Chapter 10

CHAPTER 10 The early morning sun was turning the sky a cold but beautiful orange as Catface walked the cats back to their house. They were so exhausted that even with her ninja training Toto struggled to get over the gate. They poked their heads through the bars to say goodbye to Catface. 'Well, my little ones,' Catface said, 'that

was quite enough of an adventure for one night. I for one am tuckered out, but I'm so glad you caught me putting my snout in your bins. I want to thank you. I'm back with my father, and my people, and most importantly I'm proud of who I am: Catface the rat, who looks like a cat. It's all thanks to you two, my little warrior cats from Italy. And you, young lady—' he gestured a paw to Toto— 'must teach me some of those ninja moves!' 'I will!' said Toto. 'We'd heard London was a hectic town, but we hadn't expected it to be as crazy as this! Can we take a couple of nights off before we do it again?!' Catface smiled. 'Of course... see you both soon. He gave them a wink, tipped his hat,

and headed off with a carefree walk into the dawn air, whistling as he went. The cats almost fell through the cat flap. They went straight to the kitchen, where they demolished the bowls of food left over

from the night before, then padded upstairs to bed, where their parents were beginning to stir from a good night's sleep. 'You missing Italy any more, sis?' Silver said as they jumped up on to the foot of the bed. 'A bit, but you know, I think we'll fit in here just fine.' 'Me too,' said Silver. 'Night, sis...' 'Night, bro.' They fell fast asleep, curled up together, just as their parents' morning alarm went off and the lights flicked on. 'Come on, you two, up for breakfast, said Mamma. 'Toto, Silver, wakey-wakey...' 'We have the laziest cats in the world!' said Papa.

But neither cat heard. They were already dreaming about the craziest night of their short lives... Back at London Zoo, the night keepers were doing their last rounds. It had been a weird night. The animals had been making loads of noise for hours, but thankfully it was nearly the end of the keepers' shift. 'Come on, Derek, let's head back. I'm starving,' Norman said to his friend. He was looking forward to a nice fry up with lots of hot sweet tea. 'I'll be right with you, Norman. Just going to do one last check on the reptile house.' 'Right you are, well, get a move on.' Derek opened the heavy oak doors, and

walked slowly around the reptile house, careful to keep his torchlight down so as not to wake up any of the animals. As he walked past the last tank he glanced inside, looked away, then did a double take. He rubbed his eyes and got on his walkie- talkie. 'ER... NORMAN... HOW MANY KING COBRAS ARE WE SUPPOSED TO HAVE?'