The Pet Detective has his work cut out when his favourite football goes missing. With his dog, Rooney, he sets out to follow the clues; an open window; a missing football; a dirty big footprint; a bubblegum wrapper and a rustle in the bushes. It isn't long before the Pet Detective has located the culprit.

* Gold/Band 9 fiction books offer developing readers literary language and stories with distinctive characters.

* Text type - A story by the same author.

* A storyboard on pages 22 and 23 provides an opportunity for children to retell the story in their own words.

* Curriculum links - Citizenship: Animals and us.

* Tortoise Trouble is another Pet Detective story by Jana Hunter in the Collins Big Cat series.

* This book has been levelled for Reading Recovery.

* This book has been quizzed for Accelerated Reader.