Free Rabbit Racer by Tamsyn Murray Page B

chimpanzee lowering her hula hoop and Spike-tacular, the hedgehog dance troupe, piling on top of each other
for a better view. Everyone held their breath as Taz padded up to the start line and crouched down, his tail sticking straight out behind him and his ears laid flat against his head.

    Gloria held up her hand. ‘On your marks . . . get set . . . go!’
    Before you could say ‘super speedy’, Taz was off, streaking towards the first jump so fast that his stripes became just a blur. He cleared the sticks with ease and shot like a bullet
through a long, black cloth tunnel. Then he was weaving in and out of a set of tall red-and-white poles and over another jump, before zooming up a thin plank of wood to a balancing bar high above
the ground.
    Next to me, Cherry the counting kitten lost track of the number of obstacles and covered her eyes with her paws. Even Spike-tacular, who do some pretty acrobatic dance moves, looked nervous. But
Taz was a cool cat. He was across the bar and down the other side without even a hint of a wobble. As he raced over the finish line, Gloria clicked the stopwatch in her hand and smiled.
    ‘Less than one minute,’ she said to Tim. ‘I can see why you call him Tornado Taz. Our viewers are going to love him!’
    ‘I don’t call that much of a talent,’ a voice behind me drawled. I didn’t need to turn around to know it belonged to Miranda, the snooty owner of Doodle the opera-singing
Poodle. The only bad thing about the Superpets Live pets joining the cast was that Miranda and Doodle were now on the show too. We’d been enemies ever since I won Superpets Search
for a Superstar instead of Doodle and the two of them were always on the lookout for ways to cause me trouble. They’d sunk to new dastardly lows while we were on tour and I suspected
they’d even been in cahoots with the Great Maldini, but I’d outsmarted them all. Today, though, their attention was fixed on Taz.
    ‘Surely any animal could jump over a few sticks and run along a pole,’ Miranda went on, looking down her nose at Gloria fussing over Tim and Taz. ‘It’s nowhere near as
difficult as singing.’
    Sam, the nine-year-old owner of Spike-tacular, sniggered. ‘If you call what Doodle does singing.’
    Miranda scowled at him. ‘Opera is very hard to perform, I’ll have you know. Doodle is the most talented pet this show has ever seen.’
    Gloria came towards us. ‘It’s funny you should say that, Miranda. I don’t want any one-trick ponies on my show so I’ve decided that, apart from Taz, each pet has to learn
a new talent, which they’ll perform on the live Summer Special . With all the new animals joining the show we need to have a real shake-up. So anyone who doesn’t knock my socks
off . . .’ She paused and looked around at us gravely. ‘Well, let’s just say they won’t be part of the Superpets crew.’

    Everyone looked suddenly nervous. Cherry stopped counting the number of pets crowded around Gloria. Spike-tacular froze mid-pyramid and I saw Trevor and his tumbling terrapins gulp
anxiously.
    ‘I’ll be watching you all very closely over the next few weeks,’ Gloria went on. ‘I do hope none of you will be leaving Superpets .’
    With one final glance around, she disappeared around the back of the camera. As the other animals and their owners wandered away, Susie reached down to give my grey fur a soothing rub.
‘Don’t worry, Harriet,’ she whispered in an uncertain voice. ‘I’m sure you’ll be OK.’
    EE appeared next to us, a cup of steaming coffee in his hand. ‘Do you know, they have the most marvellous cakes in the studio canteen?’ He patted his tummy in satisfaction. ‘I
could have stayed there all afternoon.’
    Then he noticed Susie’s worried face. ‘What’s wrong?’
    ‘Gloria just announced that all the pets have to find a new talent,’ Susie said, her bottom lip wobbling like jelly. ‘Or they’ll have to leave Superpets .’
    EE frowned. ‘If