Foxed!

India sat by the back door, enjoying the sunshine and the warm breeze.  She liked to sit here, sometimes, just watching the world go by which, when the world you inhabit is largely TURN Education, means a procession of hens, ducks, geese, cats and, occasionally, sheep and goats. 

It could also mean small Labrador/retriever puppies, like Rohan, who had just plonked himself down beside her.   India noticed his arrival but said nothing and just stared ahead.  She knew that the silence would not last for long.

“Wotcher doin’ Ninja?” Rohan asked, eventually.

“It’s ‘India’, as I’ve told you a million times before” India snapped, “and I’m just keeping an eye on things, if you must know”

“Oh!”  Rohan nodded and stared at the yard.  His little brow furrowed which usually meant he was thinking of something.  “What’th ‘keeping an eye’ mean, Ninja?”

“It means that I’m watching what’s happening.  It’s part of my role.  I’m a Therapy Dog, you know” India said, proudly.

“Ooh, I like rolling!” Rohan grinned.

“I know you do!  Particularly when we’re in the crate together, I keep getting your paw in my ear” India grumbled, “and I don’t mean that sort of roll, it means that my job here, as a Therapy Dog, involves me keeping watch.  Making sure that everything is ok”

“Oh” Rohan nodded and then looked about him carefully, as if he was about to deliver something Top Secret, “have you notithed that there’th a lot of catth here?”  He whispered.

“Well, yes, of course I have”

“Only…”  He looked up at India, hopefully, “ith it wrong to want to chathe them?” 

“Yes, it most certainly is!”  India said, firmly.

“Yeth, I thought tho” Rohan nodded, miserably, “my mom thaid tho too.  It’th jutht it’th tho…tempting”

“Well, you mustn’t!  It’s not just that it’s a bad thing to do.  It’s because we share this house with them.  They have as much right to be here as we do.  In fact, Packham…”

“Who wath Packham?”

“Packham was a great big chocolate brown ladrador who used to live here.  In fact, Packham was already a grown-up dog when I first came here as a puppy.  Packham used to say that the cats were here before even him, so it’s really their house and we’re just guests here.  That’s why we should be polite and friendly and respect them.  Do you understand?”

“Yeth Ninja” Rohan sighed.

“Apart from anything else, if you did chase any of them, they would probably give you a tap on the nose that you wouldn’t forget in a hurry.  Even Ebony, the three-legged one!  So, don’t do it!”

“No Ninja” Rohan agreed, reluctantly, “anyway, thome of them are pretty thcary!”

“Exactly” India nodded.

“There’th thith big black one.  I fell over him on the landing and he jutht glared at me”

“That would be Reg” India grinned, “he’s the oldest in the household.  All of the other cats look up to him because he’s partly wild and isn’t scared of anything.  They say that he once stared down a fox!”

“What’th a fox?”

“A fox?” India thought for a moment, “well, I suppose it’s like a little wolf” She mused, and then instantly regretted it.

“Ooh!  That’th what I want to practith on, tho I can live up to my name – Rohan ‘Keeper of Wolveth’” Rohan was jumping up and down with excitement.

“Yes, well, they’re not that much like wolves.  They’ve got more in common with cats, actually.  They live out in the wild and they sometimes steal hens and ducks, if they’re not shut up at night.  That’s one of the reasons we’re here, to scare away any foxes that might come sneaking around”

“Tho, can I chathe them?” Rohan asked, hopefully.

“Perhaps when you’re bigger” India chuckled.

“Oh wow!” Rohan beamed, happily, “can we play now, Ninja?”

“Well, I’m supposed to be watching to make sure everything is alright” India said, seriously, “besides I can’t be playing with you all of the time”

“Oh, g’wan Ninja! Pleathe!”  Rohan looked at India with his most pleading expression.

“Perhaps for a few minutes, then” India sighed.

“Yay, can we play tug-of-war again, eh, can we Ninja, eh, can we?”  Rohan was bounding around India, tail wagging furiously.

“Oh, I suppose so” India went off to get the rope toy.

Rohan waited patiently and watched the various fowl as they busied themselves around the yard.  A small duck pottered quite close to where Rohan was sitting.

“I’m going to protect you from foxeth, when I’m bigger” Rohan told the duck, very seriously.

The duck stared at him for a few moments before opening his bill and quacking loudly, in that way that sounds just like a duck laughing fit to burst.

“I will” Rohan said, indignantly, “you jutht wait and thee!”

The duck waddled off, still laughing, and looking forward to telling all the other ducks about it.

Now try the next episode 'Baby Love'

You can find out more about Packham, India and all the other animals at TURN in the collection of stories 'Waggy Dog Tales' - follow this link for more information on how to buy the book and contribute to TURN Education  and find the first India and Rohan story here.