Bunny Trouble Read online

  First published in Great Britain in 2014 by

  Quercus Editions Ltd

  55 Baker Street

  7th Floor, South Block

  London

  W1U 8EW

  Copyright © Jennifer Gray and Amanda Swift 2014

  Illustrations copyright © Sarah Horne 2014

  The moral right of Jennifer Gray, Amanda Swift and Sarah Horne to be identified as the authors and illustrator of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988.

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.

  A CIP catalogue reference for this book is available from the British Library

  eBook ISBN 978 1 84866 515 6

  Print ISBN 978 1 84866 509 5

  This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, organizations, places and events are either the product of the authors’ imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or locales is entirely coincidental.

  You can find this and many other great books at:

  www.quercusbooks.co.uk

  By Jennifer Gray and Amanda Swift

  GUINEA PIGS ONLINE

  GUINEA PIGS ONLINE: FURRY TOWERS

  GUINEA PIGS ONLINE: VIKING VICTORY

  GUINEA PIGS ONLINE: CHRISTMAS QUEST

  GUINEA PIGS ONLINE: BUNNY TROUBLE

  For Emily

  J.G.

  For Nell

  A.S.

  For my super, ever-jazzy niece Iris

  S.H.

  Contents

  1 Binny

  2 Grounded

  3 Save the Rescue Centre

  4 Eduardo Takes Charge

  5 Chocolate

  6 Foxed

  7 Capture

  8 Coco Thinks Fast

  9 The Easter Bunny

  10 Website Wonder

  1

  Binny

  It was springtime and at number 7, Middleton Crescent, the guinea pigs were doing their spring-cleaning. Outside the sun was shining, the birds were singing, the trees were turning green and the flowers were humming with bees. It was the right time of year to make everything spick and span.

  Fuzzy and Coco were listening to their favourite radio station, Animals Extra, while they tidied up the hutch. Fuzzy jiggled in time to the music as he put the bits of cereal that had fallen out of his bowl back into it. Coco hummed along as she pushed the nice, fresh hay into one corner and arranged her hairbrushes and bows in neat rows.

  Then Fuzzy organized all the vegetables they were going to eat for their tea. He put the cabbage leaves in one pile, the sweet spring carrots in another pile, the broccoli stalks in a third pile, and he ate the last bit of watercress because he couldn’t think what else to do with it.

  ‘Those vegetables look delicious, Fuzzy,’ said Coco. She scuttled over. ‘I’m starving! Do you think we can have a break now?’ Tidying up was hard work. She was glad they only did it in the spring. The rest of the time their owners, Ben and Henrietta, tidied up for them.

  Fuzzy looked around the hutch. It was perfect. Even their poo tray was tidy.

  ‘Yes, let’s take a break,’ he said. ‘I tell you what, why don’t we go and see if we can find Eduardo?’

  Eduardo was Fuzzy and Coco’s friend who lived at the bottom of the garden in the copse. Ben and Henrietta didn’t know that the guinea pigs could let themselves out of their hutch and wriggle through the old cat flap into the back garden whenever they wanted to see their friends.

  ‘Good idea!’ said Coco. She wondered which bow to wear. Something pretty, she thought, for spring. Yellow, maybe – the colour of daffodils.

  She was just tying the yellow bow when the news came on the radio:

  ‘This is Animal Extra News. We have just heard that the Strawberry Park Animal Rescue Centre is to close …’

  Coco stopped tying her yellow bow. Fuzzy stopped trying out his dance moves. They both listened carefully. The animal rescue centre was where their owner Ben worked.

  ‘Reports suggest that all the animal cages need replacing, but the centre does not have enough money to cover the cost. Peggy from Pets2Go, the pet shop next door, has taken in all the animals until homes can be found for them. Ben Bliss, who runs the rescue centre, has said that he will have to cancel the popular Easter Fair. It is believed the centre will be sold.’

  Coco started to cry and even Fuzzy had a tear in his eye. The Easter Fair was the best thing about Easter! The rescue centre was decorated with yellow balloons and spring flowers and open to visitors all day. There was music, chocolate and games. Lots of animals were adopted and went off to live in lovely homes for the rest of their lives. And the fair was due to take place in only four days’ time.

  Just then, the guinea-pig friends heard the front door bang. It was followed by the sound of sobbing. Someone blew their nose loudly.

  ‘It’s Ben,’ Fuzzy whispered.

  The guinea pigs listened as Ben’s footsteps went down the stairs to the kitchen.

  They peeped out through the wire of the hutch.

  Ben was covered in sawdust. His clothes were very, very dirty and his eyes were red from crying. He went over to the fruit bowl. Fuzzy and Coco watched as Ben took some of his favourite big green grapes and went back into the hall. This was very unlike him. He usually came over to say hello to Fuzzy and Coco first.

  ‘Poor Ben,’ Coco whispered. ‘He must be terribly upset about the rescue centre closing.’

  ‘I wish there was something we could do!’ Fuzzy sighed.

  SCRATCH! SCRATCH! SCRATCH!

  ‘What’s that noise?’ Coco asked.

  It was coming from the hallway, where Ben had gone.

  Just then Ben came back into the kitchen carrying a cage with three big padlocks on it. The corners of the cage bristled with extra screws. It tipped from side to side in his arms.

  SCRATCH! SCRATCH! SCRATCH!

  The noise was coming from inside the cage. Whatever was inside seemed very keen to get out.

  ‘Stop struggling!’ Ben said, trying to keep the cage level.

  CRASH!

  ‘What was that?’ said Coco. The crashing sound had come from above them.

  ‘Ben’s put that cage on the roof of our hutch!’ Fuzzy squeaked.

  The hutch rocked.

  ‘That’s it!’ said Ben crossly. ‘I’ve had enough! You’ve made a total mess of the rescue centre! You’ve chewed through all the cages, just when I was trying to get everything ready for the Easter Fair. It’s thanks to you it’s got to close. You’re staying here until you’ve learned how to behave! Then we’ll find you a new home.’

  ‘It must be must be one of the animals from the rescue centre,’ Fuzzy whispered.

  ‘Why does it have to come here?’ Coco complained. ‘I mean, it said on the news that the animals had gone to Peggy at Pets2Go.’ She didn’t like the idea of having to share Ben and Henrietta with another animal. She liked things at number 7, Middleton Crescent just the way they were.

  ‘Don’t be like that, Coco,’ Fuzzy said. ‘It’s only going to be here for a little while – until Ben finds it a new home.’

  ‘But we don’t even know what sort of animal it is!’ Coco squeaked. Ben handled all kinds of animals at the rescue centre.

  ‘Just try and be good,’ Ben said with a sigh. ‘No more chewing. Or burping. Or farting. I’ll be back in a little while, when I’ve showered off the sawdust. Don’t go away.’ He disappeared back upstairs.

  THUMP, THUMP, THUMP.


  The guinea pigs glanced upwards. This new noise was coming from the cage.

  THUMP, THUMP, THUMP.

  Coco nudged Fuzzy. ‘Go and have a look.’

  ‘No way,’ said Fuzzy. ‘I’m not having a look until I know what sort of animal it is.’

  From the amount of thumping that was going on, it sounded very large.

  ‘But you won’t know what it is until you have a look.’

  ‘But—’

  They were interrupted by another sound.

  CHOMP, CHOMP, CHOMP.

  CHOMP, CHOMP, CHOMP.

  Fuzzy gulped. ‘Whatever it is, it’s definitely hungry!’

  Coco began to tremble. ‘It couldn’t be Renard, could it?’

  Renard was the evil fox who lived in the copse.

  ‘I don’t think so,’ Fuzzy replied. ‘Ben would never bring him home to live with us.’

  CHOMP, CHOMP, CHOMP.

  The eating continued. It got louder and louder. It got nearer and nearer. And then there was a crack in the wooden roof of Coco and Fuzzy’s hutch, then another crack, and then cracks everywhere. And then the roof crashed to the floor.

  Fuzzy and Coco clutched one another in terror!

  Then, to their surprise, the cutest, fluffiest little baby bunny they had ever seen landed in the hutch. She was white all over with black ears and big eyes.

  The baby bunny looked around her. She looked at Coco and Fuzzy, who were still gazing at her in astonishment. She looked at the tidy hutch and at the pile of hay in the corner and at the clean poo tray. Then she hopped over to the neat piles of vegetables Fuzzy had arranged for the guinea pigs’ tea. She munched the tastiest cabbage leaf, turned around and then she did a big poo on top of the rest of the food.

  PLOP! PLOP! PLOP!

  PLOP! PLOP! PLOP!

  When she’d finished, she turned to Fuzzy and Coco.

  ‘Hi there,’ she said. ‘I’m Binny!’

  2

  Grounded

  The next day, at the bottom of the garden, Fuzzy and Coco told the whole terrible story to their friends. Eduardo was there, and so were Banoffee, Banoffee’s oldest son, Terry, and her thirteen other children.

  ‘It was Binny who caused all the damage at the rescue centre,’ Fuzzy said. ‘It’s because of her that it has to close down. Binny chewed through all the cages and Ben doesn’t have the money to replace them. He says it’s a total mess.’

  ‘That’s why Peggy from Pets2Go didn’t take Binny in with the rest of the animals,’ said Coco. ‘I don’t blame her!’

  ‘But how did she get into your hutch?’ Terry asked.

  ‘She chewed through the floor of her cage,’ Coco said. ‘Then she chewed through our roof.’

  ‘Caramba, that bunny must have teeth like a chinchilla!’ Eduardo said solemnly. ‘They can chew through anything!’

  ‘What’s a chinchilla?’ Blossom, Banoffee’s youngest baby, asked.

  ‘It is a big Peruvian squirl,’ Eduardo explained.

  ‘Squirrel,’ Coco corrected him. Eduardo was from Peru. He had travelled all the way from Peru to free the guinea pigs of the world, only he’d got a bit lost and ended up in Strawberry Park by mistake. He’d also been very disappointed to find that most of the guinea pigs he met there didn’t want to be free. They wanted to be pets, like Fuzzy and Coco.

  ‘We’ve told you before, Eduardo, it’s a squirrel, not a squirl.’ Coco could be quite bossy sometimes without really meaning it. Especially when she was around Eduardo, whom she secretly liked.

  Eduardo frowned.

  ‘Never mind Binny,’ Fuzzy said. ‘The point is, what are we going to do to save the rescue centre?’

  ‘There’s nothing we can do, Fuzzy,’ Coco told him.

  ‘There must be something.’ Fuzzy scratched his crest. ‘I know – we could make a website asking people to come and help clear up the rescue centre and fix the cages. Maybe then we can have the Easter Fair after all.’

  ‘I’ll help you, Fuzzy,’ Terry said. ‘I know what to do.’

  Fuzzy and Terry both loved computers.

  ‘Good.’ Coco had been listening to the conversation impatiently. ‘Now we’ve got that out of the way, let’s get back to Binny. We’ve got to get rid of her.’

  ‘But you said she’s only a baby,’ Banoffee protested. ‘You can’t get rid of her.’

  ‘I don’t care. She’s got to go.’

  ‘Why don’t we try and teach her how to behave?’ Fuzzy suggested. ‘Then if my website works she can still be adopted at the Easter Fair.’

  ‘The Easter Fair!’ Blossom cried. ‘Will there be chocolate eggs?’

  ‘Chocolate! Chocolate!’ Banoffee’s children chanted. They had heard of chocolate, but they had never had any. That didn’t stop them wanting some, though.

  ‘We want chocolate!’ they yelled.

  ‘Pah!’ Eduardo said crossly.

  ‘Guinea pigs don’t eat chocolate. They should be foraging for chickweed in the wild. In fact they shouldn’t be in a rescue centre at all. Or a pet shop. They should be free!’

  A thought struck him. He wriggled his bushy eyebrows. ‘THAT’S IT, amigos!’ he cried. ‘This bunny the binny – she is a freedom fighter like me! She wishes to join her brothers in the wild and sing songs around the camp fire.’

  ‘It’s Binny the bunny and it doesn’t sound like she’s a freedom fighter to me.’ Terry scratched his woolly hat. ‘Sounds more like she’s bored.’

  ‘Bored?’ Fuzzy repeated.

  ‘Yeah, like she doesn’t have enough to do,’ Terry explained. ‘I used to be a bit like that, didn’t I, Mum, when I was a teen-pig?’

  ‘You did!’ Banoffee agreed. ‘You were awful before you got into computers. You used to sit around watching TV all day.’

  ‘So you think if we keep Binny busy, she’ll stop chewing our hutch and pooing in our food?’ Coco asked.

  ‘Bound to,’ said Terry.

  ‘Well, that’s settled then,’ Coco said quickly. She’d had an idea: one that involved her showing off, which was always the best kind of idea as far as Coco was concerned. ‘Fuzzy and Terry, you can teach her how to use the computer. Banoffee, you can show her how to do her hair nicely …’

  Banoffee clapped her paws together happily. She loved doing hair.

  ‘And I,’ Coco said grandly, ‘will teach her GOOD MANNERS. I learned them from the Queen,’ she added, in case anyone had forgotten. ‘One used to live at Buckingham Palace, you know.’

  Eduardo sniggered.

  ‘What’s so funny about that?’ Coco demanded.

  ‘You pet guinea pigs crack me up!’ he scoffed. ‘Computers, hairstyles and good manners? Are you kidding me? What that binny needs is some fresh air.’

  He scuttled off under the gate into the copse. Then, when no one called after him, he poked his head back through and shouted, ‘Just you wait and see.’

  When they returned to the house, Binny was busy chewing her way through a chair leg. Ben had tried to patch up her cage with another piece of wood and some more screws the night before, but he had given up when Binny chewed her way through that as well. Before they went out, Ben and Henrietta had left Binny in the kitchen with some newspaper in the corner for her to poo on.

  ‘Look at that!’ Coco said in disgust.

  Binny had pooed everywhere apart from on the newspaper.

  ‘Come along!’ Coco picked her way through the droppings towards the clean newspaper.

  She was followed by Banoffee and all Banoffee’s children, except Terry. Banoffee had agreed that they should join in the lesson on good manners because sometimes they forgot to use a tissue when they had a runny nose. And all the grown-up guinea pigs (apart from Eduardo of course) agreed it was more likely that Binny would behave if she was part of a group.

  ‘Make two rows,’ Coco ordered. ‘And leave a space in the middle at the front for Binny.’

  Binny looked up from chewing the chair leg when she heard her name.

 
The guinea piglets did as they were told. They made two rows, with space between Blossom and Pepper, Banoffee’s second youngest, at the front.

  ‘Come and sit down, Binny,’ Coco said.

  Binny put her head on one side. Her ears waggled. ‘Say, “Please”,’ she said. ‘It’s good manners.’

  Coco blushed. The guinea piglets stared at her, wide-eyed. Then they stared at Binny.

  ‘Come and sit down, Binny, PLEASE!’ Coco said with exaggerated politeness.

  ‘No THANKS,’ Binny said.

  Some of the guinea piglets started to giggle.

  Coco frowned. ‘I can’t teach you good manners if you won’t sit down, Binny,’ she said.

  ‘So what?’ Binny said rudely. Suddenly she burped.

  ‘Say, “Excuse me!”’ Coco ordered.

  ‘Excuse you!’ Binny said.

  The guinea piglets all laughed.

  Coco was horrified. They were laughing at her!

  PLOP! PLOP! PLOP! Suddenly Binny let out a volley of droppings.

  ‘Binny!’ Coco squealed. ‘Use the newspaper! That’s what it’s there for.’

  Binny thought about this for a moment. ‘OK,’ she agreed.

  PLOP. PLOP. PLOP. PLOP. PLOP. PLOP. Before Coco realized what was happening, Binny shot across the room and started pooing all around the guinea piglets.

  ‘My babies!’ Banoffee shrieked.

  Coco hid under a cushion.

  The guinea piglets were covered in rabbit poo. It was all over their beautiful hairstyles.

  ‘It’ll take me days to get this out!’ Banoffee sobbed. She gathered her children up and shooed them out of the cat flap.

  PLOP! PLOP! PLOP! PLOP! PLOP! PLOP!

  Coco peeped out from under the cushion. She was surrounded by a sea of poo.

  ‘Fuzzy, do something!’ she begged.

  ‘Binny, how about you learn to use the computer?’ Fuzzy suggested.

  ‘OK,’ Binny agreed reluctantly, ‘but I thought you wanted me to use the newspaper.’ She hopped over.