Smudge Тhe Stolen Kitten

Chapter Eight

Smudge woke up, shivering. Although he had huddled himself into the pile of dustsheets, it was freezing inside the garage. He felt so cold he could hardly move. At last he stood up gingerly, stretching out his paws and fluffing up his fur to keep himself as warm as possible. He was sure that he was colder because he was so hungry. The last food he’d had was the sandwich in that boy’s bag yesterday afternoon, and now he felt horribly empty.

It was getting light. There were dirty, greyish windows at the top of the walls, just under the roof, and a little watery sunshine was fighting its way in. Somehow it made Smudge feel more cheerful, even if it wasn’t making him much warmer. In the light he could see that the garage was full of piles of old junk – bits of cars and bikes, piles of pots of paint, and lots of dust. Last night it had just been strange shapes that wobbled when he scurried past them. It was all a lot less scary in the daylight.

He jumped down from his pile of dust sheets, his legs still stiff and achy from the cold, and started to search for a way out. Last night, with the rain pouring down, the garage had at least been a shelter. Now it was stopping him going home to Olivia, and he was determined to escape. Surely now it was lighter he would be able to find another hole somewhere? Smudge made his way along the wall, sniffing and nudging at the concrete blocks.

Edging round the side of a large box, his whiskers twitched hopefully as he spotted a little light coming through a crack at the bottom of the wall. He nosed at it eagerly, and then his whiskers drooped again. It was such a very small gap. But he had to try. The rest of the walls were made from solid concrete blocks, but here one of the blocks seemed to have broken, and it had been patched up with a metal sheet on the outside. If he wriggled into the dark gap between the blocks, there was a tiny hole. Perhaps if he clawed at it for a while, it might give way?

Smudge scrabbled hopefully, his tiny claws making an eerie screeching noise against the rough metal sheet. He scratched and scraped for what seemed like ages, till his claws ached, but when he stopped and pressed his nose against the hole, it didn’t seem to have got any bigger at all…

“Olivia! What time is it?” Dad moaned.

“Um, half-past five. You said we’d get up early and go straight round to Rob’s!”

“I meant more like seven…” Dad murmured wearily.

“Go back to bed until half-past six,” Mum added. “We can’t go and wake up Rob’s family this early.”

Olivia sighed. She supposed Mum was right. But she had been lying awake since five, watching her bedroom get lighter and lighter. As soon as it seemed to be light enough to search for a kitten, she had got up.

She mooched back into her room, and lay down on her bed. She wasn’t going to be able to go back to sleep. Instead she grabbed a notebook from her bedside table, and started to make a list of things it would be useful to take with them on the search.

A torch, in case they had to look anywhere dark, Olivia thought. Under a shed or something like that. Smudge’s favourite snacks. He really liked the little heart-shaped chicken ones. Olivia had done a taste test on five different sorts, and he always went for the chicken ones first. If he was stuck up a tree or anything like that, he would definitely come down for them.

What else? Olivia chewed the end of her pencil. A ladder? She wasn’t sure Dad would want to carry one around.

“Oh, you’re awake!” Mum put her head round Olivia’s door. Olivia gazed up at her. Of course she was! How could she go back to sleep?

“Can I get up?” she asked eagerly.

Mum nodded. “Yes. But we’re not going anywhere until you’ve had some breakfast. Just a quick bowl of cereal, that’s all,” she added, seeing Olivia was about to moan. “If you eat, you’ll be able to hunt for him better.”

Olivia dressed quickly, and then ran downstairs to gulp down the bowl of cereal that Mum insisted on. Then she fetched the torch and the snacks, and stood by the front door, waiting impatiently for Mum and Dad and Ben.

“What about Lucie?” she asked Mum, who was putting on her coat.

“I’ve texted her mum. It’s still only seven-thirty, Olivia, I didn’t want to get her out of bed. But I’ve told her where we’ll be; she can call my mobile if she and Lucie want to come.”

Dad gave an enormous yawn. “Everyone ready?”

They met Rob’s dad halfway down Rob’s road, crouching down to look under a big wheelie bin.

“No luck yet then?” Mum asked.

He shook his head. “Not yet. But he can’t have gone far. I’m really sorry about this. Rob feels terrible. He’s looking further up the road with his mum.”

So he should! Olivia thought. But being furious with Rob didn’t really help.

She and Ben and Mum and Dad set off up the road, calling and peering over fences. Olivia kept shaking the treats, hoping to see a little grey kitten dash eagerly towards her, like he did at home.

Half an hour later, they were back outside Rob’s house, and everyone looked rather hopeless. Especially Rob. It seemed as though he’d been crying, and Olivia almost felt sorry for him.

“Not a sign,” Dad said, frowning. “And none of the people we asked had spotted him.”

“Should we go further? The next street?” Rob’s mum asked doubtfully.

“Oh, look!” Mum pointed down the road.

“What is it? Can you see him?” Olivia gasped.

“Sorry, Olivia. It’s Lucie, down at the end of the road, with her mum.”

Lucie came runninng up the road as soon as she spotted Olivia. “We’ll find him,” she promised, seeing her friend’s miserable face and hugging her tightly.

“I’m sure we will,” her mum agreed, as they reached the little crowd outside Rob’s house. “There’s lots of us looking now.”

Everyone was still discussing where to look next.

“He couldn’t still be in your garden, hidden away?” Olivia suggested.

“We looked. We really did,” Rob mumbled.

But his mum nodded. “We did, but if Smudge was frightened, he might have hidden himself. Maybe if Ben and Olivia went and called him? It’s worth a try, anyway.” She led them down the side of the house and into the back garden, and went inside to make some tea for everyone.

“Smudge! Smudge!” Olivia shook the cat treats again and again, and Ben jingled Smudge’s favourite ball. Lucie walked around the garden searching under all the bushes. But Smudge didn’t appear. The garden was so quiet and empty.

I don’t think we’re ever going to find him, Olivia thought, staring sadly at the house. She knew Smudge had been here just last night, but he hadn’t left even the tiniest clue. “Is that your window?” she asked Rob, who was lurking on the patio. She could see football stickers on a window that looked desperately high up. Had Smudge really climbed out of there?

Lucie gulped. “That’s so high!”

Rob nodded miserably. “I think he must have jumped into that tree.”

The girls went over to look at it. It was a plum tree – they could see the odd fruit still left at the top of the branches. It filled the gap between the house and the fence, and some of the branches spilled over the other side.

“What’s over there?” Ben asked, trying to scramble up and grab the top of the fence.

“Just some old garages and stuff. There’s an alley that runs from the road behind ours,” Rob said. “But the fence is really solid. He couldn’t have got under it. He must have gone round the side of the house and out the front.”

But Olivia stared at the tree and the fence, thoughtfully. “What if he didn’t go under the fence? Couldn’t he have gone over it?”

“Of course not, look how tall it is…” Ben trailed off. “Oh! From the tree!”

Olivia nodded. “How do we get round there?”

Rob lead them round the side of the house, and Ben popped his head through the back door to explain they were going to look in the alleyway.

“We’ll just be five minutes,” he said quickly, and they vanished into the alley before anyone had time to stop them.

“Why didn’t we think of it before?” Rob muttered, as they hurried off. “We just thought he must have gone out the front way.”

The alley ran along halfway between Rob’s house and the one next door, but they had to go into the next street to get into it. It was very narrow, with a row of tumbledown old garages – and lots of hiding places for a kitten.

“Smudge!” Olivia tore the treats packet open with her teeth, and shook out a handful.

Inside the garage, Smudge was pacing up and down by the hole in the wall. He had to keep trying – he had to get out! He scraped determinedly at the metal sheet, ignoring his sore paws. Then his ears pricked up suddenly as he heard the sound of a familiar voice. Was that Olivia? Had she come to find him? He scrabbled furiously at the wall again, trying to show her where he was.

“Hey, what was that?” Lucie said suddenly. “Something scratching!”

Everyone froze, holding their breath, waiting for the sound again.

“I can’t hear anything!” Ben hissed.

“Shh! Listen, there it is again!” Lucie whispered.

Olivia jumped, dropping half the treats on the ground. “I heard it too! It must be him. Smudge, where are you?” she called.

There was silence for a minute, and then a loud, desperate meow.

“It is! It is! Where is he? Smudge, we’re coming to find you!” Olivia called, running towards the garages.

Inside the garage, Smudge scrabbled at the metal again. He could hear Olivia! She’d come to find him. Furiously he scraped and scratched, mewing as loudly as he could. He had to make them hear him!

“Which one is it?” Ben asked.

“The one at the end, I think,” Rob said, smiling for the first time that morning. “He must be stuck somehow, he’s trying to get out.”

Olivia pushed her way past him, and crouched down by the garage wall. “He’s here somewhere. Smudge… Smudge…”

A little grey paw suddenly stuck out from a hole in the concrete wall, where it had been patched together.

“He’s there! I saw him. Oh, Smudge, we’ve missed you!” Olivia stroked the grubby little paw. “Look, his claws are all torn where he’s been trying to get out.” She sniffed, choking back sudden tears.

“How are we going to get him out?” Ben asked. “That hole isn’t nearly big enough.”

“What about this?” Rob held up a thick stick, which he’d found lying on the grass. “Couldn’t we use it to pull that metal away a bit more?” He banged gently on the metal sheet, and the paw shot back inside as Smudge jumped back in fright.

“Don’t scare him!” Olivia snapped.

Rob shook his head. “I had to, Olivia. If he was right behind the metal, I might hurt his paws with the stick.”

“Oh.” Olivia nodded.

Rob hooked the stick into the hole, and pulled. There was a creaking noise, and the thin metal bent a little.

“It’s getting bigger! Here, I’ll pull too.” Ben added his weight to the stick, and Olivia knelt down by the hole.

“Don’t be scared, Smudge, you’ll be out of there in a minute.”

“There!” Ben said triumphantly. “That must be big enough. Good plan, Rob!”

Inside the garage, Smudge blinked at the hole, his whiskers quivering excitedly. He could hear Olivia. He edged forward, squeezing himself tightly against the concrete block, and suddenly tumbled forward out of the hole, and into Olivia’s hands.

“Oh, Smudge, we’ve been looking everywhere.” Olivia snuggled the kitten up against her chin, laughing and crying at the same time.

“Hey! You’ve found him!” Olivia’s dad came running up the alley, with all the others hurrying behind him.

“He’s fine,” Olivia told them. “Just a bit dirty. He was stuck in that garage.”

“We moved that bit of metal,” Ben explained. “It was Rob who thought of it.”

“But he wouldn’t have run off and got stuck if I hadn’t taken him first,” Rob muttered. “I’ll never do anything that stupid again, I promise.”

“You’re just lucky that you found him,” his dad pointed out grimly.

“I know it was all my fault,” Rob muttered. “I said I’m really sorry, Dad.”

“I think you’d better give some of your pocket money to the Rescue Centre by way of apology,” his mum suggested, and Rob nodded.

Olivia looked over at Rob. “He only did it because he really wants a cat of his own,” she murmured.

Rob’s dad sighed. “Well, maybe when he proves he can be sensible enough to look after a kitten, he can have one. Which will take a long time!”

Olivia turned to Rob. “Rob, do you want to stroke Smudge too?”

Rob ran a gentle finger down the back of Smudge’s head.

“Thanks,” he whispered.

Now she had Smudge snuggled up and purring in her arms again, Olivia felt like she could forgive anything. Smudge pressed closer against her, looking nervously at Rob.

“It’s OK, Smudge.” She tickled him under the chin. “Rob’s not going to hurt you.” She smiled at Rob, only a small smile, but she got a huge one back.

Lucie reached out to rub Smudge’s ears. “He’s gorgeous. You’re so lucky, Olivia!”

Olivia smiled. She was. Lucky to have Smudge – and even more lucky to have him back safe.