Fly

Welcome

Once the top of the envelope was fully open, my girl reached inside the brown paper and began pulling out a creamy white sheet of paper and a booklet covered in lines, boxes and a few words. I tilted my head; I was perplexed. My girl looked at me with the same expression I imagined my face showed. Then she looked at it again; a smile formed in the corners of her mouth and I soon realised why. My dreams really were going to come true!

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It had been a long journey but finally, after 5 long hours, we had arrived at Riverwood Academy; a prestigious boarding school in the heart of Wales, dedicated to all activities associated with dogs. In other words; heaven! When I was just a pup, my mother had told me of this famous school and I still dreamt of it years later. But the thought of actually being here still seemed surreal.

As we made our way down the winding driveway that lead to the reception and dorms, I couldn't contain my excitement any longer and my happiness started flowing out of me in a series of barks, howls and yips. My girl swiftly spun around in her seat, laughing at my boisterous, excited antics. "I'm sooo excited, buddy! I can't wait either! We just need to register but I'll be back for you in a minute, okay?" I nodded my head in response. "That's my big, brave boy" my girl praised.

I longed to be outside, exploring the new place, meeting the new people and dogs. But here I was, stuck in the car, and although it was nice and cool in the car, I wished to be able to feel the gentle breeze flowing through my newly washed fur. I could see crowds of people all mingling in the courtyard to the left of the car park, and a large park filled with running, happy dogs on my right. I couldn't wait to meet them all!

My girl returned about 5 minutes later with a box which I was unsure of the content. It slipped my mind when she headed toward the boot of the car where I was safely locked up. As soon as the boot opened, the breeze swept through the car and made my body tingle with a nervous anticipation.

Once my lead had been clipped on to my harness, I eagerly jumped down out of the boot and instantaneously started jumping around like a crazy puppy. I was usually very good at containing my excitement but this was just too much for me to handle. I could hear an amused chuckle coming from my girl as I started hopping around and acting like a raging bull in a rodeo, throwing my body up and down, bucking and spinning. This was so much fun!

Eventually, my girl asked me to stop by giving my lead a slight shake. I gazed up at her and she gave me a slight nod before turning around and encouraging me to follow her. I quickly caught up to her and positioned myself on her left hand side, staying as close to her left leg as possible.

We made our way past the courtyard and ended up standing in front of a red clay brick buildings. "This is our dorm, buddy. Let's go find our room". We walked in through the open door, followed by my girl's mother and sister. We reached room 42 and my girl handed me my lead which I held in my teeth. I watched as she said goodbye to her family, giving them both a hug. They put down my girls bags before turning around and leaving the building.

The sound of the lock turning and the door swinging open was a sound I would cherish forever. We walked into the twin room suite. Wait!? Twin room! We were going to share a room? With who I wondered. I hope they're nice!

Anyway, as we entered the room, my lead was unclipped and my harness removed. After having a shake, I trotted off to explore our new room; our new home.

I started off by walking back to the door. Leading off the door was a fairly short corridor. The flooring was made of laminate, light brown wooden floorboards, and the walls were painted a creamy-yellow colour. At the end of the corridor, the room opened up to an airy, open-plan kitchen-diner-living room space.

The kitchen was a modern design with marble work surfaces and the most up-to-date appliances I had ever seen. The surfaces were fixed onto the walls of the room and a mini breakfast bar was placed just slightly away from the kitchen. Next to the breakfast bar were two built in double feeding stations meant for larger sized dogs. Over each one was a golden nameplate, already filled in. The one on the right proudly held my full name : GO RING THE STORMTROOPER and underneath was my kennel name : STORM. I wagged my tail with pride then headed off to see if my room mate had one too. They did. It said : ICE COLD BREEZE followed by : BREEZE.

After satisfying my curiosity in the kitchen area, I proceeded to inspect the rest of the room. The dining area was fairly basic with a solid oak table and four oak chairs. Next to the table was two dog beds. One green and the other red. I continued forward and came to the living room area occupying the back right corner of the room. There were two, three seater black leather sofas and a single black leather chair. Mounted on the wall was a giant flat-screen TV.

Leading off the main room was three rooms. One turned out to be a rather spacious bathroom, complete with bath, separate shower and even a dog bathing area in the corner. The whole bathroom was designed as a 'wet room' in case the dogs went running around after a bath.

The first door on the left was one of the bedrooms. It had a really comfy double bed with a memory foam mattress (I found this out after I sneakily jumped up on the bed and started jumping around on it!) Anyway, in the room was a walk in wardrobe, a study area in one of the corners, a solid oak bedside table with a dog shaped lamp on it and a green dog bed. The other bedroom turned out to be exactly the same but with a red dog bed instead of a green one.

I returned to the main room to see my girl opening one of the kitchen cupboards which revealed a green topped dog food tub. My girl opened one of the bags she brought with us and poured my food into the tub. My stomach gurgled; diner time! I walked toward my girl and back again to my feeding stand. She soon understood what I was trying to say. She reached back into the back and, after a bit of rummaging around, she pulled out my stainless steel food bowl. After measuring out my food, my girl poured it into my bowl and put my bowl in the feeding stand. After giving me the 'OK' command, I tucked into my tea.

Finishing up the last of my biscuits, I licked my lips and went off to find my girl again. I found her sat on the chair in the living room area reading through the information booklet she had been given. I presumed it was a guide to the school. She soon noticed me sitting in front of her and reached over to pet me on the head. "You are aloud on the furniture you know. I know it's a lot different to what we had back home but it says here that they want things to be as normal as possible for the dogs. That means if they go on furniture at home, then they can here too!" I took this as my cue to jump on the nearest sofa and started to roll around on it. "You're a complete nutter, you do know that right!" My girl chuckled. I gave her my best 'that hurt my feelings' face which only caused her to laugh even more. " I'm gonna go get something to eat. You wanna come too boy?" What a stupid question. I was dying to see the place!

I ran off the sofa and went to grab my harness and lead, returning them to the feet of my girl. I waited patiently while she fumbled with the clip on my harness and clipped the lead into the ring on the back. "Care to do the honours Stormies?" I was pretty sure she was referring to opening the door to begin our first adventure on our new campus. Stepping forward with a feeling of delight, I pushed myself on to my back legs and opened the new door for the first time. I took a step outside but found myself bumping into a wet nose. Looking ahead of me I was met with a pair of dazzling coffee brown eyes. I was stuck for what to say but this new dog certainly wasn't. "Hi, nice to meet you! I'm Breeze! Welcome to Riverwood Academy!"