A gust of icy wind rushed at Fluff, and she felt as though it had blown right through her. Her ears were laid back against her head, and the snowflakes felt like stabbing needles as they blew into her fur.
[Êàðòèíêà: img_18]
Worriedly, she peered around her. She could just about see the tree that the pigeon had flown into, so the fence must be over there somewhere. Leaning into the wind, she ploughed forward. It was so cold now! Oh, at last, there was the fence. Fluff’s panicky feeling eased a little. She only had to get across next-door’s garden and she would be home. She wriggled under the fence, and then followed her nose straight across. She was nearly there – and once she was back home, she wasnot coming out again. Not till it stopped snowing, anyway.
Fluff almost bumped into the next fence, but she didn’t mind, she was just so glad to see it. She popped out from underneath; she was back in her garden!
[Êàðòèíêà: img_19]
Except– this didn’t look like her garden. Even with the snow everywhere, it didn’t feel right. Ella’s garden had lots of little walls and hedges and things, but this garden was big and flat. Had she miscounted the number of fences? Fluff didn’t think she’d gone into another garden after next-door-but-one, but perhaps in the excitement of exploring, she had…?
Feeling frightened, she scurried across this strange garden to the next fence, hoping desperately that this time she would see somewhere she knew. The snow was drifting up against the fences now, and she had to half-burrow through. Hopefully, she pushed the snow out of the way with her nose, and stared around. This garden was full of play equipment, a slide and a little wooden house, half covered in snow.
Fluff had never been here before. Fluff had gone the wrong way in the storm– and now she was completely lost!
Chapter Four
[Êàðòèíêà: img_2]
Fluff stood still for a while, sniffing the air, hoping to catch a familiar scent that would lead her home. But the snow deadened the smells as well as the noises, and Fluff felt completely blind. What should she do? Had she gone past Ella’s house in the storm somehow? Should she be going back or forwards?
One thing was certain. Shehad to move somewhere. Sitting still wouldn’t keep her warm. She could feel the cold seeping into her bones – even her whiskers ached with it. The awful thing was, she might be going even further away from home! Miserably, Fluff forced her paws to keep plodding on through the deep snow. Without realizing, she slipped through a gap in a broken-down old fence at the bottom of a garden, and strayed into the old wood that ran along behind the houses on Ella’s street. It was even harder going. She was wading through drifted snow under tall and menacing trees. Fluff knew she’d never been anywhere like this before, and it made her shudder. The trees seemed to wave their dark arms at her, and their roots tripped her up. It felt as though they did it on purpose, sending her rolling into hollows of deep snow, so she had to struggle and fight her way out. Every time it happened, Fluff grew just a little bit more tired.
It was getting dark, and even harder to see. Fluff wished sadly that she had listened to Ella, and never gone out in the snow. She still didn’t quite understand how she had managed to get so lost. One minute she had known exactly where she was, and the next she’d had no idea. It had all happened so fast. Fluff shivered. There was nothing she could do about it now. She needed to rest, but where could she go? There were a few places under the trees, where the roots had made little burrows, but they didn’t look very warm. Fluff needed somewhere out of the biting wind.
Suddenly, something loomed up out of the gloom. Fluff peered forward doubtfully. It certainly wasn’t a tree. In fact, it looked more like a house.
[Êàðòèíêà: img_20]
With a fresh burst of energy, she trotted forward, picking her way carefully over the snow. It was a tumbledown old cottage, built for the gamekeeper who guarded the wood, but it had been empty now for years and years. The door was boarded up, but there were plenty of holes where a small cat could creep in. Fluff sighed with relief as she squeezed herself between the boards. Even just inside the door the difference was wonderful– no more freezing wind slicing through her fur.
Staggering with tiredness, Fluff headed further in, looking for somewhere comfortable to sleep. Gratefully she spotted a pile of old blankets in one corner. They were smelly and stained, but Fluff wasn’t feeling fussy. She burrowed in, wanting to be as warm as possible, and hollowed herself out a little nest in the rags. She closed her eyes, wrapped her tail round her nose, and let a warm tide of sleep wash over her. All at once she was back home, with Ella, being stroked, and fed cat treats.
[Êàðòèíêà: img_21]
But then she heard a noise. Fluff twitched in her sleep, fighting to stay in her lovely dream. Oh, she didn’twant to wake up, and be back in this cold, real adventure! Something was breaking into her dream– a mewing sound. Fluff sighed. It was no good, she wasn’t asleep any more. She poked her head up from her blanket nest, and gazed round grumpily. She couldn’t see anything, and the cottage was silent, except for the eerie shrieking of the wind outside. Was it that she’d heard? It must havebeen. Fluff was just settling back down to sleep when she heard the mewing again.
Something was crying for help!
[Êàðòèíêà: img_6]
Ella rushed home– as fast as she could in slippery wellies – full of news about her fun day. School had been all about snow – talking about snowflake patterns in science, writing snow poems in English, and lots and lots of playing outside in the snow at lunch and break.
“We had a brilliant snowball fight,” Ella told her mum happily, as she watched her make a mug of hot chocolate. “Oooh, can I have marshmallows, please? Excellent.” She took the chocolate and sat down, sipping it slowly. “Yum. It’s so cold out there, Mum, my fingers are freezing, even though I had my gloves on.” She gripped the warm mug tightly. “They’re only just thawing out.” Ella took a big mouthful of chocolate, and sighed happily. It was nice to be back inside. “It’s so cool that it’s Friday, and we’ve got the whole weekend free. Can we go sledging in the park tomorrow?” Then she looked round, suddenly realizing that she hadn’t seen Fluff since she got back. “Mum, where’s Fluff? She didn’t go out, did she?” Ella asked anxiously.
[Êàðòèíêà: img_22]
Her mum looked surprised.“But she’s got her cat flap now, Ella, she’s allowed outside! I saw her playing in the garden earlier.”
Ella looked worried.“I told her not to. I was scared she’d get lost in the snow again. I suppose it was silly to think she wouldn’t go out.”
“I don’t think you need to worry, Ella,” her mum said reassuringly. “Fluff ’s not a baby any more. I know she’s still tiny, but shehas grown! She’s definitely old enough to be out there.”
“But it’s been snowing really hard today, Mum! And Fluffalways comes back to see me when I get home from school. Always.” Ella got up to peer out of the kitchen window. “The snow’s really deep in the garden. She could easily have got confused about where she was going. Oh, why didn’t I just lock the cat flap?”
“Ella, it’s not fair to lock it, unless we really need to. Fluff wouldn’t understand why she couldn’t go out. She’d just get upset.” But Ella’s mum came to join her at the window. “You’re right though, it is odd that she isn’t back yet. I wonder where she’s got to.”