Читать книгу Mr Dog and the Rabbit Habit - Ben Fogle, Ben Fogle - Страница 8
Оглавление‘Unhand me, sir!’
Mr Dog barked.
Desperately he turned in a tight circle to break the man’s grip on his neckerchief and then sprang backwards. The man reached out to try to catch him, but Mr Dog ran away as fast as a racehorse – if not slightly faster.
‘I’ll be back!’ Mr Dog panted. ‘Keep your furry chin up, Mother Rabbit!’ He looked over his shoulder and was pleased to see that the man wasn’t following him. Even so, Mr Dog kept running. I can’t take any chances, he thought. If anything happens to me now, I’ll never reach those poor bunnies …
Suddenly, something in the ground sprayed jets of cold water all round, splashing him all over. ‘UGH!’ Mr Dog was soaked in a second, and quickly changed direction, running for shelter in the nearest long grass. ‘Whatever was that?’
As he looked back, Mr Dog saw that the powerful spray had sent some rabbits running away too. He realised he’d seen something like it before in a garden he’d stayed in. ‘Must be a sprinkler that goes off to scare any animal that comes near.’ He licked his nose, still panting for breath. ‘But who would leave such a thing out here?’
Peering through the tall grass, Mr Dog saw a long hosepipe snaking from the water sprinkler. It stretched all the way to the Big New Fence. Across the field, the man from before was walking towards the fence with the trap containing Mother Rabbit in his arms.
A door swung open in the fence and both man and trap went through it.
‘Most mysterious,’ mused Mr Dog. ‘Whoever’s behind the Big New Fence, it seems they really don’t like rabbits. But why?’ He got to his feet. ‘Well, I’ll just have to find out. I wonder if there’s a sneaky hound-shaped back way in …?’
But as Mr Dog began trotting across the field towards the fence – being careful to avoid the water sprinkler – he spotted something that surprised him. (And Mr Dog was surprisingly hard to surprise.)
Sitting by the corner of the fence in the field was a rabbit who looked very different from all the other rabbits he’d ever met in the wild. It was bigger, white and fluffy, with enormous lop ears.
‘That’s an angora rabbit. A pet rabbit!’
Confused, Mr Dog scratched the side of his head with his back leg. Whatever was a pet rabbit doing out here? Perhaps, he thought, it belongs to someone who lives behind the Big New Fence? He jumped up in sudden excitement. ‘If the rabbit’s found a way out, perhaps I can use it as a way in – and reach Mother Rabbit!’ Mr Dog stood up on his back legs and waved his paws.’ Hey, you – white and fluffy! Over here!’
At the sight of Mr Dog, the big white rabbit turned and bolted away.
‘Wait!’ Mr Dog barked. ‘I only want to talk to you!’
He ran after the big rabbit, but by the time he’d reached the corner of the fence it had vanished from sight. Mr Dog knew that there was a rabbit warren full of tunnels in the long grass. Perhaps one of the holes led under the fence to whatever was on the other side?
Or perhaps it might go to Mother Rabbit’s little bunnies! Mr Dog remembered that she didn’t want to lead predators to her tiny ones, and so wouldn’t return until dusk.
‘I shall stand a stick in front of every rabbit hole,’ Mr Dog decided, ‘then I’ll come back at sunset. If the stick’s been knocked aside, I’ll know a mummy bunny has called by. If the stick is still standing there, it means no one’s been in or out. That hole might lead to Mother Rabbit’s home … and have hungry little ones inside!’
Mr Dog fetched several sticks and placed one outside every rabbit hole he could see. Then he left the field and went back to his adopted garden.
When he returned at sundown with a belly full of food – a fitting reward, he felt, for all the balls he’d had to chase and fetch – Mr Dog surveyed the burrows in the gathering dark. All of the sticks he’d placed at the entrance to the rabbit holes had been pushed aside – except one.
Mr Dog felt a pang of sadness at the thought of what he had to tell the little bunnies within. He crossed over to that particular hole in the grass and pushed his head inside. ‘Hello?’ he called. ‘Anyone home?’ His ears were folded down over his head, but still Mr Dog could hear little whimpers and shivering bodies. He blinked, his keen eyes growing accustomed to the dark. ‘I’m terribly sorry, but your mother has had to, er, go away for a bit. I’m here to help you find a new place to stay.’
‘Mama’s gone?’ came a quiet high-pitched voice.
‘Mama’s left us?’ came another.
‘She didn’t want to go.’ Mr Dog’s heart felt as heavy as an elephant. ‘Don’t worry. I’m going to do my very best to get you all back together again.’
A third voice came out of the darkness. ‘But why would a dog help a rabbit?’ It sounded deeper than the first two. ‘Dogs hunt rabbits. Dogs eat rabbits.’
‘Well, Mr Dog doesn’t!’ growled Mr Dog indignantly.
‘Mr Dog? Why should we trust you?’
‘Because D-O-G is the first part of DO GOOD – and that’s this mutt’s motto!’ He grinned. ‘I’m going to pull my head out of your home now, and wait for you all to come and join me.’
Mr Dog carefully wriggled free and checked to make sure that there weren’t any dangers about. There were lots of other rabbits in the fields, some watching him warily, so he gave them his cheeriest smile. He wondered if any would be willing to make space for a couple more bunnies in their burrows.
He waited for several minutes and eventually a very small rabbit, barely bigger than a tennis ball, crawled cautiously from the burrow. She was brown with tiny ears and big black eyes. Behind her came another small brown bunny, a boy, smaller than his sister and sleepier too. A second girl soon followed, the smallest of all. The siblings sat side by side, looking up at Mr Dog.
‘Are you sure you won’t eat us?’ whimpered the tiny girl bunny.
‘Certain,’ said Mr Dog.
The bunny’s big sister turned back to the burrow. ‘It’s all right,’ she squeaked, ‘we haven’t been eaten. You can come out too.’
Another rabbit emerged from behind the brother and sister. Only this one was easily twice their size with white fur, floppy ears and a pink twitching nose.
Mr Dog’s eyes grew wider. ‘That angora rabbit I saw – it’s you!’
