The Brave Kitten

“So does anyone have any exciting news from their weekend?” Miss Smith looked round at the class as she finished marking the register.

“Tell her!” Katie hissed, nudging Helena in the ribs with her elbow. “Helena does, Miss Smith!”

Helena went pink, but she nodded. “I’ve got a cat.”

“Oh, lovely!” Miss Smith smiled. “Where did you get him from, Helena? Or her?”

“He’s a he. And he came from the vet’s where my cousin Lucy works,” Helena explained. “He was run over last weekend.”

Everyone in the class sat up and started listening more closely. Until then there’d been a bit of a Monday-ish feeling going on, and most people had been staring vaguely at the whiteboard, or whispering to each other.

“Run over?” one of the boys asked. “What happened, was he hurt?”

Helena nodded. “He’s got a fractured back leg. But he was lucky. Often they have to operate on cats and put pins in, but he’s just got a cast.”

“But who does he belong to?” Miss Smith asked, sounding a little confused. “Was he a stray? Has no one claimed him?”

“No. And the vet’s even put a little article about him in the local paper. That page where the animal shelter usually puts a photo of a cat or dog that needs a home.”

“Oh, that’s how we got our dog!” Marley called out. “We saw him in the paper.”

“Mm-hm. The article was in on Wednesday. But still no one claimed him. So we reckoned it was OK to take him home. We think maybe he’s been lost for a while, even before he got hit by the car. He’s quite thin.”

“Show them the photo,” Katie suggested, and Helena pulled it out of her bag. She’d brought it in to show Katie and a couple of her other friends. It was Caramel curled up asleep in his basket, and you could see his plaster cast. She passed it round, and all the class murmured about how cute he was and how sad his leg looked.

“He’s come home with us because otherwise he would have had to go to the animal shelter,” Helena went on. “He’s been really lucky. All his vet care’s been paid for by donations from the shelter he almost went to, and the PDSA.”

“The what?” someone called.

“It’s a charity, isn’t it?” Miss Smith asked.

Helena nodded. “It stands for People’s Dispensary for Sick Animals. It’s a big charity, but they have a clinic close to here, in Thirtover Road. They look after animals when people can’t afford to pay. Vet bills can be really, really expensive. Thousands of pounds, my cousin told me.”

Helena frowned thoughtfully. Ever since Molly had told her that the PDSA were helping to pay back the surgery for Caramel’s treatment, she’d been wishing she could do something to help. Something more than just giving them her pocket money. She’d already decided to get her mum to buy their Christmas cards from the PDSA – they made very cute ones with cats and dogs in the snow – but it would be good to think of a way to raise some money, too. So that if another cat got hurt like Caramel, there wouldn’t be a worry about having enough money to look after it.

Lucy had said that when she’d phoned the shelter to tell them that they wouldn’t have to take Caramel after all, the girl on the phone had been relieved. She’d said they were full to bursting. They needed a lot of money just to feed all the animals, let alone pay for vet care.

“Miss Smith, do you think we could try to make some money for the PDSA, and some for the shelter? We could have a cake sale or something?” Helena asked hopefully. “Mr Brown said he wanted all the junior classes to think about fundraising for charities. It was in assembly, back at the beginning of term.”

“He did…” Miss Smith agreed. “It’s a good idea. What about the rest of the class, though? What do you all think?”

“I definitely want to raise some money for the shelter!” Marley nodded. “There were loads of other dogs there when we went to get Chester. It was really sad – my mum cried. And the other charity sounds good, too,” he added.

Everyone in the class was nodding, but Alice, another of Helena’s friends, waved her hand at Miss Smith. “Can we do something different, though? Everyone does cake sales.”

“That’s because everyone likes cake!” Katie pointed out, and Alice shrugged.

“It’s still a bit boring.”

“So what do you want to do instead?” Miss Smith grinned. “How about a sponsored silence?”

Lots of people groaned, and Helena twisted her fingers in her hair, trying to think. They needed to come up with a good idea and quickly, before people lost interest. Already a couple of the boys were suggesting a sponsored parachute jump. It would just get silly in a minute. She put her hand up, looking hopefully at Miss Smith.

“We ought to do something that’s about pets. Since that’s what we’re raising money for.”

“Like a dog show!” Alice suggested, but Miss Smith looked rather horrified.

“Sorry, I don’t think Mr Brown would let us have a dog show in school,” she said firmly.

“But we could have a sort of competition,” Helena said slowly. “With videos of our pets, instead of bringing the actual pets in! Like a funniest pet competition. We could ask the whole school if they wanted to enter. And the teachers! Mr Brown’s got a really cute dog, hasn’t he?”

“I could borrow my mum’s phone and film Charlie skateboarding,” Katie yelped excitedly. “He’s not very good at it, but he loves trying. It’s really funny to watch.”

“And people could pay a little bit to enter,” Helena said, still trying to think it through. “Then we could show all the videos one lunch time. And sell tickets – oh, and have cakes and biscuits for sale, too,” she added to Katie.

“I’ll ask Mr Brown about it at break,” Miss Smith said, as the whole class tried to tell her about their pets’ funniest tricks at once. “And then maybe we can use your IT lesson this afternoon to make some posters.”

Helena hopped impatiently from foot to foot as her mum unlocked the front door. Gran had sent Mum a text saying that Caramel had been fine at lunch time. But Helena was desperate to see for herself that he was all right. She rushed in as soon as Mum got the door open, making for the kitchen.

“Oh! Listen!” she told her mum, stopping in the hall. “He’s mewing… And I can hear him – he’s got out of his basket, he’s coming to see us!” There was definitely a thumping noise coming from behind the kitchen door, as Caramel limped determinedly towards them. Helena giggled. “Maybe I can film you doing your pirate walk for our competition,” she told Caramel, as she carefully opened the kitchen door. “Whoa! No dashing out…” She caught him gently. “Sorry, Caramel-cat. You have to stay in here.”

Caramel half climbed into her lap, and rubbed his chin against her school jumper.

“Is he purring?” Mum whispered.

Helena looked up at her and nodded. She actually hadn’t dared to say anything. It was only the second time she’d heard him purr. And that first time at the vet’s he had only purred for a second or two, very faintly. Now Caramel was purring properly. A deep throaty purr that Helena could feel as well as hear. He was quivering all over with purrs.

“He’s glad to see us,” she whispered to Mum. “He’s actually happy!”