The Return of a Champion

By George Man

The Return of a Champion by George Man

Sandra and her beloved Australian cattle dog, Blue, have grown up together, facing both tragedy and glory. They'd met in the Australian Outback and had returned to her homeland of Holland for a few years, when they got the surprising news that her father

• Language: English
• Publisher: George Man
• Release date: Feb 8, 2019
• ISBN: 9780648476252

Book preview

Dedication

I dedicate this book to a young Dutch girl called Minthe, who, many years ago, asked me to write a book for her. That’s how it all started: how we met Sandra, and how she received a blue cattle dog pup called Blue

The Story so Far …

The first book, Blue, introduced us to seven-year-old Sandra who lives with her parents in Holland. She has a very nice aunt, Aunt Anne, who lives in a small fishing village on the coast and a girlfriend, Heidi, who lives close to her.

Sandra’s father received an offer to work for five years at Mitchell, an agricultural research station in Outback Australia, where Sandra and her parents relocate for that period. Along with all of the changes and her new lifestyle, she gets her own horse called Lady and an Australian cattle dog pup, whom she calls Blue.

Blue has fierce blue eyes, a silvery grey-blue pelt and grows to a size comparable to a German shepherd. Sandra and Blue have many adventures in Australia. Blue rescues a boy from raging floodwaters and becomes well known when he saves his young mistress from an enraged bull.

The most amazing feat of all came when Blue stayed with Sandra when she was badly injured after a fall from her horse in a remote mountain area. He nearly gave his life protecting her from dingoes—the Australian wild dogs.

Sandra and Blue go through an extremely difficult time when she returns to Holland and is forced to leave her amazing dog behind. Finally, they get back together when Blue, with the help of a Dutch television station, is brought to Holland and is allowed to stay with Sandra.

The second book in the series, Sandra and Blue, takes us through the next two years and their adventures in Europe.

Once again, Blue shows that he is always ready to help and protect anybody who needs him. He pulls his weight in the household, learns to do the shopping and wages the biggest fight of his life against an unknown disease. On top of it all, Blue disappears from a ferry on their return from a family holiday to one of the islands north of Holland. Against all odds, he fights his way back to shore to make the epic journey to find Sandra. During this perilous time, he meets new people and makes some important new friends. With the help of the same Dutch television station, Sandra and Blue finally reunite only forty kilometres from home.

Chapter One

A Contented Blue and A Successful Art Show

The first few weeks after the rigours of his long journey were sheer bliss for Blue. He had missed Sandra so terribly—it had been unbearable for the big dog to even consider not finding her again.

One of the first nights after his homecoming, she woke up to find her friend sitting against the side of her bed with his head pressed against one of her hands. She got up and put her arms around his neck; the large dog gave her a careful lick on one of her ears and uttered a soothing sound, almost like a sigh. After that, life returned to normal, but Sandra’s parents noticed that Blue had become even more protective of his young mistress.

Besides completing her homework, Sandra was very busy painting, as she had been asked to enter a local art show. She entered six watercolours and three oil paintings. The watercolours were mainly landscapes around Mitchell—the research station in Australia. One was of a beautifully coloured Australian parrot, sitting in a flowering bush. Another was of Lady, her beautiful horse she had to leave behind in Australia: it showed the animal at full speed with a sunset sky behind her. The first oil painting showed the French château and its beautiful gardens, which they had visited the previous year. The second oil showed the spectacular fields of heath, with its purple flowers, that they had walked through last Easter. And finally, of course, the image of Blue on top of a dune, looking out to sea. The paintings would be sold by auction—except the one of Blue—Sandra never wanted to sell that one; she had painted it only a couple of days before she almost lost her loyal friend.

The art show was held over three days with the auction at the end. Both Sandra and Blue were invited to the opening cocktail party as well as the auction. Everybody present was full of praise about her paintings and fascinated by the large silver-blue dog who would never leave her side—especially his penetrating blue eyes that watched anyone that came close to her, and the way he tensed when somebody approached quickly.

When selling her paintings, the auctioneer pointed to the beautiful colours and the perfect brushstrokes resulting in a lifelike result. Sandra had not thought about what price her paintings would fetch and was surprised by the amounts. And if she had not expected the sizable amount of money paid for her watercolours, the intensive bidding her two oil paintings attracted were even more of a shock—the landscape with the heath sold for the highest amount of all entries in the show! The man, a Mr Jansen, who bought that painting introduced himself to Sandra and gave her his business card. He mentioned that he had heard that she did not want to sell the painting of Blue and asked if she could paint the same piece again, for him. She said she would think about it, but she did not know if she would be able to achieve the same result.

Chapter Two

Blue Teaches and Travels Cross-Country

Shortly after the art show, Sandra received a phonecall from a committee member of the local kennel club. He explained to her that they ran obedience classes for dogs on Saturday afternoons and asked if she and Blue would like to attend one time, so that Sandra could demonstrate to them a range of commands, explain how to get results and what to look for in their own dog’s behaviour—as they knew about her amazing success with Blue. They were hoping that it would help other dog owners, and maybe their dogs would learn something, too!

That is how it came that, one Saturday afternoon, the two of them attended an obedience class. Sandra took treats to reward Blue and a stick for when he had to fetch something. The members of the obedience class were in awe when they saw the big grey-blue dog complete anything that the young girl requested of him. They were stunned at how fast he was, that Sandra never had to repeat a command