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was whispering last-minute instructions into
Taz’s twitching ear. Then he patted his head and both owners backed away. It was just the cat and me. Gloria hovered nearby, talking into the camera.
    ‘It’s a world exclusive! Superpets favourite, Harriet Houdini, races against newcomer, Tornado Taz.’ She leaned into the camera, a tense look on her face. ‘Stay
tuned to find out who wins!’
    I glanced over at Taz. He was poised at the start line, his ears flat and his tail wrapped with a special support bandage. Hopping towards him, I gave him a ‘may-the-best-pet-win’
nudge and he turned his green-eyed gaze on me. Without blinking, he reached down and touched his nose to mine. Then he turned away and I took up my place on the starting line once more.
    Gloria was looking our way and she had a tiny starter’s gun in her hand. ‘Superpets, are you ready?’
    I glanced out at the two identical obstacle courses side by side. Was that a see-saw at the start? Susie and I hadn’t practised with one of those. But EE had shown me some clips of dog
agility races and I’d seen the best way to handle a see-saw. I hoped it was as easy as it looked.
    ‘On your marks . . . get set . . .’ Gloria aimed the pistol up in the air and squeezed the trigger. ‘Go!’
    And we were off. Up to the see-saw, we were pretty evenly matched. Taz hit the yellow slope ahead of me and I saw him slow down to wait for the end to drop before he crossed it. When I hit the
plastic, something strange happened. Instead of slowing down the way I meant to, my paws didn’t grip. They slid. So rather than crossing in a calm, controlled way, I zoomed up one side, then
down the other, and hit the sawdust at the other side before Taz.

    I didn’t have time to wonder what had happened, though. The next obstacle, the weaving poles, was hurtling towards me. Taz and I bobbed from side to side almost in unison, the
red-and-white sticks wobbling as we rounded them. Then we were through and coming up to a jump. The criss-crossed bars looked very high. I snatched a deep breath and somersaulted over them.
    A quick glance to my right told me Taz had cleared the jump too. Next up was a cloth tunnel, followed by another jump. We were neck and neck coming up to the wall of the ring, where our paths
split. As I peeled off to the left and Taz sped away to the right, I looked ahead. We had one more jump and the balance bar left to cover. If things carried on as they were, it looked like Taz was
going to win.
    But I wasn’t ready to give up just yet and, gathering up all my strength, I pounded down the back straight and soared over the last jump. Over on the other side of the ring, I could see
Taz swarming up the wooden plank which led to the red plastic balance beam. A second behind him, I zipped up my own plank. But once again, my feet refused to grip the plastic. As Taz picked his way
over and began his descent at the other end, I found myself sliding along the beam, gathering speed like a surfer on a wave.

    I couldn’t stop. Instead of going down the plank at the end as Taz had done, I flew off the plastic beam and overtook the cat in mid-air. In a flurry of sawdust, I landed ahead of him.
Eyes fixed on the finish line, I scampered for it as fast as I could. Everything seemed to slow down. Taz was panting next to me. With one last surge of my back feet, I pushed forwards – and
my nose nudged across the line just before his.
    The crowd went wild. Susie was hugging me, Taz was licking me and Gloria was smiling from ear to ear.
    ‘We have a winner!’ she cried, beaming into the camera. ‘An unusual finish from Harriet, but it won her the race. Three cheers for Harriet Houdini – Rabbit
Racer!’

The show cut to an advert break straight after the race. All the other pets and their owners crowded around us, offering congratulations and clapping.
    ‘Well done, Harriet!’ Susie said, lifting me up and twirling around. ‘You’re the most amazing