by Holly Webb
Gran nodded. “Ava’s right. Come out here, you two. I know you’ve only got your slippers on, it doesn’t matter for once. You can help me hold the table so Ava doesn’t wobble.”
Lucy and Bel pattered out, and held on tightly to the edge of the table. It was clever of Gran to get them to help, Ava thought as she crawled cautiously up on to the table. Now they wouldn’t whinge about being left out.
“Is he there?” Lucy gasped, as Ava balanced herself against the wall and stood up.
“I can’t see yet.” Ava peered over the top, looking anxiously round the garden. “Oh! Oh, Tiger!”
“He is there! Is he all right?” Gran called up. “Oh, be careful, Ava!”
“He’s there but I don’t know if he’s all right,” Ava said, her voice shaking.
Tiger was curled up in a tiny ball, right by Megan’s back gate. Charlie and Max were standing over him, still barking. The gate was a solid one, with no gaps in it and hardly any space underneath. And it was high, too. It looked like Tiger hadn’t been able to scrabble his way up and over – he was trapped.
“I don’t think he’s hurt,” Ava called down. “Just really, really scared. But I can’t tell for sure.”
Max realized at last that someone else was invading his garden. He trotted over to the wall and barked at Ava.
Even though he was huddled up with his eyes closed, Tiger heard the difference in the barking. One of the dogs had gone! He opened his eyes a tiny bit and looked over.
Ava! She was there, looking over the wall! He tried to get up to run to her but the other dog leaned over him, barking even more fiercely, and Tiger huddled back down to the ground. He didn’t dare move – he was frozen with fear.
“Oh, Tiger,” Ava whispered. “Gran, I have to get him out! He’s so scared, and Charlie and Max might hurt him.”
“What about the lady next door – when’s she going to be back?” Gran asked. “Do we have a phone number for her?”
“The home number’s in Mum’s address book but that’s no good. She’s at work.” Ava looked down at Gran. “It’ll be hours till she’s back. Megan works till about six on Saturdays, I know she does because she told Mum she doesn’t like it.” Ava leaned over the wall again. “I’m coming to get you, Tiger. I’ll be back in a minute.”
“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 T
iger 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.
“No one’s seen him at all?” Dad asked, as Mum and Ava came back in. He’d been putting Lucy and Bel to bed while Mum and Ava went out searching for Tiger.
“No. But it’s eight o’clock. Ava needs to go to bed.”
“I don’t want to!” Ava protested. “Honestly, Mum, there’s no way I could sleep now, when we still don’t know where Tiger is.”
“You’ve got school tomorrow. No, Ava, I’m not arguing, it’s bedtime. I promise Dad and I will keep looking up and down the street. We’ll take turns. And we’ve asked all the neighbours, remember. If anyone sees Tiger, they’ll call us.”
“He hasn’t been missing that long,” Dad pointed out. “Only a few hours, since after lunch sometime.”
“Dad! He never, ever misses tea!” Ava pressed her hands to her eyes. She’d been trying really hard not to cry – she knew it wouldn’t help – but she was so tired and frightened. And if she was frightened, how was Tiger feeling? What if he was lost or hurt?
“I know some cats stay away for ages,” she went on, her voice shaking. “But Tiger doesn’t. He’s still only little and he loves home! He does stupid things but he doesn’t go off a long way away. He might be trapped somewhere. Or maybe he’s been hit by a car!” She couldn’t hold back her tears any more.
Mum pulled her into a hug. “Ava, sweetie. I know you’re scared. But it’s too soon to panic like this. Dad’s right. Tiger will probably pop through the cat flap in an hour or so, looking like he’s never been away. And you can’t stay up any longer. Come on. Bed.”
Mum shooed Ava up the stairs and she went to her room, dragging her feet all the way. She couldn’t imagine that she’d ever sleep. She was far too worried. She put on her pyjamas and trailed into the bathroom to do her teeth, all the time straining her ears for the bang of the cat flap. It didn’t come. She climbed into bed and lay there, crying silently into her pillow.
“Ava! Ava!”
She must have fallen asleep, Ava realized. If she hadn’t, no one would need to be waking her up…
That was Bel, Ava thought sleepily. And there seemed to be something heavy weighing down her feet. She sat up, blinking. Her room was still dark but she could see, just a little, by the nightlight on the landing. “What’s the matter? It’s not time to get up…” she whispered.
“We’re worried,” Bel told her
.
The strange heavy lump on Ava’s feet turned out to be Lucy, sitting on the end of the bed. “Worried…” she echoed.
“About Tiger?” Ava sighed. “Me, too.”
“You have to find him, Ava,” Bel said seriously. “You rescued him from Charlie and Max. You climbed over the wall! I want him back. And so does Lucy.”
“We’ll look for him again tomorrow before school,” Ava said, trying to sound confident. “I bet we’ll find him.”
“Do you promise?” Bel demanded.
“Um.” Ava swallowed hard. How could she promise? But Bel and Lucy looked so scared. “I promise…” she whispered.
Tiger stretched and shivered. He was so cold, he ached. He had spent the night huddled up on his branch, sleeping every so often but then being shocked awake as he remembered the bike nearly running him over.
He desperately wanted to go back home to Ava and his family, and have them stroke him and snuggle up with him and make him feel safe. But he didn’t dare go back down the tree, even though he felt so terribly hungry. It was starting to get light now – it felt like breakfast time, except that he’d missed his dinner so his stomach was doubly empty. He needed a drink, too…
Tiger gazed down through the early morning mist. He could just make out the road from up here. The occasional car zoomed past, making him shrink back against the tree trunk but they never came anywhere close. And there was no sign of the man on the bike. Perhaps it was safe to climb down now?
Tiger stood up cautiously. The cold seemed to have made it harder to know what he was doing – his paws didn’t feel quite right and he shook as he tried to walk a little way along the branch. He dug in his claws and clung on, suddenly feeling the wind blowing through the tree and shaking the branches. Until now he had felt safe up in the tree, so far from everything else. He hadn’t thought about getting down.
