Chapter 1

TOTO THE NINJA CAT AND THE INCREDIBLE CHEESE HEIST DERMOT O'LEARY

CHAPTER 1 'OK, Silver,' the bushy- tailed cat said to himself, 'empty your mind, you can do this. Don't worry about the last twenty- four attempts.' 'Let's go over it again,' said his sister Toto, with a smile.

'You leap, then bounce off the glass window to the left, off the wall to the right, then dive for the handle and hey presto, we've got an open fridge!' 'And just to be clear, this is all with my eyes shut?' Silver asked. 'You said you wanted to do some ninja training,' laughed Toto. 'The Double-wall- bounce-open-fridge is one of the first moves you learn. Except, well, I may have added the "open-fridge" bit...

Silver looked up at the fridge, he really did want to eat. Their human Mamma and Papa were out, and they'd finished their cat food hours ago. He knew he could never be an ACTUAL NINJA, like his sister- that would take ages and lots of practice and training, and he was far too impatient and HUNGRY for all of that. But a couple of moves would be really cool. Plus it wouldn't hurt his reputation with the neighbourhood cats. Especially that lovely ginger (que bella!) who'd moved in across the street and who he quite fancied- not that he'd ever admit that to his sister... there'd be no living it down. 'You can do this, Silver,' he muttered to himself. He took a running jump, launched

himself at the window -so far so good- and then bounced onto the wall... This is it, he thought as he hurtled through the air, I'm going to make it, my first Ninja move! 'HERE WE GOOO... ARGH...' Silver opened his eyes and realised his leap from the wall wasn't far enough. He was about to miss the fridge and crash into

the freezer door below for the twenty-fifth painful time. He closed his eyes again and braced for impact... but incredibly, none came. Instead he felt a WHOOSH of wind in his whiskers as his sister grabbed him, and pulled him to safety on the kitchen counter. Somehow (and very coolly) opening the fridge on her way past!