Big scary Grayston was getting closer and closer. Ula ran into the house through the doggy door. Inside, she found three adorable puppies playing with the children’s rubber ball.

‘Hello, puppies. My name is Ula. Are you Grayston’s puppies?’

‘Yes,’ said one. ‘I’m Graham, this is my brother, Gram, and my sister, Grace.’

‘Well, you all look like wonderful puppies. You’re a credit to your father,’ Ula said, then added under her breath, ‘May his scariness find a new target in another life.’

‘Thank you, Ms Ula,’ said Gram.

‘What brings you to our home?’ asked Grace.

‘Well, I have some friends – human children, small persons – who lost their favourite toy. It’s a clear rubber ball that lights up when it bounces. It was given to them by their parents, and now that their parents are away for their work the children love the ball even more. It helps them to feel close to their parents. But yesterday they lost it in someone’s garden and now they are very sad. They lost it around here and so I’m looking for it.’

The three puppies looked at each other. All at once, at exactly the same time, three little tails stopped wagging.

‘Excuse me, Ms Ula, do you mind if we have a quick family meeting?’ said Graham.

Before Ula even had a chance to answer, the three young puppies had formed a triangle with their three heads. In the middle of the triangle of heads was the rubber ball. All Ula could see was three little tails sticking up and wagging very quickly in the air around the ball as they whispered to each other.

Finally the three puppies turned back around to face Ula.

‘Ms Ula,’ said Gram, ‘we think this ball might be the children’s ball.’ He pushed the ball towards Ula with his snout.

‘And,’ said Grace, ‘we would like the children to have it back if it means so much to them.’

‘That’s so kind of you, puppies. What good dogs you are!’

‘There’s just one thing we would ask in return, Ms Ula,’ said young Graham. ‘Please could you tell us the secret?’

‘The secret! How did you know about the secret?’ said Ula. ‘I don’t think I can tell you, even though you’re such lovely puppies.’

‘Please tell us the secret of how you get human children to play with you and be your friends,’ said Grace.

‘Oh!’ said Ula. ‘That’s no secret at all. You just have to be nice and friendly to them. You mustn’t be scary. Not like, well, some dogs, who can be a bit scary … even to dogs. But the ones with human friends, well, you’ll find that they’re not scary at all. They’re nice and friendly.’

At that very moment, outside in the garden, Grayston was barking wildly at Catvinkle.

Catvinkle had flown up in the air and landed on a branch of a nearby tree. Grayston was jumping up and down on his two back paws trying to reach her, but she was too high.

Lobbus had rushed around from the front to the side fence to help. Using his tail, he beckoned Ula to bring the ball and escape while Grayston was barking fiercely at Catvinkle.

‘Thank you for returning the ball, puppies,’ Ula said. ‘But now I have to run!’

She picked up the ball in her mouth and leapt back through the doggy door.

Grayston spotted Lobbus and Ula trying to run away and he chased after them. He was getting closer and closer to them when he felt a nip on his nose.

‘Owww!!! What was that?’ shouted the panting, frothing at the mouth Grayston.

It was Catvinkle. She had swooped down from the branch and given Grayston the most unexpected nip on his snout he had ever got in years of fights with many big and scary dogs.

‘How dare you! You’re a rotten little cat!’ Grayston shouted as Lobbus and Ula, now out of the garden, ran away along the street in the direction of Anja’s and Ferdi’s house.

‘How dare I?’ asked Catvinkle. ‘You really want to know? I dare like … this!’

She flew down again right into the face of the angry Grayston and gave him another nip. These tiny nips were not sharp enough to hurt his snout – but his pride as a big scary dog was in tatters all around him.

‘And I’m not a rotten little cat,’ called Catvinkle. ‘I’m an excellent little cat!’

With that, she flew over Grayston’s fence and caught up to Lobbus and Ula, who had just arrived at the home of Anja and Ferdi. The three of them were out of breath but extremely happy at their big day’s work.

The children were very happy to see them – and that was even before they had realised that their ball was being returned.

‘Thank you so very much for getting us our ball back,’ said Anja, delighted to see it again.

‘You are all so brave,’ said Ferdi as the three animals took their share of pats, cuddles and kisses.

Ula introduced her cousin, Lobbus the brave dog Lobbus, to the children. He turned to offer them his tail to sniff, forgetting for a moment that humans don’t do that. Then he asked the children a question.

‘Can I ask you, Anja and Ferdi, what makes you say this rubber ball is magic? What power does it have?’

‘Well,’ said Ferdi, ‘right from the time our parents gave it to us we would play with it all over the house, in the hallway, in the garden and even on the street sometimes. At the end of every day we always thought we’d lost it. We just couldn’t find it and had to stop looking because it was time for bed.’

‘Yes,’ continued Anja, ‘but then every morning when we woke up, the ball was there back in our room on the bookshelf between our beds. It was magic! The ball got itself back to where it wanted to be, which was just where we wanted it to be. Magic!’

The three animals looked at each other and smiled, but the children didn’t understand why.

‘Why are you smiling?’ asked Anja. ‘It’s true!’

‘We believe you,’ said Catvinkle. ‘It was your parents every day putting back the ball they knew you liked to play with so much.’

‘So it’s not magic?’ asked Ferdi.

‘Well, it is a kind of magic,’ said Ula. ‘It’s a special kind of magic that parents have saved up for their children.’

‘Yes,’ said Catvinkle. ‘It’s called “love”.’

‘And guess what!’ said Ferdi. ‘We got a letter from our parents and they said they’re coming home next week.’

The children were very excited. ‘When they come home they’re going to take us to the zoo, where there’s going to be a new koala visiting!’ Anja added.

‘I think I know the family of this koala,’ said Lobbus. ‘I once shared a horse and cart ride with his uncle all the way to Smolensk. A charming koala, he taught me a lot about gum leaves and –’

Catvinkle and Ula were trying not to laugh.

‘What is it?’ asked Lobbus. ‘Why do you laugh? You shouldn’t laugh at a koala who’s not here to defend himself. It’s not good manners.’

Ula whispered to Catvinkle that Catvinkle should be at home practising her baby-shoe dancing for the competition the very next day. The three of them said they looked forward to seeing the children again soon, and then they started on their way back home.

When they reached Lobbus’s house, he said that he thought he owed Catvinkle an apology.

‘You are a credit to all cats, Catvinkle. I misjudged you and for this I am sorry. You are brave and not entirely lazy. I am proud to call you my friend.’

‘Thank you, Lobbus, and I am proud to call you my friend’s cousin.’

At this they sniffed each other’s tails and then Catvinkle turned to Ula and said, ‘Let’s go home, Ulee.’

‘Okay, Catvinkle, let’s go home,’ said Ula.