Tom Watson - Stick Cat: Two Cats to the Rescue

CONTENTS

Australia HarperCollins Publishers Australia Pty. Ltd. Level 13, 201 Elizabeth Street Sydney, NSW 2000, Australia www.harpercollins.com.au Canada HarperCollins Publishers Ltd Bay Adelaide Centre, East Tower 22 Adelaide Street West, 41st Floor Toronto, Ontario, M5H 4E3 www.harpercollins.ca India HarperCollins India A 75, Sector 57 Noida Uttar Pradesh 201 301 www.harpercollins.co.in New Zealand HarperCollins Publishers New Zealand Unit D1, 63 Apollo Drive Rosedale 0632 Auckland, New Zealand www.harpercollins.co.nz United Kingdom HarperCollins Publishers Ltd. 1 London Bridge Street London SE1 9GF, UK www.harpercollins.co.uk United States HarperCollins Publishers Inc. 195 Broadway New York, NY 10007 www.harpercollins.com STICK CAT: TWO CATS TO THE RESCUE . Copyright 2019 by Tom Watson.

Illustrations by Ethan Long based on original sketches by Tom Watson. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books. www.harpercollinschildrens.com Cover design by Honee Jang

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Library of Congress Control Number: 2019936834 Digital Edition SEPTEMBER 2019 ISBN: 978-0-06-274121-9
Version 04062020 Print ISBN: 978-0-06-274120-2

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19 20 21 22 23 PC/LSCH 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 FIRST EDITION To MEJ(YGATB) CONTENTS So, you know who Mary is, right? Shes in my English class. 1. 1.

Shes totally into cats. 2. Shes totally cute. And theres one thing you need to know about me. 1. I like Mary.

I wrote four Stick Cat stories for her to get her attention. It worked. She talked to me and walked with me to class and stuff. And, get this: she asked me to go to the Sweetheart Dance with herwhere I totally impressed her with my amazing dance moves. Now, its almost the end of the school year and Marys going to summer camp. And she wants me to write a new Stick Cat story so she can take it with her.

I said I would, of course. What choice did I have? Shes totally cute. (Tom: remember to tear out this chapter before giving it to Mary.) In the big city, Stick Cat always woke up before everybody else in the apartment. He woke up before Goose, his roommate. He got up before Tiffany, Gooses wife, and Millie, their daughter. He still wakes up before everybody. He still wakes up before everybody.

But Stick Cat wasnt in the big city anymore. This Saturday morning, while everyone else in the family slept in, Stick Cat woke up. He stalked silently from the bedroom, across the living room, and into the kitchen. A door in the kitchen opened up to the backyard. Stick Cat loved, loved, LOVED that kitchen door. And heres why: That kitchen door had a small swinging door at the bottom.

It allowed Stick Cat and Edith to go outside and come inside whenever they wanted. That kitchen door meant something super-important to Stick Cat. Do you know what it meant? Ill tell you. It meant freedom. He and Edith called that little swinging door the Door of Freedom. Stick Cat pushed through the Door of Freedom and emerged into the backyard.

He wasnt going to watch the big city wake up from a windowsill on the twenty-third floor of a tall apartment building. He was going to watch his new neighborhood wake up from his new favorite spot. Stick Cat gained speed as he crossed the back deck and hopped down onto the soft, green dew-covered grass. By the time he was halfway across the backyard, Stick Cat was at a full sprint. He leaped into the air, dug his claws into a big maple trees bark, and scrambled up the trunk. He passed a couple of the lower, thicker branches and kept climbing.

Stick Cat was two-thirds of the way up when he reached his favorite branch. He stalked his way toward its end, found the spot where two smaller branches split off in opposite directions, and lay down slowly on his belly. Stick Cat shimmied himself into a comfortable position. He felt the branch dip and sway with his weight. He held perfectly still until the branch settled. Once it did, Stick Cat took in everything he saw.

In the big city, Stick Cat could only see patches of sky between buildings. Here, the sky went on forever. He watched as the sun rose and brightened the day. There was a park on a hillside in the distance. Stick Cat knew it was called Picasso Park. After the wedding, Goose, Tiffany, Edith, and Stick Cat went back to the big city. After the wedding, Goose, Tiffany, Edith, and Stick Cat went back to the big city.

Millie was born about a year later. And about a year after that, their apartment began to feel too small. So, Goose and Tiffany decided to move to Gooses hometown and buy a house with a big backyard. The house was fineand there was more space for everyone. But it was that backyard that Stick Cat loved the most. He scanned the neighborhood slowly from left to right.

He saw the grass beyond their backyard fence. He saw the little patch of forest that was just past the grass. He saw several houses and an elementary school. He heard birds tweet, squirrels chatter, and dogs bark. Stick Cat was about to scan the neighborhood back from right to left. But he didnt.

There was another sound. A sound he knew very well. Stick Cat! It was Edith.

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