rejoicing which had brought all of the neighbours out into the street, Tommy’s Dad went over to the police car and came back holding ‘Tiger’.
‘You will never know how much I owe to this little hero’, Tommy’s Dad said. He took on the whole gang single handed and beat the lot’, he added as he passed ‘Tiger’ over to Smithy. ‘You should be so proud of him for what he has done’.
The excitement over, Tommy and Smithy waved goodnight to each other as Tommy and his family headed back to their bungalow to celebrate his dad’s homecoming. Over the next few hours he listened with his Mum to a full description of the events that had taken place until Tommy so tired fell asleep snuggled up to his Dad on the sofa. The next thing he knew was his Mum opening his bedroom curtains and wishing him a good morning.
Tommy felt wonderful as he went in for breakfast seeing his Dad back in his usual place. He had just got his bowl of cereal when there was a loud knock on the door. A little nervous at first, Tommy’s Mum opened the door to see Smithy stood there with the Sunday paper in his hand.
‘Look at this,’ he said to Tommy and his family as he opened the paper out on the kitchen table. The headlines were: ‘MAN EATING TIGER WINS THE DAY’. The paper went on to tell its readers how Smithy’s cat ‘Tiger’ had capture the crooks and stopped a £200,000 bank robbery.
‘The house is surrounded by journalists and photographer’s’, said Smithy. ‘And guess what’, he added. The bank is going to give ‘Tiger’ a £10,000 reward for his bravery and Dad said he can go in the shed any time he wants’.
‘And so he should’, said Tommy’s Dad. ‘He is a hero’.
Tommy knowing that the truth could never be told, he winked at his best mate and said. ‘That’s what true hero’s are made of, ain’t they Smithy’.