Kate Finch - A Nose for Trouble

CONTENTS

Text copyright 2013 by Working Partners Limited

All rights reserved. Published by Scholastic Inc., 557 Broadway, New York, NY 10012, by arrangement with Working Partners Limited. Series created by Working Partners Limited, London.

SCHOLASTIC and associated logos are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of Scholastic Inc. PET HOTEL is a trademark of Working Partners Limited.

First printing, October 2013

Cover art by Tim Jessell

Cover design by Yaffa Jaskoll

e-ISBN 978-0-545-50501-7

All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. No part of this publication may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereafter invented, without the express written permission of the publisher. For information regarding permission, write to Scholastic Inc., Attention: Permissions Department, 557 Broadway, New York, NY 10012.

Dont miss any of the paw fectly fun
books in the series!

#1: Calling All Pets!

#2: A Big Surprise

#3: A Nose for Trouble

#4: On with the Show!

For Helen and her guinea pigs, Ruby and Roxie .

Special thanks to Jane Clarke .

Charlie sat upright in bed with a start. His room was filled with a strange rumbling, whirring noise.

Whats that? he exclaimed, turning on the light. The elephants, hippos, lions, and tigers on his wallpaper seemed to stare back at him.

Whirrr-zzz-zzz! The strange sound was coming from outside his room.

Could a guest at Pet Hotel be making all that noise? The hotel was almost full of pet guests, for the first time since it opened. Charlie and his twin sister, Meg, had given their mom and dad the idea to turn Great-Great-Aunt Saffrons old hotel into a pet hotel, and now they were taking care of lots of cats and dogs and small furry pets. But as far as Charlie knew, none of them made this kind of noise. It sounded like a giant mechanical bee!

Charlie leaped out of bed and pulled on his paw-print bathrobe. He cautiously opened the door. Two shining lights, like eyes, were coming toward him down the hall.

Tingles ran up and down Charlies spine but it was only Meg, shining her pig-shaped flashlight at him. The two spots of light were coming out of its snout!

Whats making that noise? Meg asked in a whisper.

I dont know, Charlie murmured. Wed better check on our guests.

They tiptoed down the stairs to the second floor, where the cats and dogs slept.

The noise isnt as loud down here, Meg said softly as they peered into the Egyptian room, which had been turned into a special guest room for cats. The statues of pharaohs and the scratching posts in the shape of palm trees made spooky shadows outside the beam of the flashlight. Marmalade was licking her paws and washing behind her ears, and Oreo was stalking a toy mouse. Ginger, Mabel, Skittles, and Ollie were curled up, fast asleep.

Cats are the best pets ever. Charlie sighed.

Youll have your own soon, Meg whispered.

Very soon! Charlie grinned. Woody, one of the kittens who had recently been born at Pet Hotel, would be old enough to leave his mother and come back this week! Yesterday, Charlie had helped Mom and Dad set up a brand-new cat basket and litter tray for Woody in the corner of the kitchen. Hed spent all the allowance hed been saving on kitty toys. Charlie couldnt wait for Woody to come and be his very own pet!

At the other end of the hallway, four of the five dogs staying in the forest room were also snoozing peacefully. Meg shone her flashlight around the dark room. The trees on the wallpaper made it look like a peaceful forest. Affie the Afghan hound and Judy the Old English sheepdog were twitching as they ran in their sleep. Chico the Chihuahua and Amber the Lab were snoring loudly.

Daisys awake! Meg pointed to the West Highland terrier, a frequent guest at Pet Hotel. She had her head tilted to one side as she listened carefully to the strange noise.

Woof! Daisy barked softly when she saw the twins.

Shhhh! Meg crept into the room and reached her hand into Daisys pen to soothe her. She didnt want Daisy to wake up the rest of the dogs! If she started barking, that would wake Mom and Dad and Saffron and Megs own puppy, Buster, who slept in his basket downstairs in the kitchen. Daisy licked Megs hand and trotted back to her bed. Meg joined Charlie, who was creeping silently down the hall.

Zzz-zzz-whirrr

It was hard to figure out where the noise was coming from!

Charlie stopped near the tiny dumbwaiter and put his ear to the hatch.

Its definitely louder upstairs, he told Meg. Lets check the guest room in the attic!

But there are only little furry animals up there, Meg said. Theyre usually so quiet.

The twins tiptoed up the stairs. Charlie opened the door to the old playroom that had been painted to look like a meadow. It was bathed in silvery light from the full moon outside. The twins could see that, in the twelve hutches around the room, all the little animal guests were wide-awake! Many of the hutches had more than one pet inside, since most of the guests had arrived in groups of two or three. The five rabbits were hopping around, the eight gerbils were gnawing at their cereal bars, and the six guinea pigs made whistling noises as Meg and Charlie entered the room.

Whirrr-zzz-zzz

Its coming from that corner! Charlie exclaimed, pointing.

They tiptoed across the playroom and stopped by the multistory hamster pen.

Its Bluebell, Tulip, and Sweet Pea! Meg gasped, pointing to the three dwarf hamsters who had arrived at the hotel earlier that day. They were running around and around on their exercise wheels, making them go so fast that their little feet were a blur.

Charlie and Meg grinned at each other. Pet Hotels smallest guests were the ones making the biggest noise!

The mechanical whir from the hamsters wheels echoed around the room.

Wheep! whistled the guinea pigs.

Eek! squeaked the gerbils.

The rabbits thumped their back legs on the floor.

Meg groaned. Theyll wake up the whole hotel!

Maybe Dad can fix the wheels so they dont make so much noise, Charlie said.

Meg examined the wheels. They were fixed inside the hamsters pen with red plastic clips. We could just take out the wheels for now, and ask Dad in the morning, she suggested.