Rainbow Street Pets

by Orr, Wendy

  Tim nodded. He would have hated it if Sherlock wasn’t there when he got home from school every afternoon, or if the dog didn’t wake him up with his wet beagle nose every morning. At his mum’s house he woke up because Bentley was crying, and if the baby wasn’t crying his mum tried to sleep in, so Tim had to stay in his room and be quiet. But Sherlock’s funny face and wagging tail always made him laugh – and there was no point staying in bed, because he knew Sherlock would have already woken up his dad, and it was time to go for a walk.

  In her run in the animal shelter, Bella was watching Bert. He was feeding all the dogs in turn, and there were still three more ahead of her. She was already drooling by the time he opened her gate.

  ‘You’re not hungry, are you, Bella?’ Bert teased, hiding the scoop behind his back.

  Bella licked her lips, nosing around his legs.

  ‘Can’t fool you!’ he laughed. ‘You’d sniff out food anywhere!’

  CHAPTER 8

  t the next Monday morning assembly, Hannah talked about Willow, the lop-eared rabbit. ‘If you’re thinking about a pet, you should go to the Rainbow Street Shelter and see him. He looks cute in this picture – but if you feel how soft he is, and see him doing his happy dance, you’ll love him.’

  Maybe Dad could have a sniffer rabbit, Tim thought, smiling at the thought of a bunny in a jacket checking the suitcases at the airport. Except it would probably only sniff out carrots.

  He didn’t tell Hannah his joke. She was walking into the classroom with her best friend, Ellie, and they never thought his jokes were funny.

  But on Friday afternoon, when he looked out the window and saw Mona from Rainbow Street walking through the playground with her dog Nelly, Tim suddenly remembered his sniffer-bunny joke again.

  ‘I can’t believe I never thought of it before!’

  On Friday afternoons Mona brought Nelly to hear the little kids read. They all loved reading to the gentle brown-and-white dog, and even kids who weren’t good readers, or who got nervous reading out loud to the teacher and other grownups, were happy to read to Nelly.

  Tim could read easily now, but he knew why the little kids liked reading to Nelly. It was like telling Sherlock something – the dog never thought he was stupid, even when he’d done or said something that everyone else in the world would have said was dumb.

  Maybe this idea was dumb too, but it was worth a try.

  He was the first out of the classroom when the bell rang. He raced around to the door where the little kids came out. Mona was standing just inside, so the kids were all stopping to pat Nelly goodbye as they passed. Tim waited impatiently.

  Finally, all the kids had straggled out. Mona and Nelly were walking out the door. Tim’s mouth was dry.

  Mona smiled at him. It was a nice smile. It made him feel safe, like he could ask her the craziest question and she wouldn’t laugh.

  ‘Do you ever get any beagles at the shelter?’ he asked.

  At nine o’clock on Saturday morning, Tim, his dad and Sherlock walked up the path to the cheery, cherry-red door under the bright, painted rainbow. They laughed at the cockatoo who thought he was the receptionist, said hello to Nelly, and then followed Mona through to the dog yard.

  Sherlock trotted calmly beside Matt. There were eight other dogs, all barking hello, but the beautiful young beagle was the only one they noticed. They went straight to her run.

  Bella play-bowed to Sherlock, with her nose on her front paws, her bottom in the air and her tail waving wildly.

  ‘She’s asking him to play,’ Mona said, ‘and telling him that she knows he’s the boss.’

  ‘Here, Bella!’ said Tim’s dad.

  The beagle looked up and crossed to his side.

  Sherlock wagged his tail. Matt smiled. Tim felt happiness bursting out all over his body.

  ‘What happens if she can’t be trained to be a sniffer dog?’ asked Mona. ‘I don’t want the poor girl to come back here again.’

  ‘We’ll be happy to have two dogs at home, won’t we, Tim?’ said his dad. ‘She’ll be easier to control with an older dog at home with her during the day. And our yard’s already beagle-proof. So whatever happens, Tim’s idea is the best thing that’s happened to me for a long time.’

  So Matt adopted Bella, and two weeks later she went on her training course to become a sniffer dog.

  If Tim hadn’t known how badly his dad wanted a working dog again, he’d have hoped that Bella would fail her training so she could live with them. But he did know, so he was hoping nearly as much as his dad for her to pass.

  Matt took Tim and Sherlock over to Rainbow Street one night after work, to tell Mona how Bella was going.

  ‘She’s excellent! She’s a star!’ he said. Tim rubbed Sherlock’s ears, because he didn’t want the old dog to get jealous.

  ‘Well, her first owners will be very pleased to hear that,’ said Mona. ‘I can tell them tomorrow when they come to pick up their new friend.’

  Even though Justin and Kate knew that they couldn’t handle a lively dog like Bella, their apartment seemed empty with her gone. So they’d had a long talk with Mona about what pet would be right for them, and now they were building a rabbit hutch for Willow.

  ‘Maybe you could let me know how the rest of Bella’s training goes,’ Mona added.

  ‘I’d like that,’ said Matt.

  Training was the best fun Bella had ever had in her whole life. The only thing that Bella didn’t like was being bored, and now she was busy, busy, busy all the time. Some of the dogs got distracted during the games, some got a bit stressed; some dogs didn’t like being around so many people. All those dogs were sent home, but Bella and her clever beagle nose passed every test.

  Now she’d live with the other sniffer beagles at night, and work with Tim’s dad during the day. To celebrate her graduation, Tim and his dad, Sherlock, Nelly and Mona met for lunch and a walk on the beach.

  On Bella’s first day of work at the airport, she wore a jacket with an L for Learner. Tim’s dad gave her an extra pat. ‘Are you ready?’ he asked, and Bella looked up at him, wagging her tail as they walked into the busy arrivals hall. She walked along the line of people collecting their suitcases, sniffing as she walked. She didn’t need to stop to know that there were no food or plants in the bags. ‘Nothing interesting,’ her nose told her each time. Or: ‘Sweaty clothes, tennis ball … but no food.’

  Suddenly she smelled something interesting. There was food in a bag off to the side. Wagging her tail happily, Bella walked straight over to the woman holding the bag and sat down in front of her. People stared. The woman blushed.

  ‘Would you mind opening your bag?’ Matt said, putting on his rubber gloves. Then he pulled an apple core out of the side pocket.

  ‘Good girl!’ he said to Bella, giving her a chewy treat. ‘Clever dog!’

  Bella gobbled it.

  The woman said, ‘I was eating the apple when I got off the plane, and I couldn’t see a bin, so I just dropped the core into my bag. I didn’t think it would matter.’

  ‘It matters,’ said Tim’s dad. ‘But mistakes happen.’ He was smiling; he knew the woman hadn’t meant to be a smuggler – and he was very pleased with Bella.

  Bella was happy too. She wagged her tail again, and when Tim’s dad nodded she walked on past the next line of people and their bags. She loved chewy treats, and she loved Matt patting and praising her. And most of all, Bella loved the game of sniffing.

  About the Author

  Wendy Orr was born in Edmonton, Canada, and spent her childhood in various places across Canada, France and the USA, but wherever she lived, there were lots of stories, adventures and animals. Once, when her family sailed to a new home, the dogs wore life-jackets, but the guinea pigs had to stay in their cages. When she grew up and had her own family, she still had cats, guinea pigs, rabbits and horses at different times – and always dogs. Her most recent dog is Harry, an occasionally naughty but always delightful poodle-cross that she adopted f
rom the Lort Smith Animal Shelter. Harry had a very bad start to life and Wendy and her husband feel very lucky that he has come to live with them, and that they can all be happy together.

  Wendy is the author of a number of award-winning books, including Nim’s Island, Nim at Sea, Mokie and Bik, The Princess and her Panther, Raven’s Mountain and for teenagers, Peeling the Onion.

  A few years after Wendy wrote Nim’s Island, a film producer in Hollywood took the book out of the library to read to her son, and the next day emailed Wendy to ask if she could make it into a movie. Wendy said yes! They became good friends and Wendy had the fun of helping work on the screenplay, and learning that making a movie was even more complicated than writing a book.

  Wendy Orr lives in Australia on the Mornington Peninsula in Victoria.