The Lost Dog — Year 3 Reading Comprehension Story

Jess found the dog on a Tuesday morning, sitting by the park gate as if it had been waiting for someone who never came.

It was a small dog, brown and white, with one ear that stood up straight and one that flopped over. It had no collar. It looked at Jess with eyes the colour of dark chocolate and wagged its tail very slowly, just once, as if it didn't want to get its hopes up.

"Hello," said Jess. She crouched down. "Where did you come from?"

The dog pressed its nose against her hand — cold and wet and healthy. Its ribs showed a little beneath its short coat. It hadn't eaten much recently.

Jess looked around. The park was nearly empty. There was nobody looking for a dog.

She sat on a bench and the dog jumped up beside her immediately, as if they had always done this, as if this was simply their bench and their Tuesday morning.

"I can't keep you," Jess told it. "Mum's allergic."

The dog rested its head on her knee.

She stayed for twenty minutes. Then she walked to the park keeper's office and knocked. A woman with a kind face opened the door.

"I found a dog," said Jess. "I don't know whose it is."

The park keeper, whose name was Rosa, made a phone call while Jess waited with the dog. A local dog warden kept a record of lost and found animals. Rosa wrote down a description: small, brown and white, one ear up, one ear down, no collar, male.

Rosa then used a small scanner — no bigger than a television remote — and ran it along the back of the dog's neck. The scanner beeped. The dog was microchipped. Rosa typed the number into her computer.

"His name's Biscuit. Owner's a Mrs Patel on Crane Street."

Biscuit's tail went into a full wag.

"He knows his name," said Jess.

Mrs Patel arrived twenty minutes later. She had been crying. Biscuit leapt from the bench and spun in circles at her feet.

"He got out when the gate blew open in the wind," said Mrs Patel. "He's been missing all night." She looked at Jess over the top of Biscuit's head. "Thank you so much."

On the way home, Jess thought about the moment Biscuit heard his name and wagged his tail. She thought about Mrs Patel's face when she arrived. She thought that doing the right thing was sometimes also the best feeling — even when it meant letting something go.