Gus looked round the living room, wondering how he could get out. The door was closed, but one of the windows was open just a little. Gus knew he wasn’t allowed on the furniture, but this was an emergency. He leapt onto the big armchair near the window and scrambled up its back and onto the windowsill.
Gus nudged the window open a little wider with his nose and looked out. It seemed an awfully long way down and he felt rather nervous about jumping. But then Gus remembered Holly’s sad face. He took a deep breath, jumped . . .
. . . and landed safely in the soft earth of the flowerbed beneath the window.
“Yes!” he barked proudly. “I did it!”
Gus picked himself up and trotted down the garden path. There was no time to waste. He had to get to Mrs Wilson’s house and find the ring before something awful happened to him.
“Hey, Gus!” Jock was in the Burtons’ back garden, chewing on a large juicy bone. He looked up as Gus raced past. “Do you want a lick? There’s plenty here for two!”
Gus shook his head. “I’m not hungry!” he called, and didn’t stop. He didn’t care if he never saw a bone again, as long as he didn’t have to leave Holly and go back to the Dogs’ Home.
Jock was so surprised he dropped the bone. It rolled into the Burtons’ fish pond, and Jock didn’t even notice. “Gus isn’t hungry?” he barked. “I don’t believe it!”
When Gus reached the gap in the fence leading to Mrs Wilson’s garden he skidded to a halt, panting hard. Then he squeezed through the gap and trotted up the path to the kitchen door, looking carefully around him in case Mrs Wilson was already on her way back home.
But this time the kitchen door was closed. Gus’s heart sank. He should have guessed that Mrs Wilson would lock up her house before she left. But he had to find a way in. He had to.
Keeping a nervous lookout for Lulu, Gus went to investigate the back of the house. Gus wasn’t the only dog in the street who was scared of Lulu. He’d seen the hefty white cat take on dogs before. She sent them running home with their tails between their legs as soon as she lashed out with her razor-sharp claws. But luckily Lulu was nowhere to be seen.
All the windows at the back of the house were closed. Gus ran up and down trying to find a way in, but there was not even a tiny gap he could squeeze through.
Gloomily Gus went back to the kitchen door again. What was he going to do? Somehow he had to get into that house, or he might be back in the Dogs’ Home before he could say “Woof”. And then he’d never see Holly again . . .
Gus whined and stood up on his back legs, putting his front paws on the kitchen door. He pushed at it as hard as he could, but it didn’t move. It was then that Gus noticed something at the bottom of the door. Lulu’s cat flap!
Gus was so excited that he had to stop himself from barking out loud. Eagerly he pushed his nose against the flap. It moved, and Gus stuck his head through into Mrs Wilson’s kitchen. Now for the rest of him . . .
Carefully Gus began to make his way through the hole in the door. He wriggled and he pushed and he just about got his front paws and shoulders inside. It was a very tight fit.
Gus tried to get his other half through the cat flap. He wriggled and he pulled, but he couldn’t move. He tried again and again, but his tummy was too big to get through the hole. He was stuck!
Gus began to feel very frightened. He didn’t know what to do. He couldn’t get in and he couldn’t get out.
Then behind him he heard a silky voice say, “And what do you think you’re doing in my cat flap?”