1
The smell of sausages wafted along the line of puppies sitting in a neat row and drifted into Pip’s nostrils. A sausage smothered in thick gravy lay in front of each pup. Saliva dripped from Pip’s mouth and formed a large pool at his feet.
Pip willed himself not to look. He tried not to sniff the rising steam swirling deliciously around his nose. He tried to ignore the sausage that was asking to be eaten.
He glanced at the large bloodhound holding up his stopwatch.
“One minute to go,” barked Major Bones.
One whole minute! thought Pip. It felt like a lifetime.
Pip looked along the line of puppies. No one had given in to the sausages … yet. Maybe they would all earn their Resist Temptation badges. He hoped they would. They had been practicing hard.
They were pupils at the Sausage Dreams Puppy Academy for Working Dogs, where puppies trained for all sorts of important jobs. Some pups wanted to be police dogs. Others wanted to be sheepdogs. There were so many different jobs to choose from.
But Pip knew what he wanted to be. He was a Labrador retriever and wanted to be an assistance dog for a human, just like his mom and dad. His mom was a guide dog for the blind, and his dad was an assistance dog for the deaf. Pip wanted to help people too. He knew that the training was hard and that many dogs didn’t make it through.
Every day, he dreamed of receiving the Paw of Friendship, a badge to show that he was an assistance dog and could help a human of his very own.
But first there were many tests to pass and badges to earn, beginning with the Resist Temptation badge. Pip had to pass if he wanted to be an assistance dog. His mom and dad were watching with the other parents in the academy hall.
Major Bones, one of the teachers, was counting down the time. “Twenty seconds to go … nineteen … eighteen…”
Next to Pip, a little pug puppy licked his lips. His nose twitched. His eyes kept sliding down to look at the sausage.
“Hold on, Roly,” whispered Pip. “Be strong.”
Roly’s tongue lolled out and dangled above the sausage.
“Don’t do it, Roly. Hold your nerve. Not long now,” said Pip.
Roly’s eyes fixed on the sausage. “It’s calling my name,” he whimpered.
“Resist the sausage, Roly! Don’t look at it. You can do it.”
Major Bones blew the whistle. PHHHHREEEEW! “Time’s up. Well done, pups. That was a very difficult test, indeed. We’ll have a break before we do the final temptation test.”
Roly dived on his sausage and slurped it up in a single gulp. “Thank you, Pip,” he said, wiping gravy from his chin. “I don’t know what I would have done without your help.”
“That’s okay,” said Pip. “I wonder what the next test will be.”
Pip was worried. Would it be Ginger the old tomcat, or Peter the mail carrier? Some dogs just couldn’t help themselves when it came to chasing mail carriers. But Pip didn’t mind cats or mail carriers. He never felt like chasing them at all.
There was one temptation, however, that Pip hoped he wouldn’t face in the next test. There was one thing he couldn’t resist. He just had to hope it would be something else.
“When you’re ready, pups,” barked Major Bones.
The pups lined up again as Major Bones brought a small box into the hall. “Inside here, I have something that many of you dream of chasing.”
Too small for a mail carrier, thought Pip. Maybe Ginger was inside the box.
Major Bones reached inside.
Pip closed his eyes. He didn’t want to see what it was. If he didn’t know, he couldn’t chase it.
BOING … BOING … BOING!
Pip’s eyes snapped open. It was the unmistakable sound of a …
TENNIS BALL.
Pip was in the air, leaping for the ball. He snatched it and spun in midair, his legs running as he hit the ground. He raced around the hall with the ball in his teeth, daring anyone to chase him for it.
“PIP!” Major Bones was charging after him.
Pip ran faster, round and round and round. He had the ball, and he wasn’t going to let anyone else get it.
“PIP! Stop at once!”
Pip stopped. He dropped the ball and looked around. He suddenly remembered where he was and what he was supposed to be doing. But it was too late. His mom and dad had their heads in their paws. Everyone else was just staring at him. What had he done?
Major Bones shook his head sadly.
“I’m sorry,” said Pip. “Let me take the test again. Give me a cat or a squirrel instead.”
“You can’t take the test again. I’m sorry, Pip,” said Major Bones. “You have to resist all temptations. What if you had led a blind person into a busy road just because you wanted to play ball on the other side?”
Pip hung his head. Major Bones was right. It didn’t matter if he could resist sausages and cats and mail carriers. If he couldn’t stop himself from joining in a ball game, he’d be no use to anyone.
He couldn’t bring himself to look at his mom and dad again. He turned from them and ran.
He’d messed up in one of the very first tests.
His dreams of being an assistance dog were over before his real training had even begun.
Text copyright © 2016 by Gill Lewis
Illustrations copyright © 2016 by Sarah Horne
