The Frightened Kitten

Chapter Three

“She’s going to miss me while I’m at school,” Maddy said worriedly. She had her coat and her rucksack and her lunchbag – and a kitten sitting on her shoulder, sniffing with interest at the rucksack. “It’s the first day I won’t have been here to play with her.”

“I’ll be here though,” her mum pointed out. Maddy’s mum worked part-time at another school, but she didn’t go in on Mondays or Fridays. “I’ll play with her lots, Maddy, I promise. And your dad’s working from home tomorrow. She’ll gradually get used to being left. It’ll be fine.”

Maddy nodded doubtfully. She’d spent the whole holiday playing with Biscuit and fussing over her. Now she just couldn’t imagine a whole day at school without seeing her. And without Kate…

“Come on, Maddy. We’d better go.”

Maddy sighed and then carefully unhooked Biscuit’s claws from her coat. She put her down gently and rubbed her ears. “Be good,” she told her. “I’ll be back soon.”

Biscuit stared up at her. She didn’t understand what was happening, but she could tell from Maddy’s voice that she wasn’t happy. The kitten gave an uncertain little mew and patted at Maddy’s leg with a paw, asking to be picked up again.

“Maddy, now,” her mum said firmly, seeing that Maddy was close to tears. She shooed her out of the door, leaving Biscuit all alone in the house.

Biscuit sat by the front door for a little while, hoping that they’d come back, but she couldn’t hear any footsteps heading up the path. She was very confused – she just didn’t understand why Maddy had gone away. Eventually, she padded back into the kitchen. She had seen Maddy and her mum and dad use the back door, even though she wasn’t allowed out of it yet. Perhaps they would come in that way?

She waited for what seemed like a very long time, but no one came in by that door, either. So she wandered through the house, mewing every so often. Where had they all gone? Were they ever coming back? She looked at the stairs for a while, but she still found them very difficult to climb. Maddy had carried her up there a couple of times, but it took her ages to manage a whole flight of stairs by herself.

Sadly, she trailed into the living room, and clawed her way up the purple throw that Maddy’s mum had draped over the sofa. It already had quite a lot of little claw marks in it – Biscuit had quickly discovered that the back of the sofa was an interesting place to sit. She sat down, peering out of the window, hoping to see Maddy coming up the front path.

Instead, she saw a large gingery face staring back at her.

Biscuit was so surprised that she jumped backwards with a miaow of fright, and fell on to the seat of the sofa.

What was that? Another cat? In her garden? Biscuit had never been out in it, but she was quite certain that it was hers. She sat shivering on the sofa, not daring to climb up and look again. The other cat had been a lot bigger than she was. What if it was still there? At last, Biscuit scrabbled her way up the throw again, and peeped over the back of the sofa.

The big ginger cat had gone.

Biscuit was so relieved that she curled up on the back of the sofa, and went to sleep.

“She was fine, Maddy!” Mum said, as they walked home from school. “When I got home from dropping you off and doing the shopping, she was asleep on the back of the sofa. And then the rest of the day I fussed over her every so often, and she was perfectly all right.”

Maddy nodded, looking relieved. “I wonder if she was watching for us coming home, and that’s why she was on the back of the sofa.”

“Maybe.” Her mum laughed. “Actually, I think she’s just nosy. She likes watching people go past. Anyway, how was school?”

Maddy could tell that her mum was trying not to sound worried about her. She shrugged. “OK.”

“Who did you sit with?”

“Lucy. And Romany.”

“And it was all right?”

“Mmm.” Maddy didn’t want to tell her mum that she’d felt miserable and lonely all day, and that even though Lucy and Romany had been nice, she’d hardly talked to them. She couldn’t help thinking that they were Kate’s friends, not hers, and they didn’t really want to hang around with her. Luckily it had been netball club at lunch, so she hadn’t had to mooch around on her own in the playground. But she didn’t have a club every lunchtime. She sped up, hurrying home to see Biscuit.

“Oh, look, she’s there, watching out for us!” Maddy beamed. She ran up the garden path, watching Biscuit leap off the back of the sofa. She could hear a little scuttle of paws, and then frantic mewing and a scrabbling noise as the kitten clawed at the door. As soon as her mum opened it, Maddy swept the kitten up to hug her.

School wasn’t any easier the next day, or the day after that – but at least Maddy had Biscuit to cheer her up at home. And she was really looking forward to Saturday – the vet had said Biscuit could go out in the garden then, even though it wasn’t quite three weeks since her vaccinations. He’d said it would be fine as long as she wasn’t around any other cats.

Maddy didn’t give Biscuit as much breakfast as usual on Saturday morning. And just in case Biscuit did wander too far, Maddy made sure she had a full bag of the kitten’s favourite chicken-flavour treats.

Biscuit was still staring suspiciously at her food bowl, wondering why breakfast hadn’t seemed to take as long to gobble down as usual, when she realized that the back door was wide open. She’d seen it open before, of course, but only when someone was holding her tightly, and even then they always whipped it shut before she could wriggle free and go investigating. She crept over to it, keeping low to the ground, expecting any minute that Maddy or her mum would catch her.

But Maddy was outside! She was standing by the door, calling her! Biscuit hurried so fast out of the door, she almost tripped over the step. She shook herself crossly and pattered down the path to where Maddy was.

There were so many smells! She sniffed curiously at the grass, and patted it with one paw. It was cool and damp, and taller than she was!

“Have you got the treats?” Her mum appeared in the doorway. “In case Biscuit goes running off. She could get under the fence if she really tried, remember.”

Maddy waved the foil packet. “It’s OK. Oh, look, Mum! She’s seen a butterfly!”

The orange butterfly was swooping carelessly past Biscuit’s nose, and she watched it in amazement. Maddy had dangled pieces of string for her, and feathery toys, but she had never seen anything like this. She reached out her paw and tried to bat at the butterfly, and then tried again with the other paw, but it flew behind her, and she almost fell over trying to chase after it.

“You can’t have it, Biscuit,” Maddy laughed. “I don’t think butterflies are very good for you. And they’re all legs and wings; I bet they don’t taste nice.”

Biscuit stared after the butterfly, which was flittering over the fence to next door’s garden. She thought it looked delicious. But there was no way she could get over the high fence to follow it.