Jess the Lonely Puppy Read Online Free

overhead, Jesscowered against her, letting Chloe wrap her arms around her small black ears to shut out the noise. “Ssshh, ssshh, it’s OK. It’ll go away soon.”
    Jess licked her hand gratefully. She couldn’t have stayed in the kitchen, not with those crashing noises and that awful prickly feel in the air. She really wanted Will, but Chloe would do. It was nice to be cuddled, and she was making good sounds, shushing noises that made the crashing seem not so bad.

    She could feel Chloe’s heart thudding so quickly. She was scared too, Jess thought. She licked her again, and then snuggled closer as another growl of thunder rumbled round the house.
    Chloe lay there, jumping every so often as the thunder rang out, but mostly thinking over and over, I’m cuddling Jess. I’m holding a dog! I’d never have thought that she’d be scared of thunder, when she’s so bouncy and loud . “You’re even worse than me, Jess.” She giggled, and Jess licked her under the chin.
    The thunder was dying away now, to just a few grumbles, and Chloe lay back down, with Jess still cuddled up next to her. “Are you staying, Jess?” she asked.
    But Jess was asleep already, curled in a little ball in the crook of Chloe’s arm.

Chapter Four
    Jess was still there when Chloe woke up the next morning, snuggled down the side of her bed. Chloe smiled delightedly – it was just like she’d imagined having a dog would be. Jess yawned, showing a huge length of pink tongue, and rolled over on to her back, still fast asleep. She lay there with her paws folded on her chest, snoring alittle, until Chloe woke her up by giggling too much.
    “Sorry, Jess. You looked so funny.”
    Jess let out another enormous yawn, then gave Chloe a big face-washing lick.
    “Urgh. Now I’m really awake.” Chloe got out of bed and followed Jess downstairs to the kitchen, where Mum was making toast.
    “I was wondering where Jess had got to!” Mum said, looking slightly surprised. “You slept late! I was just about to come and wake you up. It’s holiday club this morning, remember?”
    Chloe nodded. Her mum worked part-time at the library, and so in the mornings she and Will usually went to a holiday club at one of the other schools nearby. Even though she didn’tnormally hang around with Will – he stuck with the boys, mostly – it would feel weird being there without him.
    Jess watched sadly through the front window as they got into the car without her. She’d been hoping for a walk. She had that itchy, bored feeling again. She trotted back into the kitchen and out into the garden through her dog-door. She sniffed around for a while and snapped at a few butterflies, then she just lay on her side in a sunny patch, flicking her tail idly.
    A beetle wandered past her nose, and Jess rolled over to stare at it as it trundled off between her paws. She crept after it, tail wagging slightly, and watched it climb under some stones in the flower bed. Where had it gone?

    Jess pawed at the stones, but the beetle had gone. She scrabbled some more, then dug furiously, her paws spraying up stones and earth. The beetle was long gone, but the digging was fun. Jess happily clawed and scraped and scratched, loving the exercise.
    Then she fell asleep, her nose in a pile of earth, worn out and snoozing blissfully.
    “Jess!”
    Jess sat up with a jump, blinking sleepily, and saw that Chloe was there,looking down at her with her hands to her mouth.
    “Oh, Jess, Mum’s going to go mad. Dad gave her that plant for her birthday.” Chloe quickly fetched a trowel from the garden shed to scoop some of the earth back into the flower bed. “We have to tidy up. Maybe she won’t notice.”
    But it was too late. Chloe’s mum was standing by the back door, looking horrified. In fact, she looked more than horrified, she looked furious.
    “You bad dog! Look at this mess! Oh, I don’t believe it! My beautiful camellia…” She crouched down to look at the plants that Jess had rooted