Lost Treasure Book 1 from the series The Adventures of Millylilly

By Pauline Edmunds

On a lonely dark road in Ireland, drenched and cold from the lashing rain, Nan, a tough Irish grandmother and Jack her companion search frantically for their old dog who has mysteriously disappeared from the back of their campervan on their way to the Airport. Panic grips a tearful Jack like a coiled snake around her throat and she makes a disastrous decision that drives them into a deep ditch hindering their search even further.
A dramatic search continues for Bendog in the following weeks, involving neighbours, radio appeals, local adverts and false leads. The family are devastated as no-one has seen nor heard of him.
They do not give up hope and leave an outside light on, just in case.
3 months later during a family holiday in Spain, out of the blue a stray dog approaches the family as they are leaving for the beach. She is the image of Bendog, although smaller and much younger.
The children, Matt 10 years old and his sister Lucy 8 years old are delighted and comforted by the resemblance to their old Bendog. Lucy believes she can ‘talk dog’ and begins speaking secret messages into the little dog’s ears.
They return from their days outing to find an awesome discovery of lost treasure sitting outside their gate. Great jubilations are abundant as Lucy’s resolve of being able to ‘talk dog’ gather momentum and are ushered quickly into the garden to meet ‘The Nan’ before falling foul to rotten tomatoes etc. hurtling through the warm air from retired neighbors as they cling to their precious siesta time.
A plan is hatched to take our new arrival around the neighbourhood in case she is recognised and reunited with her owner. We drop into the local bar for refreshments and pass the perky peacocks on our route home. Lucy is delighted that no-one has recognised her and we decide to take her to the vets to see if she is micro chipped, which may lead to an address. Information is obtained from the vet and much to the dismay of Lucy an address is located.
Meantime to help cheer Lucy up Nan dresses the dog and Lucy in Spanish costumes and the little furry sweetheart sports a Sombrero. As we parade around the village square, all Spanish eyes smiling as we walk by.
We are just about to leave when we are approached by two boys who tell Nan and I that they know who owns the dog. Lucy, upset at this news insists that we all follow the boys to their friends address, just in case they have wanted the cute pup for themselves.
But, it's true,she really does have a home and we are greeted by the boys’ mother and two sets of twin toddler’s. The mother explains that she can’t manage the dog and all the children and amazingly offers ‘Milly’ to us to look after. Lucy is ecstatic and delighted and re-names her ‘Millylilly’.
Unfortunately their is just one snag. The mother is not sure the father will agree to letting Milly-Lilly go? And she won’t have a definite answer until after the weekend. We agree to return first thing Monday to find out and Lucy whispers into Millylilly’s ears another secret message before jumping back into the campervan.
At 9am on the Monday morning we roooooorrrred up to the door to find the mother, stern faced waiting on the step, and no sign of Milly. Our hearts plummeted and Lucy’s tears started to fall down her face. But...just then the door opened slightly and out ran Millylilly up into the arms of Lucy, followed by the elder boy carrying her bed and a large bag of food.
“But how will we take her back to England?” asked Matt’
“No problem, replied Nan, we'll bring her back in the campervan all the way through Europe”.
But then, that’s another story.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Pauline Edmunds
• Release date: Jan 17, 2015
• ISBN: 9780993167126

Pauline Edmunds

To be perfectly frank, I’d only consider myself as being on a small shelf in the writer’s closet. I've never written before despite the desire at the age of 14 to record the characters I lived amongst in my small mining down in the County of Durham. It all began with a Sunday morning - 38 house paper round and an ‘on the door step fly on the wall’ into the different way people lived. However, I am neither a wannabe great writer nor an avid reader of books, however life, travel and career distracted me from following my secret pleasure. I believe I am an author by fluke on this occasion as my ‘eureka’ moment hit me like a ton of bricks and the idea and subsequent storyline and inspiration flourished so quickly in my mind and would not let go.I am a nomad by desire having lived in 5 different countries since the 1970s.I am a nurse by vocational choice and It seems to me that as I approach retirement age life is running ahead, quicker than I would like and I feel as if I am in a virtual’ race within my own mind. A race to download as much as I can, my memory files, material, stories, words, humour and my experiences into hardcopies, before my auto-filing system collaspes and all is destined for the recesses of my mind, never to be heard or seen again. It is a great plan, not only to create more storage space for further short-term hoarding and gathering of facts, but because some of my life is now ‘out there’, a part of me, my .busy 58 years of life in a i-cloud, floating in space, virtual or otherwise, no need for messages in bottles anymore.I am also so blessed to have two wonderful godchildren. We share our lives together. Our paralleled love of animals inspired my debut novel. I wanted to capture a ‘time’ in our lives that may facilitate a long-lasting positive memory of how love does conquer all in the end as they grow and develop through their own lives. I also want to dedicate Lost Treasure Book 1 to the Animal Rescue agencies who work relentlessly around the world. Thanks to social networking sites more and more animal abuse is being exposed, resulting in more people offering their time and love to address such an issue.Did you know that 9 million households in Britain own a dog? In the USA 75 million households own a dog? I want my book to reach dog lovers and inspire potential others to take home a dog in distress and care for them, the rewards are priceless gifts of love, companionship and solid loyalty.

Book preview

INTRODUCTION

Long, long ago in the land of Stray, it is said in dog history that humans took wild wolf-cubs into their homes and reared them with their own children, with the result that they became easier to handle, made great guard dogs and were accepted as part of the family.

And over tens of thousands of years they became many different kinds of dogs you see today. Some bigger, some smaller, some fatter, some thinner, some long eared, others short eared, some long haired and others short haired.

They have pawed their way across this planet, covering many miles a day in search of shelter, food and water.

CONTENTS

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ............................................... 9 INTRODUCTION ........................................................... 11 CONTENTS ..................................................................... 13 BENDOG RIDES AGAIN ............................................... 19

A VERY EERIE SILENCE ............................................. 23 NAN TELLS A SCARY TALE ....................................... 27

DOG SENSE .................................................................... 31 MISTAKEN IDENTITY ................................................. 35

LOVE AT FIRST SIGHT ................................................ 39

DON’T LEAVE ME ........................................................ 41 LUCY’S HEARTBREAK ............................................... 45 THE CUCKOO’S LAST STAND ................................... 49

MISSING ......................................................................... 53 THE SERPENT TAKES HOLD ...................................... 55

TRAPPED! ....................................................................... 57 MOTHERS DAY SADNESS .......................................... 62

I CAN TALK DOG .......................................................... 64

BENDOG’S GRAN’DOG’THER? .................................. 68 A FAMILY FIESTA ........................................................ 74 ALL CRIED OUT ............................................................ 76

THE HOOLIGAN THAT NEVER GREW UP ............... 80 THE BEST CHRISTMAS PRESENT EVER!................. 82

OUR PLAN ...................................................................... 88 SO FAR SO GOOD.......................................................... 92 PERKY PEACOCKS ....................................................... 96

FANCY DRESS ............................................................. 100

LUCY’S DESPAIR ........................................................ 102 SPANISH EYES ............................................................ 106

GOOD NEWS?? ............................................................. 110 THE OLD GOATY WOMAN ....................................... 112

LILLY GETS A NEW NAME ....................................... 114

I DON’T BELIEVE IT!.................................................. 118 BURIED KNUCKLES AND BONES ........................... 120

THE RISING SUN ......................................................... 122

MILLYLILLY’S PLAN ................................................. 124 ADIOS AMIGOS! .......................................................... 126 EPILOGUE..................................................................... 128 THE AUTHOR ............................................................... 130

Lost Treasure

CHAPTER 1

BENDOG RIDES AGAIN

Did you bring the flask? I called out to Nan, who had disappeared into the back of the van with my bag.

Oh, and the front door key has jammed again, I continued, gritting my teeth and feeling impatient, after realizing it was probably due to my hasty attempt to retrieve it too soon from the lock.

I persevered, wriggling it around from left to right. Oh! we must get another lock as soon as possible, I mumbled to myself and I won’t be asking Laurel and Hardy, that local father and son team, for a hand either! What a right old stink they made of this one!

Qweeeekkty. It was out! At last.

T’ be sure I have, Nan shrieked at the top of her voice, sounding like an early morning corncrake.

‘Dat’s dat done. Lord knows it’s a bad night at’all at’all. We’ll be glad of a hot drink later, said Nan. She sounded out of breath as she reversed her whole self from the back of the van, one leg at a time.

"Typical Irish weather eh? Wet, cold and windy." I moaned, pulling my jacket collar up over my ears.

Growing a set of gills would be more appropriate.

Up boy! I motioned to old Bendog, making sweeping movements with my arms from my thighs to over my head, drawing my hands up towards the back of the door.

For the first time ever, Bendog didn’t seem to want to jump into the back of the van. I noticed he was staring straight at me. I dropped down beside him and his head drooped into my hands. Oh my! I wondered.

Bendog’s ears seemed smaller and thinner amidst the thin straggly hair that covered them and he was definitely hard of hearing these days, unless I stood close to him and yelled:

BENNNNNN!

He would look up sharply with an ok-ok-you-don’t-need- to-shout expression on his face.

As I gently combed each one of his ears with my cold fingers, I noticed his eyes too. Each covered over in pale cloudy rings. In humans they call those cataracts. They were set back into their bony sockets, almost blotting out the dark wolf-like stare of his once bright and lively youth.

I lifted up his face. His teenage snow white fur that lined his nose and mouth was now grey. And his jowls, the folds of which were so many, lay like rolled blankets in the palms of my hands, almost white from old age. They seemed to portray a sad expression.

I gave him a quick kiss on his forehead.

It’s ok, boy! Come on!

As I tried to lift his rear end over the step and into the back, Bendog pushed his body weight against me. So I shoved harder.

Ppppuuuuuusssshhh!. Bendog finally arrived at his destination, his worn cushion on a side seat!

I could hear Nan in the front, by the odd ooooh and aghh echoing out into the dark night from the front cab. She was rarely without a moan or two these days, when a physical task was occurring.

I assumed she was trying to twist herself into a more comfortable position against the stiff material of the seat, before she finally settled down.

CHAPTER 2

A VERY EERIE SILENCE

As I fussed about in the back re-arranging my bag and bits, I could feel Bendog’s eyes watching me - or my shadow - through the cloudy hue. There was an unusual sshhhhhhhhhh silence surrounding myself and Bendog which I just can’t explain. And that I’d never experienced before in his presence. His stare, which I could just make out from the cab light spilling into the back a little, remained fixed on me and his nose twitched slightly.

Despite the wind blowing, a gale outside and the flick a flack fleck of the persistent rain falling against the back window, it was eerie and still inside the van. It was a moment I knew I’d never forget.

I thought I knew most of Bendog’s moods by now, but this was a new one and one that I read to be a I’d rather stay at home.

I’m too old for this game.

I guess he must have meant the game of travelling. After all he had a point. He’d travelled from Ireland to England, through France down to Spain and back so many times in his fourteen and a half years! So that night, perhaps, his show of resistance was marking a new chapter in his retirement.

But I had to return to England again to look after a dear friend’s aged mother whilst her son had a break and the dear lady wouldn’t entertain anyone else looking after her.

Nan and Bendog always dropped me off at the airport. It was our tradition. But I had been concerned about his deteriorating health recently. His hooligan days were well and truly over. He was a veteran now, a category he’d been allotted into when he attended at local dog show. He’d even won a rosette. I was very proud that day!

But these days, he would wobble over to a corner and just stare at the wall. His strong lean legs, now so worn - and arthritic according to the vet - from hours springing frogs and retrieving almost anything that was thrown for him, had taken its