Hotel For Dogs by Lois Duncan

Red Rover was so happy to see him that he nearly knocked him over.
    “Simmer down, boy. Calm down.” Bruce gave the leaping animal a quick pat. “This is going to be a short one this morning.”
    When he opened the door at the end of the hall the dog shot past him with the speed of a bullet. Uphe went to the back window and down the ramp. By the time Bruce had followed him outside, he was nowhere to be seen.
    “Red! Hey, Red, where are you?” Bruce called softly, keeping his voice low. “Red Rover, come on back here!”
    Rounding the corner of the house, he crossed the front yard to the sidewalk. He looked up and down the street in both directions. Somewhere ahead of him a streak of red flashed across a yard and disappeared into the mists. Bruce began to run. He reached the yard and stopped.
    “Red! Red Rover!” He called more loudly this time.
    The fog was heavy, shutting off his view of the end of the street. A garbage truck rattled by. Across the street from him, the door of a house opened, and a woman stuck out her head.
    “Here, kitty, kitty, kitty! Come get your breakfast!” Her voice was thin and shrill.
    It’s later than I thought!
Bruce realized.
It’s the fog that made everything seem darker.
A feeling of panic came over him.
I’ve got to get hold of Red! I’ve got to get him home fast!
    It was impossible to know with any certaintywhere the dog had gone. Bruce hurried along the sidewalk, glancing frantically into yards on either side. Every few paces he stopped to call Red’s name.
    “You looking for somebody?” a voice called to him. A newspaper delivery boy pulled his bicycle to a stop next to the curb.
    “Yes. No. I mean, it’s not a person.” Bruce didn’t know how to answer. “I’m looking for a —”
    The boy was not listening. His attention was directed toward a side street.
    “Look at that, will you!” he exclaimed. “It looks like one of those ghost hounds on television!”
    Following his gaze, Bruce saw the outline of a dog against a bank of fog.
    “It’s not a ghost,” he said. “It’s —”
    “Like a sci-fi movie.” The boy leaned forward. “Here he comes!”
    Red Rover galloped toward them.
    “That’s no spirit dog!” the boy cried. “He sure looked like one for a minute, but that’s a real animal! Hey, isn’t that the setter that’s been missing from that house down the street? The one they’ve posted a reward for?”
    “I don’t think so,” Bruce said quickly as Red shot past them. He was headed for home now. He’d hadhis run and knew that breakfast awaited him back at the hotel.
    “I bet it is,” the boy said. “I sure wish I’d thought about that in time to grab him.”
    “It’s not the same dog,” Bruce insisted. “I’m sure it’s not. That dog used to live next door to me — the one that’s lost, I mean. I’ve seen him close up. This dog here didn’t look at all like him.”
    “Well, I think he did,” the boy said. “I deliver papers to that house, so I’ve seen the setter. There can’t be many big dogs like that running loose around the neighborhood.”
    He turned to Bruce, his eyes narrowing with sudden suspicion. “I bet I know what you’ve got in mind. You’re trying to discourage me so you can claim that reward yourself. Well, it’s not going to work, kid!” He grinned triumphantly. “I’m going down to that house right now and telling them I’ve seen their ghost dog and the reward is
mine!”

CHAPTER TEN
    The day the puppies ate a whole can of dog food and whined for more, Bruce pronounced them old enough to leave their mother.
    “You’d better line up some homes for them fast, before they start eating the wallpaper,” he told Andi.
    Although she had known all along that such a time was inevitable, Andi was heartbroken.
    “It’s too soon,” she mourned to Debbie as they walked to school together. “I never should have taught them to eat out of a dish. If they couldn’t do that, Bruce wouldn’t make us get rid