The Perfect Kitten

“Hang on a minute, Abi, that’s my phone ringing.” Mum put down Abi’s homework book and ferreted under Ruby’s pile of drawings for her mobile.

Abi went back to frowning at her literacy task and chewing her pencil, but after a moment or two she looked up and started to listen carefully to Mum’s end of the phone call.

“Oh yes, we’d definitely be interested. Yes, I do see that it’s harder if she can’t go out and I’ll have to talk it over with my husband, but we’d love to have a look.”

“I drew a cat!” Ruby announced, holding up her picture to show Abi.

“Nice! Shh a minute, Ruby, I want to hear what Mum’s saying.”

“Yes, I think we could come tomorrow. Is about half past four OK? I’m a teacher, you see. I can’t usually get back from school before then.”

Chris wandered into the kitchen and opened the fridge to get the ingredients for dinner. “Who’s your mum talking to?” he whispered to Abi as he pulled out a bag of vegetables.

“I don’t know! But we’re going somewhere. And … and it sounds like it might be about a cat…” Abi grabbed his hand and squeezed it tight, staring at Mum hopefully as she ended the call.

“You guessed who that was then,” she said, looking happily at Abi. “I can tell from your face!”

“Was it the shelter?” Abi gasped. “Have they changed their mind? Can we have a cat?”

“Yes! Well, maybe. Me and Chris need to talk about it first.” She glanced at him. “They’ve got a kitten – a lovely little white one. But she’s deaf, completely deaf, they think. She’d need to live indoors because she’d never be safe anywhere near a road. So … that was them ringing to ask if we’d like to have an indoor kitten.”

“An indoor kitten!” Abi breathed. “A white kitten? To be ours?”

“A kitten!” Ruby bounced up and down on her chair and banged a handful of pencils on the table. “A kitten!”

Chris laughed. “At least it wouldn’t matter that Ruby’s noisy, I suppose. I don’t know – how do you keep a cat indoors? I’ve never even thought about it.”

“They said they’d make sure we know everything we’d need to, but we have to understand it’s a big commitment,” Mum said, looking seriously at Abi and Ruby. “I suppose we’d have to be really careful about opening the doors.”

“And keeping the windows closed,” Abi suggested.

“Yes…” Chris put the pan on the hob and reached for the oil. “We could do that, though, couldn’t we?”

“Let’s see what they say.” Mum glanced at Abi. “Try not to get too excited, darling. It sounds wonderful, but we need to know if we can look after an indoor kitten before we say yes.”

“We can go and see her though? And find out?” Abi looked hopefully from her mum to Chris and back again, and they nodded. Her mum was smiling.

They might really be able to have a kitten, after all…

Maria led the way along a corridor lined with cat pens. Abi hadn’t thought there would be so many. They were almost all full too. Cats and kittens were lounging in baskets or standing by the wire doors looking back at her.

“Here we are,” Maria said, smiling at Abi and Ruby, who was hanging on to Mum’s hand and dancing up and down. “This is the white kitten we’d like you to meet.”

Abi looked through the door of the pen. There were three kittens in there. Two were tabbies who were rolling around on the floor playing with a toy mouse with a long string tail. The third was a white kitten who was lying in the basket and watching the others. She looked very grand compared to the scrapping tabbies, almost regal, Abi thought.

“She’s beautiful,” Mum said, sounding a bit surprised.

“Isn’t she?” Maria agreed. “And she’s very friendly. We’ve only had them for a couple of days, but she’s settled in really well. She loves being stroked.” She looked at Abi’s mum and Chris hopefully. “So if it’s OK with you, I’ll bring her to one of our meeting rooms and we can have a chat about how to take care of a deaf cat.”

“That would be great,” Chris said. “We’d really like to know more about what we’d need to do. I’ve been thinking about it ever since you phoned, and so have the girls. If we can look after an indoor cat, it wouldn’t matter that we live on such a busy road.”

“Exactly.” Maria nodded. “Another thing that made us think of you was your registration form. We saw that Chris works from home. Indoor cats need to have someone around for company, you see.”

Chris looked pleased. “Yeah, I suppose that makes sense.”

Maria nodded. “OK, if you go along to that room at the end there, I’ll bring her through.”

“Has she got a name?” Abi asked suddenly, looking back from the door of the cat meeting room.

Maria shook her head. “Not yet. They’ve only just come in and we haven’t decided on anything yet.” She smiled. “So if you adopt her, maybe you could name her.”

What would be a good name for a white cat? Abi wondered as she waited, perched excitedly on the edge of a chair. Snowball and Snowdrop were really cute but it would be nice to have something a bit different. Lots of white cats were called Snowball. She looked round hopefully as the door swung open and Maria came in with the white kitten cuddled in her arms.

“Here we are. Now, like I said, she’s very friendly but she’s still quite little, so be gentle.” Maria sat down on the floor with the white kitten standing on her lap. “There you go, little one,” she murmured. “You go and have a look around.” Then she smiled at Abi and her family. “I know she can’t hear me, but I keep forgetting and I talk to her anyway!”

The white kitten stood there, looking around curiously. She’s so pretty, Abi thought. Even prettier close up, when you could see how blue her eyes were and the shell-pink of her nose and ears. Even her tiny paws were pinkish.

“So does being deaf make a big difference to how we look after her?” Chris asked.

“Well, you won’t be able to call her and she won’t hear food going into her bowl or anything like that. But she can definitely pick up vibrations.” Maria slapped her hand on the floor and the kitten looked round curiously. “You see? It’s not the noise she’s responding to, it’s the feel – the vibrations in the air. You can teach her to use hand signals too, like beckoning her to come to you, or maybe touching your mouth to say it’s food time. I’ve got a handout to give you with some ideas.”

“You mean, we can train her?” Abi asked. “Like a dog?” She slipped down off her chair to sit on the floor with Maria, and the white kitten watched her.

“Sure. Cats are really clever. And most cats will do anything for food. If she comes when you beckon and you give her a nice treat, she’s going to learn it’s a good thing to do.”

“Oh, she is coming to me,” Abi whispered as the white kitten padded across the floor. “Hello, kitten.” Then she looked up at Maria. “It seems weird not to talk to her.”

“I know what you mean. And of course you still can – just as long as you don’t get cross when she doesn’t notice. Actually, if you talk, she might understand your body language. Go big on the facial expressions,” Maria suggested. “Big smiles if you’re pleased with her and frown if she’s jumped up somewhere she shouldn’t.”

“Is it OK for Abi to stroke her?” Mum asked, and Ruby reached towards the kitten. “Me too!”

“Your turn in a minute, Ruby,” Chris said.

“It’s fine to stroke her – but just tap your fingers on the floor in front of her first, Abi, so you don’t give her a shock. She’s looking at you right now anyway but it’s a good idea to get into the habit of showing her you’re there.”

Abi tapped her nails on the floor and the kitten put her head to one side, obviously intrigued. She sniffed Abi’s fingers, and stood still while Abi gently stroked her little pink ears. Then she began to purr, a huge clickety purr that made Abi laugh.

“She’s so noisy!”

“Yes, that’s another thing about deaf cats – she can’t hear how loud she’s being. And it might be that she enjoys the feel of making a noise. She’s got a really loud meow as well.”

“Ruby, do you want to stroke her?” Abi suggested. “She’s so soft.”

Ruby nodded eagerly and scrambled down from Mum’s knee. “Shall I tap?” she asked Maria seriously, and Maria smiled at her. “Yes, that would be great. Well done.”

The white kitten looked round as Ruby banged the floor and Ruby gazed silently back at her. Abi couldn’t believe how good her little sister was being – it was almost as if the kitten had made her shy. Ruby reached out her hand slowly and the kitten padded forward and licked her fingers.

“Her tongue’s all rough!” Ruby whispered. Then she looked round at Mum and Chris. “When are we taking her home?”