As the night wore on, Mr Dog was finally lulled to sleep by the sound of the rain. He was woken in the morning as a train rumbled by, blowing its whistle like an alarm call. The rain had stopped and the sun was trying to shine through the blank white sky.
‘Good morning, Mr Dog!’ As Lulu wiggled back up the bank towards him, she tossed a fat, juicy fish in his direction. ‘I’m heading off again, upriver. Ditzy’s got to be out there somewhere.’
‘Tell me, Lulu.’ Mr Dog stood up and stretched his scruffy body, dragging his back legs behind him. ‘Do seals often leave the sea to swim in rivers?’
‘Sometimes if we’re chasing after fish … we get a bit lost.’ Lulu sighed. ‘Even so, we don’t normally stay longer than a few days.’
‘And Ditzy’s been gone for a couple of months.’ Mr Dog shook his head. ‘Well, I’m coming with you to see if we can find her.’
‘Thank you for helping,’ said Lulu.
The unlikely pair set off together. Mr Dog trotted through the long grass at the side of the river, while Lulu beetled about in the water, trying not to use her injured flipper. To pass the time she would sometimes do impressions.
‘Hey, look at me.’ Lulu lay motionless in the water. ‘I’m a log.’
‘Very good,’ said Mr Dog politely.
She rolled over. ‘What am I now?’
‘Er, still a log?’
‘No. I’m a log WITH A FISH!’ She rolled over again to reveal a large salmon gripped in her flippers, and in moments it was gone. ‘Mmmm. Nice fish.’
‘Look out.’ Mr Dog growled a warning. ‘Angler!’
Some way up ahead, Mr Dog had spotted a woman with blonde hair sitting on the bank beside an array of rods and nets. She had clearly seen Lulu with the fish. Slowly, carefully, she reached into a large bag beside her. Mr Dog’s ears pricked and his hackles rose. Was the woman a hunter, ready to shoot the fish-stealing seal? He dropped to his belly and wriggled through the grass towards her in an army crawl.
I must get to her in time, he thought. If I jump up at her, I can spoil her aim.
The woman began to pull out something from inside her bag … but it was only a mobile phone! The woman started taking pictures of Lulu bobbing about in the water, but as the seal neared the nets placed at the riverside the woman started shaking her head and shouting. She waved angrily as if to scare Lulu away. Quickly, Lulu ducked beneath the water and swam off, and the woman dialled someone on her phone, Mr Dog listening in.
‘Hello?’ the woman said. ‘It’s Alana. Listen, you won’t believe this, but I’ve seen that seal you’ve been after. It’s here on the western branch of the river. Went straight for my fish … It’s gone now, but seemed to be heading upriver. Yes … yes, I can meet you at the farm …’
Mr Dog circled past the woman, heading after Lulu. He didn’t like the sound of her conversation. That seal you’ve been after, she’d said. Had she been talking to the hunter who’d taken pot shots at Lulu? Or had the woman mistaken Lulu for Ditzy?
Mr Dog shook his shaggy head. So many questions!
‘We must take special care,’ Mr Dog told Lulu when he’d caught up with her. ‘This is a big river, but it sounds as if some humans are looking for you.’
Lulu’s sleek head rose from the water and she stared at Mr Dog with her widest eyes. ‘Do you think they’ve done something to Ditzy?’
‘I’m sure people in town would’ve heard if anything bad had happened to her,’ Mr Dog reassured her. ‘She was very popular with the people there, as you know. But we should try to find her sooner rather than later so you can both get back to the sea – and safety.’
Mr Dog wanted to keep moving and get as far from Alana the angler as they could. But they kept meeting animals who’d come into contact with pollution and needed help. First, they met a duck who’d managed to get a rubber band stuck over his head and jammed between his beak, so he couldn’t eat easily. The duck was afraid of Mr Dog and tried to swim away, so Lulu rose from the water beneath him and lifted him up, carrying him back to the riverbank. The duck was so startled that he held still while Mr Dog carefully sliced through the band with his sharpest claw.
Not long after that they came across something even sadder – a deer with her head stuck in a plastic jar. The poor deer couldn’t see and hadn’t eaten or drunk in some time. Mr Dog was able to hook his teeth round the rim of the jar and hold it steady while the deer pulled as hard as she could. Finally, the deer’s head came free and she tottered down to the bank to drink thirstily. Mr Dog kicked wet earth into the jar to fill it and stop any other curious animals from getting stuck.
‘Where’s all this horrible waste coming from?’ Mr Dog cried.
‘I don’t know,’ said Lulu, swimming forward, ‘but it’s being carried downriver to the beach and the harbour, so the source must still be up ahead— AAGH!’ The seal gave a squeal of pain and went rigid in the water.
‘Lulu? What’s wrong?’ Mr Dog ran and jumped into the river and swam towards her. He could hear a high-pitched electronic whine beneath the surface and flattened his ears. ‘Lulu, what’s that horrible sound? Lulu …?’ He looked all around but he couldn’t see the seal. ‘Lulu,’ he howled, ‘where are you?’