CHAPTER 3

THE MISSING CAT

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.”

“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.)

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!)

“Maybe that’s Silky now,” said Terry.

“Don’t be stupid,” I said. “Cats can’t use phones.”

“Maybe they can,” said Terry. “You said they couldn’t turn into canaries and you were wrong about that!”