The Bomber Dog (6 page)

Nathan clipped the army-issue chain lead
to Grey's new collar, with its ID tag that had Grey's name on it, and
led Grey, tail wagging, over to the training field.

It was important that the dogs being
assessed were surprised by the different sounds of battle rather than expecting
them. That way their reactions to them would show how they would react on a real
battlefield. Colonel Richardson himself came to oversee Grey's assessment. He
nodded to Nathan that he should start
playing with Grey, and
Nathan threw Grey's ball.

‘Fetch!'

Grey never needed to be asked twice when
it came to his ball. Once he was running after it the colonel signalled to another
soldier who shot a pistol into the air.

Grey looked over at where the loud
‘crack' sound had come from, but then went back to the more important
task of chasing his ball.

It was just the reaction the colonel was
looking for. A dog who kept on with what he was supposed to be doing even when there
was gunfire going on around him.

‘Good dog,' he muttered, as
he put a tick in the first box on his sheet. If Grey had been frightened by the loud
noise he'd have had to put a cross. It would have been fine, however, if Grey
had been startled by the noise, just so long as he had recovered quickly and gone
back to the task he'd been asked to do.

He nodded to Nathan
and Nathan threw the ball for Grey again, and again Grey raced after it.

The colonel signalled to the soldier
who'd fired the pistol. This time the soldier made a lot more noise with a
pistol, firecrackers and finally a grenade.

Grey looked over at all the commotion,
but it didn't stop him picking up the ball and bringing it back to Nathan.

The sounds of guns, bombs, air-raid
sirens and the clattering of bells as ambulances and fire engines rushed to the
scenes of bombings had been everyday occurrences in Dover. Grey accepted the sounds
of violence that the soldier made as just the way things were.

He dropped the ball at Nathan's
feet and wagged his tail. Nathan threw the ball again.

The colonel put a second tick on
Grey's chart and signed and dated it at the bottom.

Grey had passed the initial assessment
and
was now officially part of the War Dog Training School.
He'd been able to concentrate while under fire and everything else he needed
to learn they could work on. Nathan was over the moon and kept stroking Grey.

Grey wagged his tail because he liked
Nathan stroking him. But then he looked pointedly at the ball. He wanted to
play!

Over the next week Grey's love of
his ball also helped with his scent and tracking training.

Nathan hid the ball all round the camp
and then got Grey to seek it out. At first Nathan made finding the ball really easy
and gave Grey lots of praise whenever he did find it. But Grey so obviously liked
playing hide-and-seek and was so excited when he found the ball that soon Nathan was
making it harder and harder to find, until Grey had to look round the whole camp for
it. The game was Grey's first step in learning to track.

As well as playing
hide and seek with the ball, Grey also learnt how to find people.

‘Stay,' Nathan told him, and
Grey waited with Michael or one of the other handlers while Nathan went and hid.

A few minutes later Grey was given the
command: ‘Find him!' and released.

It always took him less time to find
Nathan than it had taken Nathan to hide. However well he thought he'd hidden,
Grey's nose would sniff him out. Whenever he was successful Nathan was full of
praise and hugs and treats, as Grey stood there wagging his tail, as pleased as
punch with himself. Then they'd usually have a game of ball.

‘One well-trained dog is as
effective as twenty human trackers,' the colonel said. ‘A dog's
nose can pick up a human scent from five hundred yards away, if the conditions are
right. On a good day, with the wind in the right direction, maybe even
further.'

The colonel was very
pleased with Grey's progress, and had discussed him with the commander of the
paratroop regiment.

It was only a small step from being a
tracker dog to taking messages between people. Grey obediently took messages from
Nathan to Michael. But he was always much quicker when Michael wanted him to take a
message to Nathan. Then he would race to find his friend.

Nathan often used ball play as a reward
for Grey at the end of a good day's work. As Grey always worked hard and did
his best, this meant that almost every day, rain or shine, would end with a game of
ball. So much so that Grey came to expect it and was very disappointed and whined,
giving Nathan pitiful looks, if it didn't happen.

‘But it's raining!'
Nathan said in response to Grey's reaction at the end of their second week at
War Dog School. Grey clearly didn't
think a little rain
should stop him from playing.

‘And not just raining a
little,' Nathan laughed. The April shower had quickly turned torrential.

Grey barked.

‘No, you don't tell me what
to do,' Nathan said, his face breaking into a grin. ‘It's the
other way round.'

Grey picked up his ball and then dropped
it on the ground and looked up at Nathan. His meaning couldn't have been
clearer.

Nathan sighed. ‘OK, OK,' he
said. ‘But if I catch a cold from playing ball in the rain I'm not going
to be happy.' He was glad the colonel wasn't around to see this.
He'd have told him he had to be firmer with the dog.

Colonel Richardson continued to keep a
close eye on Grey over the following week but he'd really already made his
decision.

As soon as Nathan saw the colonel
heading
towards him and Grey on the training field he quickly
jumped to attention.

‘At ease, soldier,' Colonel
Richardson said.

Grey ran in front of Nathan and then
stopped, looked at him and then looked pointedly at his pocket.

‘He wants his ball,' Nathan
said, and he pulled the ball from his pocket and threw it for Grey to chase after.
Grey raced after it and then ran back and dropped it at Nathan's feet.

‘You've heard of the
parachute regiment?' the colonel asked Nathan.

‘Yes, sir.'

‘And no doubt you've heard
the rumour that there are going to be paradogs?'

Nathan smiled. ‘Yes,
sir.'

That myth was always going around the
War Dog Training School, but Nathan didn't believe it for a minute.

He picked up Grey's ball and threw
it for him.

‘I'd like
you and Grey to give it a try.'

Nathan's eyes opened wide. So the
paradog myth was true.

‘It'll be dangerous and
it's voluntary. Would you be up for it?' the colonel asked.

Nathan thought if any dog could
parachute out of a plane, it would be Grey. He wasn't so sure about himself,
though – not sure at all.

The colonel was staring at him, waiting
for an answer.

‘Soldier?'

‘Yes, sir,' Nathan said, and
with those two words he committed himself and Grey to jumping out of a plane
hundreds of feet up in the sky, when in the past he'd always thought twice
about riding on the big wheel at a fair.

‘Good, you're to report to
the paratroop regiment in Manchester in two days' time.'

‘Yes, sir.'

‘Till then you're on
leave.'

‘Yes, sir,' Nathan said,
smartly. ‘Only …'

‘Yes,
soldier?'

‘I haven't finished my basic
training yet.'

In fact, so far there had been very
little basic training and lots of dog-handling training.

‘Don't worry – you'll
get enough of that and more in the parachute regiment,' the colonel said
ruefully.

‘Yes, sir,' Nathan said.

‘Make the most of your
leave,' the colonel told him.

Nathan took a deep breath.
‘I'd like to visit my sister during my leave, sir. She's been
evacuated to my grandparents' farm in Kent. I wondered if …' Nathan
hesitated. He was sure he wouldn't be allowed to take Grey away from the War
Dog Training School.

‘Spit it out, man!'

‘Would it be all right for me to
take Grey with me?'

Lieutenant Colonel Richardson looked
thoughtful. ‘I don't see why not,' he said.
‘Don't lose him though. He's too valuable to us.'

‘No, sir.'

He was valuable to Nathan too.

‘A farm visit could be a useful
exercise for him. Don't want him being more terrified of unexpected cattle
than Germans when he goes on a reconnaissance mission, do we? Permission
granted.'

Nathan couldn't help grinning.
‘Thank you, sir.'

Of course Grey might refuse to jump out
of a plane, Nathan told himself, as he headed back to the kennels with Grey, and
that would be the end of that. He didn't let himself think that he himself
might be the one who refused to jump.

Grey's tail went from wagging to
hanging down low when they passed through the doors of Potters Bar train
station.

‘It's all right,'
Nathan said as he stroked the big dog's head.

Grey had learnt so much in the short
time they'd been together. Nathan was very proud of him.

‘Fine-looking dog,' a man
commented as he went past.

No one would call Grey skinny any more,
but he was still lean, and very fit.

‘There's
something almost regal about him,' said one woman with a pheasant feather in
her hat.

Nathan looked down at Grey and thought
that he did look almost regal, and then realized that the dog now had both ears
standing straight up. He didn't know if it was the daily ear-massaging or the
regular good food he'd been eating, but Grey's ears were both doing what
they were supposed to. Now he looked like an adult German Shepherd. Although Nathan
did miss his quirky one-ear-up-and-one-ear-down look a little.

‘This way,' Nathan said to
Grey when their train arrived. Grey went with him but baulked at the carriage steps.
Nathan bent down to help him, but to Nathan's surprise Grey jumped up them
instead.

He shook as the whistle blew and the
train set off, but soon after that he settled and sat on the floor at Nathan's
feet and leant against him.

Nathan noticed that no
one wanted to sit near them; he knew many people were frightened of dogs, especially
big dogs, and especially Alsatians, as they called them. Nathan stroked Grey's
head. In his experience the little dogs were often more of a problem than the big
dogs were.

‘You wouldn't hurt a fly,
would you?' he said.

Penny came running and waving along the
platform as soon as she saw Nathan and Grey coming down the carriage steps.

'We've been waiting and
waiting for you,' she said as she threw her arms around Grey, who wagged his
tail. He was glad to be finally standing on ground that wasn't moving.

‘We got here early,'
Nathan's grandfather said as he hugged Nathan and patted his back.
‘
One of us
–' he nodded at Penny –
‘kept looking
at the clock and worrying about your arrival so much that it was easier just to come
to the station.'

‘I was so
excited I could hardly sleep,' Penny said as she swapped places to hug Nathan
while her grandfather said hello to Grey.

‘Good-looking dog,' their
grandfather said as Grey nuzzled his head into him.

‘Best-looking dog in the whole
world,' said Penny.

‘He's going to be a
parachute dog,' Nathan told them.

‘A parachute dog!' Penny
gasped. ‘But dogs can't do that.'

‘Yes, they can,' Nathan told
her. ‘A dog was the first animal to do a parachute jump back in the
1700s.'

‘But he doesn't have any
hands,' Penny said, practically. ‘How's he going to get the
parachute off? He can't run around for the rest of the war with a parachute
billowing out behind him.' She crouched down and cuddled Grey's furry
head.

‘No, I'll be parachute
jumping too, so I can
release the parachute for him,' Nathan
informed them.

‘But Nathan,' his
grandfather frowned. ‘Do you really think that's
wise … ?'

‘How are you going to jump out of
a plane when you're too scared even to climb to the top of the tree at the
back of the house?' Penny asked him.

Nathan gritted his teeth.
‘I'll manage,' he said. Although he certainly wasn't looking
forward to it one bit.

‘Many men have to do things in war
they'd never normally dream of doing in peacetime,' Penny's
grandfather told her her, and Nathan nodded, as they all climbed into the farm
truck.

‘Up, Grey.'

Grey jumped into the truck and lay down
on the floor for the short journey.

‘Can we show Grey my
chickens?' Penny asked, when they got to the farm.

‘OK,' Nathan said.
‘But we'll have to watch
him carefully. I don't
know if he's ever met a chicken before and we don't want him chasing
them and making scrambled eggs.'

Penny laughed. ‘My chickens
won't be frightened,' she said. ‘Come on, Grey.'

Nathan followed Penny and his dog over
to the chicken run. He was glad the two of them were getting on so well. Maybe Grey
had once had a family of his own before he ended up as a stray. He supposed
he'd never know where Grey had come from, or exactly what his life had been
like, before the war.

As soon as Grey saw the clucking
chickens he crouched down low and for an anxious moment Nathan was worried
he'd pounce and kill one of them. But then one of the chickens squawked and
flapped towards him and Grey turned tail and ran a few feet away.

‘It looks like your chickens are
safe,' Nathan said as Penny laughed.

‘Come on, Grey, they won't
hurt you,' Penny
told the dog. But Grey wasn't sure
about that and he stayed where he was.

‘Grey, come!' Nathan
said.

And Grey came to him, his tail between
his legs, his eyes looking warily at the feathered creatures. He stopped at
Nathan's side and looked round his legs at the chickens, who were much more
interested in pecking at the corn Penny scattered for them than in a scaredy dog.
Grey spat out the bit of the chicken's corn he'd managed to lick up.

‘Let's show him
Toffee,' Penny suggested, taking Nathan's hand.

‘All right,' Nathan said,
although if Grey was scared of chickens he didn't know what he was going to
think of the sweet-natured, but huge, shire horse.

Toffee poked her head out of the top of
the stable door as they headed towards her and whinnied at the sight of Nathan.

Grey had never seen a horse before and
he
wasn't sure about it. It didn't smell like a dog at
all.

Toffee had met plenty of dogs, though,
when she'd been exhibited at country shows. Most of them had been friendly and
a few had been frightened and so not very friendly. She put her head down to blow
through her nostrils at Grey and Grey skittered back at first, scared, but then he
came forward to sniff her. Toffee blew at him again, her soft breath ruffling his
fur.

‘Hello, beautiful,' Nathan
said as he stroked her and pressed his face into Toffee's neck.

Grey, perhaps responding to the obvious
love between Nathan and the horse, wagged his tail. If Nathan wasn't
frightened of the strange beast, then neither was he.

When Nathan brought Toffee out of the
stable, Grey retreated nervously, but he soon came back as Nathan's voice
soothed him.

‘It's OK, Grey.'

Grey was very surprised when Nathan
swung
himself up on the horse's back. He stayed close to
Penny as the Toffee clopped her way round the farmyard.

After his ride, Nathan's gran came
hurrying over to envelop him in a hug as they approached the farmhouse. Grey sniffed
the air. Nathan's grandmother had been slow-roasting a goose in her oven range
since seven o'clock that morning.

Grey had never eaten goose before but
the scent of it now made him drool.

‘Here you are,' Mrs Dawson
said, and she put a plate of roast goose down on the floor for Grey as the rest of
the family took their places at the table.

Grey's dish was empty and licked
clean almost as soon as Nathan's gran had put it down.

After lunch, Grey got to chase his ball
across the farmyard.

‘Be careful of my
daffodils,' Nathan's gran called out.

‘Watch
this,' Nathan said to Penny, and he hid Grey's ball in the shed.

‘Find it,' Nathan told him,
and Grey went into the shed, tail wagging hard, to look for it. He emerged
triumphant, with the ball in his mouth, a few moments later.

‘He's better at hide and
seek than me,' Penny laughed.

‘Better than me too,' Nathan
grinned.

After dinner, when Grey had goose again,
they played blind man's buff and musical chairs, and sang along to
‘Mairzy Doats' by the Merry Macs on the radio.

‘Mairzy doats and dozy doats and liddle
lamzy divey

A kiddley divey too, wouldn't
you?'

Grey looked up at Nathan and then he
looked over at Penny as their voices rang out.

‘If the words sound queer
and funny to your ear, a little bit jumbled and jivey,

Sing: Mares eat oats and does eat oats and little
lambs eat ivy …'

Grey wasn't used to singing and he
tried to join in too, which made everyone laugh. But then Nathan's gran
started crying and Grey went over to her.

‘If only this rotten war could be
over,' she said as she mopped up her tears. Grey laid his head on her lap and
looked up at her.

‘You take care of my
grandson,' she told Grey. ‘Parachute jumping of all things.' She
managed a watery smile and stood up. ‘Right, then, who's ready for some
carrot cake? I got the recipe from the
Home Front Cookery Advice
Leaflet
.'

Grey gobbled down a slice of carrot cake
– but for him it couldn't rival the goose he'd had for lunch and dinner.
Nothing could top that.

Nathan was still
asleep when Grey padded out of the room and down the hall the next morning.

‘Grey, Grey – come here!'
Penny called, as soon as she saw his nose peeping round her bedroom door. She patted
her bed cover. ‘Grey – come.'

Grey went over to her bed and hopped up
on to it, whereupon he was immediately enveloped in a hug and then kissed on the top
of his furry head.

‘Come and help me feed my
chickens.'

Down at the chicken coop Penny threw
corn to the birds and Grey tried another bit of corn but spat it out again. Once
Penny had collected the eggs, her grandmother made delicious scrambled eggs for them
all. Much better. Grey had his with the last of the goose leftovers.

‘Don't want you getting
hungry on your journey to the parachute regiment,' she said.

‘He's a truly good
dog,' Nathan's grandfather
said, on their way to the
train station. ‘You've trained him well.' Grey wagged his
tail.

Nathan shook his head. ‘Mostly
he's trained himself. I just steered him a bit. He's a smart
dog.'

Grey saw the train drawing into the
station and his tail stopped wagging.

‘I'm proud of you,
Nathan,' Mr Dawson said as he opened the carriage door for Nathan and Grey to
climb on board. This time Grey didn't make a fuss. ‘Just make sure you
bring that dog and yourself home safe and well.'

Nathan settled Grey as the train set off
for Manchester and RAF Ringway. He looked out of the window until he couldn't
see his grandfather standing on the platform any more.