[2/4]
The puppy loved the tall creature that she was bought for.
Sadie was eager to be praised.
She was eager to show just how amazing she was.
She listened to everything Alyssa told her to do.
Sometimes she got it right.
Sometimes she got it wrong.
She preferred when she got it right because Alyssa's smile was so pretty as she hand fed Sadie treats and patted her head.
Alyssa was a stern teacher but Sadie didn't mind.
Her tail wagged and her tongue rolled out of her mouth whenever Alyssa's voice would go high pitched when she praised her.
Alyssa never liked the fluffy abomination that her sister bought her as a house warming gift.
Sadie barked when she came home.
Sadie barked when she heard the neighbours arrive back home.
Sadie barked when the mailman arrived with Alyssa's letters.
Sadie barked when a few of the village youths walked past their front door as they stumbled home from a party.
Alyssa threw a pillow in her general direction one night when the barking became too much.
The puppy - shameless Sadie - just curled up on the pillow and continued barking into the early hours of the morning.
She scratched at the door when she wanted to be let out - ruining the wood work - and Alyssa constantly had to seal the cracks again.
Sadie ran through the garden like her arse was on fire - scaring off any birds that had been standing on the grass.
She trotted back to Alyssa after that, head held high as she did another loop of the garden.
Alyssa rewarded her with a few pats on the head and Sadie flopped over onto her back for tummy rubs.
Alyssa tolerated the fluffy abomination that her sister bought her as a house warming gift.
The puppy loved the tall creature that she was bought for.
Sadie liked their garden.
She like the sights and the smells and how big it was.
She could run to the end of it and still see Alyssa sitting at the garden table.
It was their space and Sadie loved it.
What she didn't love though, were the flying things that thought that it was okay to land there.
She chased off each and every one of them - barking and snarling at them to make sure that they knew that they weren't welcome.
Every time, she returned to Alyssa's side.
Alyssa's hand would fall from the table - without her knowledge - and she would use her fingers to rub the space between Sadie's ears.
Alyssa tolerated the fluffy abomination that her sister bought her as a house warming gift.
She's sitting in the kitchen with her best friend, Ben Bitdiddle, when Sadie barked at the door.
She flashed her friend an apologetic look as she got up to check what was going on.
She opened the front door to see what all of the commotion was about.
Sadie was off like a shot.
She ran down the front garden until she got to the gate.
There was a dog on the other side of it.
They touched noses between the gaps in the gate.
"Cressida!"
Alyssa's head shot upwards and she blushed at what she saw.
There was a girl standing by her gate, a moving box in her hand.
Her dog - which seemed much better trained than Sadie was - hurried to her side.
It wasn't even wearing a leash and it obeyed the girl's commands without question.
Sadie whined as her new friend disappeared.
"I'm sorry about Cres," The girl said," She's a bit excitable."
"It is okay," Alyssa replied hurriedly," Sadie is the same."
"May I?"
It took Alyssa a moment to realise that the girl was asking if she could touch Sadie before she quickly nodded.
The girl put her box on the ground and reached through the gate.
Sadie rolled her tongue out of her mouth and accept the ear rubs.
"Eva?"
Ben had followed them out.
The girl - Eva - straightened up.
"Oh," She said," Hey, Ben. I didn't realise that you would be here."
Ben just grinned. "Is this the new place that you were talking about?"
"Yeah. I'm just next door. Cres got a bit over excited when she smelt another dog. She's not normally this bad."
If this was how her dog was when she was bad then Alyssa had no idea what Sadie's attitude would be called.
"Ah, no problem," Ben waved away the problem with a flick of his hand.
He jumped over Alyssa's gate with a grin and knelt on the floor.
Cressida didn't go anywhere near him, looking up at Eva in question.
"Cressida," She said," Greet."
Cressida moved towards him, sniffing his fingers before licking them.
Eva turned to Alyssa.
"I'm Eva. Cres and I will be moving in next door."
"Alyssa," She replied," And this is Sadie."
Eva nodded once.
"A pleasure to meet you."