Tigger Read Online Free Page B

thought it was strange that she should want to have a bath in the middle of the day, but I love watching the bath fill up, so I came to stand beside her with my front paws on the side of the bath, and together we watched the water rise.
    When it was full, I was surprised to see her put on rubber gloves, but not for long: before I knew it, she had picked me up and sat me in the water. Yuck!! I was so stunned, it took me a while before I could even move, by which time she had already soaked me to the skin and covered me in some very smelly shampoo. I tried a tentative struggle, but she had a tight grip on me and I was going nowhere. I simply could not believe she was doing this to me, so I pretended it was not happening and closed my eyes. She continued to rub shampoo into my hair and all over my head until I could hardly breathe. When I opened my eyes again and saw my reflection in the mirror, I nearly screamed — there was a white froth cap on my head, my body looked thin and scrawny and my tail stuck out at an angle, dripping slowly. That could not be me, surely? Mum noticed my stricken face and made soothing noises. I wished she would stop. Anyway, the shampoo was blocking my ears. Eventually she took pity on me and hosed me down under the shower. I never thought I would actually welcome a shower, but it was a relief to get the shampoo off me.
    Finally, Mum lifted me out of the bath and wrapped me in a large, soft towel. I saw my chance for escape and struggled hard, but once again she would not let go. She rubbed me dry until I started to feel like myself again. Only then did she let me go. I had a good long shake to get the rest of the water out of my hair, and guess what? The itches had stopped! Mum and I bent over the bath and looked at the dirty water. I still could not believe I had actually been
in
there. There were dozens and dozens of dead fleas floating about. Mum gave me a lecture on how silly cats caught fleas and smart ones didn’t, but I wasn’t listening. I was beginning to feel deliciously warm and almost dry again, and very sleepy after my ordeal. I trailed off to the lounge and curled up in a sunny patch, where I dozed off immediately.
    Later Mum put me in the car while she sprayed the whole house to get rid of the fleas in the carpet and on the furniture. Phew!

8
    WE MOVE AGAIN AND I AM REUNITED WITH MY ARMCHAIR
    After several days spent cooped up inside, I became seriously bored with my life. I still did not fancy going out because of the children, dogs, tree running creatures, the general noise and fleas. This was no fun at all. I missed my quiet garden in Australia. I spent hours by the window, watching people out on the road and dreaming of my tin roof back home. When I heard water running, I thought of the crystal-blue pool back home, now very possibly taken over by freely marauding frogs no longer kept in check. When other children came to play with ours, I hid away morosely.
    However, I need not have worried: my travel-happy family helped me out almost immediately. The packing started again, and this time I was excited to think that this boring place was not to be our home for good. We packed our luggage into the car (there wasn’t much this time, since our furniture had not reappeared) and drove off. It was quite a long way, but I sat on Emily’s lap and looked out of the window. By and by, the tall trees gave way to open fields with big, dangerous-looking creatures in them. I was glad to be safely behind glass.
    After a while, we turned into a lane between high trees, then off that into a long driveway that led uphill to a big house with a veranda and bright, white steps leading invitingly up to the front door. This was it? We jumped out of the car to investigate. I led the way and the children followed. We went all the way around the house, across the lawn that surrounded it to the trees that surrounded the lawn, and back again to the car, now parked by the garage. At the end