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He woke up as the sky began to lighten early the next morning and peered cautiously out at the road. He hadn’t felt a car rumble by for a while and everything was very still. The air smelled fresher and he stretched out his paws, wincing at the stiffness after a night on the cold road. Home was very near now. If he could drag up the courage to dart across, he would be almost there.

Sammy edged forwards to the curb of the pavement and then out under a parked car. He couldn’t hear anything coming.

Go! Now!

He dashed out, racing faster than he ever had before, and flung himself to the pavement on the other side. He bounded under a thick hedge, breathing hard but delighted with himself. He’d done it! And now… He turned his head slowly.This way?Yes… He scampered along the pavement and round a corner, following that strange instinct inside him. His huge ears were held high with excitement. He would be home soon and Harper would be there, in the right place where she should be. She’d feed him his breakfast; he was really, really hungry. Then she’d let him sleep in her lap, or perhaps snuggled between her and Ava on the sofa… There it was! The flat and his front window.

[Êàðòèíêà: img_27]

Sammy galloped happily down the little path that led to the back of the house and nudged at his cat flap in the back door. It sprang open and he dived through, eager to find Harper and his breakfast.

But it wasn’t the same.

He knew it as soon as his paws hit the kitchen tiles– there was a strange smell in the air. Some of the furniture was still there, he remembered when he’d scratched that table leg. But there were new things too. That trolley full of vegetables just next to the back door – that hadn’t been there before.

It was the smell that was so wrong, though. The flat didn’t smell like Harper and Ava and Mum. It didn’t smell likehim. Sammy edged backwards towards the cat flap as he realized. There was another cat here. His flat wasn’t his any more, he thought, looking around in horror – and then he saw her.

Perched on top of the fridge and glaring down at him. A massive black cat with bright golden eyes. Every hair of her was fluffed out in fury and Sammy thought she must be at least six times as big as he was. She was hissing now, a long, slow, angry hiss– and then she stretched out her fat black paws down the front of the fridge and leaped. Sammy cowered as she landed in front of him, still hissing, and then he turned and hurled himself at his old cat flap, scrabbling at it in a panic as he heard the black cat yowl behind him.

[Êàðòèíêà: img_28]

Sammy shot out into the garden, back arched and all his fur on end. He could see the other cat watching through the cat flap, but she didn’t seem to be chasing him. Not yet, anyway. He scurried back down the path to the street and raced along the road, too scared even to think. At last he spotted a big wheelie bin in an alley down the side of a shop and ducked underneath it to catch his breath. What was he going to do now?

[Êàðòèíêà: img_29]

Harper woke up that morning with an odd sense that something was wrong. It took her a moment to remember what it was, especially as her new room still felt strange. She reached down to stroke Sammy– and discovered that the warm lump next to her wasn’t Sammy, it was Ava.

Then she remembered everything. Ava was there because Harper had woken up in the middle of the night to find her little sister crying and pulling on the sleeve of her pyjamas. Harper hadn’t been able to make out what Ava was saying for a moment – she was too muffled up with tears – but then she’d realized that it was, “I want Sammy back!” She’d let Ava climb into bed with her and held her until she cried herself to sleep.

“Hey…” Mum had pushed the door open and was smiling at her. “I couldn’t find Ava and I guessed she’d be here. Sorry, Harper, I didn’t hear her wake up.”

“It’s OK.” Harper looked up at Mum hopefully. “Is Sammy back? Did you check his blanket?” Gran had suggested last night that they put Sammy’s favourite blanket out on to the doorstep, so he had something familiar to smell if he was trying to make his way back to the house. Harper had gone to sleep thinking about waking the next morning and seeing Sammy curled up there, waiting for them to find him.

Mum sighed.“No. I’m sorry, sweetheart. Not yet. I did look.”

[Êàðòèíêà: img_30]

Harper wriggled out of bed, trying not to wake Ava.“Shall we make posters?”

Mum nodded.“OK. You start making some. I’ll get breakfast ready.”

“Emma? Harper?”

That was Gran calling from her room. Harper glanced up at Mum in surprise. Both of them went to look round Gran’s door. “Are you OK, Gran? Did you want something?”

Gran was sitting up in bed, with a book in her hand.“I’m fine, don’t worry. But I had a thought. Before you put up posters, you should go and check the flat. Maybe Sammy went there? I’ve heard stories about cats being able to find their way back miles and miles, and it’s only ten minutes away, isn’t it?”