The Secret Cat

The Secret Cat
Sarah Lean

Meet animal lover, Tiger Days! A brand-new young fiction series about animals, friendship and adventure by bestselling author Sarah Lean.Beautiful black-and-white illustrations throughout.When nine-year-old Tiger Days stays with her grandmother at Willowgate House she never knows what might happen… new friends to meet, animals to rescue and problems to solve!Tiger’s grandmother looks after animals in need, and when Tiger comes to stay she quickly learns how to feed a baby warthog and keep it safe.Tiger already has her hands full when a mysterious sound leads her to another little animal…At Willowgate House, no day is ever dull for Tiger!

Copyright (#ulink_660f3a05-59ad-58f5-90c7-2ed784e7d71d)

First published in Great Britain by HarperCollins Children’s Books in 2016

HarperCollins Children’s Books is a division of HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd,

1 London Bridge Street, London, SE1 9GF

The HarperCollins website address is: www.harpercollins.co.uk (http://www.harpercollins.co.uk)

Text © Sarah Lean 2016

Illustrations © Anna Currey 2016

Cover illustration © Simon Mendes

Sarah Lean asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of the work.

Anna Currey asserts the moral right to be identified as the illustrator of the work.

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins.

Source ISBN: 9780008165666

Ebook Edition © April 2016 ISBN: 9780008165727

Version: 2018-11-14

To Fallon, one of thebravest I ever met

Contents

Cover (#uaa9dfe6e-ace4-5cd0-af09-a529fbc171e1)

Title Page (#u8d4d039f-d577-5f41-8f3d-88756a2360d3)

Copyright (#ud8006472-395d-5816-a671-6b09ae454d1a)

Dedication (#ud265ff4f-7997-512b-84e5-f7be4187e8b5)

Map (#u1a460e3c-889d-5859-af93-8cb5d83f5039)

Chapter 1: Tiger’s Bedroom (#u7f2ac941-586b-5a15-bd79-4a2a3c3be9fc)

Chapter 2: An Extra Guest (#u8fad65aa-3c0c-587f-a5f0-25169161f998)

Chapter 3: What’s That Strange Noise? (#u90d8c809-ce7a-508e-a105-887477dab2e0)

Chapter 4: Operation Wartie (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 5: Operation Cat (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 6: Mud and Us (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 7: The Staring Oat (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 8: Do You Love Warthogs Yet? (#litres_trial_promo)

Keep Reading (#litres_trial_promo)

About the Author (#litres_trial_promo)

Also by Sarah Lean (#litres_trial_promo)

About the Publisher (#litres_trial_promo)

Map (#ulink_d81cda38-adee-51d7-88d3-413854c879ba)

(#ulink_31916847-3b85-54c0-8698-5ecdadc6e24b)

Tiger Days didn’t know anyone who loved tigers as much as she did.

She wore tiger pyjamas, socks and slippers, and spent a lot of time in her bedroom reading about tigers and drawing tiger pictures. Her parents would often suggest bike rides and trips to the swimming pool on Saturday afternoons, but Tiger would much rather be in her bedroom doing tiger things.

One Saturday afternoon, her parents appeared at her door.

“You’ll never guess who that was on the phone …” said Mum.

“Hmmmm?” said Tiger, not really listening.

Dad rolled his eyes as Tiger’s nose stayed firmly buried in her wildlife book. “It was May Days!” he said.

Tiger looked up, surprised. May Days was her grandmother and had been living in Africa on a wildlife reserve since Tiger was a baby. Whenever May Days phoned, Tiger asked when she was coming to visit, but May Days said it was hard to know because the giraffes or rhinos always needed her more. This time, May Days had phoned with wonderful news. She had finally come back to England and bought a place called Willowgate House.

“She wants you to go and stay,” said Dad. “You can have your first adventure together at the new house.”

Tiger wrinkled her nose. She was sometimes nervous about doing new things and the idea of a real-life adventure with May Days was a little scary. She had a feeling May Days wasn’t going to be like everyone else’s grandmother.

“Won’t you be worried about me?” she asked her parents.

“While you’re with May Days? Not even for a second,” said Mum, although it was obvious that somebody was worried.

But Tiger put on a brave smile for her parents. An adventure with May Days would be great, wouldn’t it?