The cat flap was a clever one that could be locked, or set so Fluff could only go through it one way. It was a pain to fit, though. Ella’s dad had to saw a chunk out of the back door, and it took him ages. When it was finally finished, Ella crouched on the lawn waving the prawn-flavoured cat treats to tempt Fluff through. It didn’t take her long to get the idea, although she looked very surprised when she first tried it. She had her front legs on the doorstep and her back legs in the kitchen, and she wasn’t quite sure where her tummy was. She gave a panicked sort of wriggle, and suddenly all of her was in the garden. Fluff looked round suspiciously, not entirely sure how it had happened.
“Clever Fluff,” Ella whispered, rewarding her with cat treats. “Do you like your new cat flap, mmm? You will be careful though, won’t you?” She scratched Fluff ’s favourite behind-the-ears spot. “You stay close to the garden.” Ella gulped. “No running out into the road, Fluff!”
Fluff purred as Ella petted her. She wasn’t sure she completely understood this cat flap business yet, but it seemed to mean that she could just go out whenever she wanted to! And then get back in again for a snooze in her basket – it sounded brilliant to her, but she could hear in Ella’s voice that she wasn’t completely happy about it. She rubbed herself all round Ella twice in a comforting way, making her giggle. I won’t run away, she promised. Don’t worry.
For the first few days, Fluff kept her expeditions confined to the garden. There was plenty to explore there anyway. Ella had quite a big garden, long and narrow. Her mum loved gardening, and there were big flower beds, which Fluff wasn’t much interested in, but also lots of exciting corners and pockets. Best of all was a tall old apple tree, its branches starting quite low to the ground. Ella had a swing in it, which she loved to sit and daydream on. The apple tree was Fluff ’s first real chance to practise climbing, and it made a brilliant claw-sharpener, too.
But after a little while, Fluff had found all the interesting things in her garden, and she scrambled up the fence to look down at next door. She’d seen Mrs Jones, Ella’s neighbour, before. Ella had held Fluff up to the fence to be admired, and Mrs Jones had commented on her beautiful markings. Fluff hadn’t had a chance to see much of the garden, but now she noticed something very exciting. She plunged down the other side of the fence with an undignified scrabble of claws, and stopped at the bottom for a calming lick of her ruffled fur. Then she set off to investigate. Mrs Jones’s garden had a pond! With fish in it, Fluff soon discovered. She whiled away the rest of the afternoon perched on the rocks by the side of the water, dreamily watching the fish darting to and fro. Was it her imagination, or were they swimming slightly faster, looking a little more worried? Obviously she would need practice, but Fluff was fairly sure that if she dipped a paw in and held it still, she would be able to catch a fish…
Fluff was so interested in the fish that she almost forgot to get back to the house before Ella arrived home from school. She didn’t want Ella to worry that she’d got lost, and of course, she loved to see her. She could always tell when it was nearly time for Ella to be back.
Fluff sprang up from her place on the rocks, and scooted halfway up Mrs Jones’s fence before she’d even realized she was climbing. Then she nearly slid backwards, and had to jab her claws in hard to stay on. Embarrassed, she flung herself up and over and streaked across the lawn to the cat flap. Ella was just coming in the front door, and Mum laughed as Fluff shot through the flap.
“Just in time, Fluff! Oh, you’re all out of breath.”
Fluff glared up at her, and sat down in the middle of the kitchen floor, curling her tail round her legs in a dignified pose. She was trying not to look like a kitten who’d nearly fallen off a fence, but her whiskers were still twitchy with excitement. Outside might be a bit dangerous, but she did love it!
Chapter Two
It was mid-February, and it had suddenly got cold again. Ella was extra-glad to have Fluff sleeping on her feet at night. Mum and Dad had said that she was supposed to sleep in her basket, but they pretended not to notice that actually she always curled up with Ella. Mostly she stayed at the end of the bed, but a couple of times Ella had gone to sleep cuddling her, and Fluff slept snuggled under her chin.
Ella woke up early that morning. The duvet was huddled up around her shoulders where she’d wriggled herself down in the cold of the night. Fluff was pacing up and down the window sill, mewing excitedly.
“Fluff!” Ella moaned. “It’s not even properly light yet, what’s the matter?” Then she sat up, confused. It was almost light, but the room looked different somehow. And why was Fluff making such a fuss? Ella wrapped the duvet round her shoulders like a cloak and padded over to the window.
“Oh, wow! It’s snowed again!” she exclaimed as she peered out.
It had snowed very heavily just before Christmas, when Fluff was lost, but the cold snap hadn’t lasted long. January had just been grim and wet.
“Why does it have to be a school day?” Ella sighed. “It’ll be too dark to play outside much after school.”
Ella tried to argue at breakfast that school would probably be closed because of the snow, but Mum said it would have been announced on the radio. She promised faithfully to help Ella build an entire family of snowmen when she got back, and they dug out wellies and scarves and hats for the walk. Ella normally walked on her own to school. It wasn’t very far, and she met up with lots of her friends, but today Mum said she’d go too, at least most of the way, because she was worried Ella might slip over in the snow.
“Don’t go out today, Fluff,” Ella said, as she struggled to pull her wellies on over two pairs of socks. “It’s really cold, and the snow’s very deep. You’d probably sink up to your whiskers. Stay in the house and keep nice and warm.”
Fluff snuggled into her basket and snoozed for a while, but she was itching to go outside. Despite what Ella had said, Fluff really wanted to investigate the snow. She padded over to the cat flap and peered out. The snow was brand new and inviting. She couldn’t see any tracks in it, just a sheet of crunchy, sparkling white. She pushed the cat flap open gently with her nose, and sniffed. The snow smelled so fresh, and she could hear the wind blowing through the trees, the snow falling from the branches with soft whumpf noises. How could she stay inside? She wouldn’t go far…
Fluff eased herself out of the cat flap, shaking her paws daintily as they hit the snow. She knew all about snow, of course. Her long journey from the farm to Ella’s house had nearly ended in disaster when she was caught in a snowstorm. But today she was just going for a quick look around. Nothing could go wrong. She’d explore the snowy garden, and as soon as she felt cold or tired, she could go back inside to warm up, and probably beg some cat treats from Ella’s mum. Ella was just being too careful, Fluff thought. It was nice that Ella wanted to look after her, but really, she could look after herself!