3 THE MISSING CAT

CHAPTER 3 THE MISSING CAT Catnary Cloud We watched the cat... I mean canary... actually, I think I mean catnary... until it flew out of sight. Then the doorbell rang. It was Jill, our neighbor. She lives on the other side of the forest in a house full of animals. She's got two dogs, a goat, three horses, four goldfish, one cow, six

rabbits, two guinea pigs, one camel, one donkey, and one cat. "Uh-oh," said Terry. "She's probably looking for her cat!" "Don't tell me that was Silky you just turned into a canary!" I said. "Okay, I won't," said Terry. "But it was." This was bad. Jill loved that cat. She loved all her animals, but she especially loved Silky.

"Oh no!" I said. "She is going to be really mad when she finds out what you've done!" "Maybe we shouldn't tell her." "Good idea!" I said. "Let's pretend we're not home."

We did our best to lay low, but it's pretty hard to hide in a treehouse. "It's no use hiding," called Jill, "I can hear you, And I can see you. Silky's gone missing. and I was wondering if you'd seen her." "No," I said quickly, "she's not here." Now, before you start thinking I'm the kind of person who would tell a lie, I'd just like to point out that although the first part of my sentence ("No") was technically a lie, the second part ("she's not here") was definitely the truth, which— I'm sure you will agree— cancels out the lie.

"Oh," said Jill sadly. "Well, anyway, I've made up a missing-cat poster. Can I put one on your tree?" "Sure," I said. "It's the least we can do." (Which was also definitely 100 percent true.)

MISSING CAT! SILKY she looks like this cute little ears darling whiskers very soft white fur beautiful green eyes. Likes: cat food cuddles cats on TV Dislikes: dogs, water, fleas, locked, cat flaps. BIG REWARD!! call JILL. As soon as Jill left I turned to Terry. "We've got to find that cat!" I said. "You mean canary," said Terry. "Whatever!" I said. "We've got to find her." But before we could even begin looking for her the video-phone rang. (Yes, we've got one of those as well— and it's 3D!)