Read Smudge the Stolen Kitten for Free Online Page A

the blocks, there was a tiny hole. Perhaps if he clawed at it for a while, it might give way?

    Smudge scrabbled hopefully, his tiny claws making an eerie screeching noise against the rough metal sheet. He scratched and scraped for what seemed like ages, till his claws ached, but when he stopped and pressed his nose against the hole, it didn’t seem to have got any bigger at all…

    “Olivia! What time is it?” Dad moaned.
    “Um, half-past five. You said we’d get up early and go straight round to Rob’s!”
    “I meant more like seven…” Dad murmured wearily.
    “Go back to bed until half-past six,” Mum added. “We can’t go and wake up Rob’s family this early.”
    Olivia sighed. She supposed Mum was right. But she had been lying awake since five, watching her bedroom get lighter and lighter. As soon as it seemed to be light enough to search for a kitten, she had got up.
    She mooched back into her room, and lay down on her bed. She wasn’t going to be able to go back to sleep. Instead she grabbed a notebook from her bedside table, and started to make a list of things it would be useful to take with them on the search.
    A torch, in case they had to look anywhere dark, Olivia thought. Under a shed or something like that. Smudge’s favourite snacks. He reallyliked the little heart-shaped chicken ones. Olivia had done a taste test on five different sorts, and he always went for the chicken ones first. If he was stuck up a tree or anything like that, he would definitely come down for them.
    What else? Olivia chewed the end of her pencil. A ladder? She wasn’t sure Dad would want to carry one around.
    “Oh, you’re awake!” Mum put her head round Olivia’s door. Olivia gazed up at her. Of course she was! How could she go back to sleep?
    “Can I get up?” she asked eagerly.
    Mum nodded. “Yes. But we’re not going anywhere until you’ve had some breakfast. Just a quick bowl of cereal, that’s all,” she added, seeing Olivia wasabout to moan. “If you eat, you’ll be able to hunt for him better.”
    Olivia dressed quickly, and then ran downstairs to gulp down the bowl of cereal that Mum insisted on. Then she fetched the torch and the snacks, and stood by the front door, waiting impatiently for Mum and Dad and Ben.
    “What about Lucie?” she asked Mum, who was putting on her coat.
    “I’ve texted her mum. It’s still only seven-thirty, Olivia, I didn’t want to get her out of bed. But I’ve told her where we’ll be; she can call my mobile if she and Lucie want to come.”
    Dad gave an enormous yawn. “Everyone ready?”

    They met Rob’s dad halfway down Rob’s road, crouching down to look under a big wheelie bin.
    “No luck yet then?” Mum asked.
    He shook his head. “Not yet. But he can’t have gone far. I’m really sorry about this. Rob feels terrible. He’s looking further up the road with his mum.”
    So he should! Olivia thought. But being furious with Rob didn’t really help.
    She and Ben and Mum and Dad set off up the road, calling and peering over fences. Olivia kept shaking the treats, hoping to see a little grey kitten dash eagerly towards her, like he did at home.
    Half an hour later, they were back outside Rob’s house, and everyone looked rather hopeless. Especially Rob. It seemed as though he’d been crying,and Olivia almost felt sorry for him.
    “Not a sign,” Dad said, frowning. “And none of the people we asked had spotted him.”
    “Should we go further? The next street?” Rob’s mum asked doubtfully.
    “Oh, look!” Mum pointed down the road.
    “What is it? Can you see him?” Olivia gasped.
    “Sorry, Olivia. It’s Lucie, down at the end of the road, with her mum.”
    Lucie came runninng up the road as soon as she spotted Olivia. “We’ll find him,” she promised, seeing her friend’s miserable face and hugging her tightly.
    “I’m sure we will,” her mum agreed, as they reached the little crowdoutside Rob’s house. “There’s lots of us