Rabbit Racer (8 page)

‘I’ve always been a cat person,’ she said, fluttering her eyelashes at him. ‘And Doodle simply adores them.’

‘I bet she does,’ Tim replied, watching Doodle bare her teeth in an unfriendly grin at Taz. ‘For breakfast or dinner, usually?’

Miranda threw back her head and laughed loudly. ‘You’re so funny, Tim. How have we got along without you?’

Gloria bustled up to them both. ‘It’s almost time for the race,’ she said to Tim. ‘I hope Taz is in tip-top form?’

Taz swished his tail and let out an enthusiastic
mrrrow
. Tim nodded. ‘He’s looking forward to it.’

Turning to EE and Susie, Gloria smiled. ‘No need to ask if Harriet is ready. I bet she’s raring to go.’

EE yawned. ‘She’s certainly been training hard.’

‘Excellent,’ Gloria said, rubbing her hands together. ‘I’m hoping for a real ratings winner to knock that dancing show on the other channel off the top spot.’

As the other adults talked, Miranda rummaged in her handbag and offered a small white tube to Susie. ‘I almost forgot to give you this. It’s special cream to stop Harriet’s
paws from hurting. Make sure you rub it in before the race begins.’ She lowered her voice. ‘Don’t tell anyone about this. I don’t want Taz to get jealous.’

Susie took the tube and peered at it doubtfully. ‘Thank you, Miranda. Are you sure it will help?’

Miranda gave a thin smile. ‘Oh yes. It will definitely do the trick.’

Gloria checked her watch. ‘Come along, racers. It’s time we got you to the start line.’

By the time we reached the sawdust-filled ring where the race was taking place, Susie seemed more nervous than I was. ‘Good luck, Harriet,’ she said, squeezing the
tube Miranda had given her and rubbing the cream into my paws with shaking hands. ‘Be careful.’

I sniffed at my feet suspiciously. It wasn’t like Miranda to be helpful and whatever was in that cream, it smelled strange. Beside us, Tim was whispering last-minute instructions into
Taz’s twitching ear. Then he patted his head and both owners backed away. It was just the cat and me. Gloria hovered nearby, talking into the camera.

‘It’s a world exclusive!
Superpets
favourite, Harriet Houdini, races against newcomer, Tornado Taz.’ She leaned into the camera, a tense look on her face. ‘Stay
tuned to find out who wins!’

I glanced over at Taz. He was poised at the start line, his ears flat and his tail wrapped with a special support bandage. Hopping towards him, I gave him a ‘may-the-best-pet-win’
nudge and he turned his green-eyed gaze on me. Without blinking, he reached down and touched his nose to mine. Then he turned away and I took up my place on the starting line once more.

Gloria was looking our way and she had a tiny starter’s gun in her hand. ‘Superpets, are you ready?’

I glanced out at the two identical obstacle courses side by side. Was that a see-saw at the start? Susie and I hadn’t practised with one of those. But EE had shown me some clips of dog
agility races and I’d seen the best way to handle a see-saw. I hoped it was as easy as it looked.

‘On your marks . . . get set . . .’ Gloria aimed the pistol up in the air and squeezed the trigger. ‘Go!’

And we were off. Up to the see-saw, we were pretty evenly matched. Taz hit the yellow slope ahead of me and I saw him slow down to wait for the end to drop before he crossed it. When I hit the
plastic, something strange happened. Instead of slowing down the way I meant to, my paws didn’t grip. They slid. So rather than crossing in a calm, controlled way, I zoomed up one side, then
down the other, and hit the sawdust at the other side before Taz.

I didn’t have time to wonder what had happened, though. The next obstacle, the weaving poles, was hurtling towards me. Taz and I bobbed from side to side almost in unison, the
red-and-white sticks wobbling as we rounded them. Then we were through and coming up to a jump. The criss-crossed bars looked very high. I snatched a deep breath and somersaulted over them.

A quick glance to my right told me Taz had cleared the jump too. Next up was a cloth tunnel, followed by another jump. We were neck and neck coming up to the wall of the ring, where our paths
split. As I peeled off to the left and Taz sped away to the right, I looked ahead. We had one more jump and the balance bar left to cover. If things carried on as they were, it looked like Taz was
going to win.

But I wasn’t ready to give up just yet and, gathering up all my strength, I pounded down the back straight and soared over the last jump. Over on the other side of the ring, I could see
Taz swarming up the wooden plank which led to the red plastic balance beam. A second behind him, I zipped up my own plank. But once again, my feet refused to grip the plastic. As Taz picked his way
over and began his descent at the other end, I found myself sliding along the beam, gathering speed like a surfer on a wave.

I couldn’t stop. Instead of going down the plank at the end as Taz had done, I flew off the plastic beam and overtook the cat in mid-air. In a flurry of sawdust, I landed ahead of him.
Eyes fixed on the finish line, I scampered for it as fast as I could. Everything seemed to slow down. Taz was panting next to me. With one last surge of my back feet, I pushed forwards – and
my nose nudged across the line just before his.

The crowd went wild. Susie was hugging me, Taz was licking me and Gloria was smiling from ear to ear.

‘We have a winner!’ she cried, beaming into the camera. ‘An unusual finish from Harriet, but it won her the race. Three cheers for Harriet Houdini – Rabbit
Racer!’

The show cut to an advert break straight after the race. All the other pets and their owners crowded around us, offering congratulations and clapping.

‘Well done, Harriet!’ Susie said, lifting me up and twirling around. ‘You’re the most amazing bunny I’ve ever seen.’

EE agreed. ‘It was a brilliant race. But what on earth was all the sliding about? I’m sure we didn’t practise that at home.’

I looked at my paws. They looked the same as always, except for a thin layer of shiny cream. Susie’s hands flew to her mouth. ‘I think it’s my fault. Miranda gave me something
to put on Harriet’s feet. She said it would stop them from hurting.’

Everyone looked at Miranda, who went red. ‘It’s an old family recipe,’ she declared. ‘I had no idea it would make Harriet’s paws slippery.’

EE took the tube of cream Susie was holding up. Carefully, he peeled back the plain white label and peered at what was underneath. ‘Beeswax furniture polish,’ he read. ‘To make
your surfaces super shiny.’

Gloria frowned at Miranda. ‘I find it hard to believe that you didn’t realise this would affect Harriet’s race,’ she said in a stern voice. ‘In fact, I think you
knew exactly what would happen.’

Miranda didn’t say anything. She stood there with Doodle at her feet, glowering at everyone.

The cameraman waved a panicky hand at Gloria. ‘Back on in ten seconds.’

‘Places, everyone,’ Gloria commanded. ‘We’ll sort this out later.’

The other pets and their owners scattered to various positions on the stage, leaving Gloria centre-stage.

‘Welcome back.’ Gloria smiled into the camera, as though nothing was wrong. ‘Wow, what an opening to the show that was! But the surprises don’t stop there. Here on
Superpets
, we like to shake things up. Each of our talented animals has been working on a secret new trick for this
Summer Special
, hoping to amaze you. Let’s start by meeting
the Tap Hogs!’

The camera cut to Spike-tacular, who launched straight into a noisy tap-dancing number. Once they’d finished, Cherry bamboozled everyone with her new card trick, the terrapins wowed the
crowd with their high-dive act and Lulu the chimpanzee made them gasp with her flaming hula hoop routine. I was impressed – everyone had been working really hard! After each pet’s
performance, Doodle and Miranda grew paler and paler and when the camera swung round to them, I saw Doodle gulp. This was going to be interesting.

Gloria clapped her hands. ‘Now it’s time for our final act. Doodle the opera-singing Poodle will attempt to shatter glass using her voice alone!’

The stage lights dimmed and a spotlight glared down on Doodle and a single crystal goblet on a table next to her. The audience was hushed. Looking nervous, the poodle opened her mouth and began
to howl. As her voice got higher and higher, I saw people in the crowd jamming their fingers in their ears. Spike-tacular rolled themselves into spiny balls, Gloria looked strained and I wrapped my
ears around my head. After two minutes of woeful warbling, the glass showed no sign of shattering and Doodle had gone a funny pink colour. Then Miranda stepped forwards and stood beside the
table.