The Perfect Kitten

Flower stepped out from underneath the bushes and looked down the alleyway. It was fully dark now and she’d been getting colder and colder huddled there. She felt stiff, and slow, and she wasn’t sure she could run away if one of those rumbling things came near her again. But to get back home she supposed she would have to go along the road and risk it. She padded down the dark alley and then flinched as something ran in front of her. She had a moment’s glimpse of white teeth gleaming and a massive paw swept the air in front of her nose, cuffing her and knocking her sideways. She jumped and twisted and rolled over, landing half on her side as the creature loomed over her. Then it darted away.

Flower lay crouched and gasping in the dust, making herself as small as she could, wondering if the creature was going to come back. What was it? Another cat? It must have been. The smell seemed right, but it had been so much larger than she was. She wasn’t sure if she should stay still, or run, or try to hide. But the cat seemed to have moved on and even though there were scents of other animals around, there was nothing else nearby.

At last she began to move forward again, creeping cautiously along the alleyway to the road. And then she stopped, almost forgetting how much the larger cat had scared her. She had expected the road to be busy and frightening. She had been steeling herself for the speed of the cars and the way they made the air whoosh past her whiskers.

She hadn’t expected to be lost.

Which way should she turn out of the alleyway? Which way was home? Which way back to Abi and Ruby? Flower felt the fur rising along her spine again and her tail fluffing up in panic. She was lost and there were more cats around – she could smell them. She was in their territory. Her territory was the house, and her basket, and the cat tree, and Abi. She was in the wrong place.

Flower hurried out of the alley and stood on the pavement, sniffing anxiously for the other cats’ scent. She needed to get out of here. She had been lucky to be left alone all that time she was hidden under the bushes. But which way should she go now?

Her ears flattened against her skull as she realized that she needed to go towards the rumbling, shaking road, the busier road that she had run down. Home was that way, however much she hated the thought of it.

Whiskers bristling, she scurried down the street, darting along the innermost edge of the pavement in the shadow of the garden walls. When she came to the corner, she peered cautiously around at the cars speeding along the bigger road. Then she pressed herself against the wall with a mew of fright as a car turned into the side road towards her. But it rumbled on past without coming any closer.

Which way? Flower huddled against the wall, trying to stay calm and ignore the instinct inside that told her to just run and run, to get away from the cars. But that wasn’t going to get her back to Abi and Ruby. After a few moments, she grew a little more used to the cars, and her fur began to lay flat again. She turned her head, trying to scent the way back home.

There was something… Flower grimaced, opening her mouth and curling her muzzle back over her teeth to smell better. She could smell herself. Her home – her territory. She bolted along the pavement, following the scent blowing on the wind. She was getting closer, the smell was stronger and she could feel it – she was nearly home.

At last – there it was! Her litter tray. But outside the house, not where it was meant to be. Flower padded into the front garden, sniffing at the litter tray cautiously. What was it doing out here? And how was she going to get into the house? She went over to sniff at the door – this was the way she had come out, carried in that bag. But now it was shut fast and it didn’t move even when she scrabbled and mewed.

Flower sat down on the doorstep feeling cold and even hungrier now that she was so close to her food bowl. She mewed again, even louder, but still no one came.

Was there another way she could get in? Wearily, she turned and walked back down the path, looking at the big pot of flowers by the front door and the window up above. She knew that window – it was where she sat to watch the street and the people passing by. Except now she was on the other side, looking in…

She sprang up on to the edge of the flowerpot and made a scrabbly jump on to the windowsill. Then she peered through the glass. There was the sofa… Flower mewed loudly in frustration and then pressed her nose closer towards the glass.

Abi was there! She was asleep, her head pillowed on the back of the sofa, on the other side of the glass.

Flower stood up on her back paws, mewing and mewing, batting at the glass with her front ones. She could see Abi – so why wouldn’t Abi wake up and notice her?

Abi was dreaming she was chasing down the road after her little white kitten, always just too far away to catch her before she disappeared. She was calling and calling, but all the time she knew it was useless – Flower couldn’t hear her. It was heartbreaking. Flower was so frightened. Abi could hear her mewing in the dream and the noise was frantic. Flower was racing so fast that her paws were thudding on the ground…

Abi blinked and sat up a little, dazed with sleep. She had been dreaming that Flower was lost. No… She swallowed miserably. That wasn’t a dream, her kitten really was lost.

She looked around, confused about where she was – and then she remembered. The litter tray outside. She had been trying to give Flower a scent to follow… Abi shook her head, trying to wake herself up properly. She hadn’t meant to go to sleep and she could still hear the mewing from her dream. It was even getting louder and she could hear the thumping paws too…

“Flower?” Abi stared. Her kitten was there on the other side of the window, paws scrabbling eagerly, her mouth wide open in a mew.

Abi jumped off the sofa, trailing her blanket, and raced for the front door, fumbling with the locks. At last she pulled it open and Flower darted in, purring. She stood up, patting at Abi’s knees with her little white paws until Abi picked her up and snuggled them both in the blanket.

Abi blinked as the landing light went on and the glow spread down the stairs.

“Mummy!” Ruby called from the top of the staircase. “Dad! Abi’s found Flower!” She stumbled down to hug Abi and stroke Flower’s nose.

“She came back,” Abi told her little sister. “She’s so clever – she followed her own smell. Oh, she must be hungry.” She tapped her mouth – the food sign they always used to show Flower it was time for a meal – and the white kitten stared back at her seriously. Then she lifted her paw and tapped it against her own mouth.

“She did the sign!” Ruby gasped.

“She can’t have done…” Abi looked at Flower and tapped her mouth again.

The kitten patted her own mouth with her paw and then wriggled out of Abi’s arms. She jumped to the floor and dashed into the kitchen to stand by her food bowl.

Abi grabbed one of the pouches from the cupboard and emptied it into the bowl and the two girls crouched by the food to watch Flower eat. Abi could hear Mum and Chris coming downstairs, and then Ruby dash out to tell them about Flower signing back.

“I’m so glad you found your way home,” she whispered to Flower as the kitten licked the last bits of food from round the edges of her bowl. “You’re so clever. But please don’t ever do that again. And we’ll be so careful too.”

Flower padded towards her and climbed up into Abi’s lap, licking lazily at one paw and sweeping it around her whiskers. Then she looked up at Abi with her huge blue eyes and began to purr.