Lulu and the Hamster in the Night by Hilary McKay Page A

with bulging eyes. It yawned, showing curving orange teeth. Next Lulu and Mellie saw a ginger body with a bare patch of skin in the middle and last of all, a short hairless tail.
    Then Lulu and Mellie and the ginger-colored animal all had a good stare at one another. While they were doing this, Lulu’s mother came out.
    â€œWhat’s that ?” she asked.

    â€œIt’s a hamster,” Lulu replied, and she explained about Emma Pond and Emma Pond’s bitten finger and the field and the rabbits and the way Emma Pond had shrugged when Lulu had asked what happened to them.
    â€œWell,” said Lulu’s mother at the end of all this, “I don’t see what else you could do but bring the poor little animal home! What’s its name?”
    â€œRatty!” said Mellie.
    â€œOh,” said Lulu’s mother. “Oh!” And then she had another look in the cage and said, “Oh. I wonder what Nan will say.”
    Nan was the grandmother that Lulu and Mellie shared. She was the best nan in the world. She lived on the other side of town from Lulu and Mellie, but she came to see them often. She was little and pretty and clever and she never complained. Not when Mellie visited and her artwork overflowed from her bedroom, down the stairs, through the kitchen, and across the hall in a trail of glitter and painty splashes and chopped-up paper. Nor when Lulu visited and left wet animals on the sofa and jam jars of wandering caterpillars on the bathroom windowsill.

    But Nan didn’t like hamsters much. She didn’t like the way they moved so quickly. She didn’t like the small sharp nails on their starfish paws. She didn’t like their raindrop eyes or their twitchy noses or their strange pink tails with the skin showing through the fur.

    Hamsters made Nan shiver.

    â€œPerhaps we shouldn’t tell Nan about Ratty,” Lulu said to her mom. “Not at first.”
    â€œFirst,” said Lulu’s mother, “before he meets anyone, he needs a clean cage.”
    Ratty seemed to agree. He grabbed the bars of his cage door with his long orange teeth and rattled them furiously.
    â€œI’ll do it now,” said Lulu, and she did, while Mellie watched from a safe distance and did not help. Mellie liked animals, but not enough to scrub out their cages. That was why she didn’t have any pets. She didn’t mind playing with them, though. She built Ratty a cardboard-box maze to explore while Lulu scrubbed. It had cardboard-tunnel tubes, and boxes to climb in and out of, and peanut treasure to be discovered, and Ratty seemed to enjoy it very much.

    The cage was beautifully clean by the time Lulu’s father came home from work. He laughed at the hamster’s name and said he had once known a dog called Tiger.
    â€œBut he’s not the best-looking beast in the world, is he?” Lulu’s father asked.
    â€œI’m glad he’s not mine,” agreed Mellie. “I don’t like his teeth and I don’t like his tail.”
    â€œHe needs something to gnaw,” Lulu said. “His teeth won’t look so scary when he’s worn them down a little. And soon you won’t notice his tail.”
    â€œIf Nan sees him she will notice his tail,” said Mellie. “And she’ll scream.”
    â€œShe won’t see him,” said Lulu.

Chapter Two
    Taming Ratty
    Lulu wanted to put Ratty’s cage in her
bedroom, but her mom and dad did not
like the idea.
    â€œWhy not the shed?” they asked. “He
could make friends with the guinea pigs.”
    â€œThey’d never let him,” said Lulu. “Guinea pigs are only ever friends with other guinea pigs. You let me keep my old hamster in my bedroom.”
    â€œHe was very small,” said her mum. “And he didn’t smell.”
    â€œHe did,” said Lulu. “He had a lovely hamster smell! It’s nice having an animal living in your bedroom. Lots of