“Bye!” Ava and Jess led the way round the corner to the alleyway that went past the woods. It went almost all the way to their school and Lucy’s nursery. It was a bit wild, with overgrown hedges and nettles and other weeds growing up round the big trees, but because there were no cars, it meant she and Jess could walk on ahead and their mums didn’t mind.
“Oooh, look, blackberries!” Jess reached into the bush to pick a couple and passed one to Ava. “So, is Tiger ginger with stripes?”
“No, he’s brown – golden brown, with really black stripes. And the tip of his tail’s black, too, like he dipped it in a pot of paint.”
“Awww… Is he cuddly? I suppose he’s a bit shy still.”
“He was when he arrived,” Ava agreed. “But he loves playing so much, he forgets to be nervous around us. And he’s really adventurous! When we first saw him at his old house he was on top of a bookcase and yesterday he climbed up the kitchen wallpaper and got stuck!”
Jess giggled. “He sounds like he’s going to get into trouble!”
Ava nodded. “I know. I love it that he’s so bouncy and full of energy but I’m a bit worried about what he might do next!”
“Look, Tiger.” Ava put her hand through the cat flap and wiggled it about. Now that the kitten had had all his vaccinations, he was allowed to go outside. Ava couldn’t wait. She really wanted to see Tiger out in the garden for the first time. She was sure he was going to love having more space to explore.
Jess had been right about the kitten being trouble. Tiger already went everywhere in the house – and that meant everywhere. He seemed to be able to squeeze into the smallest space and scramble up the tallest piece of furniture. He’d even managed to jump from the bookcase in Ava’s bedroom to the top of her bedroom door. Then he’d sat there, looking a bit confused, as if he wasn’t quite sure what he was meant to do next. Dad had lifted him down but Ava had a feeling it wouldn’t be long before he tried again. Tiger just seemed to love being high up.
Ava let the cat flap bang shut again and looked at Tiger. He didn’t seem to be getting it. He stared back at her. He wasn’t sure if this was some new sort of game. Ava was good at playing with him – she would roll a ball around for ages, or bounce his cat-dancer toy up and down. But now all she seemed to want to do was bang at this strange hole in the door.
Suddenly his ears pricked up and his whiskers twitched. He had caught a whiff of fresh air floating through the cat flap. The scent of outside, where he hadn’t been allowed to go. He’d tried to get out, of course, hovering behind people as they went into the garden and sneaking after them, but they always caught him. He’d even got as far as the back step once, when Lucy nearly fell over and Mum was paying attention to her instead of watching the door. But then Mum had scooped him up while he was still staring out at the open stretch of grass.
“Come on, Tiger! You can go out,” Ava told him, lifting the flap right up. “It’s your own special door. Charlie and Max have one just like it, so they can get out while Megan’s at work.”
Tiger crept up to the cat flap and then jumped back as he saw Lucy peering through it from the garden.
“When’s he coming out?” she demanded.
“He was about to!” Ava said. “You scared him!”
Lucy stomped away and Tiger poked his nose through the flap, looking out at the garden. It smelled so good, and he could hear birds scratching and fluttering in the bushes by the back door. He twitched his tail and hopped suddenly through the flap – so suddenly that Ava squeaked in surprise, and had to scramble up and open the door to follow him.
“He’s out,” she called to Mum, who was pushing Bel on the swing. “Look at him!”
Tiger prowled along the patio, stopping every few steps to sniff at a leaf or watch an ant scurrying between his paws. Then he walked into a patch of bright autumn sunlight, feeling its warm glow on his fur. He sat down for a moment, closing his eyes and letting the warmth soak in. Then he lay down and rolled over, his paws in the air. He blinked lazily as a bee buzzed past but couldn’t be bothered to leap up and chase it.
Mum laughed. “He looks blissed out.”
“It’s good, isn’t it?” Ava said, sitting down next to Tiger. “And now you can go out whenever you like,” she told him.
“Not for too long this first time, though,” Mum said. “Remember what it said in the cat care book. We need to take him back inside for his tea, so he learns that it’s a good thing to come back home. We don’t want him to wander off and get lost. And we’ll need to keep the cat flap locked when we’re not around, at least to start with.”
Ava nodded. “I don’t think he’s big enough to get out of the garden yet, though. Megan’s walls are too high and there’s no holes underneath, because she doesn’t want Charlie and Max escaping. And there’s the wall between our garden and the alleyway on the other side. Tiger’s not big enough to jump on to that.”
“I don’t think it’s going to be long,” Mum murmured. “He’s such a good climber.”
“I know.” Ava sighed.
“This is really nice, Gran.” Ava nibbled a piece of popcorn and snuggled up next to Grandma Shirley. “We should do this more often!”
“Definitely,” her gran agreed. “We just have to persuade your mum and dad. It’s very special for them to have a day out together.”
“Shh!” Lucy glared at them. “Don’t talk!”
Ava and Gran exchanged a look. Because Lucy was the littlest, she seemed to think she had to be extra bossy.
“Where’s Tiger?” Bel asked, in a whisper. “I wanted him to sit on me while we watch the film.”
Ava smiled at her. “Do you want me to go and get him? He’s in his basket.”
“Please!” Bel whispered back. Gran was smiling, too – she loved Tiger. She’d told Ava she thought he was the cleverest kitten she’d ever seen.
Ava hurried into the kitchen but there was no stripey kitten in the basket. She looked around the room – she even checked the top of the door, just in case. Tiger seemed to find pawholds where she couldn’t even imagine them. He must have gone upstairs, she thought, or perhaps he was out in the garden. Now he’d been allowed out for a few weeks, they left the cat flap unlocked in the daytime so he could go out by himself. She opened the back door and leaned out, calling, “Tiger! Tiger!”
She’d expected that he would leap out of the bushes by the back door. He loved lurking in there, watching the birds hopping about in the branches.
“Tiger!” Ava called again. But there was no answering mew, only Charlie and Max barking in the garden next door. Barking a lot, actually, Ava thought, wondering what was the matter. Megan worked on Saturdays, in one of the department stores in town, so the dogs were on their own.
“Hey, Charlie! Hey, Max,” she called over the wall. “Shh… What’s wrong?”
It was as if the dogs didn’t even hear her. They just kept on barking.
Ava bit her lip, suddenly worried. She dashed back indoors and up the stairs, checking all the bedrooms to see if Tiger was curled up on someone’s bed. But he wasn’t. Ava leaned out of Lucy and Bel’s bedroom window, trying to look down into Megan’s garden but the wall was in the way. She could only see the back end of the garden and she knew the dogs were nearer the house – she’d heard them close to the back door.