The Day We Found Holly

Hi! My name is Katie, and I want to tell you what happened during my summer holidays!

It was a Saturday afternoon when I was on the beach.

I was with the rest of my family - Mum, Dad, and my little brother Dan.

We were having a blast!

It happened the same afternoon as we played beach cricket. The ball flew and fell into some rocks, so I went to find it. And instead, I found a brand new secret, that I just had to tell!

In amongst the rocks, was a huge surprise!

It looked up at me and straight into my eyes.

There was a dog, safe from the tide in between the rocks, and the cricket ball was down by her side!

I thought 'By Golly!' and yelled to my family, and they all came rushing over. They couldn't believe what they saw!

We carefully helped the dog out, and saw with a shock that it was bleeding!

Dad said, 'There is a vet nearby.' So we wrapped the dog in warm sheets and gave her some treats. 

After Dad drove off with the dog, we didn't feel like playing much anymore.

We decided to go to our beach house and have something to eat.

While we ate food and Dan played with his toys, I decided to come up with the dog's new name.

I was doing nothing but blinking and thinking and eating and drinking. 

Then I thought of the best name and I said 'Golly! Why didn't I think of it before?' 

I decided her new name would be Holly!

When Dad came back later, minus the dog, he said she had a bad scrape, a broken rib, fleas, and a sore hip. On top of that, she had no microchip on her.

Dad said microchips are put on dogs so that if they get lost they can be found by their owner again. But if they don't have a microchip, then they might not be found and claimed.

I asked Dad if maybe we could keep her and give her a good home, but he said 'No, we have to leave her alone for a while.'

Dad said she had to stay in the dog kennel just in case her original owner came and found her.

So I waited for a long time. Then I heard the bad news. I was sitting in a chair on the veranda of the beach house that we were staying in while we were on holiday.

Dad came up the steps and in his hands was a bit of paper.

"I have some bad news for you, honey." He said sadly. "Somebody has claimed Holly as their dog."

"No!" I shouted. I couldn't believe it! I loved Holly and had wanted to keep her, now she was gone!

I ran into my room and stayed there for ages. That's when I thought 'By Golly! If Holly is happy that she found her home and her owner then I should be happy too!' But it was still sad to let her go.