A story by: Richard Sutherland in 2 parts

Part 1:

Tuffy was a terrier. He was a Jack Russell terrier. He had lots of energy and was a loyal and faithful companion to his owner, Hana.

Tuffy was a good dog. Tuffy obeyed all the rules of the house.

And that included never going upstairs and sleeping on the beds up there.

“Never, never, ever do that, Tuffy,” said Hana.

Who? Me? said Tuffy.

Only he didn’t say it, not really, instead he put on a long face and turned his body round and looked over his shoulder at her. That look was worth a thousand words. That look said, how could you even think such a thing?

So Tuffy didn’t go upstairs and sleep on the beds. At least, not most of the time.

But there was a problem every second Monday when the cleaning lady arrived and turned on the vacuum cleaner.

Tuffy hated the vacuum cleaner. He hated the noise it made. He hated the long nozzle. He thought it was a dragon like he’d seen in Hana’s picture books.

He used to bark at it, then once he attacked it and tried to bite the nozzle off. Really, he was very brave.

The cleaning lady hit him on the nose with a feather duster and said “Silly, silly dog.”

So Tuffy had a mouthful of dust and a couple of feathers hanging from his jaws. What else could he do except get out of the way?

He went all the way upstairs, into Hana’s bedroom. He climbed up on her bed. Far away, downstairs, he could hear the vacuum cleaner roaring and snarling.

But Tuffy didn’t care. Soon he was sound asleep.

Bump!

He opened one eye. Something had hit his head. The something was a chestnut.

Bump again!

Another chestnut came through the open window and bounced off his head. This time he opened both eyes.

Then another chestnut flew past and this time there was a lot of chirping and whistling.

It was a squirrel - a little chirpy squirrel. He was in the chestnut tree outside and he was flinging nuts through the window at Tuffy. And while he was doing this he was dancing on a branch and singing:

“Ya boo, na –na- na- na- na !!!!”

Another chestnut whizzed through the window and this time it hit Tuffy’s nose.

That really hurt!

“Yaaa!! Booo!!! Sucks to you!!!!!”

WOOOOOF!!!!

Tuffy gave his loudest bark and in one swift motion leaped right off the bed after that squirrel and ....oh, dear!...right out of the window.

Into the tree.

The tree was a very green place and a very shaky place too. Tuffy sat on a branch. His paws hurt. He was very high up in the tree. He was way, way above the houses and yards. He was way, way above the street. How was he ever going to get out of this tree?

Bump!
The squirrel dropped a last nut on Tuffy’s head and ran off along a narrow branch, jumped into another tree and disappeared.

Two branches up above Tuffy was a family of birds in a nest. There were three little birds squeaking because it was lunchtime and they were hungry. Mrs. Bird flew into the tree with pizza pieces for the brood of babies. She gave Tuffy a very angry look as if to say “What are you doing here? A tree is no place for a dog!”

Tuffy wondered “Where did she get that pizza?” He was feeling hungry and thought he would never see his dog-dish again because he was stuck up this tree.

The little bits of pizza came from two gardeners who were sitting on a wall, next to their pick-up truck, having lunch and drinking coffee.

The gardeners wore floppy hats and T shirts that said PLANT SISTERS. They had long suntanned legs and wore enormous boots. Their truck had PLANT SISTERS written on the sides and on the back and there was a telephone number so folk who needed their gardens dug and plants planted could call them.

The gardeners’ names were Hilda and Brunhilda.

Also their truck had a canvas roof. (Which is very important for this story!)

In the street below a little boy went by with his mother.

“Look, mom there’s a dog in that tree,” said the little boy.

But his mother said, “Don’t be silly. Dogs don’t climb trees!” And they walked on.

A girl went by on roller blades and looked up at Tuffy and shouted “Cool!” and rolled around the corner and away.

Hilda and Brunhilda went into the garden carrying some hose pipe and a spade. Tuffy felt terribly alone.

He began to whine and he thought he might even do a howl, except it took a lot of energy to do a howl and if he howled he might fall off.

But, then coming up the street, was HELP.

It was Professor Potts, the astronomer from the University of Toronto

Some people when they walk look at the ground. Others like to look at people and shop windows and the traffic lights.

But astronomers always look up at the sky when they walk. Even when it’s the middle of the day and there are no stars to be seen.

“I can’t believe my eyes,” said Professor Potts. “It can’t be. But I’m sure there’s a dog in that tree.”

And he pulled a telescope out of his backpack and peered up at Tuffy.

“Help!” said Tuffy.

“Wait a minute, little dog,” cried the Professor. “I’ll go home and get my ladder.”

In a minute, Professor Potts came back with a long ladder.

Thunk!!

The end of the ladder hit a branch just above Tuffy’s head.

Then the professor started to climb up into the tree. The whole tree
shook. Tuffy closed his eyes and clung on to his branch.

Just then a voice spoke to him in one ear, It was a hissy, catty sort of
voice.

It was Natasha, the black cat. She said, “Tuffy, you silly dog, what
are you doing up a tree?”


(You may be wondering how cats and dogs and other animals and
birds talk to each other and why people can’t hear what they are
saying. That’s because people don’t hear very well. Our ears are tuned
too low. So, there you are!)

Natasha said, “Tuffy, you can climb down. It’s easy. Just watch me.”

And she put one long front leg on the branch below. She did the same with the other front leg. And then with a little jump her two back legs were on the branch.

“It’s easy,” said Natasha. “Come on Tuffy!”

So Tuffy stood up and wobbled. He wobbled some more. Then he moved to put one leg on the branch below.

He lost his balance completely.

He was turning over in mid air. He shut his eyes because he didn’t want to see that might happen next.

Whump!

Bounce!

Whump!

(To Be to continued in Part 2)