Читать онлайн «The Killer Cat Runs Away»
Автор Энн Файн
CONTENTS
Cover
About the Book
Title Page
1. Silly Pink Babies
2. Parasite
3. The Same Old Boring Cat-Chat
4. One Good Reason to Stay
5. A Chapter of Sad Farewells
6. So Spank My Bum
7. Dead Mice and Birds? Eee-yuk!
8. Tuffy the Busker
9. The Wild Cats’ Chorus
10. The Perfect Home
11. ‘Come Home So I Can Strangle You. ’
12. I Did Not Kill It!
13. ‘A Photo of My Beautiful Tuffy!’
14. Nightmare Stuff!
15. A Blur of Fur
16. No Hope of Rescue. None.
17. ‘Haven’t You Heard?’
18. All the Usual Rubbish
19. Reprise
20. My Precious, Wonderful, Amazing Tuffy!
21. ‘You Promised You’d Never Forget Me. ’
The Wild Cats’ Chorus
About the Author
Also by Anne Fine
Copyright
About the Book
Tuffy no longer feels loved. All the family ever seems to do is fuss about his tiny mistakes – like spitting at next door’s baby and knocking over the new TV. Even Ellie’s too busy cooing over fluff-ball kittens to pay him any attention.
Who wants to hang around where they’re not wanted? There must be somewhere in town where Tuffy will be treated properly . . .
1
Silly Pink Babies
OK, OK. So twist my tail. I spat at the stupid baby. But it was
And then this baby poked its finger in my eye. For heaven’s sake! It could have hurt me. So it was lucky, really. I could have bitten it. Or scratched it. But I only spat. Spit doesn’t hurt at all, so why’s everyone picking on me?
‘Tuffy!’ said Ellie. ‘Get away from the baby at once!’
She rushed to scoop it up. I don’t know why. It wasn’t even yelling. The baby didn’t mind. It was still laughing as if the whole thing was a giant joke. And there was only a tiny bit of dribble running down its face. Nobody in this house has any sense of humour at all. They all go mad about the slightest thing.
‘That cat is not to be trusted,’ said Ellie’s father. ‘He’s the most jealous creature under the sun. ’
I like that! Jealous? Me? Of something that can’t even walk or feed itself? I gave the man the slit-eyed stare. But he just stared right back and said to Ellie, ‘Remember poor Tinkerbell?’
Ellie went pale. Of course she remembered. Tinkerbell was a small kitten the family had to look after for four whole days. You wouldn’t believe the fuss they made of her.
‘Isn’t she pretty? So fluffy! And so sweet!’
‘Look, Ellie! Tinkerbell’s learned how to flick her tail!’
‘See her tiny pink tongue! Look, Mum! Look quickly, while she’s lapping up her milk!’
‘She’s not cold, is she? If she’s cold, push Tuffy off the rug and let Tinkerbell sit near the fire instead. ’
‘I think she’s hungry. Shall we offer her a dish of cream?’
Offer her cream? She didn’t even live with us! We were just kitten-sitting for a day or so. And I was their real pet, not Tinkerbell. I’d lived with them for years, ever since Ellie got old enough to nag them into getting me. Is it surprising that I got a little testy?
