It was four o'clock in the morning and Patience couldn't sleep.

Thump, thump, thump, thump, thump.

What a terrible noise! The loud music went on and on and on. Her neighbour in the flat opposite was having an all-night party.

Thump, thump, thump, thump, thump.

Patience had gone to bed at ten o'clock because she had to get up at six. Today was really important. She had to show her boss her designs for the new beauty cream adverts.

Patience got out of bed and went across the room to the window of her third-floor flat. She looked out and saw her neighbour and his friends. They were dancing and laughing and having lots of fun... and making lots of noise.

'I don't want to be difficult, but I need to sleep,' she thought as she opened the window.

'Hello?' she called. 'Excuse me? Could you please...?' But she didn't finish her question because no one could hear her.

Just then she heard a miaow. She looked down. There, sitting on the seat of her neighbour's motorbike, was the largest cat that Patience had ever seen. It was grey and black, with huge golden eyes. The cat was watching her.

'Hi, cat!' Patience called. 'Some people are having a good time, aren't they?'

'But I'm having a very bad time,' she thought. She shut the window and went back to bed.

Thump, thump, thump, thump, thump.

The music continued and Patience still couldn't sleep. Finally she got up and began to paint. Patience loved painting. She worked as a designer but she really wanted to be an artist. She used lots of colours on the paper: reds, blues, yellows, purples... She started to feel better.

Suddenly the music stopped. The party was over.

'At last!' Patience thought.

Then she heard an unhappy miaow from outside the window. She opened the window and looked up. The cat with the huge golden eyes was on a window-sill above the window next door. It miaowed again. It looked frightened.

'Hello again, cat,' said Patience. 'Can't you get down?'

'Poor thing!' she thought. 'It's too scared to move.'

'Come on, kitty, kitty, kitty. You can do it!' she said. The cat miaowed again and stayed where it was.

'Oh OK, cat,' Patience said. 'I'll come and get you. Wait a minute. One, two, three...'

She climbed out of her window onto her window-sill. She looked down and suddenly felt very frightened. It was a long way down to the street below. She counted to three again and moved closer to the cat.

'Come on, kitty,' she said. But the cat didn't move.