At last the weekend of Total and Complete Bliss and Excitement arrived. On the day in question I got up extra-mega-specially early and laid out a celebratory going-to-the-breeder’s breakfast (chocolatey croissants, orange juice and the Elements and Ingredients for the making of hot chocolate).

Molly came round to have breakfast with us. She had told me that there was No-Way Ho-Zay in a million and one years that she was going to let me go to the breeders without some Moral Support from her.

‘We have to keep your mum On Side,’ she whispered when she arrived. ‘If there is even the slightest glimmer of a hint that your mum is going to change her mind, we have to be prepared with lots of helpful tips and facts to keep her focused.’

‘Why are you suddenly so interested in Honey having puppies?’ I said a bit snappily.

‘Of course I’m interested!’ Molly said, looking a bit hurt. ‘Why wouldn’t I be?’

‘I thought that Puppy Power was the best thing since sliced toast and that you didn’t need real dogs who were difficult to wash and had to be taken for real long walks,’ I muttered.

Molly went reddish and almost looked ashamed of herself for a moment. ‘I didn’t say that!’ she protested.

‘Well, you have certainly been vastly more interested in that computer game than in my puppy-related problems,’ I mumbled.

Molly looked at the floor.

‘In fact,’ I went on, Warming to my Theme, ‘I had to give up on you when it came to Masterly Plans, and if it hadn’t been for Frank and the DVD, Mum would never have changed her mind.’

Molly looked up at me in total and utter shock and opened her mouth to protest again. But then she shut it and sighed. ‘I’m sorry,’ she said. ‘You’re right.’

Now it was my turn to look shocked. Molly never said anyone else was right!

‘The thing is,’ she said sheepishly, ‘I’ve sort of been a bit jealous of you lately. I mean, I know we won the Talent Contest together in the end and everything, but Honey is actually really your dog, and you get to have her at your house all the time. I’m not allowed a dog – you know that. That’s why my auntie gave me Puppy Power in the end. Mum apparently told her she thought it would stop me nagging her and Dad for a real dog.’

‘And has it?’ I asked, suddenly feeling really quite guilty. I had been spending so much time feeling sorry for myself that I hadn’t even noticed that my Bestest Friend in the entire universe had been pining after a pooch of her very own.

‘No,’ said Molly simply. ‘I mean, the game is fun and everything, but you can’t cuddle a piece of plastic, can you?’ I giggled a bit when she said this, as it made me think of Molly trying to snuggle up to her computer game or trying to take it out for a walk on the lead and it did seem quite a hilarious image.

We had a celebratory Best Friend hug and I promised to let Molly help in all things puppy-related from now on, and she promised not to go on and on about Puppy Power too much any more. Then Mum came in and we turned our attention to the food and DEMOLISHED it all, which means we gobbled our breakfast right down to the last crumb.

‘By the way, Nick’s coming with us to the breeder’s,’ Mum said as we cleared the table.

‘Hurrah!’ I shouted.

‘Oooh!’ said Molly, clasping her hands and scrunching up her face and shoulders in an all-over-body expression of excitableness. ‘I so can’t wait for Honey to have puppies!’

Mum smiled and said, ‘Well, you’ll have to, young lady! Come on – I think I heard Nick’s car. And be quiet – we don’t want April to break the habit of a lifetime and get up early. She might spot her ex-boyfriend waiting outside, and then we’ll have World War Three on our hands.’

I agreed with Mum. When we had told April the night before that we were going to see a breeder, April had just yawned and said, ‘Do I look interested?’ So hopefully this meant that she would not be getting up any time soon.

We went out with Honey to meet Nick.

‘Hi! All set?’ was all he said.

He didn’t look as excited as I personally thought he should have done, considering how marvellously magnificent it was that we were finally going to the breeder. In fact he looked a bit uncomfortable, like he had just smelt a pongy whiff or something. And he kept checking over his shoulder.

We were going in Nick’s car as he had met the breeder before and knew the way to his house.

Honey was going to have to sit in the back with me and Molly, as Nick did not have a very big car. She wasn’t very keen on that idea.

‘You are still a bouncy girl, aren’t you?’ said Nick, turning round and rubbing her head. ‘Poor old Honey – you don’t know what’s about to hit you, do you? You won’t be bouncing about like this for a while.’

‘What do you mean?’ I asked.

‘Being pregnant is quite tiring for the mum, you know,’ Nick explained, starting the engine.

‘How come?’ Molly asked.

Nick smiled. ‘Honey’s body will have to work hard to give her puppies all the nutrients they need while they are growing. She’ll be very sleepy and you’ll need to give her lots of TLC.’

I wondered what TLC was and hoped it wasn’t a very expensive medicine. Mum would freak if she thought we’d have to spend a lot of money.

Mum sighed and said to Nick, ‘You know, sometimes I wonder how Honey will be as a mum. I mean, she’s still a puppy herself really. What is she going to be like when she’s got six or eight babies to look after?’

‘Don’t worry. Honey will know what to do,’ Nick said.

‘What other things will happen to Honey once she’s expecting?’ I asked.

‘Well, she might go off her food a bit,’ Nick said.

Molly started rummaging in her pink bag with the purple flowers on, which she liked to carry around with her at that time.

‘Hold on a sec,’ she said. ‘I’ve brought a new notebook along so that we can keep track of all the things we need to know. Ah, there we are – go on, Nick. Give us some veterinary-type details of the Puppy Producing Procedure.’

Nick laughed. ‘You are organized,’ he said. ‘Actually, it’s a good idea to keep a notebook or a diary of Honey’s pregnancy. OK – so what else do you want to know?’

‘Erm, how long do we have to wait for the pups to be born?’ I asked.

‘Well,’ said Nick, ‘once Honey has mated you need to count ahead nine weeks, or sixty-four days actually, to get the date that the pups will hopefully be born.’

As Molly scribbled away I was busily counting ahead on my fingers, which was quite difficult as I kept losing track, but eventually I said, ‘Oh my heavens above! I have just worked out that if everything goes according to plan, Honey will have her pups—’

‘—around Christmas time,’ Mum finished. ‘Well, that would make it a special holiday wouldn’t it?’

Molly had stopped scribbling and gone unusually quiet. I wondered if she was already making a Masterly Plan to ask her Mum for an extra-special Christmas present.

Honey sighed a loud and grunty doggy-sigh and flopped on the floor of the car.

‘Hang on a minute,’ said Mum. ‘I don’t want to be boring, but we’re jumping the gun a bit here, aren’t we? There’s no telling when – or if – Honey will become pregnant. Let’s just see how today goes.’

I must admit I was not that chuffed about the breeder when we first saw him. He looked a bit like a grown-up version of Mr Frank Stink-i-verse Gritter – in other words, dirty and grimy. And his house was rather messy too, but it was so full of dogs that luckily I got distractivated quite quickly from the pongs.

Even though the breeder was a man of few words, Nick was super-brilliant at asking him all the right questions. Molly scribbled away the whole time, taking notes on everything. Mum found the whole thing RIVETING, which means that she was glued to every word – in other words, fascinated.

At long last the grown-ups said we could take Honey to see the kennels.

There were four very huge outdoor kennels, which were really just like cages, and only two of them had dogs in.

‘The stud dogs are round the back, out of the way – we’ll see them in a mo. The mothers and the new litters are here where it’s quieter,’ Nick said, pointing at the nearest cages. ‘They have to stay enclosed,’ he went on. ‘Pups aren’t allowed out until they’ve been weaned and had all their jabs.’

I felt actually very proud as I knew all this already. ‘Yes, I remember that from when we first had Honey,’ I said. ‘She had to come off her mum’s milk first and be weaned on to real dog food, and then she had injections to stop her getting diseases.’

We went right up to the cage. I could not believe my eyes when I saw how tiny some of the pups were.

‘They are titchical!’ I squealed. ‘How old are those ones?’ I pointed to the kennel on the left, where there was literally a pile of pups heaped one on top of the other, all snoozing next to their mum, who looked totally exhaustified by the whole thing. Honey strained on her lead to get close to the cage.

Nick took Honey’s lead from me. ‘I’ll hold on to Honey so you can take a closer look,’ he said. ‘I tell you what – is it OK if I take her to meet the stud dogs?’

‘Sure,’ I said.

‘Do you want to come with us, Angela?’ Nick asked her. ‘Or do you want to hold one of the new pups?’

Mum’s face said the answer before her mouth did. She was fixated on the heap of squidgy puppies and had got that crumply, soppy look that she had when she first saw Honey.

‘I guess that’s a done deal then!’ Nick laughed. ‘Honey, you’re coming with me.’

Mum, Molly and I each picked up a puppy. The breeder had said they were only two weeks’ old, so they were exactly the same age as Honey had been the first time I had laid my eyes on her. ‘Can you believe that Honey was once this size?’ I asked Mum.

She shook her head but didn’t say anything. Oh no! She had gone all teary again!

‘You babies grow up so quickly,’ she said quietly as she stroked the teeny creature in her hand.

I looked at Molly and rolled my eyes, but Molly hissed, ‘Don’t say anything! She is soooo On Side! She couldn’t be more On Side – unless you waved a red card at her and blew a whistle in her face.’

What on earth was Molly talking about red cards and whistles for? I wondered vaguely. However, she was right about one thing: there was no chance Mum would say ‘no’ now.

She was hooked.