A Kitten Called Tiger

“No one’s seen him at all?” Dad asked, as Mum and Ava came back in. He’d been putting Lucy and Bel to bed while Mum and Ava went out searching for Tiger.

“No. But it’s eight o’clock. Ava needs to go to bed.”

“I don’t want to!” Ava protested. “Honestly, Mum, there’s no way I could sleep now, when we still don’t know where Tiger is.”

“You’ve got school tomorrow. No, Ava, I’m not arguing, it’s bedtime. I promise Dad and I will keep looking up and down the street. We’ll take turns. And we’ve asked all the neighbours, remember. If anyone sees Tiger, they’ll call us.”

“He hasn’t been missing that long,” Dad pointed out. “Only a few hours, since after lunch sometime.”

“Dad! He never, ever misses tea!” Ava pressed her hands to her eyes. She’d been trying really hard not to cry – she knew it wouldn’t help – but she was so tired and frightened. And if she was frightened, how was Tiger feeling? What if he was lost or hurt?

“I know some cats stay away for ages,” she went on, her voice shaking. “But Tiger doesn’t. He’s still only little and he loves home! He does stupid things but he doesn’t go off a long way away. He might be trapped somewhere. Or maybe he’s been hit by a car!” She couldn’t hold back her tears any more.

Mum pulled her into a hug. “Ava, sweetie. I know you’re scared. But it’s too soon to panic like this. Dad’s right. Tiger will probably pop through the cat flap in an hour or so, looking like he’s never been away. And you can’t stay up any longer. Come on. Bed.”

Mum shooed Ava up the stairs and she went to her room, dragging her feet all the way. She couldn’t imagine that she’d ever sleep. She was far too worried. She put on her pyjamas and trailed into the bathroom to do her teeth, all the time straining her ears for the bang of the cat flap. It didn’t come. She climbed into bed and lay there, crying silently into her pillow.

“Ava! Ava!”

She must have fallen asleep, Ava realized. If she hadn’t, no one would need to be waking her up…

That was Bel, Ava thought sleepily. And there seemed to be something heavy weighing down her feet. She sat up, blinking. Her room was still dark but she could see, just a little, by the nightlight on the landing. “What’s the matter? It’s not time to get up…” she whispered.

“We’re worried,” Bel told her.

The strange heavy lump on Ava’s feet turned out to be Lucy, sitting on the end of the bed. “Worried…” she echoed.

“About Tiger?” Ava sighed. “Me, too.”

“You have to find him, Ava,” Bel said seriously. “You rescued him from Charlie and Max. You climbed over the wall! I want him back. And so does Lucy.”

“We’ll look for him again tomorrow before school,” Ava said, trying to sound confident. “I bet we’ll find him.”

“Do you promise?” Bel demanded.

“Um.” Ava swallowed hard. How could she promise? But Bel and Lucy looked so scared. “I promise…” she whispered.

Tiger stretched and shivered. He was so cold, he ached. He had spent the night huddled up on his branch, sleeping every so often but then being shocked awake as he remembered the bike nearly running him over.

He desperately wanted to go back home to Ava and his family, and have them stroke him and snuggle up with him and make him feel safe. But he didn’t dare go back down the tree, even though he felt so terribly hungry. It was starting to get light now – it felt like breakfast time, except that he’d missed his dinner so his stomach was doubly empty. He needed a drink, too…

Tiger gazed down through the early morning mist. He could just make out the road from up here. The occasional car zoomed past, making him shrink back against the tree trunk but they never came anywhere close. And there was no sign of the man on the bike. Perhaps it was safe to climb down now?

Tiger stood up cautiously. The cold seemed to have made it harder to know what he was doing – his paws didn’t feel quite right and he shook as he tried to walk a little way along the branch. He dug in his claws and clung on, suddenly feeling the wind blowing through the tree and shaking the branches. Until now he had felt safe up in the tree, so far from everything else. He hadn’t thought about getting down.

He had gone up the tree so fast, he hadn’t really thought about anything at all, only escaping. Now that it was light, the ground seemed so far away and he realized that he was higher up than he had ever been before. Far higher up than he wanted to be. Tiger mewed in sudden fright, again and again. He was stuck.

Ava ran out of school, still pulling on her raincoat, with Jess chasing after her. She had spent the whole day watching the hands creeping round the classroom clock, desperate for home time, so she could go and search for Tiger again. Mum had promised that if he turned up, she would ring the office and get the school secretary, Mrs Marshall, to take a message down to Ava and Bel, saying that Tiger was back. There hadn’t been a message, though. Ava had even gone to the office at lunchtime to check, just in case Mrs Marshall had been too busy to come to her class.

Mum had also explained to her teacher, Mrs Atkins, which was good. Otherwise Ava thought she’d probably have got into trouble, as she’d hardly done any work all day. She’d just been waiting and waiting.

She could see Mum and Lucy by the gate but Mum didn’t look happy – she’d probably be jumping up and down and waving if it was good news.

“Did you ask the neighbours again?” Ava burst out, looking up at Mum anxiously.

“I did. Lucy and I went all the way up and down the street, and to the roads close by. And I rang the vet’s but they hadn’t seen him either. That’s good news, Ava. It means –” Mum swallowed – “well, it means he hasn’t been hit by a car and taken there.”

Ava nodded, her eyes filling with tears again. She sniffed. “Yes. That’s good.”

Jess came hurrying up and gave Ava a hug. “We can look for him on the way home. I really want to help and my mum will, too. Mia’s going for tea at Amy’s house.”

Ava’s mum smiled at her. “Thanks, Jess. I’m sorry we didn’t walk with you this morning. We were so late, I ended up dropping the girls in the car – we went looking for Tiger again before breakfast, you see.” She sighed. “Not that you ate anything, Ava. Please tell me you ate your lunch? Dad told me you didn’t have dinner last night, either.”

“I ate a bit,” Ava said. She had – a tiny bit. She just didn’t feel hungry. There was too much worry inside her to fit in food as well.

“There’s Bel.” Mum waved as Bel’s class came out into the playground. Ava went over to the gate and stood a little way away with Jess. She didn’t want to hear Mum explaining to Bel that Tiger was still missing. She’d tried so hard to be brave and to tell Lucy and Bel that it was going to be OK – but she was starting to think that it wasn’t going to be OK at all.

Tiger had watched people going along the path all day long. He’d mewed, hoping they’d look up and see him, and help him get down. But it was a wet, windy day and the few people hurrying by hadn’t heard the sad little noises up above. He was starting to feel desperate. Every time the wind gusted the tree shook, and the branch where he was perched swung up and down.

Where was Ava? Why had he ever gone out into the front garden in the first place? He should have just stayed safe at home with Ava and Lucy and Bel!

There were footsteps again now. But no one was going to hear him – they hadn’t all the other times. Miserably he slunk back along the branch, right up against the trunk of the tree, trying to stay out of the wind.

The footsteps came closer – they were almost under the tree now. And then Tiger’s ears pricked up as he heard a familiar voice.

“I’m sorry, Jess. I’m just so worried about him. If I cry in front of Bel and Lucy they’ll be really upset. They think that because I rescued Tiger before, I’m going to be able to find him.”

“We will find him,” Jess said, giving Ava a quick hug. “I’ll help you make some posters when we get back. He’s probably stuck in someone’s shed.”

“Maybe…”

Tiger sprang up, forgetting for a moment to be scared of the swaying branch. He darted out as far as he could and mewed frantically for Ava.