Щенок Элли, или Долгая дорога домой / Ellie the Homesick Puppy

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Ellie wagged her tail delightedly as Bella fussed over[38 - Глагол fuss означает «суетиться», а в сочетании с over он описывает возню вокруг животного – когда его чешут, гладят, ласкают и говорят, какое оно красивое.] her.

‘I’ll email you loads of photos,’ Megan promised. ‘And you’re coming to stay.[39 - Обычно время Present Continuous (is/are + глагол + ing) описывает продолжительные действия в настоящем времени. Оно также может обозначать личные планы на будущее: Ты приедешь погостить.] Mum and Dad are going to get me a sleepover bed that slides under mine.

Ellie can be half your dog again then.’

‘You’d better record her bark for me[40 - Конструкция somebody’d better do something передаёт мягкую рекомендацию: Тебе следовало бы записать для меня её лай.], too,’ Bella reminded her. ‘I’ll never get out of the house for school in the morning without Ellie barking outside the gate.’

Ellie yawned. Megan and Bella kept fiddling around with those boxes and talking, and no one was taking her for a walk.

She was bored. She slid off the bed and squeezed underneath it. There were always interesting things to play with under there…

* * *

‘I knew it!’ Megan’s dad put his head round the door five minutes later. ‘You two are sitting there chatting, instead of filling boxes.’

‘Sorry!’ Megan and Bella jumped up, and Megan grabbed a pair of trainers and stuffed them quickly into a box, just to look busy.

‘And what’s Ellie doing under there?’ Dad asked, peering round the end of Megan’s bed.

Ellie crept out from under the bed looking rather guilty, with half a roll of brown packing tape attached to her whiskers. It was very chewy, though she didn’t really like the taste, and it seemed to have stuck…

‘Naughty Ellie!’ Megan giggled. ‘Sorry, Dad. I’ll clean her up…’

Dad shook his head. ‘Honestly, after she ate your mum’s shoe yesterday, you’d think she’d have had enough of chewing things[41 - You’d think she’d have had enough of chewing things – оба ’d расшифровываются здесь как would.

Would have had выражает предположение, уже очевидно не реалистичное: Можно было бы подумать, что ей хватило жевания предметов.]. Just keep an eye on her, OK?’

Megan nodded apologetically, and started to peel the tape off Ellie’s muzzle. ‘Silly dog,’ she muttered lovingly, as Ellie squirmed. ‘Yes, I know it’s not nice, but you can’t go round with parcel tape all over you.