The Curious Kitten

Now that Cleo had worked out how to climb the wall in the back garden, she was desperate to try it again. Amber had homework to do – which she thought was really unfair on her first day back. She left Cleo gobbling down her tea, hoping she would come and find her when she’d finished. But Cleo had other ideas, and when Amber’s dad came home from work he was met by a purring kitten on the path.

Dad laughed as Cleo danced happily around his feet and he crouched down to fuss over her. “You’re not meant to be out here, little miss. Did you slip out? Come on, then.”

He opened the front door and called out, “Look who I found!”

Amber and Sara peered over the top of the stairs.

“Oh no! Was she out at the front again?” Amber hurried down to scoop Cleo up. “She’s definitely learned to climb the wall, then. Mum said she must have done it earlier, but I thought Cleo might have sneaked out without her noticing. She was on the front wall when I came home!”

“She was only in the front garden.” Dad looked round at Amber as he hung up his jacket. “I don’t think she’ll come to any harm.”

“What about the road, though?” Amber sighed worriedly and then laughed as Cleo’s head butted into her chin. “Oh, Cleo, are you telling me not to fuss?”

“How’s Cleo?”Amber’s friend Maisie asked in class a couple of days later, spotting the photo that Amber had stuck on the front of her planner. “Has she learned any more tricks?” Amber had told her about all the games she’d invented with Cleo.

Amber rolled her eyes. “Yes! She’s learned how to scramble on to the back wall, then climb all the way over the garage roof so she can get into the front garden.”

Lila leaned over the table. “Why? What’s so exciting about your front garden?”

“Who knows?” Amber sighed. “But it’s got a road in front of it, that’s the problem. There’s this really nice lady who lives down our street, Susan. Her cat got run over last year. He crawled back in through the cat flap with a broken leg. He had to have an operation to fix the bone back together with metal pins. Then he had to live in a cat crate for two months to stop him walking on it.”

“But that’s not going to happen to Cleo,” Lila said comfortingly.

“It might do.” Amber ran her finger over Cleo’s whiskers in the photo – they were so white, and they fanned out like she had a moustache. “She’s only little and she doesn’t know what cars are. The people across the road are starting to have an extension built this week. Mum was telling me. She was saying it might be tricky to get out of our driveway because of all the builders’ vans and things. So that’s loads more traffic to worry about.”

“I’m sure it will be OK…” put in a quiet voice.

Amber looked over at the other side of the table, a bit surprised. The two classes in the year had been mixed around again, and she didn’t know George very well. He’d always been in the other class in her year. She’d not seen him on her way to school, either, so she guessed he didn’t live very close by. They’d been on the same table for a week now, but George hadn’t said much at all.

“My mum’s cat, Pirate, goes up and down our street, and he does cross the road sometimes. But he’s really careful. I bet your kitten will just learn what to do.”

“George is right,” Lila agreed. “Cats are clever. I’m sure Cleo will learn how to cross the road, no problem.”

“Maybe,” Amber said. She loved how Cleo was so curious – it made her even more fun to play with. But it also meant that she liked to explore everything. She sighed to herself as Mr Evans told them to stop chatting and settle down. She was probably worrying too much – it was the first time they’d had a pet, after all. She just couldn’t help that little nagging feeling that Cleo was too nosy for her own good.

Cleo sat perched on the front wall, peering out from under a climbing rose and eyeing the men working on the other side of the road. There was one big truck, with a crane lifting off huge pallets of bricks. Then there were two smaller vans and lots of people going backwards and forwards between them and the house. She wanted to get closer to see what was going on.

The road was in between her and the action, though, and she didn’t like the way the cars roared and growled as they shot past. Yesterday, after a few days of exploring the front garden, she’d actually ventured out on to the pavement. At first she’d just stood by the gate, flinching back when a car came past. But they all seemed to stick to the road, and she was sure the pavement looked safe enough.

She’d crept along the bottom of the wall, keeping well away from the road. Then a car had sped by. Cleo had felt the rumbling of the road under her paws and smelled the exhaust, and she’d raced back to the safety of the garden.

She still wasn’t quite brave enough to cross the road and investigate the unusual things that were happening on the other side. Cleo edged between two bushes as another van came driving up. But this time when the van stopped it was on her side of the road.

Cleo wriggled out between the thick stems, her whiskers twitching. The driver was getting out – Cleo could see his heavy boots walking round the side of the van. Then he opened up the back doors and lifted out a box, which he carried across the road to the interesting house on the other side.

Almost without realizing it, Cleo was padding eagerly out into the middle of the pavement. The van was new and exciting, and she wanted to see what was in it.

Then the man was coming back. Cleo ducked under the sprawling fuchsia bush in the garden next door. Amber and Sara always tried to grab her when she went out at the front of the house. She didn’t want this man to catch her now and stop her exploring. But the man didn’t even notice her. He just unloaded another box and set off across the road again, leaving the van’s back doors open.

As Cleo edged out of the bush, she came to a sudden halt. Her collar was caught on the wiry branches. She pulled at it crossly. She hated collars. When the safety catch came open, she tossed her head briskly from side to side, enjoying the freedom. Then she hurried out from under the bush, shaking the dry leaves from her fur.

Cleo sniffed at the tyres of the van and then stretched up, putting her front paws on the little back step. The van was full of boxes, some old sacks, a folded plastic sheet and all sorts of fascinating things. There were dark corners and good smells to investigate, too.

She jumped up, scrabbling to get her back legs on to the step, and clambered into the van. It was dusty, which made her sneeze, but that didn’t put her off. She prowled further inside and rubbed up against one of the boxes. She liked this place and she wanted to mark it as hers.

Suddenly there was a shout from outside and the sound of footsteps approaching. Cleo froze, laying her ears back. What was happening? Was someone coming to chase her out? She backed between the box and a pile of sacks and watched, round-eyed, as the doors at the back of the van swung shut with a slam.

She was trapped.