on her hind legs was enough to communicate with the man who beckoned Bill to follow him. Leaving the dusty path, Bill followed full of eagerness to see Smoky again but all the time knowing he had no idea what he was going to see. When he stepped into the clearing, he could hear Smoky barking and his heart leapt in anguish until he recognized it was her happy bark. The village children were sitting around her and Smoky was running through her repertoire of tricks for them. The joy on their little faces was