Smudge The Great Escape: 1, #1

By P.G. Ray

This is a book about Smudge, the dog who undertstands the English language. Smudge is imprisoned in an extermination dog pound but vows to escape.and when he does to release all the other dogs as well. The book follows his exploits as he carries out his daring plan. together with his three pals Loopy, Henry and Midge. But will they succeed against all the odds and all the forces against them. ? Even if they do succeed what kind of life lies ahead for them ?

• Language: English
• Publisher: P.G. Ray
• Release date: Sep 26, 2018
• ISBN: 9781386440628

P.G. Ray

P.G. Ray is the pen name for Ray Pearson. Ray is an 80 year retired businessman living in Co. Louth, Ireland. He has written this book because of the sheer delight he has in writing.This is his first book which came about because of conversations with friends and family who always proclaim "that dog knows exactly what I'm saying". Ray can be contacted at "[e-mail]"

Book preview

Principal Characters

‘Smudge’. The dog who understands English and the leader of the group. He is a very intelligent Alsatian and a dedicated dog with a brain almost like a human.

He is a tough character and refuses to be deterred by the many problems he encounters on his way to freeing himself and his mates from an extermination prison.

Henry.  He is Smudge’s best friend and gives him great assistance in the planning and exicution of their daring escape plan He is a Bloodhound and the Old Man of the group as he has vast experience of human beings.

Loopy. Is tall and thin and very wiry because he is an Irish Wolf Hound. What he lacks in intelligence he makes up for with humour and comradeship.

Midge. Is the baby of the group and the youngest and is a Jack Russell terrier. Because of this she is very small and is dwarfed by the rest of the gang, but is also very brave.

Other Characters.

The fearsome Dog Pound Warden.

The Circus owner.

Jane, who is Smudge’s long lost human friend.

The Old Dear who was looking after Smudge as our story begins.

The Fisherman who rescues Midge.

The Staff at the RSPCA who are so kind to Smudge and Loopy.

Eddie, the farmer who decides to take two dogs to his farm to work.

Mary, Eddie’s daughter.

The Staff at the Ambulance centre who befriend Loopy and Midge.

Prologue

One day Jane came to me and cuddled me, and I could see she was upset.

She began talking about her going off to boarding school, and how much she would miss me, and she would be away for many weeks, and who would look after me,?

I of course understood all she was saying, and I too was very upset so I kept licking her face and hands, but this for some reason only made her cry even more.

The following morning she gave me a big hug, and carrying all her school bags she disappeared into their car and her mother drove her away.!

Without Jane around life changed for me once again. Jane’s mother was definitely not fond of animals, and I suspect even less fond of dogs.?  My food got worse, my blanket got dirty, the walks I used to have every day got less and less, and playing in the garden disappeared altogether.!

I was very concerned and naturally felt that I just had to stick it out till Jane came home again, so I made sure I was always on my best behaviour with her Mum.  Sometimes I felt like biting her, after all I was no ordinary dog, I could understand the human language, surely that made me special.?

Anyway, the days went by and Jane’s mother had become increasingly hostile and was always grumbling about me,  and my lovely ‘walks’ had deteriorated into just ‘pushing me outside into the garden’.!

Then one day we had a visitor. When this visitor came inside the house I saw to my horror, written on his teeshirt, the words dog warden.!  I knew what that meant, and it filled me with trepidation, and if it were possible I would have fled immediately

The warden started to try and coax me into going near him, but each time he came closer I growled at him and bared my fangs, so he did not come too close, but then went away to his car and eventually came back wearing some leather clothing, and thick gloves and a big face mask.

He came straight over to where I was sitting and although I growled and barked ferociously he just came and took hold of me and managed to tip me on to my side.

I bit him as hard as I could but it made no difference as he was covered in the leather clothing. and the next thing I felt was a big sting in my behind and all I remember was the sound of Jane’s Mum saying to the man well done, well done, as

I slowly passed into oblivion..!

1. All about Me.

My name is ‘Smudge’. Goodness knows why they decided to give me such a name? What is wrong with ‘Butch’ or ‘Sam’ or ‘Wolf’ or any of the other usual names.?

I have repeatedly listened to their discussions about me, but have never heard them talk about the reason for giving me such a name!  So, it seems like I’m stuck with it.

I tried hard, when they first started calling me, to ignore them, and not respond, in the hope that they might realize that I didn’t like the name, but that often meant loosing out on a nice juicy meal, or not being taken for a walk, so eventually I gave in.

I am very unusual in that I understand the human’s language. How I managed to get this in a mere dog’s head is a great puzzle. Anyway it is a great asset no matter how I got it and later in my story it certainly proves to be very helpful. !

Of course I cannot speak it. If I could speak it whoever would listen to me, and they might even lock me up and say I’m a ‘mad dog’!

!The other ‘bone of contention’ between us was my preference for sleeping on a nice warm cushion on the sitting room.sofa! Why should she object, was I not her ‘pet’?.

Anyway, I got scolded so often about this as well that I eventually had to give it up and go and sleep on the old rotten and stinking carpet which she deemed was fit enough for a dog to sleep on.!  What she didn’t know, because she was at times a bit ‘woolly headed’ was that I spent most of my sleeping hours on the nice soft old chair, which was conveniently left in the same room as my dirty old blanket.! 

Another bone of contention between us was the awful ‘muck’ she used to put into my bowl for me to eat.! It was so bad that no self respecting dog would dream of eating it.! How did I overcome this problem? Well it wasn’t too difficult. I just pushed my nose under the bowl and up ended it and its contents all over the floor! .

All of this actually happened because of the Cat food.! I don’t like cats, they are too bossy and aloof and their claws are too sharp as well.

‘She’ has a cat and feeds it lovely cat food. I was very partial to this food and used to enjoy eating it whenever I could, as cats have a habit of eating in bits and pieces and leaving lots behind.!

She was always complaining about the amount of food the cat was eating, not knowing that it was actually me eating it. I enjoyed this situation for many months but then one day I got caught. She must have been walking in her bare feet as I did not hear here coming and she caught me tucking into the cat food.!

She exploded and was yelling at me lots of three letter words. I slunk away into the garden and hid myself at the back of the shed. Later when I returned she gave out more and said how naughty I was and how much it had cost her and how she blamed the cat, but all the time it was me.!

From then on she placed the cat food up on the window sill where I couldn’t get it, so that was the end of my cat food period, and the return to my ‘nose tipping’ of my own food!

One day I was sitting nice and quiet on my ‘dirty old’ rug, when in popped some of her friends, to have what these humans called a ‘chat’. I usually crept away during these ‘chat’ sessions as I could not stand the silly jokes they were supposed to be laughing at, and these ladies do really get up to some awful gossip about people who they called the ‘unwashed’, and how was I supposed to know what they meant by such descriptions?

Anyway, on this day, I decided to loiter around because one of these old ladies had brought her dog with her.! Not that I was really interested in the dog, as it appeared to be another woman, at least so it seemed as it had all this hair sticking straight up in the air, and bits of it had been tied together in knots, and it looked like one of those African girls who do such things with their hair, but this one even had ribbons tied around its ears, and even on its tail!

I thought it looked a right mess, but I decided I had better be on my best behaviour, and not bite the thing, or I might not get fed or taken for a walk for a whole week as punishment.! 

Anyway, it’s a good job I did stay because their conversation turned to dogs.!  I don’t mean that their conversation was bad, just that they were actually talking about me and my kind and all other kinds of dogs..

Little did I know at the start, how much

[Ray · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I loved it. It was so funny and amusing and the plots and escapades were terrific. I fell for the dogs in the story, they were so life like and interesting. All round a great read and I predict this book will go places.