Tigger Read Online Free Page A

wave of relief flooded over me. My ears gradually recovered from the noise, my hair settled down, and my tail deflated. I was safe! Even so, I had learnt from experience to stay put for a while after a crisis, just to be on the safe side. Through a crack in the wood of the shed wall, I watched the sun go down behind the trees, and by and by I realized it was dinner-time — time to go home. That was when I discovered that I was locked in just as much as the dog was locked out. There was no other escape route. A fine mess!
    In my mind, I pictured Mum getting a tin of fish out of the cupboard for me, opening it and spooning it into my dish, then filling up my other dish of dry food and my milk bowl. I could almost smell it all, it seemed so real! Sure enough, a little later I could hear her calling, “Tigger! Fish!” from very far away. Normally, I’d be hiding somewhere nearby (I could go in and wait for my dinner in the kitchen, but I prefer to be called). On this occasion, however, just when I really wished I could be right next to her, I was far away and frustratingly unable to answer her call.
    Goodness knows for how long I sat in that dark, messy garden shed and waited. It seemed like years. Night-time came and still I was a prisoner. Once or twice I heard my family calling for me; it sounded as though they were out looking for me. I tried to answer, but my voice wasn’t loud enough and they walked past the garden. How could they ever find me in here?
    Finally, it was quite dark and everyone had gone inside. I prepared myself for a long, lonely night of hunger and discomfort and had just closed my eyes when I heard a sound from the house. There were footsteps, and they were coming closer! A torch was shining towards the shed, and the man’s voice called something to the people back at the house. Then – I could hardly believe my luck – he opened the shed door! I was ready for him: as soon as the door opened, I shot out between his legs. The man jumped and used some very bad language. I couldn’t blame him; it must have been a shock to find me fly at him like that. I reckoned he would be even more upset once he saw the state of his shed, but I didn’t wait to find out. I ran all the way home as fast as I could. They had left the back door open for me. I walked in and announced my arrival, and when my family came running to meet me, I rubbed everyone’s legs in turn and told my story. They wanted to know every detail and were clearly impressed with my adventure. Outside, I could still hear the neighbour yelling. It was time to have my dinner and relax.

7
    MUM AND I SOLVE AN EMBARRASSING PROBLEM
    I was quite back to normal the next morning, but my experience in the garden shed had shaken me a little, so I chose not to go outside for a few days. I watched TV for a while after the children had gone to school, strolled around the house, helped Mum with the cleaning by chasing the mop around the kitchen floor, looked out of the window and generally kept myself busy.
    I woke up from a long sleep around lunchtime with an annoying itch on my neck. Scratching did not help much; the itch just moved further along. Then another one started on my leg, then one on my back, and soon I was jumping all over the room, trying to make it stop. I realized with a shock that I had picked up fleas! It must have happened in that shed, of course. I went to tell Mum. She knew as soon as she saw me and reached for the spray. I hate flea spray! We did our little chasing game around the room, as we usually do, but it wasn’t much fun because the fleas itched so much, so eventually I let her spray me. It was no use; there were too many fleas. Before long I was beside myself with itches and could not sit still even for a minute.
    Mum was worried about me. She got into the car and left for the shops. When she came back, she carried a collection of plastic bottles and made for the bathroom to run a bath. I