Free Tigger by Susanne Haywood Page A

Dad could be heard hammering in the garage. Emily and Robin were preparing a teddy bears’ picnic. A blanket was already spread out in the shade of a small tree; tiny plastic cups and plates were arranged on it in a circle. About a dozen teddy bears had been jammed into a trailer that was being towed towards the picnic site by Robin in his little red jeep. I went to join them just as the party arrived by the blanket. Emily and Robin sat the teddies down on the blanket, where they stared with glazed expressions at the plates and cups before them. I squeezed into a gap between them and received a plate as well.
    Emily poured tea into the little cups and set a birthday cake down in the centre of the blanket. It had candles on it. Emily lit them with a match while Robin admonished the teddy bears, who kept tumbling over. We all sang ‘Happy Birthday’ to one of the teddies. He tried to look pleased but refused to blow out the candles afterwards, so Emily and Robin had to do it for him. Emily cut slices of cake for everyone and placed them on the plates. The feast could begin. Unfortunately, the teddies didn’t seem to know how to eat and drink, so Emily, Robin and I helped them. The tea turned out to be water and tasted disgusting, but the cake was very nice. I had two pieces; Robin had at least five. He pretended to give them to one of the teddies, then popped them quickly into his own mouth while Emily wasn’t looking.
    When the cake was all gone, we played ‘Pass the Parcel’. The teddy bears clearly didn’t know how to play the game: they just kept rolling over whenever the parcel came their way. Emily and Robin had to help them constantly, which left me free to play with the little toys that came out of the parcels as they were opened – key rings, rubber balls and more pink hair ties. It really was a great party. As we rested on the blanket afterwards, I noticed that there was fruit in the tree above our heads – small green balls, some of them just turning a little red. Emily told me they were called plums, and that we would be able to eat them soon, once they were ripe. I thought I preferred birthday cake.
    The party broke up soon afterwards: the teddies were jammed back into the trailer and Robin drove them up to the house, while Emily and I followed with the blanket and the picnic basket containing the tea set. It was a glorious early summer day – I fancied a little snooze on my mossy wood pile in the deep shade of the oak trees.

19
    I FULFIL MY GREATEST AMBITION AND HAVE A FABULOUS FEAST
    Summer arrived in full force. Some days were so hot and humid that hunting was out of the question after sunrise. All I could do was drag myself to a shady spot, stretch out on the cool earth and sleep all day. By late afternoon, there were often spectacular thunderstorms. I would run inside at the first distant rumble, then Mum, the children and I would watch from the safety of the sofa in the living room as the heavens cracked open outside. It was pretty scary: bright lightning flashed across the garden, thunder boomed above our heads and torrents of rain ran down the windows, completely blocking our view. Afterwards the garden smelt fresh and strong as each plant drank in the rain and breathed a sigh of relief after the heat. Mum opened the windows wide to let the cool air into the house. Back on the prowl outside, I had to zigzag across the driveway to avoid deep puddles, and the grass on the lawn was squishy under my paws. The trees had an annoying habit of dripping water on my head as I passed beneath them; in fact the whole forest was drip, drip, dripping all around me.
    The mornings after a thunderstorm were always the best: the sky was bright blue and the air clean and fresh. One such morning I was sitting on the front veranda, surveying the garden below, when I spied a group of tree runners making their way across a big oak tree branch towards the little plum tree that had