Read Online A Dog's Way Home by Bobbie Pyron - Free Book Online

legs became heavy, all but useless.
    The coyote watched with growing alarm as the current swept Tam away from the island. She raced along the shore, trying to keep her friend in sight. Tam’s head disappeared beneath the water. She yipped and called to her friend. She launched herself and struck out for the fast-moving current.
    A feeling of utter hopelessness gripped the dog. He was tired, so very tired. He no longer knew the way home.
    Then he remembered, almost as if the girl were nearby, calling to him: “Tam! Come here, Tam!” The sheltie drove his forelegs with more strength than he ever imagined having. Somewhere, his girl was calling and he must go to her.
    As Tam’s head broke the surface he was aware of two things: air and the coyote.
    The coyote paddled hard against Tam, turning him upstream. She knew how to angle her body toward the calm water close to shore. She and her brothers had made a game of it in the long, hot days of summer.
    Calling on all her skill and strength, she used her body to brace Tam and steered them slowly to shore. Just asshe felt she could swim no farther, the current calmed to stillness. Their paws touched the sandy bottom. They had made it across, together.
    Tam had barely the strength to pull himself clear of the water’s edge. His small body was battered and bruised. The weight of the water in his coat was almost too much to bear. He staggered, then dragged himself to a patch of dying sunlight. He vomited water and then collapsed.
    The coyote whined and pawed at her friend. She licked the side of his mouth, something she knew he hated. Even his growling and snapping was better than this. But Tam didn’t move. He didn’t open his eyes.
    When the last of the afternoon sun slipped behind the ridge, a sharp wind arose. Tam trembled in the cold.
    With a whimper and a sigh, the coyote coiled her body around his. She did not move when tempting mice rustled in the dry grass along the riverbank. Her ears barely twitched when a fox, then a deer, came down to the water to drink. When cold wind blew across the high mountains all the way from Canada, she wrapped her body tighter around her friend, her true heart beating in time with his.

CHAPTER 15
Abby
    â€œO kay, here’s another one,” Olivia said, squinting at the computer screen. “It’s called Fairhope County Shelter. It’s not all that close to where you lost Tam, but he may have wandered farther by now, so I’ll print it out.”
    â€œThanks, Olivia,” I said. I squeezed closer to her at the school library’s computer station. “That gives me six to start calling, now that the ranger station is closed for the winter.”
    I’d discovered that the other day when I made my daily phone call. I about died. It was my friend Olivia, the smartest kid in all of Harmony Gap, who came up with the idea of calling animal shelters.
    The bell rang. Olivia logged off the computer. “We’lljust work our way south and find more to call.”
    â€œLike Tam,” I said.
    Olivia took off her glasses and began to clean them carefully, always a sure sign she was thinking of how best to say something hard. I braced myself.
    â€œAbby, I don’t want you to get your hopes up too high. I know how much you and Tam loved each other, and he was one smart dog.”
    â€œDon’t talk about him like he’s dead,” I snapped.
    She sighed and put her glasses back on. “All I’m saying is be careful, Abby.”
    I slung my pack on my back and stomped off to music class without a backward glance.
    Â 
    Two nights later, Daddy came up to my room. He picked up my guitar and sat down in the window seat. He strummed the opening notes to “The Water Is Wide,” one of our favorites to sing together.
    â€œYour mama tells me you’re calling animal shelters all over Virginia. Says you’re going to put us in the poorhouse with all those calls.”
    Not