“Coming to get him? No, you are not!” Gran said, sounding horrified. “You can’t get over there, Ava!”
“I’m not leaving him! Even if we call Mum and Dad, that food fair they went to is an hour away on the train. We can’t leave him that long, Gran. The dogs…” Ava’s voice wobbled. “They’re really friendly and nice normally but you can hear how excited they are. What if he scratches one of them and they snap at him?”
Gran stared at her uncertainly and then flinched as one of the dogs let out another loud bark. “All right. I suppose we do have to do something. But I don’t see what, Ava. You can only just see over the wall – you can’t get up there and you certainly can’t jump down on to the other side. Then you’ll be in the garden with those fierce dogs!”
“They aren’t fierce, Gran, honestly. I see them almost every day with Megan and I’ve even helped her take them for walks. They’re barking because of Tiger, that’s all.”
“And how are you going to get back again?”
Ava scrambled down from the table. “Dad’s ladder. I should have thought of it before. It’s in the shed. I can climb up on to the top of the wall, and then pull it up after me and put it down on the other side. It’ll be fine, Gran.” Ava crossed her fingers hopefully behind her back. “I do stuff like this in gymnastics club all the time.”
“Throwing ladders around?” Gran muttered. “Get the ladder, Ava, and let me see how stable it is. You won’t have anyone to hold it on the other side. Oh, maybe I should just have rung your mother…”
Ava threw open the shed door and grabbed the ladder. Luckily it was right by the door and she didn’t have to face the enormous spiders that lived in the shed. And it was lighter than it looked, too. She carried the ladder back down the garden and set it up by the wall.
Gran, Lucy and Bel caught hold of it, and Ava climbed up, trying to ignore the wobbling and creaking, and the thumping of her heart. “I’m going to climb on top of the wall now,” she said, refusing to let her voice shake. “And then can you help me pull up the ladder, Gran?”
“Be careful,” Bel called. “Please don’t fall off, Ava!”
“I won’t.” Ava hugged the top of the wall and lifted her closest leg over so that she was sitting with one leg either side. Just like the beam at gymnastics, except a bit higher up, that was all… She reached down and pulled the ladder up behind, feeling grateful that it was so light.
“I’m coming, Tiger,” she murmured, looking over at the huddled pile of brown fur by the gate. “Don’t be scared. It’s going to be OK.”
The dogs were very confused. They had a cat in their garden and now somebody was climbing over the wall, too. They circled between Ava on the wall and Tiger by the gate, barking at both of them but wagging their tails at Ava – they knew her, even if she wasn’t usually in their garden.
“Good dogs,” Ava said, trying to sound calm. “Hi, Charlie. Good boy, Max. I’ll be gone in a minute. I’m just coming to get Tiger. We’ll both be out of here soon.”
She rocked the ladder gently, trying to see if it was nice and steady – but Megan’s patio was gravel, not solid paving slabs like in her garden, and the ladder kept shifting. Ava gritted her teeth and climbed on to it anyway. She wasn’t giving up now. It swayed and wobbled, and Ava closed her eyes and jumped. The ladder fell over with a crash and there was a wail from the other side of the wall. Lucy and Bel were crying.
“Ava! Ava! What happened?” Gran called frantically.
“I just jumped off the last bit of the ladder. I’m fine, Gran, I promise. Tell Lucy and Bel I’m OK. Down, Charlie! Down, Max!” Ava hurried across the garden to the fence, the dogs getting under her feet as she ran.
“Poor Tiger!” She scooped him up and pressed her face against his soft coat. “Come on. We’re getting out of here,” she whispered to the little kitten. “I’ve got him, Gran!” she called.
She dashed back to the ladder, pushing it back close against the wall with her free hand. The dogs stood watching, occasionally waving their tails – they’d probably never had such an exciting afternoon, Ava thought.
Tiger wriggled a little, realizing that he was safely away from the dogs. He was with Ava. He was almost home! He didn’t understand what had happened but the terror that had gripped him as the dogs chased him down the garden slowly began to slip away.
Ava reached up and gently placed him on top of the wall. Tiger stood there for a moment, gazing down at next-door’s garden and the dogs. Then he looked back at Ava, as she cautiously climbed the ladder.
“Can you get back up?” Gran called.
“I’m coming,” Ava said, as she reached the top of the ladder and pulled herself up on to the wall. “Oooh. Ow.”
“Ava?” Bel cried anxiously.
“Don’t worry. I just scratched my arms a bit.” Ava gave Tiger a stroke and waved down to Gran and her sisters. “It’s all OK!”
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.