The Perfect Kitten

Caitlin twirled the end of her ponytail around her finger and tugged at it. She always did that when she was worried. Everyone else in class sounded really excited about coming up with ideas for a charity for her school’s Community Week, but she wasn’t. She couldn’t think of anything. Her friend Lily was so enthusiastic she was waving her hands around and talking so fast Caitlin could hardly understand the words.

“The stables where I go riding! We could help them! They’re part of this Riding for the Disabled charity, loads of people go there. I even helped last week, it was brilliant! Sometimes it’s children who are usually in a wheelchair, but they give them special saddles and it’s so amazing to watch. It even seems like the horses know to be careful.”

Caitlin nodded. That did sound pretty amazing. In fact, it was obviously a fabulous idea. She gave a tiny sigh. Everyone had been asked to think of a charity that the school might like to support. They were supposed to find out about the charity as their homework over the next two weekends and present the idea to their class. Then each class would vote for their favourite and the staff would pick the final choice. But that meant she had to think of a charity and she didn’t know where to start.

Of course she’d heard of the RSPCA and Guide Dogs for the Blind. But James who sat on the next table was already talking about guide dogs, and how his next-door neighbours looked after guide dog puppies and they had to learn that they weren’t allowed to chase his cat. So that was no good…

Caitlin smiled and nodded at Lily, but she wasn’t actually listening to her friend going on about the ponies at the riding school any more. She was thinking about having to stand up in front of the class and talk. Caitlin wasn’t looking forward to it one bit. She didn’t like people staring at her. Miss Lewis was always telling her she had to talk more in class, but Caitlin tried her best not to. What if she said something silly and everyone laughed?

Caitlin glanced around – everyone was talking at once and the classroom was buzzing. It was as if every single person there had an idea, except for her. Even Sam Marsh, who never did any homework and had pretended that he had a sprained wrist and couldn’t write for two whole days last week, was bouncing up and down in his chair. He was telling all his mates about his fantastic plan. It was something to do with the charity his football club supported, which sent footballs and sports equipment to children in Africa.

Miss Lewis was having a very serious-sounding talk with Amy and Tayla about the hospice where Amy’s gran was being looked after and where Tayla’s mum worked as a nurse, saying of course they could do it together.

Maybe she could share Lily’s riding charity, Caitlin wondered. But that wouldn’t really be fair – it was Lily’s idea.

“So what do you think you’ll do?” Lily asked, finally running out of clever ponies to tell Caitlin about.

“I don’t know yet…” Caitlin murmured vaguely. “I suppose I’ll think of something. Maybe an animal charity?”

Lily nodded enthusiastically. “I read about a donkey sanctuary in my animals magazine. You could choose that.”

“Mm.” Caitlin looked down, fiddling with the pencils on the table in front of her. She did like the sound of the donkey sanctuary, but she really wanted to think of something for herself.

“Why have you got the car?” Caitlin looked at her mum in surprise. They usually walked home from school – it only took about fifteen minutes and it wasn’t as if it was raining.

Caitlin’s mum rolled her eyes, but she was smiling. “I can’t believe you’ve forgotten! We’re going to see Alice and Sean’s new kitten, remember?”

“Oh!” Caitlin brightened up. She had completely forgotten. Mum had told her at breakfast, but worrying about the charity thing at school had sent it right out of her head.

Alice and Sean were her cousins, and they had just got a gorgeous kitten. Mum had shown Caitlin the photos that Auntie Jen had sent, of a black and white kitten curled up on Alice’s lap. He was incredibly cute.

Caitlin sped up, hurrying to the car. Auntie Jen had said that the kitten was friendly too, and she was hoping that she would be able to cuddle him.

Her cousin Sean answered the door, with the kitten clinging for dear life on to the shoulder of his school jumper. He was the same age as Caitlin, but he went to a different school, closer to their house. “Hi, Caitlin. Hi, Auntie Sam! Look, this is Ollie.”

“Awww! He’s so sweet…” Caitlin said admiringly.

“I think he’s trying to get out into the garden, Sean,” Caitlin’s mum pointed out, as the kitten started to scramble down the front of Sean’s jumper. “Shall we come in and shut the door?”

Sean scooped up the kitten and snuggled him. “Yes, quick! He tries to get everywhere – he’s so nosy. He’d love to get out the front of the house, but he’s not allowed yet.”

Caitlin’s mum closed the door hurriedly and the kitten peered curiously at Caitlin around Sean’s hands. His eyes were golden yellow and very round.

“Can I stroke him?” Caitlin asked hopefully, and Sean nodded.

“Sure. He’s really friendly.” Sean moved his fingers so that Caitlin could pet the black and white kitten, and Caitlin rubbed gently around his silky ears and tickled under his white chin.

“He’s so soft!” she whispered delightedly as the kitten stretched out his neck, pointing his nose up to the ceiling and closing his eyes.

“He loves being scratched under the chin,” Sean said. “He’ll sit for ages if you do that.”

Sean’s little sister came bouncing down the stairs to hug Caitlin. “Have you seen our kitten?” she demanded excitedly, and Sean sighed.

“Of course she has! She’s stroking him right now!”

Alice stuck out her lip and Caitlin broke in hurriedly. She loved being at Alice and Sean’s house, but sometimes she went home feeling quite glad that her brother was so much older than she was. It meant they didn’t fight nearly as often as Alice and Sean. It was embarrassing when Auntie Jen had to tell her cousins off.

“I love Ollie, he’s really cute,” said Caitlin, trying to distract the pair of them. “Has he got any cat toys? Can we play with them?” she asked Alice, and her little cousin grabbed her hand and pulled her into the kitchen. Sean came after them with Ollie.

“This is his favourite! It’s got catnip in it.” Alice picked up a tiny stuffed mouse with a long tail made of feathers, and Ollie wriggled wildly in Sean’s arms, eager to get to the mouse.

It was while they were eating tea (with Ollie trying to climb up everyone’s legs to get to the fish fingers, and Caitlin, Sean and Alice all feeding him bits when Caitlin’s mum and Auntie Jen weren’t looking) that Caitlin had her brilliant idea.

“Where did you get Ollie from?” Mum asked Auntie Jen. “Was it an ad in the newsagent’s or something?”

Auntie Jen shook her head. “No, we went to the animal shelter. The one next to Garland Park – you know where I mean?”

“Oh! I thought they only took in dogs.”

“No, cats as well. They even had some guinea pigs. I don’t think they usually have them, but someone left them outside the shelter and they couldn’t find anywhere else to take them.”

“They were so sweet!” Alice put in. “They made this little noise like eeeep, eeeep!”

“We loved the dogs too, but with me working we simply can’t have one. Ollie won’t mind having the house to himself for some of the day and it won’t be long before he can go outside – we’re going to put in a cat flap for him.” Auntie Jen sighed. “The shelter manager was telling me that they’re struggling at the moment, actually – they’re swamped with abandoned dogs that their owners couldn’t look after. And the shelter’s full all the time. They’d really like to build some more dog pens on the back, but they can’t afford it. They need to do some fundraising – not that they don’t do a lot already. Extra fundraising, I mean. I thought I might offer to help them run a jumble sale, or something. Maybe a sponsored walk?”

Caitlin let out a squeak of excitement and Auntie Jen leaned over worriedly. “Caitlin, what’s the matter, petal? Did your dinner go down the wrong way?”

Caitlin beamed at her. “Nothing’s the matter. In fact, everything’s perfect!”

The puppy leaped up hopefully, scrabbling at the wire. One of the girls who brought the food had walked past the door of the pen. It wasn’t that he was hungry – he’d been fed and he’d even left some of his dinner. He just wanted … somebody.

He wanted somebody to pull on the other end of his rope toy or race him up and down the yard. Or maybe somebody to squabble with about who got to have the best ball. And then he wanted somebody to snuggle up with in his basket. It was too big for him all on his own, even with the old Winston bear and the scruffy blanket.

But there wasn’t anybody else. He was all on his own, and he hated it.