Jack blinks. ‘I…I… just came to check on Scraps, I mean, the puppy,’ he says. ‘I must have fallen asleep!’

Jack’s dad shakes his head and chuckles. ‘You’d better go and get dressed before Mum sees you.’

The puppy jumps up and down. Jack picks him up and gives him a cuddle. ‘I’ll come back when I’m dressed,’ he says.

‘Then we’ll go and visit Alf,’ Jack’s dad says. ‘To see if he knows who the puppy belongs to.’

After breakfast, Jack and his dad walk to Alf ’s corner shop. Jack carries the puppy in his arms. When they open the shop door, a bell jingles. Alf comes out of a room at the back.

‘Oh, there you are, you little scamp!’ Alf says when he sees the puppy. ‘I was wondering where you’d got to!’

Jack gasps. ‘You mean he’s your puppy?’

‘Yep,’ says Alf. ‘Thanks for bringing him back.’

He holds out his hands towards the puppy.

Jack looks down at the puppy in his arms. He can’t believe Scraps belongs to Alf. Already he feels like Jack’s puppy.

‘Goodbye, Scraps,’ Jack whispers sadly.

The puppy licks Jack’s cheek. Jack hands the puppy to Alf.

Now Jack just wants to leave the shop as quickly as he can. Tears sting his eyes.

Alf tucks the puppy under one arm and sighs. ‘You don’t know anyone who’d like a puppy, do you? Come look at this!’

Alf pushes open the door to the back room.

There, lying on a rug, is a big grey dog. Rolling all around her are one, two, three, four little puppies!

‘What on earth am I going to do with five puppies?’ Alf says.

Jack feels his heart begin to beat wildly. He looks up at his dad, full of hope.

‘Well, I can think of a home for one of those little pups,’ Jack’s dad says. ‘What do you reckon, Jack?’

‘Oh yes, thank you, Dad!’ Jack says, hugging him tightly.

Scraps yaps happily.

‘But no more sleeping in the laundry, OK?’ his dad adds.

Jack grins and shakes his head. He feels like the luckiest boy alive.