Animal Shelter Mystery Read Online Free PDF

boxcar. “Why, this looks more like a fine hotel than a shelter for strays,” Mr. Alden told Jessie when he looked around.
    â€œThis side is just for cats,” Jessie explained. She pointed to the roomy chicken-wire cages on one side of the boxcar.
    Benny pointed to the shelves Violet and Jessie had put up. “That’s where we keep the old dishes we had in the boxcar,” Benny announced. “I have to fill each one with water and food twice a day and put them out for each animal. That black cat only likes dry food, and Patches only likes tuna fish.”
    â€œLook at what we built out here, Grandfather,” Violet said when everyone came outside again.
    â€œWhat a fine dog run,” Mr. Alden said. “Lad and those pups have plenty of room to chase each other, don’t they? They certainly don’t look like the sad orphans Dr. Scott dropped off last night. They’re right at home. Good job.”
    â€œThank you, Grandfather,” Henry said.
    â€œI guess I’ll go back inside and see what I can do for Watch,” Mr. Alden said. “Listen to that sad whining. He really doesn’t like the whole family out here with all these new animals.”
    After Mr. Alden left, Jessie checked her clipboard of things to do. “Now that the animals are all settled, we need to fix up an office in the garage. There are cases of pet food to order, prescriptions to get filled, and notes to take for Dr. Scott. She’ll want to know everything when she comes by this afternoon.”
    Benny Alden wasn’t too interested in office work. Not when there were so many animals to play with. “Can I stay outside and play with the puppies, Henry?”
    Henry was already up on a ladder in Mr. Alden’s garage and putting in long shelves for bandages, animal-care books, and the curious black notebooks no one had had time to look at again. “Go ahead, Benny,” Henry called down from the ladder. “What good’s having an animal shelter in your own backyard if you can’t run around like a puppy?”
    When Benny came back an hour later, the garage looked almost like Dr. Scott’s office at the Greenfield Animal Shelter. Henry and Violet finished putting away the medical supplies, while Jessie wrote careful reports on each of the animals in their care.
    â€œI think I might use these old farmer’s notebooks to keep everything organized,” Jessie told Henry and Violet. “One of them could be for ordering food, another for our reports to Dr. Scott, and the third one for anything else we need to write down.”
    Violet began reading over the wrinkled, torn pages of one of the notebooks. “I’m glad we’re only taking care of pet animals, not real farm animals,” she said. “Mr. Kisco’s cows needed forty-seven bales of hay over one long winter.”
    â€œIt’s hard to believe there was so much farmland right here in Greenfield,” Jessie said. “There aren’t many farms nearby nowadays.”
    Henry looked over Violet’s shoulder. “Mr. Seed said the farms started two roads over from Main Street back then, from Fox Den Road all the way to Burrville,” Henry said. “Now, of course, all the land near town is worth too much to keep as farmland. That must be why someone wants the animal shelter.”
    â€œHey, Jessie, something just fell out,” Benny said when he came into the garage. He bent down to pick up a long yellow envelope that had fallen out of the notebook Jessie was holding. “It says ‘D-E-E-D’ on the envelope. Is that like what Grandfather says people should do—a good deed?”
    â€œThis is another kind of deed, Benny,” Jessie said. She carefully unfolded the thick sheet of paper. “This is a legal paper that says who owns certain land. There’s an old map attached. See?”
    â€œLet me see it, too, Jessie,” Henry said to his sister.