A Kitten Called Tiger

Tiger’s adventure in next-door’s garden was going to become part of their family history, Ava realized. She told the story to Mum and Dad as soon as they got back. And then to Jess on the way to school on Monday, Mrs Atkins during registration and all her friends at break. When Dad came home that night he said he’d told everyone at work about her heroic rescue. Ava didn’t feel very heroic, though. After she’d finally got back down the ladder, she’d suddenly started shaking. She never, ever wanted to go up one again.

Ava was pretty sure it wasn’t going to be the last time they would have to rescue Tiger, either. But hopefully he wouldn’t try getting into Charlie and Max’s garden again, not after his huge scare.

The other good thing about Tiger’s adventure was that it seemed to have made Bel and Lucy understand that Tiger had to be looked after and kept safe. Lucy was a little too young to understand properly but she was still big enough to run and tell someone if she saw Tiger out in the front garden, or on the wall between the garden and the alleyway. Ava felt like the three of them were a team.

Perhaps it was because everyone was watching out for him so carefully, or perhaps he was keeping to the safety of the house after having such a fright, but Tiger behaved beautifully all that week. He didn’t get stuck anywhere. He was always around whenever anybody called for him. He didn’t even sneak out into the front garden and worry Mum by gazing at the road.

But then on Sunday, exactly a week after his great escape, Tiger disappeared again.

Ava had been working on a project for school – it had to be in soon, so she spent all of Sunday afternoon drawing pictures of Mayan headdresses and copying out chocolate recipes. She didn’t notice that she hadn’t seen Tiger. Bel had a birthday party and Lucy was cross because she didn’t. It wasn’t until Dad started making dinner and got out the cat food to feed Tiger that everyone realized they had no idea where the kitten was.

“Ava? Is Tiger up there with you?” Dad called up the stairs.

Ava came out on to the landing. “No. I haven’t seen him since lunchtime.” She looked at her watch. “He hasn’t come in for his tea?”

Dad smiled up at her. “I’m sure he’ll turn up in a minute. Don’t worry, Ava.”

Ava went back to her project but she couldn’t concentrate. After spending ten minutes writing one sentence, she went downstairs. “Dad, is he back?”

“No,” her dad admitted. “I went out in the garden and called, and I had a quick look around the front, too.”

“Shall I go and check again?”

“All right, but don’t go far. It’s getting dark.”

Ava let herself out of the front door and started to walk along the pavement, calling to Tiger. She hoped that any moment she’d see a little stripey cat racing along the road towards her.

“Ava, what are you doing out here?” Mum and Bel had pulled up in the car outside the house, and Ava hurried over to them.

“We can’t find Tiger! Mum, shall I ring Megan’s doorbell? Just to check he’s not in her garden again.”

“Let’s do that,” Mum murmured, following Ava up their neighbour’s path, with Bel clinging to her hand.

Megan answered the door straight away, smiling until she noticed Ava’s anxious face. “What’s wrong, Ava? Oh no, the dogs haven’t chased Tiger again, have they?” She looked down at Max and Charlie, who were bouncing about by her feet.

Ava had told Megan all about the rescue mission – Mum had taken her round the following day to say sorry for climbing over the wall. Megan had said it was an emergency and she would have done exactly the same. She said Ava was very brave and she’d given Mum a spare key to the gate in case it happened again.

“We can’t find him!” Ava gasped. “Tiger’s always back for tea, always!”

“Megan, you couldn’t have a quick look in your garden, could you?” Mum asked.

“Of course. Here, you two, in here, come on.” Megan shut the dogs into her living room. “I’ll just go and see. Hold on a minute.”

Ava waited, breathing fast. She wasn’t sure what she wanted Megan to say. If the dogs had chased Tiger again, he would be so scared. But if he wasn’t in her garden, it meant that they had no idea where he was…

Tiger had jumped on to the wall between the garden and the alleyway. It was a jump that he’d only just got big enough to do – he had to leap on to the back of the garden bench and then up on to the wall, and it was a tough scramble. But once he was up there, he could walk along it all the way down the side of the house to the front garden and the street. Then he could sit on the wall and watch people and cars going past, or even jump down on to the pavement. There were all sorts of interesting smells out there and a tree in the garden next door that was always full of sparrows. Tiger had never caught a bird – but of course he was going to keep trying.

That afternoon the sparrows were particularly loud and they kept fluttering about in the bush outside Megan’s house in a most fascinating way. Tiger hopped from Ava’s front wall down on to Megan’s and prowled along to be closer to the tree.

But he wasn’t quick enough, or quiet enough. The sparrows heard the little thump as he dropped down and they flew away, scolding shrilly.

Tiger stood on the wall, staring at the empty bush. Then he simply pretended that he hadn’t been trying to chase the sparrows at all and leaped down on to the pavement.

He stalked along crossly, wondering if he could work out where the sparrows had fluttered away to. He was thinking about the birds and not paying that much attention to anything else.

“Hey!” All of a sudden, there was a strange hissing noise behind him, followed by a squeal and an angry shout. Tiger darted out of the way with a yowl of fright as a bike skimmed past him. The rider’s leg brushed against the kitten, shoving him sideways. Tiger shot away down the pavement but he was so scared that he ran right past his house and into the alleyway. He’d never been down the path before but he didn’t care. He just wanted to get away from the bike and the angry rider.

Tiger dashed along the alleyway but it didn’t feel far enough. He had to go up. If he was up high, he would be safe. No one would be able to catch him. He leaped and scrambled up into one of the tall trees. Still shaking from fright, Tiger kept climbing, higher and higher. He had to get as far up as he possibly could.

At last he stopped, crouched on a branch right at the top of the tree. Trembling all over, he gazed out into the darkening night.