Lost & found

Robbie was a little distressed.

His pocket money had been stopped for 3 weeks after he slipped a spider into Ashleigh Dobb's pencil case during a spelling test.

The problem was, a new set of dinosaur Top trumps was being released and Robbie had no money to buy them.

Robbie called at his friend Nick's house so that they could play in the park and discuss the situation. On the way to the park, Robbie's eye was drawn to a card displayed in the corner shop window with the following request.

It read

'Missing cat Peaches

Please return to Woodland cottage if found

Lucky finder will be paid £50.

This was it! How hard could it be to find a cat? Robbie was a little unsure how he would find the peaches but thought he'd still get a reward for finding the cat.

"Come on" Robbie said "Let's look around the Woodland cottage area"

So off they jogged to Woodland cottage where as suggested by the name, there was quite a sizable wood.

They kept as quiet as possible so as not to disturb any wildlife. Both Robbie & Nick screamed in a high-pitched way when a Muntjac deer suddenly shot from the undergrowth. Nick thought he'd spotted a deadly snake but it turned out to be a long stick with different shades of moss on it.

Suddenly, out the corner of his eye, Robbie saw a black shape move. It was definitely a cat.

Nick and Robbie approached the cat from slightly different angles but every time they got near, the cat scampered off. It always returned to near why they were standing and obviously thought this was a game. After Nick had fallen face-forward into a muddy pool and Robbie had plunged straight through some stinging nettles, they managed to catch the cat after it got distracted by a particularly large dandelion.

"How do we know it's the right cat?" Asked Nick.

Robbie looked at the collar of the cat. A tag on the collar said 'lucky'

"This is it" Said Robbie "The note in the window said "Lucky finder gets £50" "Well, we have found Lucky. The owner will be delighted after his loss and will pay us a reward!"

Robbie & Nick took the cat to Woodland cottage but there was no reply when they knocked on the door. So they wrote a note giving Robbie's address on a scrap of paper found for reasons they never discussed, just inside Nick's sock. They tied the cat to the garden gate with a piece of twine that they found lying near a vegetable patch and went home for tea.

Later that evening, there was a large rap on the front door. Dad answered the door and Robbie then heard a few raised voices.

Dad returned to the dining room and asked Robbie

"Did you take a cat to Woodland cottage today?"

"Yes" Replied Robbie excitedly, "Did someone bring round a reward?"

"You found the wrong cat!" Said Dad in a fairly exhausted way. "You found a cat called Lucky, but the missing cat was called Peaches! Lucky had a different address on the bag of his tag and we need to return him to his correct owner."

"Oh, and you've lost another two weeks pocket money" Dad carried on.

Dad and Robbie drove a bewildered Lucky back to the address written on the back of the tag, kncked on the door and returned him to a grateful owner who hadn't actually realised that his cat had wandered off.

Funnily enough, on the way home, Dad and Robbie had to drive past Woodland cottage.

About 500 yards past the cottage, Dad suddenly had to slam on the brakes as a cat shot across the road and crashed into a dustbin that had been left for collection the following morning.

Dad rushed over to the carnage and picked up a disheveled and shocked looking cat.

Written proudly on his name tag was 'Peaches'.

Dad had to smile. He drove back to Woodland cottage and returned the cat to an extremely grumpy but grateful owner.

The owner decided to pay a reward of just £10 and kind-hearted Dad gave it to Robbie so that he could buy his Top trumps.

The additional two week pocket money ban was still left in place, but Robbie didn't really mind as he and Nick stayed locked inside for at least a couple of weeks during their spare time comparing and trying to out-do each other's dinosaurs.

© Chris White