Chapter Six
Pets


Fred, surprisingly, was never one to forget pets, but things did happen. Like getting bored with them. Oh how I felt for those poor Pygmy Puffs!

When we were ten, we found a puppy in one of the fields. Fred, promptly deciding to bring it home, named it Bludger. And so he was. For some reason, we were not allowed to have dogs in our house, but Fred decided, like always, to ignore that rule and kept Bludger in Ron's room.

The following days, Fred and Ron grew closer to the golden retriever, while Percy grew sick. Every time we would play with the dog and come downstairs to eat lunch or dinner (or in Ron's case, breakfast as well), he went into a raging fit of sneezing and coughing. Of course, Mum was completely baffled, but I think Dad might've had a clue as to what went on in the attic bedroom.

About a week after we found Bludger, Mum began finding torn shoes and Daily Prophets scattered around the house. Of course, being the little trouble makers we were (and still are), we obviously 'had absolutely nooo clue what happened'... and then we blamed it on Ginny.

Eventually, as all things do, our time with sweet, little, puddle-making Bludger came to an end.

We had been trying to give him a bath one Sunday when Mum was out in the garden. We had him all soaped up and in the bathtub, and everything was going perfectly.

Until we invited Ron to help.

The prat left the door open and splashed the poor puppy with hot water. Bludger ran out screaming in his little puppy way, covered in suds, before ramming into Percy. He fell down the stairs and broke his glasses, as Bludger jumped all over Ginny, who squealed happily at the puppy, before running out into the garden. Needless to say, Mum wasn't to happy that a dirty dog dragged all the clean linens all over the yard.

Fred, however, wasn't as upset as Ron or I was. He had forgotten we had a puppy three days after Dad left him at Jane's house.