The Witch’s Dog

by

Stephanie Dagg

Published by Stephanie Dagg at Smashwords

Copyright 2011 Stephanie J Dagg

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Chapter 1 A Suitable Pet

Cackling Carol was lonely. After all, she had been living on her own in a cavern for about four hundred years now, with just her broom for company. There had been plenty of bats, toads, spiders, frogs and nasty creepy-crawlies about in that time, but Cackling Carol needed a proper pet.

Most witches have cats, as we all know. The trouble was that Cackling Carol didn’t like cats. In fact, she loathed them. She hated it when her witchy friends asked her round for a cup of toadstool tea, or a spell-swap session, and she had to stroke their cats and be nice to them. All the time she was thinking how much she would like to put the cats in her cauldron!

So what was Cackling Carol to do? She really wanted a pet – but not a cat. She decided she must find out if there were any other sorts of animal she could have. She went over to her huge, creaky bookcase. She browsed for a moment, and then pulled down a big, dusty book from the top shelf, brushed the cobwebs off the cover and opened it. She turned a few pages until she came across a section on animals.

“Let’s see,” she said to herself as she read down the page. Ideally she was looking for an animal that hated cats as much as she did! “Aardvarks ... antelopes ... no, no good. Cougars ... dinosaurs. Dinosaurs look good!” She read about them in her book. “Oh, they’re extinct, shame. Now ... dogs. Ahh, dogs!”

Cackling Carol’s book told her that dogs were loyal and affectionate but, best of all, they liked to chase cats!

“Hee, hee, hee!” cackled Cackling Carol delightedly. “A dog it shall be then. Come on, Broom. Off we go to find a dog.” Then a thought struck her. “Oh. I wonder where I can get a dog?”

Broom jumped up from where he was snoozing in a chair and floated gracefully over to Cackling Carol.

“May I make a suggestion?” he asked

“Oh yes please, Broom,” said Cackling Carol. Her broom was very clever.

“Firstly, the best place to get a dog is from a place called a dogs’ home where all the unwanted pet dogs are taken. I’m sure you’ll find a suitable dog there. And secondly, you can’t go by broom. You’ll be very noticeable. It isn’t Halloween yet.”

“Good thinking,” said Cackling Carol. “I’d better turn you into a bicycle then. But first I must take off this cloak and put on my non-witchy outfit. Back in three flicks of a lizard’s tongue!”