HI! I’m Raven, an English pointer and Belle has invited me to share some of my stories with you. I live in a tribe of pointers – four of us – but I’m the only girl….

My person is eating something that smells heavy-sweet. I taste it in the air from my place on the couch. It smells like that brown-sand stuff she puts in her hot bowl in the morning. I’m drooling.

She wipes crumbs; makes lip-smack noises. I watch for any fallen pieces – drat – nothing! As she turns to look out the kitchen window, I see her hands just hang loose, not bunched. Those hands tell me a lot.

What is that whipping sound? Oh – that’s my tail…I swear it’s got a life of its own. There it goes again – I wonder what – AHA – she is rooting around in that marvellous black sack (my second favourite thing – next to the huge, cold, food-filled box.) Sure enough I hear jingly sounds. And she tugs out the dangly thing that means CAR-RIDE! I’m on my feet, wriggling. First Dog Chey blinks and lifts his head. It takes a lot more then it used to to wake him. The other two boys leap up, eyes bright, tails beating the air. My front feet are dancing but I WAIT.

I know about false alarms.

She turns to face us now. Her eyes are wide and slow-blinking. Her mouth pulls back, showing teeth. A good face! I run down the stairs, thinking Sniff and Run – Run and Sniff – the best things a dog can do. But RUN most of all! She doesn’t call me THE ROCKET for nothing! Even through the walls, I smell the river with every breath I take.

And I’m first at the door.