Mr Dog and the Seal Deal. Ben Fogle

      

       Copyright

      First published in Great Britain by

      HarperCollins Children’s Books in 2019

      HarperCollins Children’s Books is a division of HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd,

      HarperCollins Publishers

      1 London Bridge Street

      London SE1 9GF

      The HarperCollins website address is

      www.harpercollins.co.uk

      Text copyright © Ben Fogle 2019

      Illustrations copyright © Nikolas Ilic 2019

      Cover design copyright © HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd 2019

      All rights reserved.

      Ben Fogle and Nikolas Ilic assert the moral right to be identified as the author and illustrator of the work respectively.

      A CIP catalogue record for this title is available from the British Library.

      Conditions of Sale

      This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, re-sold, hired out or otherwise circulated without the publisher’s prior consent in any form, binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.

      Source ISBN: 9780008306397

      Ebook Edition © 2019 ISBN: 9780008306403

      Version: 2019-05-02

      To Willem

      Contents

       Cover

       Title Page

       Copyright

       Map

       Dedication

      Chapter One WHO’S DITZY?

      Chapter Two TO THE RESCUE!

      Chapter Three A CRY FOR HELP

       Chapter Four A TANGLED TALE

       Chapter Five SEAL SPOTTING

       Chapter Six DOUBLE DISCOVERY

       Chapter Seven DELIGHT AND DANGER

       Chapter Eight A DANGEROUS JOURNEY

       Chapter Nine THE LAST HOPE

       Chapter Ten SEALING THE DEAL

       Notes from the Author

About the Author

       About the Publisher

       About the Author

      BEN FOGLE is a broadcaster and seasoned adventurer. A modern-day nomad and journeyman, he has travelled to more than a hundred countries and accomplished amazing feats; from swimming with crocodiles to rowing three thousand miles across the Atlantic Ocean; from crossing Antarctica on foot to surviving a year as a castaway on a remote Hebridean island. Most recently, Ben climbed Mount Everest. Oh, and he LOVES dogs.

      Books by Ben Fogle

      MR DOG AND THE RABBIT HABIT

      MR DOG AND THE SEAL DEAL

       Chapter One

       WHO’S DITZY?

      ‘Ahhh! A life on the waves for me!’ Mr Dog stood on the deck of the fishing boat as it chugged towards the harbour and breathed the salty sea air. His dark, scraggy fur was ruffled by the summer wind, and his white front paws rested on a fishing basket crammed with catches fresh from the ocean. ‘I made a good choice allowing a fisherman to look after me! Yes, a very good choice indeed.’

      Mr Dog loved travel and adventure. He had no real home and no single owner, but he let people take him in now and again as he travelled from place to place. The boat’s skipper, John Tregeen, was the latest to be won over by the roaming animal’s special scruffy appeal. Mr Dog turned to him now, raised his shaggy eyebrows and wagged his long tail furiously, hoping for a treat. In place of a collar he had a red-and-white hanky tied round his neck. There were so many delicious fish on the boat, surely one could be spared for a hungry hound …?

      John Tregeen, who was tall, fair and red-cheeked, smiled with one hand on the tiller, steering them home. ‘Sorry, dog. These fish are going up for sale, not down a mutt’s gullet!’ He pulled a bone-shaped biscuit from his pocket and tossed it over. ‘How’s this instead?’

      Expertly, Mr Dog caught the treat and crunched it quickly. Mmm, not bad, he thought. But one treat is never enough! He danced on his back legs to encourage the skipper to throw another.

      His plan worked! Another treat came sailing through the air …

      And a white blur swooped down and snatched it!

      ‘Hey!’ Mr Dog frowned at a seagull as it landed on the other side of the boat and the treat vanished down its yellow beak.

      John laughed. ‘Too slow, my friend.’

      ‘That was mine!’ Mr Dog told the seagull.

      ‘Sorry, old sport,’ the bird replied with a screech. ‘Finders keepers. There’s not much food to be had on the beach today; the humans are cleaning it up.’

      ‘Are they, indeed?’ Curious, Mr Dog forgot his stomach and looked towards the golden beach. It nestled at the bottom of a large sloping hill that showed off the town’s streets and houses to the sea. There were lots of children holding black bin liners down on the sand, some of them with grabbers on the end of sticks, while adults watched and organised.

      ‘They’re picking up everything,’ said the gull. ‘Rope, bits of net, fishing lines … and plenty of the plastic rubbish that washes up on the shore.’

      ‘That’s good,’ said Mr Dog. ‘That pollution makes a mess and hurts animals.’

      ‘True.’ The gull nodded. ‘It’s just a shame they clear up all of the food that’s been left behind too.’

      ‘I think you’d better make yourself scarce,’ Mr Dog warned the gull as one of John’s two-man crew – a skinny young man named Sadiq – waved an arm to shoo the bird away.

      With