A Kitten Called Tiger

“Mum, where’s Tiger?” Ava dashed out into the garden, where her mum was planting some cuttings. Ava’s best friend Jess’s dad worked as a gardener and he’d given them to Mum at school the day before.

“Isn’t he in the kitchen? He was asleep in his basket a few minutes ago. I think he was worn out after you girls waved that feather toy at him for so long.” Mum stood up, taking off her gardening gloves.

“He’s definitely not. I came down to check on him after I’d finished my maths homework.” Ava looked around the garden worriedly. “He didn’t slip out after you, did he? He’s not supposed to go outside yet!”

“I’m sure he didn’t.” Mum was silent for a moment. “I wonder where your sisters are…?”

Ava wheeled round and hurried back into the house. Lucy and Bel had been in their room, she’d heard them giggling. But they knew Tiger was supposed to stay in the kitchen for the first few days! She bounded up the stairs and burst into their bedroom.

“Go away! We’re busy!” Lucy said crossly but Bel looked nervous. She put a doll’s blanket over something in front of her – something that was moving!

“You’ve got Tiger up here!” Ava cried. “You have! You know he’s supposed to stay in the kitchen – we’ve not even had him for a day!”

Tiger peered out from underneath the blanket and Ava gasped. They’d been dressing him up. A doll’s sock was falling off one of his front paws and there was a hat balanced on one twitching ear.

Ava scooped him up and cuddled him against her. “You mustn’t do that! He’s not a toy!”

“How come you get to play with him and we don’t?” Bel demanded. “We were just having fun. He’s our kitten, too.”

“You can play with him properly, with cat toys! But you shouldn’t dress him up like a doll.” Ava slipped the sock off his paw – the hat had fallen off already.

“Give him back!” Lucy whined.

Bel stamped her foot. “You’re not taking him, it isn’t fair!”

“Oh yes, she is,” Mum said from the doorway. “You knew he wasn’t allowed to come upstairs yet. And what’s this about dressing him up? Take Tiger back to the kitchen, Ava, I need to talk to Bel and Lucy.”

Ava carried Tiger downstairs, stroking him gently. “I bet you wish you could go back to Rosie’s house, where everybody was sensible,” she whispered. “I can’t believe my stupid sisters were dressing you up. They were probably going to put you in the doll’s pushchair, weren’t they?”

Tiger nuzzled under her chin. He hadn’t liked Lucy and Bel pulling him around, although he had got to explore their room while they argued over which clothes to put on him and that had been interesting. So many things to clamber around and sniff and investigate. But he liked Ava’s calm, gentle voice, and the way she was stroking his back over and over.

Ava sat down at the kitchen table, holding Tiger in her lap. She wasn’t holding him tight, and she was expecting him to leap down from her knee and go and find somewhere to hide. Probably he’d want to tuck himself away inside his basket – it was one of those soft furry igloo ones, so he had his own little cave to snuggle in. But he stayed, kneading up and down on her leg with his needle-sharp claws.

“It’s a good thing I’ve got jeans on,” she whispered to him. “Are you OK? You’re not still scared?”

Tiger turned himself round slowly and then settled down into a little heap on her lap. He looked around and spotted his feather toy lying on the floor close to his basket. Perhaps Ava would wave it for him some more? Then he slumped down again. No. He was too sleepy…

Ava watched him, a huge smile on her face. He was going to sleep – on her lap. Surely that meant he was happy, even after Lucy and Bel had been so awful.

Mum had explained to Bel and Lucy again that Tiger was only little and needed time to get used to them all. And that kittens never, ever, ever wanted to be dressed up. Ava wasn’t totally sure that her little sisters understood, though. Lucy definitely thought Tiger was a new and improved sort of teddy. Ava wasn’t sure what to do – maybe Lucy wasn’t old enough for a pet, after all? But if she said that to Mum and Dad, they might agree with her and decide to take Tiger back!

“I’m going to tell Miss Daniels all about Tiger,” Bel said, swinging her book bag round and round as she and Ava waited for Mum and Lucy in the front garden. “And everybody in my class.” She stopped suddenly. “I could take in Tiger for Show and Tell!”

“No!” Ava yelped.

“He wouldn’t like it, Bel,” Mum said, locking the front door. “He’d be scared. But you could take in a photo?”

Bel was about to argue when she caught sight of one of her friends coming down the road with her mum and started waving. “Mia!”

Ava waved, too – her friend Jess was Mia’s big sister and they all often ended up walking to school together.

“We’ve got a new kitten!” Bel told Mia proudly.

Jess looked surprised. “Have you really?” she asked Ava. “I didn’t know you’d found one!”

“We went to see a litter of kittens on Saturday and we brought him home yesterday. He’s called Tiger.”

“Oh, lucky you…” Jess sighed. “I love our cats but they’re both a bit old and doddery. It’d be great to have a kitten to play with.”

“You can come and play with Tiger,” Ava said. “Oh, hi, Megan!” Ava smiled as their next-door neighbour came out of her garden gate and then crouched down to stroke her dogs, Charlie and Max. “Are you going for a walk?” Ava loved the dogs. She sometimes went with Megan to walk them.

Charlie and Max wagged their feathery tails and yapped with excitement as all five girls made a fuss of them – even Lucy reached over from her pushchair to stroke their ears.

“We’ve got a kitten,” Bel told Megan.

“I wonder if Charlie and Max can smell that? They’re very excited. Come on, you two. We’re a bit late this morning, we’ve only got time for a quick walk before I have to get to work,” Megan told the girls. “Have a good day at school!”

“Bye!” Ava and Jess led the way round the corner to the alleyway that went past the woods. It went almost all the way to their school and Lucy’s nursery. It was a bit wild, with overgrown hedges and nettles and other weeds growing up round the big trees, but because there were no cars, it meant she and Jess could walk on ahead and their mums didn’t mind.

“Oooh, look, blackberries!” Jess reached into the bush to pick a couple and passed one to Ava. “So, is Tiger ginger with stripes?”

“No, he’s brown – golden brown, with really black stripes. And the tip of his tail’s black, too, like he dipped it in a pot of paint.”

“Awww… Is he cuddly? I suppose he’s a bit shy still.”

“He was when he arrived,” Ava agreed. “But he loves playing so much, he forgets to be nervous around us. And he’s really adventurous! When we first saw him at his old house he was on top of a bookcase and yesterday he climbed up the kitchen wallpaper and got stuck!”

Jess giggled. “He sounds like he’s going to get into trouble!”

Ava nodded. “I know. I love it that he’s so bouncy and full of energy but I’m a bit worried about what he might do next!”