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“Have a look at these.” The policewoman held out her mobile phone, and Tia stared at it eagerly. It had been so hard to wait for news. Tia had wanted to stay outside the house in Emwell Road, but Mum had said they’d better go home. They didn’t want to get in the way when the police came.

“We might make that man suspicious if we’re hanging around,” she had pointed out to Tia. “We don’t want him moving the cats.”

Tia knew she was right, but she hated to walk away when she was so sure that Milly was somewhere in that house.

It had only been a few hours until a police car drew up outside their house that evening, but it felt like Tia had been waiting for days.

“Is Milly one of these?” PC Ryan flicked through the photos – a Persian, and what looked like another Bengal, but with a marbled, stripey coat, and another cat Tia didn’t recognize.

“No…” Tia’s voice shook. “Look, there’s an empty cage next to this one. He’s already sold her!”

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PC Ryan frowned.“Maybe. But he was definitely showing a spotted Bengal kitten to someone this morning. Another lady phoned us, saying that she’d been to see a kitten, and she suspected she might have been stolen. Perhaps your Milly got out.”

“Milly is very good at getting in and out of places,” Mum agreed hopefully. “If any cat could, it would be her, wouldn’t it, Tia…”

But Tia wasn’t listening. She dashed away upstairs to her room and scrambled up her ladder to hide in her bed. She couldn’t bear it. They were too late, and Milly was gone.

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Milly kept walking all afternoon even though she was so tired she stumbled. The light was starting to fade now, and it was getting colder. Someone was walking along the road towards her with a dog, and Milly darted under a parked car to hide.

Even when the dog had gone by, she didn’t want to move. At least under the car she was out of the wind, and she couldn’t smell any other cats. She would just stay here for a little while, until she felt better. Milly dozed, her eyelids flickering and her paws twitching as the ginger cat chased after her. It was chasing her further and further away from Tia…

She hissed and startled awake, not sure where she was. It was now bright daylight, she realized as she peered out from under the parked car. She must have slept there all night, worn out from her long walk.

She stepped cautiously out on to the pavement and stretched herself. Then she heard voices. Children’s voices. Not Tia and Christy, she was pretty sure, but still … she would just go and see. Somehow she felt much more hopeful today, with the bright sunshine warming her fur.

It was a playground, and two little boys were chasing each other round and round. Milly paused at the gate, ready to run.

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“Ooooh, look! Mum, look! A kitten!” The older boy dashed over.

Milly squeaked– she was nervous after the way that nice man had turned out not to be nice after all. She shot underneath the slide and hid there, shivering.

“Oh, Alfie, you frightened her. She doesn’t know you like Whiskers does. No, don’t try and pull her out, Billy. She’ll come out if she wants to.”

The woman’s voice was gentle, and the fur began to lay down flat on Milly’s back again. “She is pretty… Oh!”

“What, Mum?”

“I think she’s the kitten on those posters! You know, we said it was sad that she was lost. She’s called Milly, if she is that missing kitten.”

“And we found her!”

“No, I found her! I saw her first!”

“Shhh! You’ll scare her away. We need to ring the number and say she’s found. You two watch her, and I’ll run and see if I can find a poster. I think I saw one on that lamp post by the gate.”

Milly huddled under the slide with two curious little faces staring in. She was feeling a bit better now– the bigger boy had surprised her, that was all. She sniffed at his fingers as he held them out hopefully, and he beamed and patted her head.

“Hello, Milly…”

Milly came out from under the slide a little more. The boy knew her name! She nuzzled his fingers, and he giggled.

“Me too! Me too!” the littler one squeaked, so she rubbed her head against his jeans.

The boys’ mother hurried back over. “Good boys… I’m just ringing her owners now…” she said, crouching down beside them. She smiled at Milly as she keyed in the number. “I bet you want to go home, don’t you?”

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“Tia, love, wake up.”

Tia blinked and rubbed at her sticky eyes. They were sore, and she couldn’t remember why. And then all at once she did remember and she gave a horrified little gasp.

Mum was standing at the bottom of the bunkbed ladder with Christy next to her.“Tia, why don’t you get up and have a shower and get changed? You fell asleep in your clothes last night!”

Tia peered over the edge of her bed.“Milly could be anywhere, Mum. That man isn’t telling the police anything, PC Ryan said so. He just says he’s looking after the cats for a friend. He must have sold her. We’re never going to get Milly back.”