Dad poked his head around the old pantry door.

“What’s all the barking and squawking about?” he asked. The twins explained Elvis’s clever climbing trick and how they wanted to help him learn to fly again.

“Great idea — but let’s get breakfast out of the way first,” Dad told them with a smile.

Meg scooped Elvis up and gently tickled the back of his neck before setting him down on the table.

“Wheep!” Elvis whistled, click-clacking along the table toward the fruit bowl. He pecked at the cat food along the way, then sank his beak into a grape. Juice ran down his chin, and he made gleeful sounds as he nibbled.

“Well, Elvis’s breakfast is all taken care of,” Mom said with a laugh.

Meg couldn’t help laughing at the little bird. “We’ll take breakfast to the other guests,” she said.

The twins loaded the pets’ food into the crate-sized elevator that Saffron called a dumbwaiter. Meg yanked on the rope and hoisted it up to the second floor.

As she did, Charlie ran up the stairs, opened the dumbwaiter hatch, and pulled out two bowls. He headed to the guest room for cats, which was decorated to look like ancient Egypt. The room had statues of pharaohs near the fireplace, plus six pens with scratching posts shaped like palm trees. A pair of loud meows welcomed him.

“Good morning!” Charlie greeted Smudge and Cookie, the kitty guests, as they pushed their heads against the bars to be stroked. He set the bowls of cat food in the pen, and the room filled with contented purrs and munching. Charlie beamed. Cats were his favorite animals, and whenever he had time he went to the Egyptian room to pet them and play. Cat fishing with a feather on a string was the best game ever! Smudge and Cookie were really good at it, but soon they would be going home.

“I wish I had a cat of my very own that I never had to say good-bye to.” Charlie sighed as he shut the door.

Down the hall, Meg carried a tray of bowls into a room that had been painted to look like a forest. Buddy the boxer, Daisy the West Highland white terrier, and Max the dachshund were ready for their breakfast. There was a chorus of happy woofs when Meg opened the door! Buddy began to drool, Daisy jumped up and down, and Max waggled his long body from nose to tail.

“I’ll be back later to groom you and take you for a walk,” Meg promised the three doggie guests as they gobbled down their food.

Once the dogs and cats had been fed, the twins met back at the dumbwaiter.

“My turn!” said Charlie. He tugged on the rope until the little elevator reached the fourth floor, then he and Meg raced up the stairs to meet it. The rest of the breakfasts were for the guests in the old playroom, which had been converted to look like a summer meadow.

The guinea pigs snuffled a greeting as Meg fed them and checked to make sure that their water bottle was full. Charlie put a dish full of pellets into the rabbit run, then picked some fresh dandelion leaves from the wooden trough under the window. Clover the rabbit wiggled her nose in delight.

“It’s fun feeding our littlest guests!” Meg commented as she held out a dandelion stalk to a red-eyed guinea pig named Ruby. She smiled as Ruby nibbled it up like a string of spaghetti.

They’d just finished giving the pets their breakfast when the hotel doorbell rang.

“NEW GUEST!” Meg and Charlie shouted together.

They rushed downstairs as Mom answered the door. It was Carmen, who ran the cupcake stall at the farmers’ market. She was carrying a box in one hand and a cat carrier in the other. Buster bounded up to the door, wagging his tail in greeting.

“Good morning!” Carmen smiled, handing the box to Charlie. “Some cupcakes for you all, as thanks for watching Matilda,” she said.

“Ooh, thanks!” Meg and Charlie exclaimed. They crouched down to greet the big tabby cat in the carrier as Mom checked the booking on the computer. Charlie tried to tickle the cat through the bars, but Matilda turned away.

“She’s staying for one night while I go to my cousin’s wedding,” Carmen was explaining. “But I’m worried about leaving her. About a month ago she started getting chubby — and yesterday I gave her a new catnip mouse, and she didn’t want to play with it. That’s not like Matilda at all.”

“We’ll take good care of her,” Charlie reassured Carmen.

“It’s fun to stay at Pet Hotel,” Meg added. “Maybe she’ll make friends with another guest. That will cheer her up!”