The Dashing Dog Mystery

Collar Confusion

Nancy headed for Petra's backyard. George and Bess followed her.

Nancy glanced around. She didn't see Petra anywhere. But she did see Petra's dog, Prince Fabian. He was running around and around with a chew toy in his mouth.

Nancy's dog, Chocolate Chip, ran over to join him. The two dogs chased each other, barking happily.

“I wonder where Petra—” Nancy began. Then she stopped.

Nancy noticed that Prince Fabian was wearing a collar. A
jeweled
collar.

Prince Fabian was wearing Chip's missing collar!

The Nancy Drew Notebooks

#  1 The Slumber Party Secret

#  2 The Lost Locket

#  3 The Secret Santa

#  4 Bad Day for Ballet

#  5 The Soccer Shoe Clue

#  6 The Ice Cream Scoop

#  7 Trouble at Camp Treehouse

#  8 The Best Detective

#  9 The Thanksgiving Surprise

#10 Not Nice on Ice

#11 The Pen Pal Puzzle

#12 The Puppy Problem

#13 The Wedding Gift Goof

#14 The Funny Face Fight

#15 The Crazy Key Clue

#16 The Ski Slope Mystery

#17 Whose Pet Is Best?

#18 The Stolen Unicorn

#19 The Lemonade Raid

#20 Hannah's Secret

#21 Princess on Parade

#22 The Clue in the Glue

#23 Alien in the Classroom

#24 The Hidden Treasures

#25 Dare at the Fair

#26 The Lucky Horseshoes

#27 Trouble Takes the Cake

#28 Thrill on the Hill

#29 Lights! Camera! Clues!

#30 It's No Joke!

#31 The Fine-Feathered Mystery

#32 The Black Velvet Mystery

#33 The Gumdrop Ghost

#34 Trash or Treasure?

#35 Third-Grade Reporter

#36 The Make-Believe Mystery

#37 Dude Ranch Detective

#38 Candy Is Dandy

#39 The Chinese New Year Mystery

#40 Dinosaur Alert!

#41 Flower Power

#42 Circus Act

#43 The Walkie-talkie Mystery

#44 The Purple Fingerprint

#45 The Dashing Dog Mystery

Available from MINSTREL Books

#45

The Dashing Dog Mystery

CAROLYN KEENE

ILLUSTRATED BY JAN NAIMO JONES

Published by POCKET BOOKS

New York    London    Toronto    Sydney    Singapore

This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are products of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons living or dead is entirely coincidental.

A MINSTREL PAPERBACK
Original

Copyright © 2001 by Simon & Schuster, Inc.

All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce
this book or portions thereof in any form whatsoever.
For information address Pocket Books, 1230 Avenue
of the Americas, New York, NY 10020

ISBN: 0-7434-3706-3

eISBN-13: 978-0-7434-3706-6

First Minstrel Books printing December 2001

NANCY DREW, THE NANCY DREW NOTEBOOKS,

A MINSTREL BOOK and colophon are registered trademarks

of Simon & Schuster, Inc.

Guess what, Nancy? You got something in the mail!” Hannah Gruen announced.

Eight-year-old Nancy Drew glanced up from the book she was reading. Hannah, the Drews' housekeeper, was standing in the doorway of the living room.

Nancy smiled eagerly. “What is it, Hannah? What did I get?”

Hannah walked over to the couch where Nancy was sitting. She handed Nancy a bright pink envelope. “Maybe it's a Christmas card,” Hannah said.

Nancy looked at the envelope. It was addressed to Miss Nancy Drew and Miss Chocolate Chip Drew.

Nancy peered over the edge of the couch. Her Labrador puppy, Chocolate Chip, was curled up on the floor, taking a nap. “Hey, Chip, this is addressed to you, too!”

Chip opened one eye and thumped her tail. Nancy reached into her pocket and pulled out a bone-shaped doggie biscuit. Chip got up on her hind legs and grabbed the biscuit with her teeth. She gobbled it up in about two seconds.

“Good girl!” Nancy said.

“Nancy, open the envelope. I'm dying to know what's in it,” Hannah said with a chuckle.

“I will, I will.”

Nancy opened the envelope carefully. Inside was a green card. It was shaped like a dog's paw.

The card said:

Dear Loyal Customer,

You are invited to a holiday party

to celebrate the grand reopening

of the Dashing Dog Pet Salon

this Friday, 2-5
P
.
M
.

There will be lots of doggie treats

(and treats for humans, too!).

Hope to see you there!

Regards,

Rex Rumford

P.S.—At 4
P
.
M
., we'll be raffling off a

beautiful, one-of-a-kind doggie collar

by Stella Sipowitz.

Don't miss it!

Chip began sniffing the invitation.

“Look, Chip! We're invited to a party at the Dashing Dog Pet Salon!” Nancy exclaimed.

Nancy had taken Chip to the Dashing Dog once. It was a fancy pet salon where dogs could get shampooed and trimmed and groomed. Chip had needed a professional bath because her fur had gotten covered with finger paint.

Hannah read the invitation over Nancy's shoulder. “A holiday party for dogs and their owners. What a great idea!”

“Do you think Dad will let Chip and me go?” Nancy asked Hannah. To Nancy, Hannah was way more than a housekeeper. Hannah had helped take care of Nancy since her mother had died five years ago.

“I'm sure he will. But let's ask him when he gets home from work, okay?” Hannah said. “In the meantime, who wants to help me bake some Christmas cookies?”

“I do!” Nancy raised her hand and jumped off the couch. Chip began barking. “I think Chip wants to help, too,” Nancy said, laughing.

As Nancy followed Hannah to the kitchen, she clutched the paw-shaped invitation to her chest. She couldn't wait for Friday. If there was one thing she loved, it was a party!

“This place looks like a playland for dogs!” Bess Marvin said.

“They should call it Poochy Playland,” her cousin George Fayne agreed.

Bess and George were Nancy's two best friends in the whole world. Nancy had
invited them along to the Dashing Dog holiday party. Hannah had just dropped off the girls and Chip at the pet salon. She had promised to pick them up at 4:30.

The three girls stood inside the front door of the newly redecorated salon. Nancy remembered the way it had looked before, when she had brought Chip in for her bath. Back then, there was lots of pink furniture and pictures of glamorous dogs on the walls.

Now the salon had a whole new look. The walls were covered with wallpaper that had tiny pawprints on it. There were plush couches and chairs in red, blue, and yellow. In one corner was a big play area for dogs, with tunnels, balls, and other toys. A fluffy white poodle and a little brown terrier were playing tug-of-war with a rawhide bone.

In the far corner of the room was a doggie café called Bone Appétit. People sat on tall silver stools, sipping hot chocolate and eating cookies. Their dogs sat on low, wide stools and nibbled doggie biscuits. On the
CD player, a woman's voice sang “How Much Is That Doggie in the Window?”

In another corner of the room was an enormous Christmas tree. It was covered with sparkly lights and glittery ornaments shaped like dogs. A string of red bone-shaped holiday lights ran along the windows.

“Wow, this place is awesome!” Bess said. “I wish I had a dog. I'd come here all the time.”

“So you could give your dog baths and stuff?” George asked her.

Bess shook her head. “No. So we could have snacks at Café Bone Appétit. Those cookies look yummy!”

Nancy giggled. Bess loved to talk about food almost as much as she loved to talk about clothes. George was a lot more into sports. The two of them were really different, even though they were cousins.

Chip tugged at her leash, eager to join the other dogs in the play area. “All right,” Nancy said, unclipping the leash. “Be good, okay? No nipping or biting.”

Chip bounded over to the play area. Nancy glanced around the room. It was crowded with two-legged and four-legged guests. Nancy spotted a girl from her school, Petra Wylie. Nancy wondered if Petra had a dog, too.

Nancy also saw Alice Cahill. She was the “Pet Corner” columnist for the
River Heights Gazette.
Nancy recognized Alice from her picture in the paper, since she and Hannah read “Pet Corner” every Tuesday.

Alice was petite and blond. She was talking to a couple of dog owners and scribbling in a small notepad. A big, fluffy white poodle was beside her, on a leash. Nancy wondered if that was Alice's pet, Pierre. Alice wrote about Pierre in her column from time to time.

“Welcome, welcome to the Dashing Dog!”

A man came walking up to Nancy and her friends. He was wearing a gray suit and a red bow tie. His eyes sparkled behind a pair of brown glasses.

“I'm Rex Rumford,” the man said. He
smiled at Nancy. “You've been here before! I recognize you. Hmm, let's see. Chocolate Lab. Lots of paint. Emergency bath. Am I right?”

“Right!” Nancy laughed.

She introduced herself, and Bess and George did the same.

“Thank you for inviting me to your party,” Nancy said. “I brought Bess and George with me. I hope that's okay.”

“Oh, yes, the more the merrier,” Rex said. He glanced at his watch. Its face had a picture of a cartoon dog on it. “Uh-oh, it's almost four o'clock. Excuse me, ladies. I need to make an announcement.”