A Sound Around the House Jolly Phonics · Step 3, Unit 9: /ou/ mixed

'Kit?' I sit up in bed and look around. My cat is not here. Kit sleeps on my pillow all night. Now the pillow just has a dent. 'Kit! Come out now!' I call aloud. No mew. Just a small thump under the bed. I peek under it. No cat.

I run outside to the gate. 'Kit!' I shout up the path. 'Kit!' I shout down the path. A bird looks at me. A dog looks at me. But no cat. Then a wee mew sounds close by. I spin around. Just the fence.

I check Kit's nap spot, the big blue pot in the yard. Kit naps on top of that pot all day. All. Day. Long. But now the lid is empty. I tap on it, just in case. 'Kit? Come out, come out!' No mew. That sly cat has a plan.

I look all around the pot. Round and round I go. I even look under the pot. But a pot has no under! 'This is bad,' I say with a frown. 'This is bad, bad, bad!' I howl. Then a soft, soft hum comes from close by.

I run to the back and put my arms deep into the big shrub by the porch. Leaves go up my arms. A sharp twig scrapes my cheek. 'Kit! Come out now!' I growl into the shrub. Kit is not in the shrub. But now I am one big leaf mess.

'Mew!' There it is! I run to the front and stop. I am on the lookout, like a spy. Up? Down? The sound bounces all around me. I spin, and spin, and spin. 'My cat tracking is no good today,' I groan.

Back in my bedroom, I crouch down low by the wood box. 'Kit likes small dark spots,' I say. 'Kit could be under there with a smug grin.' I put my cheek on the rug and peek into the dark gap. Dust. One lost sock. No cat.

I drag my blue stool and get up to check the top of the wood box. More dust. My lost book from three weeks back. But no Kit. 'I look high. I look low. I look in a shrub,' I say. 'Where can that cat be now?'

I check the bookshelf. I look at each toy on my shelf, one by one. 'Come out, Kit! This is not a game now,' I shout. Well, it is a bit like a game. A bad, grouchy sort of game. I flop into my seat and put my face in my hands.

Wait. I need to check under my bed one more time. I crouch down by my bed and peek under it. That spot is like Kit's own little den. She even has a dust nest under there. I peek deep into the dark. Empty.

I stand up and frown. No cat in the yard. No cat in the house. No cat high or low, or in the shrub. 'That is it,' I say. 'I need help. I need Mom. I need a lookout owl with cat-spy powers.' I turn to my bed to sit and think. And then I see it.

A mound. A warm, round mound under my blanket, with a low hum coming from it. I lift the blanket, and wow. There is Kit, curled up snug, with my sun specs on her face. My sun specs! 'Kit!' I shout, and I lift her up and put my face in her soft fur. 'Here all this time!' Kit just curls back up. That smug, smug cat.