The Secret Kitten. Sammy The Shy Kitten. The Curious Kitten. The Homeless Kitten. A Kitten Called Tiger. The Rescued Kitten

Just then the bedroom door swung open and the boy jumped.“Oh, Pirate, it’s only you! I thought it was Mum. Hey, don’t be like that…”

A huge black-and-white cat stood in the doorway, glaring at Cleo. His fat black tail was slowly fluffing up, getting even fatter as every hair stood on end. Pirate hissed, lowering his head to stare Cleo in the eyes.

Cleo felt her own fur rising up and she hissed, too– a thin, feeble noise compared to the sound the larger cat was making.

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“Oh no,” George muttered. The kitten was crouched by his bed, looking terrified – but her tail was switching from side to side in just the same angry way that Pirate’s was.

“Pirate, she’s just a kitten.” He got up and tried to shoo Pirate out of his room, but Pirate wasn’t having any of it. He swerved round George and jumped at the smaller cat, sending her flying with a fat paw.

“No!” George yelled, panicking. He’d never expected this to happen. Pirate was so slow and sleepy, but now it was like he’d got ten years younger. Pirate was massive compared to the kitten – what if he really hurt the little thing? George reached down, trying to grab the kitten. He’d goand put her in the garden and shut Pirate in. But then he jumped back with a yelp. He’d got in between Pirate and the kitten, and there were claw marks all down the back of his hand, oozing thin red lines of blood.

George looked miserably at Pirate– he’d never seen him look so furious. But he supposed he should have realized. This was Pirate’s house, and another cat had suddenly turned up. Pirate was right to be hissing and spitting and clawing. Then he gasped as Pirate launched himself at the kitten, bowling her over with a swipe fromhis huge paw.

Cleo squealed in fright. This was nothing like the play fights she’d had with her brothers and sisters back at the shelter, and she didn’t know what to do. She made a desperate leap, scrabbling on to the windowsill.

Pirate sat below, staring up at Cleo, still making those horrible hissing sounds– but he couldn’t easily jump to that height any more.

Cleo didn’t know that, though. The window was only open a crack, but she just managed to shoot through the gap before George could grab her.

“Come back!” George wailed. His bedroom was at the side of the house, and the window looked out on to the two garages – theirs and next door’s. The kitten was teetering on the narrow windowsill.

“Come on, here, puss,” George called. He was trying to sound calm and coaxing, but his voice was trembling. The kitten hissed at him and jumped down on to the steeply sloping garage roof. She clung to the tiles, her fur all fluffed up and her eyes round with fear.

George raced out of his bedroom and almost crashed into his mum on the landing.

“George? What’s going on? What was all that noise? Are you teasing Pirate?”

“No! I’ll explain in a minute.” He dodged past his mum, tore down the stairs and out of the front door.

“Please come down,” George whispered, gazing up at the kitten. “I really don’t want you to fall.”

His mum appeared at the door, looking really cross.“George! What is going on? Get back in here!”

“I can’t, Mum. Look…” He pointed up at the kitten, and his mum came over to see.

“Oh!” Mum cried. “Whose kitten is that?”

“I don’t know. But she’s stuck on the roof.” George felt bad not explaining how the kitten had got on to the roof in the first place, but he hadn’t exactly told his mum a lie…

“How on earth are we going to get it down?” Mum said. “Poor little thing – it looks terrified!”

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“Kitty!” Toby clambered down the front step and pointed up at the kitten.

Mum caught his hand quickly.“Yes, it is. But the kitty’s stuck, Toby. Shh, now, don’t scare it.”

“Mum, what are we going to do?” George whispered.

“Pirate!” His mum gasped, pointing up at George’s window. “How did he get up there?”

George craned his neck to look up at the window. He could just see Pirate’s black-and-white face, pressed up against the opening. But Pirate was too big to squeeze through the way the kitten had. He just stood there, yowling.

Cleo could see him, too. The older cat looked enormous, and she was sure it was about to leap out of the window after her. She backed away, hissing, but her claws slipped on the tiles, and she slid even further down the steep roof with a terrified mew.

Mum turned to George.“We need a ladder. There’s one in the shed – at least, I think there is… Stay here with Toby and try to calm the kitten down. First I’m going to get Pirate off there before he hurts himself or frightens the little one even more.” She pushed Toby’s hand into George’s and disappeared inside.

George looked up at the kitten clinging desperately on to the roof and felt so guilty. He should never have brought her into the house.

“Just hold on,” he called softly. “It’s going to be OK. We’ll get you down. And then I promise we’ll try and find who you really belong to.”

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“Are you all right?” said a man’s voice from behind George.

George whirled round. It was Luke from next door. George hadn’t even heard his van drive up. “Hi!” he said breathlessly. “Do you have a ladder in your van? Mum’s gone to look for one, but she’s not sure where it is.”

“What do you need a ladder… Oh, I see.” Luke peered up at the kitten clinging to the garage roof. “Hold on a sec.” He hurried back to his van.

George went back to murmuring nonsense to the kitten and trying to stop Toby from climbing up the drainpipe to get to her. He glanced up at his bedroom. Mum must have grabbed Pirate and put him somewhere safe, because now his window was wide open. Maybe Mum thought the kitten could jump back in. But George was pretty sure such a little cat couldn’t jump up there from the steep roof, not without sliding back down again.

“I’ve shut Pirate in the kitchen,” said his mum, rushing out. “But I can’t find the ladder, I think it must be in the garage.”

“It’s OK.” George pointed to Luke, who was coming up the path with a stepladder. “Luke’s got one.”

His mum gave a huge sigh of relief.“Hi, Luke. You turned up just at the right time. I’ve got a bag of cat treats. I was thinking we could try and coax the kitten back up to the window with them, but it’ll definitely be easier this way.”

Luke unfolded the ladder and slowly moved it towards the garage.“I don’t want to scare it away,” he said. “Pass me some of those treats.”

Mum emptied a few into his hand and he climbed up the ladder, holding out the treats towards the kitten.“Come on, puss. Here, look. Don’t you want them?”

Cleo hissed feebly at the strange man. She was so frightened she didn’t know what to do – she could only cling on.

George watched, his heart thumping. What if Luke couldn’t reach? Or the kitten tried to dodge him and fell?

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“Hold the ladder, can you?” Luke called down quietly to George’s mum. “I need both hands… Aha! Got you.” The kitten wriggled in his arms as he climbed back down the ladder one-handed. “There we are. You’re safe now. Yes, you eat those.”

He laughed as Cleo sniffed out the cat treats at last, leaning over to nuzzle eagerly at the bag in George’s mum’s hand. “Well, it doesn’t look like she’s come to any harm, does it?” He peered at Cleo’s black and white and ginger coat, frowning. “I wonder… But it’s too far, surely. Here, can you hold her a minute?” Luke passed the kitten to George and dug in his pocket. “Would you say she looks like that?” He held out a slip of paper, with a little photo of a kitten on it.

“Yes,” George’s mum said, looking at the leaflet. “I think so…”

“I don’t believe it.” Luke shook his head. “Well, that girl who lives opposite the house I’m working on is going to be pleased, if this really is her. Are you Cleo, hey?”

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“Cleo!” George gasped. He stared at the kitten. “Amber’s Cleo?”

Luke looked thoughtful.“I think her mum did say she was called Amber. She’s got red hair?”

“That’s her! This is Amber’s cat? She’s in my class. So that’s why she’s been looking so upset.” He looked down at Cleo, his cheeks reddening. He’d wanted to steal Amber’s kitten! “But how did she get all the way over here?” he asked suddenly. “Amber told me she lives on theother side of town, by the adventure playground.”

Luke made a face and nodded towards the van.“Well, guess where that’s been parked. Right outside her house.”

“Amber did say her kitten was really nosy,” George said. “She was worried about her getting run over, because she’d started going out on to the street.”

“You think she got into your van?” George’s mum said in surprise, shaking out a few more cat treats and feeding them to Cleo.

“She must have done. I’d better take her home,” Luke sighed. “And apologize for catnapping her.”

“You didn’t mean to!” George’s mum laughed. “I’m sure they’ll just be delighted to have her back. Do you want to borrow Pirate’s cat carrier? The poor kitten probably won’t like it much, it’ll smell of Pirate, but you’ll need to put her in something.”

“Before she eats all the cat treats and makes a getaway!” Luke agreed.

“Can I come with you?” George asked shyly. “I won’t get in the way or anything. I’d just like to help take her home.”

“If it’s OK with your mum. You can sit in the front with me and hold the carrier. I don’t want it wobbling about.”

“Of course you can,” Mum said. “Hold on a minute and I’ll get it out of the garage.”

George smiled. He could imagine how pleased Amber was going to be. If he’d lost Pirate, he’d have been in a real state.

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“Amber, can you get the door?” Mum called. “I’ve got crumble mix all over my hands.”

Amber put down the jingly ball she’d found under the shoe rack, blinking away her tears. She kept wanting to cry – everything in the house seemed to remind her of Cleo.

“If it’s those window people again, just say no thank you,” her mum added.

Amber’s mum really didn’t like people trying to sell her double-glazing, and they always turned up when she was cooking the dinner. Amber opened the front door, rehearsing a polite go-away smile.

“Oh!” It was the builder from across the road. Amber bit at her bottom lip. What if he was coming to tell Mum on her, after all? But he was smiling.

“I’ve brought you a present. Me and my friend here.” He stepped back so that Amber could see the boy beside him, who was holding a plastic cat carrier.

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“George?” Amber stared at her classmate for a moment – then she looked down at the cat carrier, and her eyes went wide with hope. “Have you… Have you—?”

“Is it her?” George asked anxiously. “We thought it must be.”

Cleo scrabbled madly at the sides of the carrier, mewing and mewing. Amber was there! The boy had brought her back to Amber. Why wouldn’t they let her out?

“Amber, what is it?” Amber’s mum came up the hallway, drying her hands on a tea towel. “Luke, hello. Is there a problem over the road?”

“Mum, they’ve found Cleo! Thank you so much!” Amber pulled open the latch and reached in to stroke the kitten. “I thought you’d never come home…” she murmured, lifting her out and snuggling Cleo against her shoulder. “Where was she?” she asked.

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“I found her in my garden,” George explained. “But I didn’t know she was yours. I, um, fed her my leftovers,” he admitted. “And then she got stuck on our garage roof, and Luke helped to get her down.” He couldn’t bring himself to tell Amber that he’d lured her kitten into his house and got her into a fight with Pirate.

But Amber beamed at him.“Thank you for feeding her. I was so worried she was going to be starving!”

“I reckon she went for a ride in the back of my van,” Luke put in. “I can’t see how else she turned up in our neighbourhood. It’s a good couple of miles away.”

“Goodness,” Amber’s mum said. “She stowed away! I’ll have to ring Sara and Dad and tell them. You don’t know how relieved they’ll be. We were imagining the worst things…”

“I’m glad I found her,” George said to Amber.

“Not as glad as I am,” Amber said, giggling as Cleo licked her chin. “You couldn’t be.”

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“You know a lot about cats,” Amber said admiringly, watching George tickle Cleo on just the right spot behind her ear. She’d invited George round to tea to say thank you – and to let him see how Cleo was. He’d asked Amber about her at school a few times, and she thought George must have really liked the kitten.

“Our cat’s called Pirate, because he looks like he has an eye patch. He’s my mum’s actually. She got him before I was born.”

“So he’s pretty old then?”

“Uh-huh. He’s a bit slow now – he doesn’t race around like this one does. But he’s still special,” George added firmly.

It was true. Pirate might be slow and not that good at chasing toys, but he almost always slept on George’s feet at night. Mum had told him the other night that Pirate had done that since George was a baby. She and Dad had tried to keep him away because they were worried that Pirate might hurt him by accident. But Pirate wouldn’t be shooed away – and he was the best one for stopping baby George crying. “In the end we gave up,” his mum had said, smiling down at Pirate, who was sitting between them. “He’d obviously decided you were his, you see.”

George watched Cleo clamber up into Amber’s lap and flop down, purring. He stroked her ears, and nodded to himself. Amber was Cleo’s, and he belonged to Pirate – and that was exactly the way it should be.

36. THE HOMELESS KITTEN

“You’re coming with me, Lily? Are you sure?” Dad grinned at her, widening his eyes and pretending to be shocked.

“I like the sound of a walk with you and Hugo in the woods. It’ll be nice and cool under the trees. Anyway –” Lily made a face back at him – “I’d come with you more often if you didn’t go so fast. You’ve both got really long legs and I haven’t.” Lily reached down to rub the dog’s soft creamy white ears. “Yes, you do, don’t you? Great big long legs.” She looked up at Dad. “You’re not planning on one of your five-mile hikes, are you?” she asked suspiciously.

Dad laughed.“No, not in this weather – it’s too hot for a long walk now. Anyway, I took Hugo out running with me early this morning.”

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Lily nodded. Hugo needed loads of exercise. Dad took him for at least two long walks every day and he usually went for a quick walk in the park with Mum when she stopped working to take a lunch break. At weekends Dad often took Hugo in the car to the hills just outside town for a really good run. Lily’s big sister, Carly, loved to go with them but Lily wasn’t so keen. It always seemed to rain when she went on one of Dad’s big days out.

Hugo was mostly German Shepherd– nobody was quite sure what else. Carly had told her that German Shepherds were originally bred from dogs trained to guard flocks of sheep from wolves and bears. They were used to working hard. Dad had wanted a really energetic dog and he’d fallen in love with Hugo at the animal shelter. He was so unusual with his white coat. The shelter staff said that Hugo had got too big for his elderly owner to look after properly – and at the time he hadn’t even stopped growing.

Mum and Dad had explained to Lily and Carly that they’d have to be really gentle with him as he was a rescue dog, and because white German Shepherds could be quite sensitive and nervous. They were no good as pets for people who were out at work all day – if they were left alone they could end up wrecking a house because they were so miserable! Luckily, Mum worked at home as a graphic designer so Hugo was never by himself for long.

“Is Carly coming?” Dad asked. “Shout up the stairs for her, Lily.”

“No, Mum’s taking her round to Maisie’s house in a minute. Maisie’s got one of those giant paddling pools in her garden.” Lily sighed enviously. It was the first week of the summer holidays and the weather was already so hot.

Even though it was sweltering, Hugo was still keen for his walk. He was standing by the front door staring at them both, his gleaming blue eyes hopeful. One of the boys in Carly’s class had told her that Hugo was a spooky wolf dog because of his white coat and blue eyes, and Carly had got into trouble for chasing the boy round the playground. She adored Hugo even more than Dad did and Hugo loved her to bits.

Dad clipped on Hugo’s lead and opened the front door. Hugo pulled Dad eagerly down the path, keen to be off, and Lily quickly slipped on her trainers and hurried after them. “Bye, Mum! See you later, Carly!”

As they turned out of the gate, Hugo suddenly stiffened, his ears pricking forward and his tail flicking from side to side.

Dad peered over the fence, where Hugo was looking.“What are you so excited about? Oh! No, Hugo, no chasing cats.”

“Is it Pixie?” Lily ran down the path to look. “Hello, sweetheart!” Pixie was a gorgeous silvery tabby cat who belonged to their next-door neighbour, Anna. Lily loved to play with Pixie – so much that Carly was always teasing her about it. Everyone else in the family preferred dogs but Lily’s room was full of cat posters and cat books… Even her pyjamas had kittens on them.

Luckily for Lily, Pixie was always popping into their garden. Sometimes she even walked along the garden wall, and then hopped on to the garage roof and in through Lily’s bedroom window. Lily loved to pretend that Pixie was hers but Mum always shooed the cat out whenever she saw her. She said it wasn’t fair on Hugo, letting a cat into his house.

Now the tabby cat was perched on the fence, looking down disapprovingly at Hugo, her tail swishing. Hugo had never chased Pixie but Lily thought he secretly wanted to. He didn’t like her walking across his garden. He always stared at her out of the long windows in the living room, his nose pressed up against the glass. If Pixie hung around for too long, Hugo would let out a series of mighty barks.

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Pixie rubbed her head against Lily’s cheek, glared at Hugo and jumped back down to the other side of the fence. Hugo barked and wagged his tail excitedly.

“Come on, boy,” Dad said gently. “Walk time. Off to the woods.”

Hugo shook himself and loped out on to the pavement, Dad and Lily jogging after him. The little woods they were going to weren’t far away – just a short walk up the hill.

“Ohhh, that’s nice.” Lily sighed happily, lifting her hair up off the back of her neck as they walked under the trees. “It’s so much cooler here in the shade. Look, Hugo likes it, too. He must be so hot with all that thick fur.”

Dad nodded.“I think this is one of Hugo’s favourite places. So many good smells and all those squirrels.”

“And sticks.” Lily grinned. Hugo loved it when they threw sticks for him to chase after. “Are you going to let him off the lead?”

Dad looked around thoughtfully. Hugo was really good about coming back when he was called but because he was so big they had to be careful about letting him loose in case people were scared of him.

“I can’t see anyone else… Yes, we’ll let him off for the minute. It’s more fun for him sniffing around in the bracken off the lead.”

As Hugo ambled ahead, Lily and Dad chatted about what they were going to do over the summer. They’d gone on a brilliant holiday to a water park in half-term, so they weren’t going away.

“I want to sort out the garden shed,” Dad told Lily. “It’s so full of junk, I can hardly get the lawnmower out.”

“That’s not very exciting!” Lily said, laughing. “You’ll have to be careful though, Dad, have you seen the size of the spiders in that shed? I went in there yesterday to get the water guns and I’m sure I saw one the size of my hand.”

“Mmm. I might wear gloves.” Dad wrinkled his nose. “I suppose we should head back, it’s almost time for lunch. Hugo! Come on, boy!”

Hugo was a little way away, gazing curiously through the bracken, his tail wagging.

“Has he seen another dog?” Dad wondered, hurrying over. “Oh! Honestly. That’s awful!”

“What is it?”

“Someone’s dumped a load of stuff here, instead of taking it to the tip.” Dad pointed to a pile of furniture – an old sofa and a fridge and what looked like some kitchen units. “What a mess! I’ll have to ring the council when we get home, see if they’ll come and take it away. I suppose the woods do back on to all those houses. Someone must have driven down the alleyway to the garages – yes, look, the fence is broken. It wouldn’t have been too hard to get the stuff through here.”

“That’s really sad.” Lily looked at the mess, frowning. “Hey, Hugo. Where are you going, silly? That’s not a sofa for sitting on!” Hugo wasn’t supposed to sit on any sofas but it was his one bad habit. He would lie at Dad’s feet with his nose on the sofa, and gradually creep furtherand further forward until he could sneak his front paws on. He never got very far before he was pushed off – but he never gave up trying, either. He just wanted to be snuggled up with his family.

“Here, boy, come on,” Dad called. “Hugo!”

But Hugo didn’t come back like he usually did. He was sniffing at the old sofa, his plumy tail swishing really fast.

“Maybe it smells of food,” Dad said, edging his way through the bracken to follow him. “It must smell of something, look at him, he’s really excited. Hugo, leave it, come on!”

Hugo’s ears were pricked right forward now, and he was whining and grunting and sniffing at the tatty sofa cushions.

Lily went after Dad, wriggling sideways through the undergrowth– she only had shorts on and there were nettles in among the bracken but she wanted to see what Hugo was so excited about.

Hugo had his nose down the back of the sofa cushions now. Then suddenly he jumped back with a snort.

“What is it?” Lily asked, leaning over – and then she gasped.

Between the cushions and the back of the sofa was a squirming mass of fur. A litter of tiny, fluffy kittens!

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“Kittens!” Lily gasped. “Oh, wow! Did Hugo smell them? Or maybe he heard something?”

The kittens were squirming around, making tiny breathy squeaking noises. Hugo had moved the seat cushion with his nose while he was sniffing them out, so their cosy dark nest had been disturbed. Now the big dog was staring down at the kittens with his ears pricked right forward again. Dad had put a hand on his collar, just in case. After all, Hugo really didn’t like Pixie, so it made sense that he wouldn’t like the kittens, either. But right now he looked interested rather than grumpy.

Lily crouched down next to Hugo so she could look, too. There were three kittens– two tabbies and a gorgeous, little white kitten. Their fur looked quite long and fluffy to Lily, longer than Pixie’s, she was sure. Perhaps they were going to be longhairs – like Persians. But they didn’t have squashed Persian noses.

“I don’t understand.” Lily looked around. “Why would anyone put kittens down the back of a sofa? They should have taken them to an animal shelter, not just dumped them in the woods. It’s a horrible thing to do!”

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Dad nodded.“It is weird. Unless… Yes, that could be it. Maybe it was the mother cat.”

“You mean, she had her babies out here in the woods?” Lily looked doubtful. Why would a cat want to have kittens in a grubby old sofa?”

“Cats do pick funny places sometimes. Grandma’s cat had a litter of kittens in her wardrobe when she was a little girl, I remember her telling me.”

“But why the woods instead of at home?” Lily looked up at Dad anxiously. “Maybe the mum doesn’t have a home. Do you think she might be a stray?”

“Could be,” Dad agreed. He glanced around, peering through the trees. “I wonder where she is. They look too small to be left alone for very long.”

Just then the white kitten wriggled round and let out a squeaky little mew. Lily laughed delightedly. He– or she – was so cute, with a tiny pink nose and blue eyes. Even though his eyes were open, Lily didn’t think he could really see her – his eyes didn’t seem to be focusing. He was weaving his head about though, snuffing at the air. Lily wondered if he could smell Hugo. Or perhaps he was just upset that their mum was gone and their nest had been disturbed.

“If their eyes are open, that means they’ve got to be a few days old, doesn’t it?” Lily said, trying to think. She’d read somewhere that kittens were born with their eyes closed.

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“Ye-ees.” Dad nodded. “I guess so. But I’m still pretty sure they need their mum. They’re too young to be walking around – they’re just squirming about and wriggling on top of each other, aren’t they?” He looked around again. “There’s no sign of the mother cat. I wonder what it’s best to do.”

“Don’t you think we should take them home, Dad?” Lily said pleadingly. “We can’t leave them out here on their own, not when they’re so little. They can’t find any food for themselves, can they? Don’t they still need their mum’s milk?”

Dad shook his head.“Their mum could just have gone looking for food – she might be back any minute. Or maybe she actuallyis around here somewhere but she’s too scared of us to come back to her kittens. I mean, no cat’s going to walk up to Hugo…”

Hugo was still watching the kittens as though they were the best thing he’d seen in ages. He was following them with his nose as they clambered over and around each other, still squeaking.

“I think he likes them,” Lily said, smiling. But then her smile faded. “What are we going to do, Dad? We can’t just leave them and hope their mum comes back. What if she doesn’t? Theyneed her. Or somebody to look after them, anyway.”

Dad frowned.“You know what? I’m going to ring the animal shelter where we got Hugo. I’ve got their number in my phone. I bet they’ll know what to do.”

Lily nodded. That was definitely a good idea. The staff at the shelter must have to deal with abandoned kittens all the time. She listened as her dad called up and explained about the kittens.

“No, we haven’t seen the mum at all. Do you think she won’t come back while we’re here? No, I suppose not, if she’s a stray… So, what do you think, should we leave them?”

“Oh no…” Lily whispered to herself, looking over at the tiny kittens. The little white one had ended up underneath the other two now. Lily longed to pick him up – surely it couldn’t be good for him to be squashed like that?

She breathed a sigh of relief as he wriggled out and accidentally nudged Hugo’s nose with his own. Hugo stepped back, surprised, and Lily giggled.

“You like them, don’t you?” Lily whispered to Hugo as he rested his chin on the arm of the sofa, gazing at the kittens.

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Lily turned back to Dad. Surely the shelter couldn’t be telling him to leave the kittens here? She couldn’t bear to think of them all on their own.

“I’m really not sure how long she’s been away, that’s the thing,” her dad was saying. “Amberdale Woods, that’s right. Mmmm. Yes, we could do that. Will there be someone answering the phone later this evening? OK, I’ll get back to you then. Thanks.”

“What did they say?” Lily burst out.

“They think the mum’s probably right here somewhere, hiding out and watching till we go away.”

“Oh…” Lily looked around the woods, golden and silent in the sunlight. “But what if she’s not? What if she doesn’t come back?”

“Well, that’s the problem. If she doesn’t, I’m afraid the kittens won’t last long without her. They’re just too little to survive by themselves. They’ll have to be taken to the shelter for hand-rearing – that means someone feeding them with a special bottle. So, we need to see what happens.”

Dad made an apologetic face at Lily.“I said we’d keep an eye on them and watch out for their mum, Lils. It might be a bit boring. The lady from the shelter said we needed to give the mother cat a few hours before we do anything like moving the kittens.”

“I don’t mind! I don’t want to leave them – even Hugo doesn’t, look at him.”

Dad nodded.“He’s really fascinated, isn’t he? It’s funny when you think how he is about Pixie. Maybe he doesn’t understand that these are cats, too…” He smiled at Lily. “It’s OK. I’m sure the mum will turn up soon if we get out of her way. Come on, Hugo,” He looked around the clearing asHugo paced slowly over to his side. “So now we need to find somewhere to watch from.”

Lily stepped back reluctantly from the sofa and the kittens. The white kitten was on the top of the pile now, weaving his head from side to side. She longed to pick him up and cuddle him, and tell him everything was going to be OK but she knew she mustn’t…

The white kitten mewed, calling miserably for his mother. He wanted milk– he kept blundering about, trying to suck but she wasn’t there. He didn’t understand. She had always been there to feed him before. She seemed to have been gone for so long and he was so hungry.

He hooked his tiny claws into the fabric at the back of the sofa and hauled himself up, sniffing the air, trying to find his mother. There was no warm, milky smell but hecould smell something else, something different. He mewed uncertainly and sniffed the air again. The smell seemed to have moved away. Confused and worn out by the effort, he nuzzled into the furry pile of other kittens and settled back to sleep.

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“Lily, are you sure you don’t want to go home?” Dad asked. “Mum just texted. She says she can walk up and get you and take Hugo back, too. We’ve been watching for an hour now. You must be getting hungry – it’s past lunchtime.”

Lily shook her head firmly.“I don’t want to go home. And I don’t mind not having any lunch.”

They were sitting on a fallen tree with Hugo at their feet, just close enough to see the abandoned sofa through the bracken. Lily was pretty sure they were far enough away not to worry the mother cat, as long as they were quiet. The sofa wasn’t that far from the main paths through the wood, so she must have been coming and going with people and dogs around.

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“Please, Dad,” Lily begged, as Dad started to text Mum back. “I really want to stay and make sure the kittens are OK. I know we’ve been here an hour but that’s a whole hour that their mum hasn’t come back to look after them. That can’t be right, can it? She’s been gone ages.”

[Êàðòèíêà: _12.jpg]

Dad nodded.“It does seem a long time to me but I’m not really sure how often tiny kittens need to be fed. I don’t think we can stay here all day, Lily. Perhaps we can keep popping back to check on them.”

“But there’s so many people who walk their dogs in this wood,” Lily pointed out. “I know Hugo just wants to look at the kittens but another dog might hurt them.”

They’d seen quite a few dog walkers already but luckily none of the dogs had come close enough to sniff out the kittens. Dad had asked the owners if they’d seen a cat around but they’d all said no. One lady had even offered to go home and ring the RSPCA when Dad and Lily told her about the kittens but Dad had explained they’d already called the shelter.

“OK,” Dad said, putting his phone away. “I’ve told Mum we’ll stay.”

[Êàðòèíêà: _13.jpg]

“What do you think could have happened to their mum?” Lily asked, a little while later. “I don’t think she’s coming back, Dad. Why would she leave them?”

Dad sighed.“I don’t know. Perhaps she just couldn’t look after them properly. The lady from the shelter did say that if a very young cat has kittens, they do sometimes abandon them. Because they just haven’t got the energy to feed themselves and make enough milk for the kittens, too. If she’s a stray and she’s having to hunt for her food, or steal it out of bins, she might not be able to cope.”

“That’s so sad.” Lily sighed, thinking of Pixie next door – so plump and well fed.

“Or it could be that she’s not a stray. Maybe she just came here to have her kittens, and now her family have found her and they’re keeping her in to stop her going off again.”

“But they must know the kittens need her!” Lily shook her head. “Nobody would be that mean!”

Dad nodded.“No, you’re probably right. I’m sure the owners would want to look after the kittens, too. Unless maybe they didn’t realize she was pregnant…?”

Dad looked over towards the gap in the fence and the alleyway that led down to the houses and frowned.“Lily, listen, love. I don’t want to upset you but there is another thing that could have happened. It’s quite a busy road out there. She could have been hit by a car.”

Lily swallowed and her voice wobbled when she answered.“I know. I was thinking that. We go down that road to school and cars do go really fast along there. Do you think she tried to cross it?”

“If she doesn’t come back we’ll probably never know.” Dad put his arms round her shoulders. “But it’s a possibility.”

“Poor cat,” Lily whispered. “And poor kittens.”

“Well, at least we found them, thanks to Hugo.”

“He’s a hero.” Lily rubbed his nose and Hugo turned to look back at her for a moment. Then his ears twitched and he stood up, gazing down the path. “Someone’s coming,” Lily murmured. “Oh, it’s Mum! And Carly! But I said I didn’t want to go back, Dad.”

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“Hello!” Lily’s mum stood on tiptoe, trying to see the sofa and the kittens. “We thought we’d come and bring you some sandwiches. Are they over there?”

“Can I go and see?” Carly asked.

“Just quickly,” Dad suggested. “We’re watching for their mum, Carly. We don’t want to scare her off.”

As Mum and Carly hurried over to take a quick look, Hugo stood up, whining a little.

“It’s OK, boy.” Dad patted him reassuringly. “He really is keeping watch over those kittens, isn’t he?”

“They’re beautiful,” Mum whispered, as she and Carly came creeping back through the bracken. “But so tiny! Surely they’re going to need feeding soon?”

Dad nodded.“I reckon so. But the lady at the shelter told us not to do anything until this evening. Just watch and wait.”

“Lily, you’re sure you don’t want to come home with us? You’ve been out here for hours.”

Lily shook her head.“Not yet, Mum, please. I’m so worried about them – and their mum,” she added sadly. “Dad thinks she might have been run over.”

“Oh, Lily.” Mum hugged her.

“It’s so lucky that Hugo sniffed them out,” Lily murmured.

“I was going to say that we’d take him back,” Mum said thoughtfully. “But looking at him, I’m not sure he’d come. He’s had his eyes fixed on that sofa the whole time since we arrived. Maybe he thinks that because he found the kittens he’s got to look after them.” She was smiling but she sounded half-serious.

Lily nodded.“German Shepherds are often guard dogs, aren’t they? Hugo’s guarding the kittens.”

[Êàðòèíêà: _15.jpg]

Lily leaned forward eagerly, certain she’d seen a flash of white close by the old sofa. Perhaps the kittens’ mum was a white cat – that would make sense. She started to say, “Dad…” but then she sighed. It wasn’t the cat, after all. Just an old plastic bag, flapping in the breeze.

She shivered a little. Even though it had been such a hot day, the woods were shady, especially now the sun was starting to go down. She peered over at the sofa, wondering if the kittens were feeling chilly, too. She and Dad had gone to check on them after Mum and Carly had left, and pulled the cushion back over them a little but she couldn’t help worrying.

Over in the clearing, the white kitten huddled closer to his sisters, hunting for some warmth. Usually they were all snuggled up together against their mother but without her body heat the kittens were so small that they couldn’t keep themselves warm. He was getting colder and colder, and it was getting hard to move. He squeaked for his mother again, calling to her to come back and feed them but she didn’t come. Exhausted and hungry, the tiny kitten tried to crawl further under the cushions.

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Lily shifted position again. She was getting pins and needles from sitting still for so long, and she was hungry. The sandwiches Mum had brought seemed a long time ago. She checked her watch.“Dad, it’s six o’clock,” she murmured, stretching out her feet and wriggling a bit.

“I know. I’m going to phone the shelter. It’s been seven hours now.” He took out his phone and Lily leaned closer to try to listen in.

“Hi, I rang earlier about some kittens our dog had found in Amberdale Woods. No, no sign of their mum coming back, I’m afraid. Would you be able to come and get them?”

He paused for a minute or so, listening, and Lily saw an anxious expression appear on his face– little creases over the top of his nose. “Oh… No, don’t do that. Maybe we can help? Look, give me a minute. Let me talk to my wife and get back to you.” He listened for a little longer, saying, “Mm-hm, mm-hm,” and Lily squeezed even closer, desperate to know what was going on.

“Dad, what’s happened?” she burst out, as soon as he ended the call.

“The shelter’s really full. All of their foster carers have got kittens already. The manager was saying she’d ring round and see who could squeeze them in. Apparently this is kitten season.” He laughed a little nervously.

“So what’s going to happen to our kittens?” Lily asked. “Will they go to one of these foster people? Will they be all right?”

Dad was silent for a minute, running his hand down the back of Hugo’s neck. “Actually, Lily, I’m wondering if we could take them. Just until they can find someone to foster them properly.”

“What?” Lily squeaked. She was so surprised and excited she actually jumped up and down. “Do you mean it? We can take them home?”

“Hold on! Slow down a minute. I’m only talking about us looking after them until there’s space for them with a foster carer. Since it’s an emergency. And I said I’d have to talk to your mum about it. There’s no point getting excited just yet.”

“I know.” Lily’s voice was shaking. Those tiny kittens, hers to look after! If only Mum would say yes! She watched eagerly as Dad called home.

[Êàðòèíêà: _17.jpg]

“Sarah, it’s me. Yes, I called them but there’s a problem – apparently they’re really full. The lady I spoke to earlier on didn’t realize but all their kitten fosterers have got litters of kittens. No, we’re not going to leave them, listen! What do you think about us looking after them for a bit? The shelter manager – she’s the one I just spoke to – said she’d send someone out to help us take them home. They’ll bring some kitten formula and some information sheets on how to care for them if we agree.”

He went quiet for a bit and Lily pressed closer. She could hear her mum’s voice squeaking in the background and she wished Dad had put the speaker on.

“Yes, I know, the shelter manager mentioned that. I can’t say I’m happy about getting up in the middle of the night but I feel responsible for them. They’re so little—”

“Dad, what’s the matter?” Lily interrupted. “What’s Mum saying? Why can’t we do it?”

“Because they’re so young they’ll need hand-rearing, Lily. Mum isn’t sure we’ll be up to it – we’d have to get up in the middle of the night, probably.”

Lily grabbed his arm.“But I could help! Couldn’t I? It’s the summer holidays, I don’t mind. Dad, please! It’s like we were meant to find them – we came along just at the right time. We can’t give up on them now!”

Dad sighed.“Did you hear all that?” he said into the phone. “Yes, I know. Maybe she is old enough to help out. You know how much she loves cats!”

“OK.” Dad smiled at Lily. “Yes, I’ll call the shelter back and tell them.” He ended the call and laughed. “Wow. This was definitely not what I was expecting when we came out for a walk this morning.”

[Êàðòèíêà: _13.jpg]

“We’ll put them in here,” Amy explained, showing Lily and Dad a cardboard travel box that she’d brought with her. She seemed really nice, Lily thought. She’d told them she remembered Hugo from the shelter and that he’d grown into such a handsome, well-behaved dog.

[Êàðòèíêà: _18.jpg]

“I’ve put a hot-water bottle in for them, wrapped up in some towels. If they’ve been without their mum all day, they’ll be getting really cold. Kittens this young can’t control their own temperature, you see. They need their mum’s body heat to keep them warm. Even though it’s been so hot today, if we leave them here overnight without her, they’re at risk of hypothermia – that’s getting too cold to survive.”

“How old do you think they are?” Lily asked, leaning over to look at the kittens. They were still moving – squirming around and nuzzling at each other – but she was sure they weren’t as lively as they had been when they first saw them.

[Êàðòèíêà: _19.jpg]

“Hard to say exactly. Maybe two to three weeks? Their eyes are open but they don’t look big enough to be walking yet. Soon though.”

“They don’t look as bright as they did this morning,” Dad said.

“I was thinking that, too.” Lily bit her lip. “Oh no, maybe we waited for too long for their mum to come back.”

Amy shook her head.“I don’t think so. I know it sounds hard but the best person to look after them is definitely their mum – she’s built for feeding them, cleaning them, keeping them warm. If we take them away from her, we’re giving the kittens second-best. Do you see what I mean? So if there’d been any chance that their mum was going to come back and care for them, it was better to let her.”

“Dad thinks she might have been run over,” Lily said, gazing down at the kittens.

Amy nodded.“It’s possible, I’m afraid. Or she may just not have been able to feed them. Either way, I think we have to assume she’s not coming back.”

She opened the travel box and gently reached in to pick up one of the tabby kittens. Hugo whined and Amy laughed.“You’re such a good boy, aren’t you? Are you taking over from their mum, Hugo?”

She put the kitten gently into the box and Hugo nosed at the cardboard flaps, clearly making sure that the kitten was all right.“We wouldn’t usually put foster kittens with a family who had a dog but this is a bit of an emergency. Now, I’ll come back to the house with you, if that’s OK, and help you set up a safe pen to keep them in.”

Amy picked up the other tabby kitten and Lily watched anxiously as the white kitten gave a feeble mew. The kitten looked so little, left all on his own.“Can I pick this one up?” Lily whispered. He was hardly moving.

“Sure.”

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Lily picked up the tiny kitten– he wasn’t much bigger than her cupped hands – and carefully moved him over to the box. He squirmed around and gave another squeaky breath of a mew but then he cuddled up next to the two tabby kittens again, snuggling against the warmth of the hot-water bottle.

Lily looked up at Dad with shining eyes.“Let’s take them home.”

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Amy came back to the house to help settle the kittens in. She brought in a big box of equipment from her car– special kitten formula milk and kitten bottles and a litter tray. She explained that the kittens would need feeding about every four hours. “It’s a lot of work,” she said, looking round at them all. “Are you really sure you can manage?”

Mum was reading the instruction sheets, looking rather anxious.“Oh my goodness, I hadn’t even thought about sterilizing,” she murmured. “But I suppose it’s just like feeding a baby. Have we still got the old sterilizer in the loft?”

Dad grinned.“Yes. Now aren’t you grateful that I never sorted all that stuff out to go to the charity shop? I’ll go and get it. We need to give them a feed as soon as possible, don’t we?”

“Yes, that would be great.” Amy looked pleased. “Having a sterilizer will definitely make things easier. Oh!” Amy turned round from the table. Hugo had nudged open the kitchen door and marched in, looking determined.

“Sorry, I’ll take him out again.” Mum shook her head. “No, Hugo. You need to stay away from the kittens. It’s going to be tricky keeping him out, he’s used to having his basket and his food bowls in here.”

“Wait a minute,” Dad murmured. “Look at him. He’s not at all bothered that they’re in his kitchen. Even though we’ve moved his basket away from the radiator and put the box there instead.”

Amy nodded.“I think you’re right. And I was going to say that I’d try and get hold of a special heating pad for you, to keep the kittens warm but I’m not sure you’re going to need it.”

The kittens were still in their cardboard box, curled up on the hot-water bottle but now Hugo lay down and curled himself around it, so that they had his warmth, too. The kittens were already pressing up against the side of the box next to him. Even though they were so tiny, their instincts were telling them to warm up.

“Hugo really loves them.” Lily smiled. She’d never have expected that Hugo would make a brilliant kitten nurse.

[Êàðòèíêà: _22.jpg]

“Right,” Amy continued. “I’ll show you how to mix the milk powder and feed the kittens. And then – well, for another week or so, until they’re old enough to do it themselves, I’m afraid you’re going to have to help them wee and poo afterwards.”

“That’s disgusting!” Carly said, making a horrified face.

Amy laughed.“I know it sounds weird. But mother cats lick their kittens after they’ve fed them and that tells their bodies to wee or poo, you see. When you’re hand-rearing kittens, you have to do everything their mum does. But with cotton wool, dampened with warm boiled water,” she added hurriedly.

“Thank goodness for that,” Dad murmured.

[Êàðòèíêà: _13.jpg]

The white kitten woke up and looked around the dark room. He still couldn’t see or smell his mother but at least he was properly warm. He remembered being fed, too, but now he was feeling hungry again. He staggered up on to his paws and mewed, calling for his mother. But instead of a fluffy tabby face, a large white nose came over the side of his box and nuzzled at him.

The kitten sniffed and then sneezed and looked up at the huge creature in confusion. This was most definitely not his mother. Whoever it was felt warm, though, and comforting. The kitten mewed again, asking the big dog for food, and felt his two tabby sisters stirring beside him. They started to call for milk, too.

“Hello, Hugo… Did they wake you up?” a deep voice said, laughing a little.

The kitten moved his head towards the sound and then let out a tiny squeak. Hugo had leaned down again, and picked him up– just the way his mother did – in his jaws. The kitten wriggled as he was lifted from the box but then he found himself between the dog’s great paws, cosily nestled against the thick fur of his chest. Forgetting to be hungry for a moment, the kitten snuggled closer and drifted back to sleep.

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Upstairs, Lily lay half awake. She’d been dreaming about the kittens and now she couldn’t tell whether she was asleep or not. She could hear mewing – pitiful little squeaks – and low voices coming from downstairs. Of course! The night-time feed!

Mum and Dad had worked out that it would be best to feed the kittens at about eleven o’clock before they went to bed, then at three in the morning and then again when they all got up. Dad had said it would only be for a week or so, until the kittens were a bit older and could go for more than four hours without food.

Lily had begged to be allowed to help but Mum and Dad had said it was far too late for her and Carly, even though it was the holidays.

But if they were feeding the kittens, why could she hear mewing? The little squeaks sounded desperate. Lily sat up worriedly. She had to make sure they were OK– especially the fluffy white one. He had felt so tiny in her hands when she lifted him into the box, as though there was hardly anything of him under all that fur.

Lily got out of bed, pulled on her dressing gown and fumbled sleepily for her slippers. Then she crept down the stairs.

[Êàðòèíêà: _24.jpg]

She tiptoed along the hallway and peered into the kitchen. Her mum and dad were sitting at the table in their pyjamas, each with a tabby kitten in their laps. The kittens were busily sucking from the bottles.

“Lily! You should be asleep!” Dad sighed.

“I could hear mewing, it woke me up. What’s wrong?”

“It’s a bit tricky feeding more than one at once – the white kitten was asleep, so we thought we’d leave him till last but now he’s woken up and he’s not happy about waiting,” Mum explained. “I expect he can smell the milk.”

Lily was just about to crouch down and peer into the box when Hugo gave a mournful“Arrrooo!” and she realized that he had the kitten between his paws.

“Oh, Hugo’s looking after him!”

“He lifted the kitten out of the box in his mouth,” Dad told her. “I was a bit worried. But then I think mother cats do the same thing.”

“Is all that mewing bothering you, Hugo?” Lily asked. Then she turned back to look at Mum and Dad. “Shall I feed him? Since I’m awake anyway? We’ve got another bottle and Hugo’s getting upset, you can tell. He doesn’t like Stanley crying like that.”

“Stanley?” Mum smiled at her. “Since when is he called Stanley?”

Lily went pink.“I just think he looks like a Stanley. It’s such a cute name.”

“It is cute,” Mum agreed, passing Lily a bottle. “But just remember we’re not going to have them for long, Lily. Only until the shelter can find a foster home.”

“I know.” Lily gently scooped up the white kitten and carried him over to the table. Hugo followed her, resting his muzzle on her lap so he could watch what she was doing. Stanley seemed to have learned exactly what to do with the bottle from his two previous feeds – he practically jumped at it, sucking greedily at the milk with funny little slurping noises.

“Wow, you really were hungry,” Lily murmured. “Mum, look, I think I can actually see his tummy getting bigger!”

Her mum laughed.“They’re really guzzling it down, aren’t they. Oh, Lily, listen!”

“I can feel it…” Lily whispered back. Stanley was purring.

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[Êàðòèíêà: _26.jpg]

“Which one’s your favourite?” Mara leaned over the kitten pen, admiring the three kittens. Lily had emailed her best friend to tell her about their amazing discovery, and Mara had been desperate to come and see the kittens as soon as she’d got back from her holiday in Spain.

They were about five weeks old now– big enough to walk around really well. They stomped all over each other, squeaking loudly, and they were always wrestling and jumping out at each other. They loved playing with all the toys Lily had persuaded Mum and Dad to get from the pet shop, too. Their favourite was a feathery stick, a bitlike a feather duster, and Lily spent ages waving it about for them.

Dad had found a big shallow plastic storage box up in the loft when he was looking for the sterilizer and he’d brought it down to use as a pen to keep the kittens in. It meant they had space to move around but they were safer than they would be loose in the kitchen. But it hadn’t lasted long. They still used it to sleep in but they’d learned to wriggle and scramble their way out after just a few days.

“Stanley – he’s my favourite,” Lily said, pointing him out. “He’s like a little fluffy snowball!”

“He is cute,” Mara agreed. “But I love the stripes on the other two as well. Isn’t it loads of work looking after them all?”

“They’re starting to eat proper food now – special kitten food mixed with a bit of their milk. At least that means we can just feed them really late at night and then early in the morning. No one has to get up in the middle of the night any more.” Lily reached her hand into the plastic box and Stanley staggered determinedly towards her, licking at her fingers.

“They’re so gorgeous. If it was me, I don’t think I’d be able to give them away,” Mara said, lifting one of the tabby kittens on to her lap. They were both girls, and Carly had named them Bella and Trixie. “You’ve spent your whole summer holiday looking after them but then you don’tget to keep them. That doesn’t seem fair!”

[Êàðòèíêà: _27.jpg]

“I know.” Lily sighed. “But we were never going to keep them. They were originally supposed to go to another foster family as soon as they had the space. But when Amy came to check up on them, a couple of days after they came here, she said we were doing so well maybe we should just keep themuntil they were ready for rehoming. And luckily Mum and Dad said yes!” She smiled as Stanley butted his head against her hand and let out a squeaky little mew. “It’s not food time yet, baby…”

“So they won’t go to the shelter, then?”

“Their photos are up on the shelter website already but they’ll just send anyone who’s interested in adopting them round to us. So at least the kittens won’t have to get used to a new place.”

Mara nodded.“And I suppose you’ll be able to see if the people are nice.”

Lily nodded. She didn’t like thinking about the kittens’ new owners – especially not Stanley’s. Even though she was making the best of it to Mara, she couldn’t imagine not having a box of kittens in their kitchen… But they already had Hugo.

“Do you think Hugo will miss them?” Mara asked, as she heard scrabbling at the kitchen door.

Lily opened the door, checking that the kittens weren’t about to dart through and Hugo trotted in, immediately coming over to inspect his kittens.

“Definitely.” Lily stroked his nose. “He does that every time he’s been out for a walk. He has to come back and make sure they’re all OK. Yes, don’t worry, I looked after them for you. Trixie’s over there, see?”

Hugo was looking around for the other tabby kitten, and when he spotted her peeking out from behind the kitchen bin he went to round her up, gently nosing her back over towards the plastic box.

“He wants them all in the box the whole time,” Lily explained. “He’s like a sheepdog, herding them about.” She watched proudly as Hugo picked up the tabby kitten in his mouth and dropped her, wriggling, back into the box.

“I thought he was biting her!” Mara said, looking a bit worried.

“No. He’s so gentle. He just holds them in his mouth. Their mum would have done the same thing. Oh, Hugo, look, Stanley’s coming out now.”

The white kitten was clambering out of the box, half falling, half jumping out on to the kitchen tiles. Hugo seemed almost to sigh. He lay down in front of the box between the two girls, making a big furry barrier between Stanley and the rest of the kitchen.

Stanley nuzzled him, nose to nose, and both girls“aaahhed”. Stanley marched along the whole length of Hugo and started to pat at his feathery tail as Hugo twitched it from side to side and then jumped on it with fierce little growls. Hugo watched him, clearly enjoying the game. As soon as Stanley was clinging on with all four paws, he swishedhis tail faster so that the kitten swept across the floor and both girls burst out laughing.

[Êàðòèíêà: _28.jpg]

“They go together so well,” Mara said. “Both of them white and fluffy.”

“I know.” Lily nodded. They really did. If only they could keep Stanley, he and Hugo would be a perfect pair.

[Êàðòèíêà: _13.jpg]

Lily giggled as Stanley wobbled down her bed. He wasn’t very good at walking on the squishy duvet and he kept nearly falling over. He stopped to inspect her teddy bear and then jumped at it, sinking his tiny claws into the ribbon around its neck.

Lily was so busy watching Stanley, she didn’t notice the gentle scuffling noises from outside her bedroom window. Then there was a loud hiss and she glanced round in surprise. Pixie was standing on the sloping roof, peering in at the open window, the fur on the back of her neck raised. She was clearly furious – this was her place and now there was another cat.

“Oh, Pixie, no!” Lily stared at her anxiously. What was she going to think of Stanley? She’d been in Lily’s room a couple of times since they’d got the kittens but Lily had quickly shut her door so Pixie didn’t go downstairs. This was the first time Pixie had seen one of them.

Lily dithered, not sure whether to grab Stanley or try to shoo Pixie out. She didn’t want to push her back through the window, in case she slipped. Pixie came further in, climbing on to Lily’s windowsill and hissing loudly, her tail fluffing up.

[Êàðòèíêà: _29.jpg]

“No!” Lily said sharply, seeing Stanley cower back against the teddy bear, his own fur starting to stand up, too. “Pixie, out! This isn’t your house!”

She sat up, trying to grab Pixie. Perhaps she could take her downstairs and put her out of the front door.“I know you’ve been in here before, I’m sorry, Pixie. Ow!” Pixie had swiped her paw down Lily’s arm, leaving two bright red scratches. Then she hissed again, spat angrily at Stanley and darted back out of the window.

Lily shut the window, rather shakily. Pixie had never scratched her before. Then she glanced round at Stanley. He was huddled into a tiny white ball on her bed and he looked terrified.

“Oh, Stanley, I’m sorry, sweetheart. It’s OK. She’s not coming back in.” Gently, Lily lifted him up in her cupped hands and snuggled him up against her T-shirt.

[Êàðòèíêà: _30.jpg]

“It’s all right, I’ll look after you, shh. I wish I could just look after you always,” she added sadly. The shelter had called Mum that morning to say a lady had seen the kittens on their website and wanted to come and visit them. She was interested in the two tabbies but Lily knew it wouldn’t be long until someone wanted to take Stanley, too.

Stanley huddled against her, his heart thumping. He didn’t understand what had just happened. He had been enjoying playing with Lily by himself, without his sisters climbing all over her, too. He loved it when she fussed over him and played with him and then let him snooze on her lap when he was tired out. But suddenly the other cat had appeared, one that Stanley had never seen before.

Hugo nosed his way round Lily’s door and padded across the room.

“Did you hear Pixie?” Lily murmured. “She was really cross. Oh, you can smell her, can’t you?”

Hugo’s ears had flattened back and he was sniffing at Lily’s bed. Then he nudged Stanley gently. The white kitten rubbed his head against the huge dog’s muzzle and then stepped back with a squeak as Hugo licked him, his big pink tongue practically covering the tiny kitten.

“Hugo!” Lily giggled. “Look at him, you’ve flattened his fur!”

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“They’re so beautiful… I wish we could take all of them but I think three cats might be too many.” Candace smiled at Lily and Carly and their mum. “You’ve done so well, hand-rearing them. They’re so big and healthy-looking. You did an amazing job!”

Mum put her arm round Lily’s shoulders. “To be honest, it was mostly Lily. She’s worked really hard – she even did some of the night feeds. I can’t believe how big they are now. Seven weeks old! The time’s gone so fast.”

Far too fast, Lily thought to herself.

“I suppose if they were still with their mum, it would be too early for us to adopt them,” Candace said thoughtfully. “It’s very lucky for us, getting to have such small kittens. We’re really grateful. Aren’t we, Jack?”

Her little boy nodded. He had Bella on his lap and he was running one finger carefully down her back all the way from the top of her head to her tail, over and over. Bella was nuzzling his hand, purring, and Jack looked as though his dream had come true.

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Even though Lily hated the thought of someone else taking her lovely kittens home, she could see that Candace and Jack were going to be amazing cat owners. At least they were only taking Bella and Trixie, she thought sadly. She wondered how Stanley would feel all on his own.

Stanley watched, confused, as the strange people put his sisters into a cat carrier. They were mewing, not sure what was happening, and he squeaked back anxiously. Where were they going? And why wasn’t he going, too?

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He hurried to the edge of the plastic box as the kitchen door opened and they all started to walk out– those people were taking his sisters away! Panicking, he clawed his way up the side of the box, his paws slipping, and scrambled out on to the floor to chase after them. But the door closed before he was halfway there, and he sat under the table and mewed frantically.

He jumped up when the door opened again and Lily let Hugo in. The big dog came nosing under the table and lowered his head to Stanley. He licked the kitten with one great swipe of his huge pink tongue and then slumped down to the floor next to him, resting his muzzle between his paws.

Stanley patted at one of Hugo’s long white paws, nibbled it and then snuggled wearily into the kitten-sized space between Hugo’s paw and his nose, curling up into a sad little ball.

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“Night, Mum.” Lily peered round her mum’s office door on her way to bed. “Oh, that one’s so cute. Wow, you can really see how fluffy he’s getting.” Lily leaned over her mum’s shoulder, admiring the photos of Stanley on her computer. “What are you looking at the photos for? Are yousending them to Grandma?” Lily’s grandma loved cats, too. She lived in Scotland so she hadn’t seen the kittens yet but Lily had been telling her all about them on the phone. Grandma had told Lily how jealous she was.

Her mum looked up.“No, I wasn’t. Maybe I should though, I hadn’t thought of that. I was actually looking for a good photo to send to Amy for the shelter website. The one they’ve got up there now is all the kittens together – we need one of just Stanley on his own.”

Lily took a step back, suddenly feeling breathless. She knew that Stanley was going to be adopted, too, of course she did. But this made it all too real– and too soon. He looked so cute in the photo on Mum’s screen – he had his mouth open in a mew and his little pink tongue was showing. His eyes were shining emerald green and his fur was standing out around his head in a fluffy halo. Anybody would want to adopt him, Lily thought miserably. Who could resist such a gorgeous boy?

“Oh, Lily…” Mum turned round in her chair, reaching out to hug her. “I know you love him…”

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“Couldn’t we keep him?” Lily pleaded. “He’s so special…” Her voice wobbled and her throat felt like it was closing up. She couldn’t get any more words out.

“You know we were only looking after them for a little while, darling.”

Lily nodded and sniffed and then dashed out of Mum’s office, racing upstairs to her bedroom. She flung herself down on her bed, burying her face in her pillow, her eyes full of tears. Why couldn’t they keep Stanley? He got on amazingly with Hugo. Mara had been right when she said they made a perfect pair. Hugo had looked after Stanley all morning after Bella and Trixie had gone. In fact, Lily was pretty sure that Hugo would be as upset as her if Stanley went to a new home.

She just had to explain all that properly to Mum and Dad. Lily rubbed her eyes and sniffed determinedly. Maybe she should write down a list of reasons to keep Stanley, just to make sure she didn’t forget any of them. And then she would find just the right time to convince her family…

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Lily woke up suddenly, her heart racing. She sat up in bed and peered around anxiously, trying to work out what was wrong. Everything in her room looked strange and ghostly in the darkness. Why had she jumped awake like that?

She was just about to settle down again, fussing with the crumpled sheet and wishing the night wasn’t so hot, when loud barking erupted downstairs – mixed with ear-splitting yowls. Hugo was obviously furious, it was his angry bark, over and over again – and then there was a crashing sound.

Lily flung back the sheet and headed downstairs at a run, not even stopping to think what was going on. Something awful was happening. She could hear voices in Mum and Dad’s room – they’d clearly been woken up, too, and Carly appeared in her bedroom doorway as Lily started down the stairs.

She was surprised to see the kitchen door was open but then realized that Mum and Dad must have left it ajar to keep the room a bit cooler for Hugo and Stanley to sleep in. Hugo wouldn’t come out of the kitchen anyway, he loved his basket. But maybe Stanley had come out of the kitchen and got lost in the dark. Had that crash been him knocking something over in the living room, maybe? That wouldn’t make Hugo react so badly though, would it? He was still barking – quieter barks now and furious growls. Lily couldn’t remember ever hearing him so upset.

Lily switched on the kitchen light, murmuring,“Stanley? Hugo? What’s the matter?” Then she gasped. The kitchen looked as though someone had run round pushing everything that they could find off the surfaces. The pile of newspapers from the recycling box was scattered all over the place. The vase of flowers that had been in the middle of the kitchen table was tipped over, cascading water down on to the tiles. There was even a mug smashed on the floor just below the sink.

Hugo was standing in front of the sink, growling angrily at the window above it. Lily shivered, suddenly wondering if there had been someone in the garden? Perhaps Hugo had been woken by a burglar? Could he have made all this mess just by jumping about, trying to raise the alarm? Even though he wasn’t usually clumsy, he did sometimes knock things over by flailing his tail around when he was really excited.

“It’s OK, Hugo, shh,” Lily murmured. “What’s wrong? And where’s Stanley?” she added. When she’d gone to bed, Stanley had been curled up in Hugo’s basket, snuggled in between Hugo’s paws, and both of them had been asleep. There was no little white kitten in the dog basket now, orin the big plastic box.

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“Stanley?” Lily called worriedly. Where was he? She ducked down, searching under the table and behind the bin but there was no little white kitten.

“Lily, what’s going on?” Dad hurried into the kitchen, with Mum and Carly close behind. “Wow! What happened here?”

“I don’t know! Hugo’s really upset and I can’t find Stanley. He isn’t anywhere.”

Hugo came over to Dad, sniffing and nosing at his hands, and Dad rubbed his ears comfortingly.“Hey, he’s got a scratch on his nose,” Dad said. “What happened, boy?”

“Oh, Hugo, did you cut yourself on that broken mug?” Mum crouched down to look, too.

Hugo pulled away and padded over to the sink cabinet again, this time leaping up and planting his paws on the edge of the sink. He wasn’t supposed to jump up like that but nobody stopped him.

Then a little white face peered out from behind the curtains. Stanley– with his long white fur all fluffed up. He was huddling in the corner of the windowsill, looking terrified.

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“There he is!” Lily exclaimed gratefully. “How on earth did you get up there?” She hurried over to the windowsill, picking up Stanley and cuddling him close. She’d never have thought that Stanley could make the jump on to the counter – he must have jumped on to a chair to get him halfway. “Come on, Stanley, it’s OK. What happened?”

“It’s pretty obvious,” Dad said anxiously. “They’ve been fighting. Hugo couldn’t have cut his nose on that mug, not unless it actually fell on him. That’s a cat scratch.”

Lily could feel the white kitten’s heart hammering and his ears were laid back. Hugo dropped back down to the floor and stood looking up at Stanley in Lily’s arms.

“That can’t be right,” Lily said, shaking her head. “Stanley loves Hugo. They were even asleep together in Hugo’s basket when I went to bed! And Hugo wouldn’t hurt Stanley.”

“He didn’t!” Carly said angrily, crouching down beside Hugo and putting her arm round him. “Stanley hurthim! Look at his poor nose!”

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Mum sighed.“We don’t know which of them started it. I suppose we’ve been lucky we haven’t had any issues with them until now – it’s weird this has happened so suddenly… But if they’re going to start fighting with each other, we’ll have to talk to Amy in the morning. Stanley’s old enough tostay at the shelter now until they find a home for him. Hopefully they’ve got room.”

“What?” Lily gasped. “No, Mum, he’s staying here. We said we’d look after him until we found him a proper home. He can’t go to the shelter!”

“He has to, Lily,” Dad said gently. “I know you’ve loved having the kittens here and you’ve worked so hard with them but we can’t risk Stanley being hurt if he and Hugo aren’t getting on. What if Stanley tries to scratch Hugo again and Hugo lashes out? I know Hugo wouldn’t deliberately hurt him – at least, I don’t think he would – but he’s just so much bigger than Stanley. It’s not safe.”

“And this is Hugo’s home!” Carly put in.

“She’s right, Lily,” Dad said. “We can’t send Hugo away.”

Lily shook her head, tears starting to well up in her eyes. Stanley wriggled a little as one fell on to his nose and he licked it, liking the salty taste.

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This couldn’t be happening, Lily thought, looking miserably from Dad to Mum to Carly. Everyone seemed to be certain that Stanley had to go. How could this be happening now? Tomorrow was supposed to be the start of her grand plan to convince everyone they could keep their gorgeous kitten forever – and now instead he was going to be sent to the shelter.

“He just can’t,” she whispered. “He’ll hate it there. We saw the cats when we went to get Hugo – they had those little rooms. He’s used to a whole big kitchen and my bedroom. He’ll be so lonely without us.”And without Hugo, Lily added in her head. She still couldn’t understand what had happened. Hugo had never barked at the kittens – not even when he’d first found them in the woods. He’d looked after them so carefully – Stanley even slept in his basket. This just wasn’t right.

But nobody was listening to her. It felt like all the plans were already made– Mum and Dad were discussing who could go and drop off Stanley at the shelter. Carly was still petting Hugo and glaring at the kitten.

“What are we going to do with them tonight?” Dad murmured, looking between Stanley and Hugo. “We can’t leave them both in here, obviously.”

“I’ll take Stanley upstairs with me,” Lily said quickly. It was their last night, she realized. Her last time to cuddle him. “I’ll take his box upstairs with me and put it by my bed.”

Mum nodded.“OK. But shut your door, Lily.”

“I’ll bring the box for you,” Dad said. He picked it up and followed her up the stairs.

Lily couldn’t help crying into Stanley’s fur as she took him up to her room. He was still so little – far too little to go to the shelter, she was sure. It would be like sending him off for his first day of school. She half laughed, half sniffed at the thought.

“I’m really going to miss this one,” Dad said, rubbing one finger under Stanley’s chin as Lily climbed into bed, still holding him. She put him down gently on top of the sheet and Stanley started to wander around the folds, his paws sliding.

“Oh, Lily, don’t cry, sweetheart.” Dad put his arm round her. “He’ll go to a lovely new home. He’s so gorgeous, he probably won’t even be in the shelter for a day.”

“I don’t want him to have a lovely new home,” Lily sobbed. “I want him to stay here!”

“I know.” Dad sighed. “I had been thinking that, too… But this is Hugo’s home, Lily, love. You know that.”

“I still can’t believe they were fighting…” Lily whispered.

Stanley came stomping back up the bed towards her and began to clamber on to her legs, wriggling as he got caught up in the sheet. Dad laughed and helped him up with a hand under his bottom.“There you go, Stanley. Night, Lily.” He went over to close the bedroom window. “Just in case – we don’t want Stanley getting out. I hope it’s not too hot. Everything will be OK, honestly.”

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Lily watched him go, blowing her a kiss from the doorway and then closing the door behind him.How can everything possibly be OK? she thought sleepily, as Stanley padded round and round on her tummy, making himself a comfy little nest.It’s not OK at all…

Stanley tucked his nose under his tail and closed his eyes. He loved the feeling of snuggling up on top of Lily. He could tell that there was something wrong, her breathing sounded different, with strange little hitches that made him bounce on her tummy each time. But he’d never been able to sleep on her bed before – it was even better than curling up next to Hugo. He was warm and safe…

His ears flattened back for a moment as he suddenly remembered and he let out a little mew of fright. He’d been fast asleep and then the barking had woken him. Stanley had never heard Hugo bark like that before – he was protecting his house. He’d been trying to protect Stanley, too, but the noise was still so scary.

Stanley had run madly around the kitchen, trying to find a hiding place but nowhere had felt safe. In the end he’d jumped on to the kitchen table and then made a flying leap on to the counter, scrabbling madly and nearly falling back down. He’d huddled himself behind the curtains, curling up as small as he could as the barking and hissing went on and on.

Stanley stood up, pacing round and round on the bed to calm himself down. Lily shifted a little, with a wheezy moan, and settled again. Then, at last, they slept.

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“Do you think they’ll want his toys at the shelter?” Mum said doubtfully, holding up a catnip mouse with half its tail gone and a hole where the stuffing was coming out.

“He loves that mouse,” Lily said, with a catch in her voice. “You have to take it!” She abandoned her cereal – she wasn’t hungry anyway – and got down on the kitchen floor, looking for all the jingly balls, feathers and other toys that were scattered about. Of course, Stanley’s favourite toy was Hugo, she realized, looking at them both under the table. Mum and Dad had decided that as long as someone stayed with them both the whole time, it was OK to let them be in the same room until Mum took Stanley to the shelter.

Hugo was lying full length under the table– probably hoping for Carly’s toast crusts – and Stanley was playing with his paws. He was hopping over them, pouncing and patting at them with his own. Every so often Hugo would yawn and move a paw a little, so that Stanley leaped on it with ferocious tigerish growls.

Mum kept turning round from the bacon she was cooking and glancing over at them, obviously checking that they weren’t about to fight again but they weren’t. It was a game, it always was. Lily stared at them, trying not to let herself start crying again. She still couldn’t quite believe that this was happening. How could they be happy together now, when Hugo had been so furious last night and Stanley so terrified?

“Can you get that, Lily?” Mum said, as the doorbell rang. “I don’t want to leave this pan. It’s probably just the post.”

Lily got up and went to the door, opening it just as her dad came downstairs. Their next-door neighbour, Anna, was standing there, looking worried.

“Hi, Anna.” Dad came over to the door. “Is everything all right?”

Anna smiled.“I hope so… But I’ve come to apologize, just in case.”

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“OK…” Dad said, looking puzzled. “Would you like some coffee? We’re just having breakfast.”

“Oh, I didn’t mean to interrupt!”

“Honestly, it’s fine.”

“I’d love a coffee.” Anna smiled, and followed Lily and Dad through to the kitchen, where Mum was dishing out the bacon.

“I do feel bad, though,” Anna continued. “I’ve a horrible feeling that Pixie’s been in here again. She bolted in through the cat flap at about midnight, in a bit of a state. She was soaking wet and all the fur that wasn’t plastered down with water was sticking up. And I heard a lot of barking, so I wondered if she’d climbed through Lily’s window again and had had a bit of a bust-up with Hugo… You mentioned she’d come in that way before.”

Anna looked between Mum and Dad as the whole family stared at her.“I really am sorry,” she added. “I know she’s a nightmare. My neighbours on the other side got quite cross with her the other day – they found her on the kitchen table licking the butter…” Her voice trailed away. “Oh no, what did she do?”

“It was Pixie!” Lily breathed, remembering her open bedroom window. “It was Pixie, not Stanley! Hugo was barking at Pixie!” And that meant Stanley didn’t need to go…

“Mum, do you think…?” Lily put her hand on Mum’s arm, trying to get her to listen, but Mum was looking at Anna and not paying attention.

“She was in here, then. Oh dear…” Anna looked around the kitchen. “I really hope she didn’t break anything.”

Dad laughed.“Actually, I think she broke a mug but don’t worry, Anna. That’s about the best news you could have given us. We came down last night because Hugo was barking his head off to find the kitchen in a bit of a mess and Hugo with a scratch on his nose. No, no, it’s OK!” he added, seeing Anna put a hand up to her mouth. “You see, we thought it was Stanley who’d done it. We were going to take him to the animal shelter this morning and now we don’t have to!”

“Pixie scratched Hugo?” Anna looked down at Hugo guiltily. “Poor Hugo. She’s a horror, she really is.”

“But you love her to bits,” Mum said, laughing.

“I’d better start locking the cat flap at night.” Anna sighed.

“Mum.” Lily pulled at her sleeve. “Mum, listen, please, it’s important. You need to call the shelter.”

Mum gave her a hug.“It’s OK, Lily, you don’t need to tell me. We’ll call them right now and let them know we don’t need to bring Stanley in after all.”

“I should have listened when you said that Hugo wouldn’t have been barking like that at Stanley,” Dad said, shaking his head. “I mean just look at them.”

Everyone looked down under the table. Stanley, worn out from his game, was collapsed over Hugo’s enormous paws. As they stared at him, he opened one eye lazily, just a slit of green peering up at them all.

“Please…” Lily whispered. “Couldn’t we keep him? I know we had Hugo first but Hugo loves him, too.”

“Can we?” Carly put in. “It would make Hugo sad if he had to go,” she admitted. “I think Stanley should stay.”

“Yes! Oh, Carly, thank you!” Lily hugged her sister tight.

Mum smiled.“I’d better go and ring the shelter, hadn’t I?”

“What are you going to say to them?” Lily asked anxiously.

“I’m going to ask them to take his photo off the website – he’s already got a home.”

Lily threw her arms round her mum and then her dad and even Anna– she wanted to hug everyone.

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Then she crouched down beside Stanley and Hugo.“You’re staying,” she said, stroking the fluffy white fur on Stanley’s tummy. You’re our kitten now!”

Stanley opened the other eye and stretched, rolling over on to his back and padding his front paws against Hugo’s nose. Hugo snorted, shifted his head and gently licked the little kitten.

Stanley uncurled himself from the big dog and stood up, stretching again and arching his back as he yawned. He padded deliberately over to Lily, and rubbed the side of his head lovingly up and down her shorts. He climbed on to her knees and stood up, nudging her chin with the top of his head and purring loudly. Then he jumped down and touched noses with Hugo.

“They’re perfect,” Lily whispered, crouching down to stroke Hugo. “They belong together, here with us.”

37. A KITTEN CALLED TIGER

“Ava! Come on, wake up. Look at this!” Mum held up her phone in front of Ava’s nose and Ava squinted at the photo on the screen sleepily. Then she sat bolt upright in bed and grabbed

the phone. Ever since her parents had agreed to getting a kitten, Ava had been scanning the local animal shelter’s website and checking the noticeboard in the supermarket. But no one seemed to have any kittens in need of homes – until now.

“Oh! They’re gorgeous! Mum, are they real? I mean, are they for sale? Can we go and see them?” The photo showed a litter of kittens snuggled up in a cardboard box – it wasn’t a very big one but they’d obviously all decided it was the best place to sleep ever. Ava was almost sure there were four but it was quite hard to count them…

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“Yes, they’re real and, yes, we can go and see them. Rosie, the lady who owns them, put their picture on Facebook and she said she’s free this weekend if people want to visit. I’ve sent her a message to see if we can go round today. Your auntie Jade sent me their picture – Rosie’s a friend of hers. Auntie Jade said she thought of you as soon as she saw them!”

“They’re so little and fluffy…” Ava cooed, stroking the phone screen with her finger. Then she sighed as the picture disappeared. “Oops! Sorry, Mum, I’m still half asleep. I just wanted to stroke them!”

Mum smiled as she took back the phone.“I love the ginger and white one – but the stripey kitten’s gorgeous, too. I think we might have a really hard time choosing. Oh, look! Rosie’s messaged me back, asking if we can come round at about ten o’clock. Ooooh, I don’t know, Ava, what do you think? It’s a bit early for a Saturday, isn’t it?”

Mum laughed as Ava leaped out of bed, flinging off the duvet.“You think we can, then? We’ve got to get Lucy and Bel up, remember. And your dad’s still asleep.”

“We’ve only got two hours!” Ava squeaked. “Wake him up now, Mum! And tell Lucy and Bel we’re going to see some kittens. They’ll be out of bed the fastest you’ve ever seen, I promise!”

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“Hurry up,” Ava groaned. “There’s the house, look, number twenty-two. Lucy, you don’t need to bring your toy cat, we’re going to seereal kittens…”

“They will like my toy cat,” her sister said firmly, gathering up her toy cat and her handbag and all the cat’s clothes, and clambering down from her car seat. Lucy was only just three – Mum and Dad had said they’d think about getting a family pet once she was old enough to understand that a kitten wasn’t another toy for her to play with. Ava had been looking forward to Lucy’s birthday more than her own.

Ava’s middle sister, five-year-old Bel, had run on ahead and was trying to undo the latch of the garden gate.

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She was just as excited as Ava was. Neither of them had been able to eat any breakfast, and they’d watched Dad and Lucy ploughing through their Weetabix with disbelief.

“OK.” Dad locked the car and led Lucy over to the gate. “Let’s go!”

Bel finally managed to unlatch the gate and the front door opened as they walked up the path. A lady in a stripey T-shirt waved at them.“I saw you coming. I’m Rosie.” She scooped up a silvery tabby cat who was trying to escape round her legs. “And this is Moppet. She’s the kittens’ mum.”

“She’s beautiful,” Ava’s mum said.

“She really is,” Rosie agreed. “Come on in. Moppet’s too young to have kittens, to be honest. She was a stray. She kept coming into the garden and in the end I adopted her. I didn’t know I was getting five cats instead of one!”

“Oh, wow…” Ava sighed. It sounded like a dream come true to her.

“Anyway, come and see the kittens. They’re in the kitchen.”

Ava could feel her heart thumping with excitement as they walked through the hallway. The kitchen door was closed and Rosie opened it carefully, obviously trying not to bump into any kittens on the other side.

“Oh! Oh! A kitten!” Bel squealed as a little furry face popped round the edge of the door.

The kitten disappeared at once and Mum shushed Bel gently.“Sweetheart, remember what we talked about.

You’ve got to be quiet round the kittens. If you shout, you’ll scare them.”

Bel nodded but Ava could tell that she was so excited she wasn’t really listening. Ava swallowed hard as Rosie opened the door all the way. There seemed to be a bubble of nervousness stuck in the top of her throat. She had been daydreaming about this moment for so long!

The kittens seemed to have taken over Rosie’s kitchen. There were cat toys everywhere, a cosy basket sat next to the radiator, and a huge kitten climbing frame made of scratching posts and carpeted hidey-holes was squashed up next to the kitchen table. As they all went in, a small ginger kitten looked up from licking the butter off a piece of toast.

Rosie put Moppet down and sighed.“That was my breakfast,” she told the kitten, lifting it off the table. “You’ve had yours.” She looked round at Ava and her family. “They’re lovely but they get everywhere.” Then she frowned. “Hang on. How many kittens can you see?”

Ava laughed. Now that she could actually see the kittens, the strange feeling inside her had disappeared.“Three,” she told Rosie. “The one who was licking your toast…”

“There’s another ginger one over there on the climbing frame,” Bel said.

“And there’s a tabby kitten by the door,” Ava added, peering round the table to see properly. The tabby kitten was playing with a fluffy rabbit that was nearly as big as it was, rolling over and over on the floor.

“There ought to be four,” Rosie said, scanning the kitchen. “We’re missing one. There’s another tabby kitten – and honestly, it’s always him!”

Ava crouched down to check under the table but there was only the ginger kitten, still licking his buttery whiskers. Then, as she stood up, Ava spotted the tip of a stripey tail on top of the bookcase.“Is that him?” she asked Rosie, pointing. “Behind those photographs?”

“How did he get up there?” Dad laughed. “That’s a huge jump for such a small cat.”

[Êàðòèíêà: _6.jpg]

Rosie shook her head, smiling.“I didn’t think any of them could get up there. But I suppose if he went from the climbing frame to the table, to the edge of the sink and then scrabbled up the curtain… This whole kitchen is like a playground for kittens. But he’s definitely the most adventurous!”

“Hello,” Ava whispered to the kitten as he eyed her round the side of the photo frame. “Are you stuck?” The kitten looked so funny with his head sticking out one end of the frame and his tail the other. He mewed at her and edged a little further out from behind the photo. But there wasn’tmuch room and he nudged into a vase that was standing behind him, making it wobble dangerously.

“Oh!” Ava said worriedly. “Come on, kitten. You’re going to get squished in a minute.” She reached up to lift him out from behind the photo frame and then looked uncertainly at Rosie. Was it OK to pick the kitten up?

Rosie nodded at her.“Can you reach? Just lift him down from there.”

Ava slipped both hands round the kitten’s middle, hoping she wasn’t scaring him. But she thought he actually looked quite grateful to be rescued. He didn’t wriggle at all and she snuggled him against her cardigan, loving the feel of his warm fur and his squidgy kitten tummy.

“Oh, he’s very handsome!” Mum said, coming over to look. “So stripey!”

“He’s the stripiest cat I’ve ever seen,” Ava agreed, looking down at the kitten. He was a beautiful golden brown colour, with black stripes running down his sides and fat black rings all along his tail. Ava had seen tabby cats before, of course, but never one with such perfect stripes.

“He’s what’s called a mackerel tabby,” Rosie said. “Like the fish – they have stripes, too.”

“He looks more like a tiger,” Mum said. “The way his stripes match on both sides.”

Ava giggled as the kitten scrabbled his way up her cardigan and climbed on to her shoulder. She knew he was probably just trying to get up high, so that he could see what was going on with all these strange people in his kitchen but it felt like he belonged with her somehow.

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“Mum,” she whispered. “Do you think… Could we have this one?”

Lucy stood up to see. She’d been trying to get the ginger kittens to look at her toy cat but they weren’t very interested. “What’s his name?” she asked Rosie.

“Oh, well, I tried not to name them, because I knew they’d be going to new owners,” Rosie explained. “But in my head I’ve been calling him Adventure Kitten.”

“He sounds like a superhero!” Ava said.

“I think he’s called Tiger,” Lucy said, nodding her head. “Let’s take him home now.”

“Oh, Lucy, we haven’t decided yet,” Mum said, but she was smiling. “And don’t forget, we need to go and buy a cat carrier and a basket and, oh, lots of things! Although heis lovely…”

“And Tiger would be a great name,” Dad said. “Bel? Ava? What do you think?”

Bel reached up to stroke the kitten’s tiny paws and smiled. “Even his paws are stripey.”

Ava nodded, just a little, so as not to shake the kitten around too much.“It’s perfect! He looks just like a tiger and he’s as brave as one, too.”

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When the carrier was set down at last and the wire door swung open, Tiger didn’t move. He wasn’t sure what was outside the carrier but he knew it wasn’t his home. It smelled different. There was no comforting smell of his mother and the other kittens.

“Why isn’t he coming out?” Bel said, crouching down.

“He’s probably frightened,” Mum explained. “This is all really strange for him.”

“Should we try the cat treats? The ones Rosie said he liked?” Ava suggested, opening the kitchen cupboard.

Tiger took a step closer to the open wire door as he heard the crinkle of the foil packet. He could smell the treats, too– the delicious fishy ones. Even though he was still scared, he padded forwards another couple of steps and peered through the wire bars. Yes, there was the packet. His whiskers twitched and he eyed the girl holding the treats.

“Come on, kitten!” Lucy wriggled away from Mum and bounced towards the cat carrier. Tiger heard her voice and the thud of her footsteps and retreated back inside the carrier.

“Luuu-cy!” Ava snapped and then wished she hadn’t when her little sister’s face crumpled. “You have to be really gentle,” she added, but Lucy had already burst into tears.

“Maybe we should give Tiger some time to come out by himself,” Dad suggested. “I know you all want to play with him but he’s nervous. Why don’t we put on a DVD?” He picked up Lucy for a cuddle and led Bel out of the kitchen but Ava hesitated. Surelyshe could stay? Tiger liked her– he’d let her lift him off the bookshelf the day before and he’d seemed happy for her to hold him then. She looked pleadingly at Dad but he shook his head. “It isn’t fair otherwise, Ava,” he pointed out. “And there’ll be loads of time to play with him.”

Mum put an arm round her shoulders.“We’ll give Tiger time to explore a little by himself, then we’ll all go and see how he’s doing. Anyway, don’t you have to do your literacy homework, Ava? How long should that take you, twenty minutes? If you get it out of the way now then you’ll have the rest of the afternoon free to play with Tiger.”

Ava nodded and sighed. Mum was right about the homework. But why did Lucy and Bel always have to mess things up?

Tiger’s ears twitched as the kitchen door clicked shut. He could still smell those cat treats. He crept to the carrier door and peered round it. There was a scattering of treats on the floor and they smelled so good. He stepped out and then started to crunch up the treats, looking around carefully between each bite. But there were only a few and they were gone in seconds. He looked uncertainly back to the carrier. He knew he was safe in there but he didn’t like it much. Now that the kitchen was quiet, he wanted to explore.

He jumped up on to a kitchen chair and then the table. He liked to be high up, to see what was going on. He prowled across the table and eyed the window above the sink. The main window was mostly closed but there was a smaller window at the top and that was open. Just then, a bee looped in through the window from the garden. Tiger watched it with interest, not really sure what it was. He crouched down a little, wondering if he could pounce on the bee from where he was. It zigzagged round the kitchen and as it swooped back over the table he followed it, his tail twitching with excitement.

[Êàðòèíêà: _9.jpg]

Tiger balanced at the very edge of the table, trying to swipe at the bee with his paw. But he just couldn’t get close enough. Then the bee stopped for a rest, perched on the kitchen wall. Tiger hopped back on to the chair and down to the floor. He would creep up on it and pounce! Stealthily he padded across the tiles and then he launched himself at the bee.

The bee flew away, buzzing frantically, and Tiger turned his head to watch. He’d missed it by miles. Then he looked down and flexed his claws rather worriedly. They were firmly stuck in the thick wallpaper. He was halfway up the kitchen wall and he wasn’t quite sure how he’d got there…

[Êàðòèíêà: _4.jpg]

Ava peeped round the kitchen door, wondering where Tiger was. She had rushed through her homework– she was sure Mrs Atkins wouldn’t be impressed.

“I hope he’s come out of the cat carrier,” Mum said, looking over her shoulder. “But I can’t see him. I’m surprised he’s so shy – he seemed really daring at Rosie’s house. He was definitely the most adventurous of the four.”

“Mum! Look!” Ava pointed across the kitchen at the wall, next to the fridge. Mum was always saying that she wanted to change the wallpaper, she thought it was too bright and plasticky-looking but Ava liked it. The paper was yellow, with a bright pattern of jam jars on it. Right now, though, halfway up there was a little stripey kitten.

“How did he get up there?” Mum gasped.

“He must have climbed up,” Ava giggled. “I suppose the paper’s squishy enough that he can stick his claws in. Poor Tiger! Are you stuck? Shall I get you down?” She walked slowly over to the wall. “How long have you been up there, silly boy? What did you do that for, hey?”

“Just be careful, Ava,” said Mum. “Don’t pull at him, it might hurt his claws.”

Ava put one hand under Tiger’s bottom and tried to lift his front paws up a bit to unhook the claws.

“How is he?” Dad asked, putting his head round the door. “Settling in OK?”

Mum sighed.“You could say that. Look!”

Dad laughed.“Wow! That’s one way to get rid of that wallpaper! Can you get him off there, Ava?”

“His claws are stuck right in,” Ava said worriedly. “I can’t lift his paws away and he’s so panicked he’s just clinging on. At least I’m holding him up now, so it’s not like he’s hanging there by his claws… What are we going to do? Should we call Rosie?”

Dad shook his head.“Just a minute, I’ve got an idea.” He reached out and gently rubbed the top of Tiger’s closest paw. The kitten looked round at him, his ears laid back, and his eyes wide and anxious-looking.

[Êàðòèíêà: _10.jpg]

“What are you doing, Dad?” Ava asked.

“My mum did this when our cat climbed the back of the sofa and got stuck. Our old grey cat, Smokey – remember, Grandma Shirley showed you his picture.”

Ava nodded. Her gran loved cats– she’d had several and Ava had seen photos of all of them. Smokey was the beautiful grey longhaired cat that Dad’s family had owned when he was about Ava’s age.

“It’s working,” Ava whispered as Tiger relaxed his claws and his paw came away from the wallpaper with a little popping noise. “Do the other paw, Dad!”

Dad rubbed Tiger’s furthest paw and it happened even quicker this time. Tiger was free – his hind paws hadn’t been stuck in nearly as deeply. Ava lifted him away from the wall and put him down carefully on the floor.

The kitten stalked away, shaking his ears crossly, and Ava pressed her hand across her mouth, trying not to laugh.“I think he’s embarrassed that he got stuck,” she whispered to Dad. “He’s pretending it didn’t happen!”

“I hope his paws are all right,” Mum said, leaning sideways to look at the way Tiger was walking. “He’s not limping, is he?”

[Êàðòèíêà: _11.jpg]

“No, I think he’s fine.” Ava crouched down to check and Tiger looked round at her curiously. “Hey, Tiger. You’re OK, aren’t you? No sore paws?”

Tiger padded up to her and dabbed his nose against her knee.

Dad smiled.“Maybe that was a thank you.”

[Êàðòèíêà: _12.jpg]

“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.

[Êàðòèíêà: _13.jpg]

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 downon 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.

[Êàðòèíêà: _14.jpg]

[Êàðòèíêà: _4.jpg]

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.

[Êàðòèíêà: _15.jpg]

“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!”

[Êàðòèíêà: _16.jpg]

“Look, Tiger.” Ava put her hand through the cat flap and wiggled it about. Now that the kitten had had all his vaccinations, he was allowed to go outside. Ava couldn’t wait. She really wanted to see Tiger out in the garden for the first time. She was sure he was going to love having more space to explore.

Jess had been right about the kitten being trouble. Tiger already went everywhere in the house– and that meanteverywhere. He seemed to be able to squeeze into the smallest space and scramble up the tallest piece of furniture. He’d even managed to jump from the bookcase in Ava’s bedroom to the top of her bedroom door. Then he’d sat there, looking a bit confused, as if he wasn’t quite sure what he was meant to do next. Dad had lifted him down but Ava had a feeling it wouldn’t be long before he tried again. Tiger just seemed to love being high up.

Ava let the cat flap bang shut again and looked at Tiger. He didn’t seem to be getting it. He stared back at her. He wasn’t sure if this was some new sort of game. Ava was good at playing with him – she would roll a ball around for ages, or bounce his cat-dancer toy up and down. But now all she seemed to want to do was bang at this strange hole in the door.

[Êàðòèíêà: _17.jpg]

Suddenly his ears pricked up and his whiskers twitched. He had caught a whiff of fresh air floating through the cat flap. The scent of outside, where he hadn’t been allowed to go. He’d tried to get out, of course, hovering behind people as they went into the garden and sneaking after them, but they always caught him. He’d even got as far as the back step once, when Lucy nearly fell over and Mum was paying attention to her instead of watching the door. But then Mum had scooped him up while he was still staring out at the open stretch of grass.

“Come on, Tiger! You can go out,” Ava told him, lifting the flap right up. “It’s your own special door. Charlie and Max have one just like it, so they can get out while Megan’s at work.”

Tiger crept up to the cat flap and then jumped back as he saw Lucy peering through it from the garden.

“When’s he coming out?” she demanded.

“He was about to!” Ava said. “You scared him!”

Lucy stomped away and Tiger poked his nose through the flap, looking out at the garden. It smelled so good, and he could hear birds scratching and fluttering in the bushes by the back door. He twitched his tail and hopped suddenly through the flap– so suddenly that Ava squeaked in surprise, and had to scramble up and open the door to follow him.

“He’s out,” she called to Mum, who was pushing Bel on the swing. “Look at him!”

Tiger prowled along the patio, stopping every few steps to sniff at a leaf or watch an ant scurrying between his paws. Then he walked into a patch of bright autumn sunlight, feeling its warm glow on his fur. He sat down for a moment, closing his eyes and letting the warmth soak in. Then he lay down and rolled over, his paws in the air. He blinked lazily as a bee buzzed past but couldn’t be bothered to leap up and chase it.

[Êàðòèíêà: _18.jpg]

Mum laughed.“He looks blissed out.”

“It’s good, isn’t it?” Ava said, sitting down next to Tiger. “And now you can go out whenever you like,” she told him.

“Not for too long this first time, though,” Mum said. “Remember what it said in the cat care book. We need to take him back inside for his tea, so he learns that it’s a good thing to come back home. We don’t want him to wander off and get lost. And we’ll need to keep the cat flap lockedwhen we’re not around, at least to start with.”

Ava nodded.“I don’t think he’s big enough to get out of the garden yet, though. Megan’s walls are too high and there’s no holes underneath, because she doesn’t want Charlie and Max escaping. And there’s the wall between our garden and the alleyway on the other side. Tiger’s not big enough to jump on to that.”

“I don’t think it’s going to be long,” Mum murmured. “He’s such a good climber.”

“I know.” Ava sighed.

[Êàðòèíêà: _4.jpg]

“This is really nice, Gran.” Ava nibbled a piece of popcorn and snuggled up next to Grandma Shirley. “We should do this more often!”

“Definitely,” her gran agreed. “We just have to persuade your mum and dad. It’s very special for them to have a day out together.”

“Shh!” Lucy glared at them. “Don’t talk!”

Ava and Gran exchanged a look. Because Lucy was the littlest, she seemed to think she had to be extra bossy.

“Where’s Tiger?” Bel asked, in a whisper. “I wanted him to sit on me while we watch the film.”

[Êàðòèíêà: _19.jpg]

Ava smiled at her.“Do you want me to go and get him? He’s in his basket.”

“Please!” Bel whispered back. Gran was smiling, too – she loved Tiger. She’d told Ava she thought he was the cleverest kitten she’d ever seen.

Ava hurried into the kitchen but there was no stripey kitten in the basket. She looked around the room– she even checked the top of the door, just in case. Tiger seemed to find pawholds where she couldn’t even imagine them. He must have gone upstairs, she thought, or perhaps he was out in the garden. Now he’d been allowed out for a few weeks, they left the cat flap unlocked in the daytime so he could go out by himself. She opened the back door and leaned out, calling, “Tiger! Tiger!”

She’d expected that he would leap out of the bushes by the back door. He loved lurking in there, watching the birds hopping about in the branches.

“Tiger!” Ava called again. But there was no answering mew, only Charlie and Max barking in the garden next door. Barking a lot, actually, Ava thought, wondering what was the matter. Megan worked on Saturdays, in one of the department stores in town, so the dogs were on their own.

“Hey, Charlie! Hey, Max,” she called over the wall. “Shh… What’s wrong?”

It was as if the dogs didn’t even hear her. They just kept on barking.

Ava bit her lip, suddenly worried. She dashed back indoors and up the stairs, checking all the bedrooms to see if Tiger was curled up on someone’s bed. But he wasn’t. Ava leaned out of Lucy and Bel’s bedroom window, trying to look down into Megan’s garden but the wall was in the way. She could only see the back end of the garden and she knew the dogs were nearer the house – she’d heard them close to the back door.

Ava dug her nails into her palms, trying to stop herself panicking. She didn’t know that Tiger was in next-door’s garden. How could he be? He wasn’t big enough to get over that huge wall and there were no gaps that he could have squeezed through. It couldn’t be Tiger that Charlie and Max were barking at.

Ava wasn’t completely sure, though. Not sure enough.

[Êàðòèíêà: _4.jpg]

Tiger had been right down at the bottom of the garden, stalking a blackbird. It had been cheeky enough to flutter down on to the grass right in front of him. The kitten had been so surprised he almost fell over his own paws but as soon as he realized what was happening, he sank into a hunting crouch. He had seen birds hopping about in the bushes before but never one so close up. He inched forwards, hardly breathing, creeping nearer and nearer. Then, all of a sudden, the bird spotted him and shot into the air with a frantic beating of wings. Tiger dived after it but the bird was too fast. It was gone before he landed, up into the scrubby lilac that grew against the wall.

[Êàðòèíêà: _20.jpg]

Tiger scrambled after the bird, and it squawked furiously at him and fluttered away over the wall.

He looked up as it flew off, with his ears laid back. He had been so close. Tiger clambered the rest of the way up the lilac, on to the wall, but the bird had disappeared. Then he gazed around curiously. He had never climbed on to the top of the wall before. He was high up enough to see all along the garden– and into next-door’s garden. A whole new place to explore!

He paced along the bricks, wondering if there were any other cats down there. A huge white cat had appeared in his own garden a couple of days before and hissed at him as though he wasn’t meant to be there. He had been furious and scared all at the same time. But then Bel and Ava had come outside and started shouting, and the white cat had dashed away.

The new garden seemed quite still, so he sprang down on to the grass and began to wander about, sniffing curiously at the plants. He was just investigating the tiny pond next to the patio when there was a sudden bang, followed by an ear-splitting series of barks.

Charlie and Max came shooting out of their dog flap, barking so loudly that Tiger just froze. He stood perched at the edge of the pond, trembling in fright.

[Êàðòèíêà: _21.jpg]

Tiger had seen the dogs before, out of the window– he’d even heard Charlie and Max when he was in his own garden. But he hadn’t known they lived here! He hadn’t realized that this garden belonged to them.

Terrified, Tiger ran at last, racing towards the gate.

[Êàðòèíêà: _22.jpg]

“Ava, are you all right?” Grandma Shirley called up the stairs.

“I can’t find Tiger!” she said, dashing down to Gran. “And the dogs next door, they’re barking like mad. Do you think Tiger could have got into their garden?”

Gran looked doubtful.“Surely not … with that big wall? But then, cats really are amazing climbers…”

“I know. I have to check, Gran, but I can’t see over the wall from the back windows, I’ve tried.”

Ava hurried out into the garden and looked up at the wall helplessly. She’d never be able to see over it. It was more than two metres tall. Ava drew in a deep breath – the wall was just too big. Tiger couldn’t have jumped on top of it, could he? But then, he’d managed to jump on to her bedroom door… He might have managed it if he’d jumped on to something else first. She had to make sure.

“Gran, can you hold on to this chair for me?” Ava asked, pushing one of the garden chairs up against the wall. “I need to look over the top.”

She stepped up on to the chair.“Oh no. That’s no use – it’s not tall enough.” She was still a long way from seeing into next-door’s garden.

[Êàðòèíêà: _23.jpg]

“Oh, Ava, be careful,” Gran gasped as she jumped down. “I don’t want to ring your mum and dad and tell them I’ve had to take you to hospital with a broken leg!”

“I am being careful, Gran, I promise. But I have to see if Tiger is there…” Ava shuddered. “Charlie and Max are nice dogs, Gran, but listen to them. They sound so fierce. Look, do you think you can help me push the table up against the wall? I can get on the chair, then the table and then Ithink I’ll be able to see over the top.”

Gran sighed.“I suppose there’s not much else we can do. I’m so sorry, Ava, I really don’t think I can climb up there.”

“I’ll be fine, Gran, honest. Here, just push this for me.” Ava grabbed the edge of the metal table, dragging it towards the wall. “It’s coming!” With Ava pulling and Gran pushing, the table bumped and juddered up against the wall.

“Why are you in the garden?” Bel was standing at the back door, with Lucy peeping round her.

“Oh! Go back inside, you two!” Gran sounded harassed.

“What are you doing?” Bel’s bottom lip stuck out. She was going to cry, Ava realized.

“They won’t go back in,” Ava told Gran. “Not without having a real meltdown. We have to tell them what’s going on.” She turned to Lucy and Bel. “The dogs are barking a lot and I can’t find Tiger. I think he might be in Megan’s garden.”

Bel stared at Ava, her eyes round with horror.“But they might eat him!”

“Tiger!” Lucy wailed. “I want Tiger!”

“I do, too,” Ava said, stepping up on to the chair. “So that’s why I’m climbing up here. Now, you have to be good and not cry.”

Gran nodded.“Ava’s right. Come out here, you two. I know you’ve only got your slippers on, it doesn’t matter for once. You can help me hold the table so Ava doesn’t wobble.”

Lucy and Bel pattered out, and held on tightly to the edge of the table. It was clever of Gran to get them to help, Ava thought as she crawled cautiously up on to the table. Now they wouldn’t whinge about being left out.

“Is he there?” Lucy gasped, as Ava balanced herself against the wall and stood up.

“I can’t see yet.” Ava peered over the top, looking anxiously round the garden. “Oh! Oh, Tiger!”

“He is there! Is he all right?” Gran called up. “Oh, be careful, Ava!”

“He’s there but I don’t know if he’s all right,” Ava said, her voice shaking.

Tiger was curled up in a tiny ball, right by Megan’s back gate. Charlie and Max were standing over him, still barking. The gate was a solid one, with no gaps in it and hardly any space underneath. And it was high, too. It looked like Tiger hadn’t been able to scrabble his way up and over – he was trapped.

[Êàðòèíêà: _24.jpg]

“I don’t think he’s hurt,” Ava called down. “Just really, really scared. But I can’t tell for sure.”

Max realized at last that someone else was invading his garden. He trotted over to the wall and barked at Ava.

Even though he was huddled up with his eyes closed, Tiger heard the difference in the barking. One of the dogs had gone! He opened his eyes a tiny bit and looked over.

Ava! She was there, looking over the wall! He tried to get up to run to her but the other dog leaned over him, barking even more fiercely, and Tiger huddled back down to the ground. He didn’t dare move – he was frozen with fear.

“Oh, Tiger,” Ava whispered. “Gran, I have to get him out! He’s so scared, and Charlie and Max might hurt him.”

“What about the lady next door – when’s she going to be back?” Gran asked. “Do we have a phone number for her?”

“The home number’s in Mum’s address book but that’s no good. She’s at work.” Ava looked down at Gran. “It’ll be hours till she’s back. Megan works till about six on Saturdays, I know she does because she told Mum she doesn’t like it.” Ava leaned over the wall again. “I’m coming to get you, Tiger. I’ll be back in a minute.”

“Coming to get him? No, you are not!” Gran said, sounding horrified. “You can’t get over there, Ava!”

“I’m not leaving him! Even if we call Mum and Dad, that food fair they went to is an hour away on the train. We can’t leave him that long, Gran. The dogs…” Ava’s voice wobbled. “They’re really friendly and nice normally but you can hear how excited they are. What if he scratches oneof them and they snap at him?”

Gran stared at her uncertainly and then flinched as one of the dogs let out another loud bark.“All right. I suppose we do have to do something. But I don’t see what, Ava. You can only just see over the wall – you can’t get up there and you certainly can’t jump down on to the other side. Then you’ll be in the garden with those fierce dogs!”

“They aren’t fierce, Gran, honestly. I see them almost every day with Megan and I’ve even helped her take them for walks. They’re barking because of Tiger, that’s all.”

“And how are you going to get back again?”

Ava scrambled down from the table.“Dad’s ladder. I should have thought of it before. It’s in the shed. I can climb up on to the top of the wall, and then pull it up after me and put it down on the other side. It’ll be fine, Gran.” Ava crossed her fingers hopefully behind her back. “I do stuff like this in gymnastics club all the time.”

“Throwing ladders around?” Gran muttered. “Get the ladder, Ava, and let me see how stable it is. You won’t have anyone to hold it on the other side. Oh, maybe I should just have rung your mother…”

Ava threw open the shed door and grabbed the ladder. Luckily it was right by the door and she didn’t have to face the enormous spiders that lived in the shed. And it was lighter than it looked, too. She carried the ladder back down the garden and set it up by the wall.

Gran, Lucy and Bel caught hold of it, and Ava climbed up, trying to ignore the wobbling and creaking, and the thumping of her heart.“I’m going to climb on top of the wall now,” she said, refusing to let her voice shake. “And then can you help me pull up the ladder, Gran?”

[Êàðòèíêà: _25.jpg]

“Be careful,” Bel called. “Please don’t fall off, Ava!”

“I won’t.” Ava hugged the top of the wall and lifted her closest leg over so that she was sitting with one leg either side. Just like the beam at gymnastics, except a bit higher up, that was all… She reached down and pulled the ladder up behind, feeling grateful that it was so light.

“I’m coming, Tiger,” she murmured, looking over at the huddled pile of brown fur by the gate. “Don’t be scared. It’s going to be OK.”

The dogs were very confused. They had a cat in their garden and now somebody was climbing over the wall, too. They circled between Ava on the wall and Tiger by the gate, barking at both of them but wagging their tails at Ava– they knew her, even if she wasn’t usually in their garden.

“Good dogs,” Ava said, trying to sound calm. “Hi, Charlie. Good boy, Max. I’ll be gone in a minute. I’m just coming to get Tiger. We’ll both be out of here soon.”

She rocked the ladder gently, trying to see if it was nice and steady– but Megan’s patio was gravel, not solid paving slabs like in her garden, and the ladder kept shifting. Ava gritted her teeth and climbed on to it anyway. She wasn’t giving up now. It swayed and wobbled, and Ava closed her eyes and jumped. The ladder fell over with a crash and there was a wail from the other side of the wall. Lucy and Bel were crying.

“Ava! Ava! What happened?” Gran called frantically.

“I just jumped off the last bit of the ladder. I’m fine, Gran, I promise. Tell Lucy and Bel I’m OK. Down, Charlie! Down, Max!” Ava hurried across the garden to the fence, the dogs getting under her feet as she ran.

“Poor Tiger!” She scooped him up and pressed her face against his soft coat. “Come on. We’re getting out of here,” she whispered to the little kitten. “I’ve got him, Gran!” she called.

She dashed back to the ladder, pushing it back close against the wall with her free hand. The dogs stood watching, occasionally waving their tails– they’d probably never had such an exciting afternoon, Ava thought.

Tiger wriggled a little, realizing that he was safely away from the dogs. He was with Ava. He was almost home! He didn’t understand what had happened but the terror that had gripped him as the dogs chased him down the garden slowly began to slip away.

Ava reached up and gently placed him on top of the wall. Tiger stood there for a moment, gazing down at next-door’s garden and the dogs. Then he looked back at Ava, as she cautiously climbed the ladder.

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“Can you get back up?” Gran called.

“I’m coming,” Ava said, as she reached the top of the ladder and pulled herself up on to the wall. “Oooh. Ow.”

“Ava?” Bel cried anxiously.

“Don’t worry. I just scratched my arms a bit.” Ava gave Tiger a stroke and waved down to Gran and her sisters. “It’s all OK!”

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Tiger’s adventure in next-door’s garden was going to become part of their family history, Ava realized. She told the story to Mum and Dad as soon as they got back. And then to Jess on the way to school on Monday, Mrs Atkins during registration and all her friends at break. When Dad came home that night he said he’d told everyone at work about her heroic rescue. Ava didn’t feel very heroic, though. After she’d finally got back down the ladder, she’d suddenly started shaking. She never, ever wanted to go up one again.

Ava was pretty sure it wasn’t going to be the last time they would have to rescue Tiger, either. But hopefully he wouldn’t try getting into Charlie and Max’s garden again, not after his huge scare.

The other good thing about Tiger’s adventure was that it seemed to have made Bel and Lucy understand that Tiger had to be looked after and kept safe. Lucy was a little too young to understand properly but she was still big enough to run and tell someone if she saw Tiger out in the front garden, or on the wall between the gardenand the alleyway. Ava felt like the three of them were a team.

Perhaps it was because everyone was watching out for him so carefully, or perhaps he was keeping to the safety of the house after having such a fright, but Tiger behaved beautifully all that week. He didn’t get stuck anywhere. He was always around whenever anybody called for him. He didn’t even sneak out into the front garden and worry Mum by gazing at the road.

But then on Sunday, exactly a week after his great escape, Tiger disappeared again.

Ava had been working on a project for school– it had to be in soon, so she spent all of Sunday afternoon drawing pictures of Mayan headdresses and copying out chocolate recipes. She didn’t notice that she hadn’t seen Tiger. Bel had a birthday party and Lucy was cross because she didn’t. It wasn’t until Dad started making dinner andgot out the cat food to feed Tiger that everyone realized they had no idea where the kitten was.

“Ava? Is Tiger up there with you?” Dad called up the stairs.

Ava came out on to the landing.“No. I haven’t seen him since lunchtime.” She looked at her watch. “He hasn’t come in for his tea?”

Dad smiled up at her.“I’m sure he’ll turn up in a minute. Don’t worry, Ava.”

Ava went back to her project but she couldn’t concentrate. After spending ten minutes writing one sentence, she went downstairs. “Dad, is he back?”

“No,” her dad admitted. “I went out in the garden and called, and I had a quick look around the front, too.”

“Shall I go and check again?”

“All right, but don’t go far. It’s getting dark.”

Ava let herself out of the front door and started to walk along the pavement, calling to Tiger. She hoped that any moment she’d see a little stripey cat racing along the road towards her.

“Ava, what are you doing out here?” Mum and Bel had pulled up in the car outside the house, and Ava hurried over to them.

“We can’t find Tiger! Mum, shall I ring Megan’s doorbell? Just to check he’s not in her garden again.”

“Let’s do that,” Mum murmured, following Ava up their neighbour’s path, with Bel clinging to her hand.

Megan answered the door straight away, smiling until she noticed Ava’s anxious face. “What’s wrong, Ava? Oh no, the dogs haven’t chased Tiger again, have they?” She looked down at Max and Charlie, who were bouncing about by her feet.

[Êàðòèíêà: _28.jpg]

Ava had told Megan all about the rescue mission– Mum had taken her round the following day to say sorry for climbing over the wall. Megan had said it was an emergency and she would have done exactly the same. She said Ava was very brave and she’d given Mum a spare key to the gate in case it happened again.

“We can’t find him!” Ava gasped. “Tiger’s always back for tea, always!”

“Megan, you couldn’t have a quick look in your garden, could you?” Mum asked.

“Of course. Here, you two, in here, come on.” Megan shut the dogs into her living room. “I’ll just go and see. Hold on a minute.”

Ava waited, breathing fast. She wasn’t sure what she wanted Megan to say. If the dogs had chased Tiger again, he would be so scared. But if he wasn’t in her garden, it meant that they had no idea where he was…

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Tiger had jumped on to the wall between the garden and the alleyway. It was a jump that he’d only just got big enough to do – he had to leap on to the back of the garden bench and then up on to the wall, and it was a tough scramble. But once he was up there, he could walk along it all the way down the side of the house to the front garden and the street. Then he could sit on the wall and watch people and cars going past, or even jump down on to the pavement. There were all sorts of interesting smells out there and a tree in the garden next door that was always full of sparrows. Tiger had never caught a bird – but of course he was going to keep trying.

That afternoon the sparrows were particularly loud and they kept fluttering about in the bush outside Megan’s house in a most fascinating way. Tiger hopped from Ava’s front wall down on to Megan’s and prowled along to be closer to the tree.

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But he wasn’t quick enough, or quiet enough. The sparrows heard the little thump as he dropped down and they flew away, scolding shrilly.

Tiger stood on the wall, staring at the empty bush. Then he simply pretended that he hadn’t been trying to chase the sparrows at all and leaped down on to the pavement.

He stalked along crossly, wondering if he could work out where the sparrows had fluttered away to. He was thinking about the birds and not paying that much attention to anything else.

“Hey!” All of a sudden, there was a strange hissing noise behind him, followed by a squeal and an angry shout. Tiger darted out of the way with a yowl of fright as a bike skimmed past him. The rider’s leg brushed against the kitten, shoving him sideways. Tiger shot away down the pavement but he was so scared that he ran right past his house and into the alleyway. He’d never been down the path before but he didn’t care. He just wanted to get away from the bike and the angry rider.

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Tiger dashed along the alleyway but it didn’t feel far enough. He had to go up. If he was up high, he would be safe. No one would be able to catch him. He leaped and scrambled up into one of the tall trees. Still shaking from fright, Tiger kept climbing, higher and higher. He had to get as far up as he possibly could.

At last he stopped, crouched on a branch right at the top of the tree. Trembling all over, he gazed out into the darkening night.

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“No one’s seen him at all?” Dad asked, as Mum and Ava came back in. He’d been putting Lucy and Bel to bed while Mum and Ava went out searching for Tiger.

“No. But it’s eight o’clock. Ava needs to go to bed.”

“I don’t want to!” Ava protested. “Honestly, Mum, there’s no way I could sleep now, when we still don’t know where Tiger is.”

“You’ve got school tomorrow. No, Ava, I’m not arguing, it’s bedtime. I promise Dad and I will keep looking up and down the street. We’ll take turns. And we’ve asked all the neighbours, remember. If anyone sees Tiger, they’ll call us.”

“He hasn’t been missing that long,” Dad pointed out. “Only a few hours, since after lunch sometime.”

“Dad! He never, ever misses tea!” Ava pressed her hands to her eyes. She’d been trying really hard not to cry – she knew it wouldn’t help – but she was so tired and frightened. And ifshe was frightened, how was Tiger feeling? What if he was lost or hurt?

“I know some cats stay away for ages,” she went on, her voice shaking. “But Tiger doesn’t. He’s still only little and he loves home! He does stupid things but he doesn’t go off a long way away. He might be trapped somewhere. Or maybe he’s been hit by a car!” She couldn’t hold backher tears any more.

Mum pulled her into a hug.“Ava, sweetie. I know you’re scared. But it’s too soon to panic like this. Dad’s right. Tiger will probably pop through the cat flap in an hour or so, looking like he’s never been away. And you can’t stay up any longer. Come on. Bed.”

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Mum shooed Ava up the stairs and she went to her room, dragging her feet all the way. She couldn’t imagine that she’d ever sleep. She was far too worried. She put on her pyjamas and trailed into the bathroom to do her teeth, all the time straining her ears for the bang of the cat flap. It didn’t come. She climbed into bed and lay there, crying silently into her pillow.

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“Ava! Ava!”

She must have fallen asleep, Ava realized. If she hadn’t, no one would need to be waking her up…

That was Bel, Ava thought sleepily. And there seemed to be something heavy weighing down her feet. She sat up, blinking. Her room was still dark but she could see, just a little, by the nightlight on the landing.“What’s the matter? It’s not time to get up…” she whispered.

“We’re worried,” Bel told her.

The strange heavy lump on Ava’s feet turned out to be Lucy, sitting on the end of the bed. “Worried…” she echoed.

“About Tiger?” Ava sighed. “Me, too.”

“You have to find him, Ava,” Bel said seriously. “You rescued him from Charlie and Max. You climbed over the wall! I want him back. And so does Lucy.”

[Êàðòèíêà: _33.jpg]

“We’ll look for him again tomorrow before school,” Ava said, trying to sound confident. “I bet we’ll find him.”

“Do youpromise?” Bel demanded.

“Um.” Ava swallowed hard. How could she promise? But Bel and Lucy looked so scared. “I promise…” she whispered.

[Êàðòèíêà: _4.jpg]

Tiger stretched and shivered. He was so cold, he ached. He had spent the night huddled up on his branch, sleeping every so often but then being shocked awake as he remembered the bike nearly running him over.

He desperately wanted to go back home to Ava and his family, and have them stroke him and snuggle up with him and make him feel safe. But he didn’t dare go back down the tree, even though he felt so terribly hungry. It was starting to get light now – it felt like breakfast time, except that he’d missed his dinner so his stomach was doubly empty. He needed a drink, too…

Tiger gazed down through the early morning mist. He could just make out the road from up here. The occasional car zoomed past, making him shrink back against the tree trunk but they never came anywhere close. And there was no sign of the man on the bike. Perhaps it was safe to climb down now?

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Tiger stood up cautiously. The cold seemed to have made it harder to know what he was doing– his paws didn’t feel quite right and he shook as he tried to walk a little way along the branch. He dug in his claws and clung on, suddenly feeling the wind blowing through the tree and shaking the branches. Until now he had felt safe up in the tree, so far from everything else. He hadn’t thought about getting down.

He had gone up the tree so fast, he hadn’t really thought about anything at all, only escaping. Now that it was light, the ground seemed so far away and he realized that he was higher up than he had ever been before. Far higher up than he wanted to be. Tiger mewed in sudden fright, again and again. He was stuck.

[Êàðòèíêà: _4.jpg]

Ava ran out of school, still pulling on her raincoat, with Jess chasing after her. She had spent the whole day watching the hands creeping round the classroom clock, desperate for home time, so she could go and search for Tiger again. Mum had promised that if he turned up, she would ring the office and get the school secretary, Mrs Marshall, to take a message down to Ava and Bel, saying that Tiger was back. There hadn’t been a message, though. Ava had even gone to the office at lunchtime to check, just in case Mrs Marshall had been too busy to come to her class.

Mum had also explained to her teacher, Mrs Atkins, which was good. Otherwise Ava thought she’d probably have got into trouble, as she’d hardly done any work all day. She’d just been waiting and waiting.

She could see Mum and Lucy by the gate but Mum didn’t look happy – she’d probably be jumping up and down and waving if it was good news.

“Did you ask the neighbours again?” Ava burst out, looking up at Mum anxiously.

“I did. Lucy and I went all the way up and down the street, and to the roads close by. And I rang the vet’s but they hadn’t seen him either. That’s good news, Ava. It means –” Mum swallowed – “well, it means he hasn’t been hit by a car and taken there.”

Ava nodded, her eyes filling with tears again. She sniffed.“Yes. That’s good.”

Jess came hurrying up and gave Ava a hug.“We can look for him on the way home. I really want to help and my mum will, too. Mia’s going for tea at Amy’s house.”

[Êàðòèíêà: _35.jpg]

Ava’s mum smiled at her. “Thanks, Jess. I’m sorry we didn’t walk with you this morning. We were so late, I ended up dropping the girls in the car – we went looking for Tiger again before breakfast, you see.” She sighed. “Not that you ate anything, Ava. Please tell me you ate your lunch? Dad told me you didn’t have dinner last night, either.”

“I ate a bit,” Ava said. She had – a tiny bit. She just didn’t feel hungry. There was too much worry inside her to fit in food as well.

“There’s Bel.” Mum waved as Bel’s class came out into the playground. Ava went over to the gate and stood a little way away with Jess. She didn’t want to hear Mum explaining to Bel that Tiger was still missing. She’d tried so hard to be brave and to tell Lucy and Bel that it was going to be OK – but she was starting to think that it wasn’t going to be OK at all.

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Tiger had watched people going along the path all day long. He’d mewed, hoping they’d look up and see him, and help him get down. But it was a wet, windy day and the few people hurrying by hadn’t heard the sad little noises up above. He was starting to feel desperate. Every time the wind gusted the tree shook, and the branch where he was perched swung up and down.

Where was Ava? Why had he ever gone out into the front garden in the first place? He should have just stayed safe at home with Ava and Lucy and Bel!

There were footsteps again now. But no one was going to hear him– they hadn’t all the other times. Miserably he slunk back along the branch, right up against the trunk of the tree, trying to stay out of the wind.

The footsteps came closer– they were almost under the tree now. And then Tiger’s ears pricked up as he heard a familiar voice.

“I’m sorry, Jess. I’m just so worried about him. If I cry in front of Bel and Lucy they’ll be really upset. They think that because I rescued Tiger before, I’m going to be able to find him.”

“Wewill find him,” Jess said, giving Ava a quick hug. “I’ll help you make some posters when we get back. He’s probably stuck in someone’s shed.”

“Maybe…”

Tiger sprang up, forgetting for a moment to be scared of the swaying branch. He darted out as far as he could and mewed frantically for Ava.

[Êàðòèíêà: _36.jpg]

[Êàðòèíêà: _37.jpg]

Ava froze in the middle of the path.“I heard him! Jess, I heard Tiger mewing!”

Jess stopped, staring around.“Oh, wow! I heard him that time, too! Where is he, though? I can’t see him.”

Ava turned round slowly, listening for the mewing, trying to work out where it was coming from. She was almost certain it was Tiger– he was all right! At least, she hoped he was. He sounded scared.

“I can’t see him. Oh! Jess, look! He’s up there!” Ava pointed over to the tall tree by the side of the alley.

“Where?” Jess squinted up at the tree. “Are you sure?”

“Yes!” Ava’s voice shook. She pointed again, impossibly far up into the branches. “Right at the top. Tiger! Tiger! He can see us!”

Tiger yowled loudly and started pacing up and down the branch.

Jess swallowed.“Do you think he’s been there all this time? Is he stuck?”

“He must be. Mum! We found him!” Ava waved madly at her mum, who was just catching up with them, along with Jess’s mum. “Bel, he’s here!”

Bel ran over and Mum broke into a jog with Lucy’s pushchair. “Up in the tree? I might have known he’d be stuck somewhere silly! Oh, Ava, I’m so relieved, well done…” Her voice trailed off as she looked up into the tree and saw how high up Tiger was. He was still walking up and down the branch, mewing down at them. “Oh, my goodness!”

[Êàðòèíêà: _38.jpg]

“How are we going to get him down?” Ava asked, clutching her mum’s arm. “I don’t mind climbing trees but I don’t think I can get up that far.”

Mum shook her head firmly.“You’re definitely not climbing. I don’t want you stuck up there as well. We could call Dad but it’ll take him quite a while to get back from work. I wonder if we could ring the fire brigade?”

“A fire engine?” Bel asked, hopping up and down excitedly.

“They couldn’t get a fire engine down here,” Jess’s mum put in. “But Dave might be able to reach her if he used his long ladder.”

Ava looked at her hopefully. Dave was Jess’s dad and he had ladders for trimming trees. “Has he got a really tall ladder? We’ve only got a little one.”

Jess’s mum nodded, smiling at her. “He definitely has. And I’m pretty sure he said he was doing a garden down the road today. It’s going to be all right, Ava.” She pulled her phone out of her pocket. “Hey, love. Look, are you nearly done? You’re in Fircroft Lane, aren’t you? It’s Ava and Bel’s kitten, he’s stuck up a tree in the alley by their house. Have you got your long ladder with you?” She listened for a moment and then said, “You’re a star. See you in a minute.” Then she patted Ava’s shoulder. “It’s OK. He was just finishing. He’ll be here soon.”

[Êàðòèíêà: _4.jpg]

Tiger peered down through the branches at Ava. He wanted to get to her so badly but he didn’t see how he could. Ava kept calling up to him. He loved hearing the sound of her voice. Surely she’d find a way to bring him down?

Then he saw someone else– a man, carrying a long ladder. Ava and the others rushed over to talk to him, and Tiger stared at them, wondering what was happening. Then the tree juddered as the ladder was pushed against it and Tiger gave a little mew of fright as he felt the branch shake again.

Tiger sank his claws tightly into the bark. The ladder was growing taller now, pushing up towards him.

Tiger was still jumpy from the incident with the bike and a whole night stuck up the tree on his own, and he hated the look of the metal thing that was getting closer and closer. What was going on? Why wasn’t Ava coming for him?

[Êàðòèíêà: _39.jpg]

Mewing, he started to edge back, out along the branch to the narrow end, shaking and bouncing in the wind. He had to get away before that metal thing reached him.

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Jess’s dad climbed back down the ladder, shaking his head. “It’s no good. He’s terrified, poor little thing. He’s going further and further along the branch as I get closer to him. I don’t want to risk it.”

Ava’s mum sighed. “Oh no. Thanks so much, Dave. Maybe I should try? Perhaps he’d be OK with someone he knew.”

“Mum!” Ava stared at her. “You can’t! You hate heights.” Dad was always teasing Mum about it. She didn’t even like the big slide at the funfair. “What about me?” Ava asked, swallowing her nerves. She really didn’t want to climb another ladder, not after she’d almost fallen off that ladder a few weeks before. But someone had to get Tiger down.

Mum shook her head.“I don’t want you going up that high! And how are you going to climb down again with a wriggly little kitten?”

“Tiger isn’t wriggly when Ava carries him,” Bel put in.

Ava nodded.“I’ve got a better idea, anyway. Why don’t we get the cat carrier? If I put that on the branch, with cat treats in it, he’d definitely climb in. Then I could shut the door and pass it down to Jess’s dad.”

“That’s actually a really good plan,” Dave agreed. “I could climb up behind Ava and help her. The ladder’s not strong enough for two adults on it at the same time but me and Ava should be fine.”

Mum nodded slowly.“All right, if you reckon that will work. I’ll run home and get the carrier and the cat treats.”

It seemed like the longest five minutes ever. Ava held Bel’s hand and they all took it in turns to call lovingly up to Tiger. But then, at last, Ava saw her mum come hurrying back.

“Right, Ava,” Dave said, as Mum opened the treats and placed them inside the carrier. “You start climbing up. Your mum and Jess’s mum are going to hold the ladder steady, and I’m going to climb up behind you with the carrier. I’ll pass it to you when you’re ready.”

Ava nodded, trying to wriggle her fingers. They felt so cold and she knew it was only because she was nervous… But what if she slipped while she was climbing the ladder? It was twice as high as the garden wall, at least.

She just couldn’t slip, that was all. She had to do it.

Slowly she put her foot on the first rung of the ladder and began to climb. She didn’t look down at the ground or even up at Tiger. She just looked at the rungs in front of her and kept going.

“I’m coming up behind you now, Ava. Hold on tight and don’t worry if you feel the ladder shaking!” Dave called.

“OK!” Ava called back, her voice odd and high. The ladderwas shaking and it was making her feel a bit sick.

“Ava, you’re nearly there!” That was Bel’s voice, sounding a very long way below.

“A couple more rungs, Ava.” Mum called. “You’re doing so well.”

Ava lifted her face a little to look up at the branches and gasped as she saw Tiger for the first time since she’d started climbing. He was there, staring at her, and he looked so scared.

Suddenly Ava felt a tiny bit better.“Hey, Tiger,” she murmured. “We’re going to get you down.” Carefully she went up two more rungs, so that she was right next to Tiger’s branch. She definitely wouldn’t have been able to carry the kitten back down, she thought, shivering a little.

“Here’s the carrier,” Dave said quietly. “Can you grab it? You’ll have to let go with one hand. Take your time.”

Ava nodded, and forced herself to loosen her fingers and reach down. She grabbed the handle and shakily pushed the carrier up on to the branch. There was a forked bit of branch sticking out and she wedged the carrier in it. Now she didn’t have to hold on to it – otherwise she’d have to let go with both hands to open the door. The packet of cat treats was inside – Tiger’s favourite flavour, she noticed, the fishy ones. Ava reached in and shook the scrunchy foil bag.

“How are you doing?” Dave called up.

“He’s coming!” Ava cried.

[Êàðòèíêà: _40.jpg]

Tiger had started edging back along the branch. It was going to work! His soft fur brushed against her arm as he climbed into the carrier, sniffing at the bag. Ava shut the door so quickly she almost caught his tail and then she turned the catch.

“He’s in!”

“Brilliant! Pass him down to me then. Take it slow, Ava. The carrier’s going to be heavy now.”

Ava nodded, lifting the carrier and reaching down to pass it to Dave. She heard a worried little mew as the carrier moved.“It’s OK, Tiger. We’re going home,” she whispered to him.

“Back down now, Ava. Nice and slow.”

Ava wasn’t sure how she ever got back down the ladder. She didn’t even remember doing it. She was just there at the bottom, with Mum hugging her and saying she’d been so scared and she should never have let Ava go up there, and Bel telling her she was the best big sister ever, and Lucy moaning because no one was listening and she’d dropped her toy cat.

Ava crouched down in front of the basket and peered in at the little stripey face looking out at her.

“Please don’t ever do that again,” she whispered to Tiger. “Thank you so much for rescuing him,” she told Jess’s dad.

He grinned at her.“I didn’t, Ava! It was all you! I think you’d better take him home and make a big fuss of him.”

Ava nodded, picking up the carrier– she didn’t even hold it by the handle, she wrapped her arms round it, like she never wanted to let Tiger go. She could feel the kitten padding about inside as she carried him down the path and round the corner to her house. She called goodbye to Jess – she couldn’t wave, she was holding on too tight to Tiger in his carrier.

Lucy and Bel followed Ava into the house and crouched down next to her as she put the carrier down on the hall floor. Tiger peered out at them all, his ears twitching.

“It’s all right,” Ava whispered. “You’re home now.”

Tiger stepped slowly out of the carrier and then scrambled up on to Ava’s knees, purring at last. She had come and rescued him. He’d known she would.

39. THE RESCUED KITTEN

“This week seems to have gone on for ages. I’m so glad it’s the weekend.” Edie rolled her shoulders under the straps of her school bag and gave a huge sigh.

Layla nodded.“I know. Sometimes I think Mr Bennett makes Fridays hard on purpose. He knows we all just want to get home. We did too much writing today, way too much.” She shuddered.

Edie giggled.“And too much thinking. Are you doing anything this weekend? Want to come over to mine tomorrow?”

Layla nodded.“Sounds great. I’ve got swimming tonight but nothing else.”

The two girls lived almost next door to each other, in a group of houses that had once been old farm buildings. Each house had its own little garden at the back, but there was a shared courtyard in the middle of the houses, which meant there was usually a group of children around.

Up until this year, one of their mums or dads had always walked them to school, but luckily for Edie and Layla, a footpath led from their houses along the edge of some fields to the main village, where their school was. Now they were in Year Five, they were allowed to walk there and back by themselves.

The girls weren’t far from home, following the footpath past a wheat field. They were keeping to the side, in the shelter of the hedge, out of the spitting rain. It was close to the end of the summer term but it had been a damp sort of day, not very summery at all.

“Is that a bird?” Edie asked, stopping suddenly.

“Where?” Layla stopped, too, peering up the track. They quite often saw pheasants stalking across the path, or rabbits. But she couldn’t see anything now.

“I’m sure I can hear a noise.” Edie turned round slowly, trying to work out where it was coming from. Maybe it was a bird that had fallen out of its nest. It was a bit late in the year for nesting birds, but she knew some birds laid more eggs after their first chicks had flown. So it could bea fledgling stuck on the ground. “A squeaking sound. Can’t you hear it?” She crouched down. The noise seemed to be coming from somewhere to the side of the path.

“Oh… Yeah, I think so…” Layla crouched, too, frowning a little.

“I think it was coming from the hedge. But it’s stopped now…” Edie could feel her heart starting to thump harder. When she’d first heard the noise, it had just been something she’d wanted to investigate, but now she was worried. The squeaking had sounded thin and weak and now it had stopped, as though whoever was making it had given up – like they didn’t even have the strength to ask for help any more.

“I’m pretty sure it was over here,” Edie murmured, leaning in and parting the long damp grass. There was a hedge of straggly hawthorn bushes growing beyond the grass and wild flowers.

“Mind the wire,” Layla said, looking over Edie’s shoulder. “There’s barbed wire under those bushes, I can see it. Don’t get scratched.”

Edie nodded.“I’ll be careful. Oh! Did you hear that?”

Another tiny, breath-like squeak rang out. There definitely was something in the hedge, something that sounded little and lost.

“What is it?” Layla asked, in a worried voice.

Edie carefully pulled back the prickly branches and the two girls peered in.

“Oh no…” Layla whispered.

Under the branches of the hedge, dangling from the strands of barbed wire, was a limp little bundle of ginger fur.

The kitten could hear something coming. She didn’t know that she was hearing children’s voices – she didn’t know what people were, she had never met any. She only knew her mother, her brother and her sisters, and that they had left her here. She didn’t understand what was happening now. Could it be her mother coming back to find her? It didn’t sound like her mother. She moved softly, quickly, not like this – not with noise and heavy footsteps. The kitten wriggled a little, unsure whether she should try again to free herself before this strange thing came any closer. But she couldn’t move. She was trapped and every time she tried to pull herself away from the thing that was holding her, she felt weaker and weaker.

She needed help.

But if it wasn’t her mother, what was it? The kittens had heard foxes and other animals sniffing around outside the hollow tree where their mother had made her little den, but they didn’t know what the creatures were. They were so little that their mother was the only thing they really knew – the warmth ofher curling up around them, her milk and the gentle way she licked them clean.

It must be her mother coming back to find her, the kitten decided. Her mother wouldn’t abandon her like this. The kitten tried again to wriggle, and then mewed, as loud as she could. Find me, help me, take me home, I’m frightened!

Even though it was her loudest mew, the sound was still very faint. Hardly more than a squeak. She tried again, squeaking and tugging back against the wire as hard as she could. It bounced a little and she squeaked once more, with pain this time as the long fur on the back of her neck pulled and the wire pressed into her skin.

The noise was coming closer and she twisted her body, pulling to try and see what was making it, still calling faintly to her mother. But instead of a cat hurrying to rescue her, the kitten saw two frightened, wide-eyed faces. She wrenched at the wire again and the cut on her neck went deeper. It hurt and she sagged down miserably. She was terrified and so, so tired. She didn’t understand. All she could do was close her eyes and hope that whatever this was would go away and then her mother would come.

“A kitten!” Edie breathed. “I thought it had to be a bird…”

Layla nodded.“Is it stuck?”

“Yeah, poor little thing.” Edie wriggled a bit closer into the hedge, ignoring the thorny branches catching on her jacket and tangling in her hair. “I think it’s her long fur – she’s got it all tangled up in the barbed wire. Oh, poor baby, she’s actually cut her neck on it, too.”

“Can you get her out?” Layla asked. “Do you want me to lift up the wire or something?”

Edie sat back on her heels for a moment.“I’m just thinking. Maybe we should go and fetch my mum? She’ll know how to rescue the kitten without hurting her.” She looked worriedly at the tiny kitten, wondering what to do. What she wanted was to get her off the wire as quickly as possible. She seemed so small and fragile, stuck there, and the cut on her neck looked horrible. Edie’s mum and dad were both vets, so it wasn’t as if Edie hadn’t seen sick animals before. Quite often if no one was able to look after a sick cat or dog at the surgery, Mum or Dad would bring them home, and Edie loved the chance to fuss over them and pretend she had a pet of her own. But she’d never seen a creature look so feeble and so clearly in pain.

As Edie looked at her, the kitten opened her eyes– tiny round green eyes – and stared back. She mewed, or at least she tried to but no sound came out. She didn’t even have the strength left to mew, Edie realized.

“No, we need to get her out of there right now,” she muttered. “She’s so weak. We need to get her back home so Mum can have a look at her.” She reached tentatively towards the kitten, wondering if the little thing would scratch or bite – not to be nasty, just because she was so scared. But when Edie touched the clump of fur that was twisted up in the teeth of the wire, the kitten didn’t try to fight. She just shuddered a little and opened her mouth in another heart-breaking silent mew.

Edie tried to pull at the clump of fur, but it was stuck so tightly that it didn’t budge and she could feel the kitten flinching. “It’s no good, I’m only hurting her,” she whispered, looking round at Layla anxiously. “What are we going to do?”

“Scissors! I’ve got scissors in my pencil case!” Layla shrugged off her backpack and fished inside for her pencil case. “Here, look, and they’re nice and sharp. You can just cut the fur away.” She passed a pair of scissors to Edie and Edie leaned in closer to the kitten.

The tiny creature opened her eyes again, but when she saw Edie looming towards her, and the shiny blades of the scissors, she started to struggle.

“It’s OK,” Edie whispered. “We’re trying to get you out of there.”

“Is it working?” Layla asked worriedly, peering over Edie’s shoulder.

“Yes … nearly there.” Edie snipped at the ginger fur. She cupped her left hand underneath the kitten to catch her and cut through the last chunk of fur. The kitten slumped into her hand, limp and floppy like a beanbag toy.

Edie passed the scissors to Layla and crept backwards, the kitten cupped in her hands. The tiny thing stirred and wriggled a little as she was brought out of the shadow of the hedge and into the light. The two girls stared down at her.

“She’s so little,” Layla whispered. “What’s she doing here on her own?”

“I don’t know.” Edie cuddled the kitten against her school dress for a minute, trying to reach round to her backpack. “Ugh, I can’t do this with one hand – can you get my cardigan out? We can wrap her up in it – I know it’s not all that cold but you’re supposed to keep tiny kittens warm and it was chilly under that hedge.”

Layla found the cardigan and Edie wrapped the kitten up in it, so that just her little ginger face was peeping out. Her eyes were closed again and Edie was sure that wasn’t a good sign. “She’s got a cut on her front paw, too, did you see? Maybe she was trying to claw her way out of the wire. Come on – we’d better not run and bounce her around but we can walk fast.”

Layla nodded and they hurried along the path with the kitten in Edie’s arms.

“Mum! Mum!” Edie rang the doorbell for a second time and called in through the open front window.

“I was in the kitchen…” Edie’s mum pulled open the door, rolling her eyes at the two girls. “I didn’t take that long!”

“No, I know, sorry – Mum, look!” Edie held out the sad little bundle in her arms.

“Oh my goodness. Where did you find a kitten?” Edie’s mum took the cardigan and looked down worriedly. “Was it hit by a car?” Then she looked up, confused. “No, you’d have gone to Dad at the surgery if you were by the road. So what happened?”

“We found her in a hedge. She was caught on some barbed wire. I had to cut her fur with Layla’s scissors. Is she going to be OK?”

Edie’s mum gently put the bundle on the kitchen table. The kitten was lying there, curled up on Edie’s cardigan, not moving at all. Edie could just about see she was breathing but that was it.

“I don’t know,” her mum said slowly. “She could have been there for a while, you see, and she’s very tiny. Maybe about five weeks old? That’s very small to be away from her mother. Edie, can you get me a cardboard box out of the garage? Not a massive one – just something we can make into a nice little nest for the kitten.”

When Edie came back with the box she saw that her mum had found a hot-water bottle and was filling it up.“We need to get her nice and warm,” she explained. “Not too warm, though, we’ll wrap the bottle in a towel. Edie, could you—” but Edie was already racing up the stairs to the airing cupboard. Her mum padded out the box with the hot-water bottle and the towel, and gently lifted the kitten inside. “I’m pretty sure we’ve still got some of that kitten milk from the last time we had kittens here,” she murmured. Then she looked up at the girls. “Look, we’ll do the best we can, of course we will, but you have to understand, she’s very little and she’s injured and shocked.She might not have the strength to get through this.”

Edie swallowed and nodded, and she felt Layla’s hand slip into hers. “We can try, though?” she whispered.

Her mum nodded.“Definitely. Just … don’t get your hopes up too much.”

The kitten blinked wearily. She was warm and she wasn’t being jogged about any more. She wasn’t caught up in the wire now either, she was somewhere soft and comfortable. That was good. The kitten flexed her tiny claws in and out of the towel, and a shiver ran over her. But her mother still hadn’t come to find her and she was so hungry. And the wound on her neck hurt, and so did her paw. She was sure she wouldn’t be able to walk on it, even if she had the energy to try.

What was happening? Where was her mother and why hadn’t she come back?

Layla had to go home to get ready for her swimming lesson but she made Edie promise to call her later.“I still can’t believe we found her,” she murmured, as she backed reluctantly out of Edie’s kitchen. “You will tell me what happens, won’t you? I’ll be home by six.”

“I promise,” Edie agreed. “We’d never have got her untangled from the wire without your scissors. She’s your rescued kitten, too.” She waved to Layla and hurried back into the kitchen. The kitten was snuggled into the towel that Edie’s mum had put on the floor of the box, covering thehot-water bottle. Edie’s mum had dressed her cut leg, and the bandage looked huge on her tiny paw.

“I’ve got that bear you can heat up in the microwave like a hot-water bottle,” Edie suggested. “Shall I get it? The bottle isn’t covering the whole box. There’s a cold bit on one side.”

Edie’s mum shook her head. “No, that’s good. She’s too little for her body to warm up or cool down by itself, so the box needs a warm side and a cooler one. Once she’s feeling warmer she’ll move herself away from the hot-water bottle. Hopefully, anyway.” She was watching the kitten, frowning a little as the tiny creature lay slumped on the towel.

“Can’t we give her some milk?” Edie asked. “Wouldn’t that make her feel better?”

Her mum nodded.“It would. I just want to wait a little bit – she’s so floppy, I think she’s still cold. If she’s been under that hedge for a while, she’ll have lost all her body heat. Ah, look… I think she’s rousing.”

The kitten was still flopped on the towel but she’d raised her head and had turned towards the sound of Edie’s mum’s voice. She definitely looked more awake. And this time, when she tried to mew, she managed to make a noise. A definite, hungry little meow.

“OK!” Edie’s mum laughed. “Let’s see if we can get some milk into her.” She picked up the box of milk powder and a little feeding bottle that she’d found in the cupboard. “This is kitten milk – it’s meant to be like her mum’s milk, it has all the right nutrients. If she’s five weeks old, she should still be feeding from her mum. She’ll be starting to eat solid food as well, but we’ll stick with milk for now.”

She spooned milk powder into the bottle and added warm water, stirring it around.

“That isn’t very much,” Edie pointed out.

“I know – but she may not want to take it. And we can always make more. Later on we’ll weigh her, so we know exactly how much milk she should have but let’s see what she thinks of the bottle first. Some kittens don’t really like bottles, it probably feels a bit weird.”

Edie watched anxiously as her mum lifted the kitten out of the box.

“You sit down,” her mum suggested. “We’ll put her on your knee and I’ll hold the bottle.” She laid the kitten on Edie’s lap, stretched out on her front so she looked like a furry ginger frog. Then she tickled the kitten under her little white chin and laughed when the kitten stretchedher head up. “That’s it, sweetie pie. Here. What’s this?” Very gently, Mum squeezed the bottle so a little milk dribbled out on to the kitten’s neon-pink nose and dripped into her mouth.

The kitten blinked and then a darker pink tongue lapped out and licked the milk. She lifted up a paw eagerly, as if she was trying to grab the bottle, and Edie giggled in relief. She definitely liked the milk! Surely that was a good sign?

“Here you go,” Edie’s mum murmured, pushing the bottle’s teat carefully into the kitten’s tiny mouth. “Try that.”

The kitten wasn’t very good at it. She kept pawing at the bottle and accidentally pulling the teat out of her mouth, and she looked very grumpy about the whole thing, as though the milk just wasn’t happening fast enough.

“Is she trying to hold on to the bottle?” Edie asked. She was still giggling. Even though she knew that she should be worried about the kitten’s cut neck and paw, and Mum had said that the kitten was too tiny to be away from her mother, she couldn’t help it. The kitten was just so funny.

“No, I think she’s doing that because it’s what she’d do to her mother if she was feeding from her. Kittens knead at their mum’s teats to make the milk come faster.”

“So she’s trying to get it to come out of the bottle quicker! Greedy,” Edie told the kitten, running one finger lightly down the fur on her back. It was the first time she’d stroked her, she realized. She loved stroking cats, but she’d been so busy rescuing this one, she hadn’t given her even a little stroke till now.

“Once we’ve fed her, we need to clean up her wounds,” Edie’s mum said, gently moving the fur around the kitten’s cut neck. “Actually, you know what, Edie, you hold the bottle. I’ll clean them up while she’s busy with the milk and then hopefully she won’t be upset about what I’m doing.”

Edie watched worriedly as her mum got cotton wool and warm water, and started to clean the cut on her neck. Surely it would hurt? But the kitten only twitched a little and went back to chewing on the bottle of milk.

“Does it need stitches?” Edie asked.

“No, we’ll be OK with glue… I think there’s some of that in the kitchen cupboard, too…” Edie’s mum grinned at her. “I know, I know. There’s enough for a surgery in those cupboards. But it’s useful stuff to have around. Just lift her up a minute, I want to pour on some antisepticand you don’t want it all down you, too.” She whisked another towel under the kitten and then poured antiseptic wash all over her neck.

“Aww, her fur’s gone all spiky!”

“Yes, and you can see how little she really is,” her mum said grimly. “Without all that fluffy fur.”

“But she is drinking the milk, Mum. That’s a good sign, isn’t it?”

“Mmm.”

“What are you two doing?”

Edie jumped as her dad appeared in the kitchen doorway.

“Must be something exciting, you didn’t even hear me come in!” He leaned over to look. “Oh, where did this come from?” He looked around as if he expected to find a few more kittens scattered around the kitchen.

“I found her, Dad! Me and Layla rescued her! She was stuck on some barbed wire. She’s really little. Mum thinks she’s only about five weeks old.” Edie looked up at him excitedly and then frowned. Her mum and dad were giving each other a Look. Not a good look. “What?” she asked worriedly.

“She’s very tiny, Edie love.”

“I know. Mum said. But at least she’s eating.”

“Yeah…” Her dad sighed. “OK. Yes, that’s good. But … kittens do just fade sometimes, if they’ve had a bad start. Don’t look at me like that, Edie, I’m not trying to be mean. I just don’t want you falling in love with a gorgeous kitten and then being heartbroken.”

“Well, what else am I supposed to do?” Edie said, a bit crossly. It was all very well Mum and Dad both going on and on about how little and fragile the kitten was. Did they think she should have just left her stuck on that wire? “And I had to bring her home! Now isn’t this the best possiblehouse for a sick kitten to be in? She’s got two vets to help her!”

“OK, OK.” Edie’s mum hugged her carefully so as not to disturb the kitten. “Of course we’re not saying you shouldn’t have rescued her. We just don’t want you to be upset…”

“If something happens to her…” Edie’s voice wobbled a bit. “If something happens … of course I’ll be upset. But at least I’ll know I tried!”

Edie helped her mum weigh the kitten and work out exactly how much milk she ought to be having. Luckily the kitten was sleepy after the bottle she’d had so it wasn’t that hard to get her to sit in the kitchen scales. She was so little, she fitted perfectly into the bowl.

“In a couple of days, if she’s doing OK, we can introduce her to a bit of solid food,” Edie’s mum explained. “But for now, we’re going to need to feed her milk six times a day.”

“Six!” Edie squeaked.

“Yup. Every four hours. So, let’s say … at six, ten and two in the day and six, ten and two at night.”

“Two o’clock in the morning.” Edie’s dad sighed. “It’ll be like having you all over again, Edie.”

Because she’d already had a feed at five, Edie’s mum and dad reckoned that the kitten wouldn’t need another lot of milk at six. They’d feed her just before they went to bed and then get up again to feed her at two.

Edie called Layla to tell her how well the kitten was doing and that she was going to be given milk every four hours, including during the night. Layla agreed that she wouldn’t mind getting up at two in the morning either. She loved cats and she’d wanted one for ages, but her dad wasn’t all that keen on having a pet.

Edie peered into the kitten box as she got up to go to bed. She hadn’t wanted to leave the kitten on her own in the kitchen, so the box was on the sofa between her and her mum. They’d been watching TV together, with the kitten snoozing in the middle.

“I’ll set my alarm,” she said.

“You don’t need to get up at two in the morning!” Edie’s mum hugged her. “I’ll feed her, or your dad will. We can take turns doing the night feeds.”

Edie shook her head.“No, Mum! I rescued her.” She frowned, trying to think how to put it. “I can’t leave you to look after her – it’s important. I want to do it.”

Her mum sighed.“OK. You can help at two, if you go to bed and go to sleep now.”

Edie put her arms round her mum.“Thank you!”

Her dad laughed.“I bet you won’t feel like that at two in the morning.”

Actually, Edie felt surprisingly wide-awake. The beeping of her alarm clock broke into a dream about the kitten, where she wouldn’t stop mewing and Edie knew exactly why she had to get up. The kitten would be getting hungry. Perhaps she actually was mewing for real?

Edie pulled a jumper on over her pyjamas and hurried down the stairs. She could see a faint light from the kitchen– Mum or Dad must be down there already.

Her dad turned to her, smiling, as she came into the kitchen.“Wow, I wasn’t sure you’d make it.”

Edie made a face at him. Her dad was always teasing her about how long it took her to get up in the morning.“How is she? Did she mind being left alone?” Edie peered into the box and saw the kitten was staring back at her, green eyes round and worried. She looked a little bit less fragile than she had that afternoon – less floppy and exhausted – but the bandage around her paw made Edie’s stomachtwist. It was so sad to see the tiny kitten hurt and still frightened.

Edie’s dad handed her the bottle. “She’s fine – she was still fast asleep when I came down. Do you want to feed her? Do you think you can sit her on your knee and hold the bottle, too?”

“Definitely.” Edie nodded and sat down, and her dad lifted the kitten out of the box for her. The little creature half-sprawled on Edie’s lap but she wasn’t relaxed – Edie could feel how tense she was, as though she was ready to spring away and escape. She was so tiny she wouldn’t get anywhere, but she was still thinking about it. It was so sad.

“Don’t worry,” Edie whispered. “We just want to look after you.”

Very gently, Edie held the bottle to the kitten’s mouth and the kitten wriggled a little to reach it. She was so light, Edie could hardly feel the weight of her moving. But when the kitten started to suck, she was so determined, so focused on drinking that milk – even if she did still keep gnawing at the bottle and missing it and stomping her little paws on Edie’s leg. The milk was hers and no one was taking it away.

Edie watched her sucking, feeling the rhythm as the kitten pulled on the bottle. It was soothing. Sleepy. She swallowed a yawn and realized that her dad was helping her hold the bottle.“I’m OK,” she muttered, sitting up a bit straighter.

“I know you are. It’s still the middle of the night, though. You’re allowed to be a bit sleepy.”

“I’m not going back to bed!” Edie told him, and then she looked guilty as the kitten stopped feeding and tensed up. “Sorry, baby. Shh.”

“Let’s go and sit on the sofa,” Dad suggested. “Come on.” He scooped the kitten gently off Edie’s lap and Edie followed him into the living room. The kitten reached eagerly for the bottle as soon as Edie held it for her, and Edie leaned against her dad’s shoulder, watching the tiny pink muzzle and the kitten’s contented, half-closed eyes. She ran one finger over the kitten’s head and round her ears, stroking the silky ginger fur.

“Dad, listen…” Edie put her hand on his arm. “Listen, she’s purring.”

The kitten had almost stopped sucking now. She was sleepy, just licking at the bottle as if she was full and couldn’t really be bothered. And there was a definite soft, tiny noise. A little purr.

The kitten felt the bottle move away from her mouth and she stirred, reaching after it, but then she slumped back down on to the soft fabric. She didn’t want the milk that much. She was warm, snuggled on the girl’s lap, and her stomach was nicely full.

Sleepily, as if the thought was far away, she wondered where her mother was and why she hadn’t come back to find her. But she’d been fed, the way her mother fed her, and she was warm and clean and cared for.

The girl rubbed gently at her ears and the kitten began to purr.

“She looks so different.” Layla leaned over the box and giggled as the kitten looked up at her. “I mean, she’s properly awake. And the cut on her neck looks much better now.” Layla eyed the kitten thoughtfully, and she gave a huge yawn, showing tiny white teeth. “Is it stupid to say that she looks fatter? I think she does, though it’s only been a couple of days since we found her. But I think she looks fatter than when I came over yesterday…”

“Mum reckons she might not have been getting a lot to eat. If her mum was a feral cat, and she had lots of kittens, it would have been hard for her to make enough milk. But now she’s getting this special kitten milk and it’s got all these added vitamins. It’s like perfect kitten food.” Edie gave the kitten a proud look. “She does seem fatter.”

“Does your mum…” Layla wrinkled her nose, as if she wasn’t quite sure how to say it. “Is she…”

“Is she still saying the kitten might not make it?” Edie sighed. “Yes. But not as much as before. And even Mum’s impressed by the amount she’s eating.”

“We have to give her a name!” Edie said suddenly. “I can’t keep just calling her ‘she’. I didn’t want to before, with everything Mum and Dad were saying, because it would be worse if we’d given her a name. Just look at her, though… She’s so beautiful and she needs a name.”

“She does,” Layla agreed. “But are you sure she’s a girl kitten? I thought ginger cats were usually boys.”

“That’s true,” Edie said. “I just always thought she looked like a girl kitten. Maybe because of the long fur? And I was right! Mum told me she’s definitely a girl.”

They gazed at the kitten admiringly. She was beautiful. When they’d first found her, she’d been so bedraggled and miserable-looking that Edie had hardly noticed her markings. And she’d only seen the kitten’s long fur as something that had got her caught up on the barbed wire. But now, clean and well fed, the kitten’s coat was fluffy and rich, and her nose was a beautiful bright pink, the same colour as her paw pads. She had long, long white whiskers and a whitish chin, but that was the only white on her. Even her tummy was a pale creamy oat colour.

“You could call her Fluff. She’s the fluffiest thing I’ve ever seen!” Layla said, carefully reaching in a hand and tapping her fingers on the towel for the kitten to track. She wasn’t quite at the pouncing stage yet but she was definitely watching.

“Mmm. Maybe.” Edie frowned. “I’d like something that was a bit more special, sort of different. Like Treasure, or … or Rescue. Because we found her.”

Layla nodded.“I know what you mean. Oh! I know.” She laughed. “You could call her Barbie. Because of the barbed wire!”

Edie looked at the kitten again.“Yes! That’s perfect! She does look like a Barbie. Yes, Barbie, that’s you,” she murmured lovingly to the kitten. Then she sighed. “I wish we knew where she came from.”

Layla glanced at the living-room door– they could hear Edie’s mum and dad chatting in the kitchen.

“Are you going to keep her?” she whispered. “I mean, we’ve just given her a name. What if she has to go and live with someone else?”

Edie smiled.“I think it’s going to be OK. Mum came downstairs on Saturday morning, and me and Dad and the kitten – I mean, Barbie – we were all asleep on the sofa. We’d fallen asleep feeding her! And she was asleep on both of us, half on me and half on Dad. Mum laughed and said something like, Well, she’s obviously not going anywhere, is she? And I reckon that means we’re keeping her.”

She reached out and gave Layla a quick hug.“But you can come and see her whenever, I promise. You rescued her, too.”

Layla sniffed and sighed.“Thanks. Hey, we’d better get to school.” She leaned over to rub Barbie under her chin. “Bye, gorgeous.”

“This is almost where we found her,” Edie murmured, stopping to look around the path, trying to work out exactly where it had been. “Yes – here, look.” They could see where the grass had been squashed down as they crouched to rescue the little kitten.

Edie took a shocked breath at the sight of the rusty, jagged wire. It was hard to think of Barbie being caught up on it, even when she knew that the kitten was safe now. She had just left her at home, with Dad teaching her how to pat her little paws at a piece of string. She was the world’s best looked-after kitten, Edie was making sure of it.

“We should go, we’ll be late,” Layla pointed out.

Edie took one last look around.“I hate thinking of her stuck here,” she said, with a shiver. “Do you think we could stop on the way home? Look for clues? We should try and find out where she came from.”

Layla nodded.“Course. Though I don’t know what we’re looking for.”

Edie sighed.“Me neither. I just feel like we ought to.”

Edie had printed out a photo that her mum had taken of her feeding Barbie, and she spent the whole of break and lunch showing it off to everyone in their class. It was great having everyone oohing and aahing over how cute and fluffy and little she was but Edie felt worried all day. She hadn’t liked leaving Barbie with Dad – even though he was a vet and she knew he could look after a kitten much better than she could. He was even going to take Barbie into work with him later on so she wouldn’t be left on her own. All the same, Edie still felt like she was abandoning her tiny cat. She was practically chasing Layla out of the cloakroom after school.

“Slow down!” Layla gasped, as she hurried along the path after Edie.

“I can’t! I really, really want to get home and check Barbie’s OK, and I want to look at the place we found her and see if we can work out what happened,” Edie explained.

Layla smiled.“Oh, all right.” She sped up a bit, until they arrived panting back at the little space in the bushes. “I honestly don’t see what we’re going to find, though.”

Edie sighed.“I know. But we have to try. I mean, what if it was the cat’s owner who abandoned her kittens?”

“How horrible!” Layla was shocked.

“Some people do that. They don’t think animals matter.” Edie scowled and Layla stared at her.

“You look scary like that.”

“Good!” But then Edie’s shoulders drooped. “I can’t see any clues, can you? And we don’t even know what we’re looking for.”

Layla stood on tiptoe, trying to peer through the bushes on the side of the footpath.“What’s behind this hedge?”

“The road that goes into the village.” Edie stepped up close to the hedge. “If Mum’s right and it was a feral cat moving her kittens, she would have had to carry them across the road.”

“Maybe a car…” Layla’s voice trailed off, and the two girls looked at each other, appalled. “But your mum or dad would know about that, wouldn’t they? Somebody would have brought the cat in if they’d hit her?”

“I suppose…” Edie sniffed. “Can you see anything else? On the other side it’s just a field…”

“There are some sheds or something over there, near that copse of trees.” Layla pointed across the field. “They’re quite a long way, though.” Then she glanced up at the sky. “Edie, look! It’s going to pour down any minute. Come on. Let’s get home.”

Edie watched the grey-black cloud chasing up behind them and nodded. It looked like it might thunder and she knew Layla hated thunderstorms. Besides, she was desperate to get home and see Barbie. She grabbed Layla’s hand and they ran down the length of the field and across the courtyard.

Edie’s dad was standing at their front door and he waved. “I’m glad you’re back – it looks like it’s going to pour down, the kitchen went so dark!”

“How’s Barbie?” Edie asked, panting a little.

“Hello, Dad, did you have a nice day, Dad…” Edie’s dad rolled his eyes. “Barbie’s fine. She’s started to eat the kitten food. And she got a lot of fussing from Sammi and Jo at the surgery.”

Edie smiled. The two receptionists were both big cat fans, she wasn’t surprised they’d loved Barbie.

Barbie was in her box on the kitchen table, where Dad had been starting to make the dinner. She was awake and standing up, although she looked a bit wobbly.

“Hello, beautiful,” Edie whispered, putting her hand into the box. She didn’t want to scare the tiny cat by suddenly stroking her.

Barbie looked up at the hand that had appeared in her box and stomped forwards, marching shakily across the folded towel, her tiny paws catching on the fabric. When she got to Edie’s hand, she butted at it hard with the side of her head and mewed.

Layla started laughing and pulled her phone out of her backpack.“I promised I’d take a video of her,” she explained. “My little sister loves cats. And my mum said Barbie sounded cute.” She rolled her eyes. “I’m still working on my dad. But I don’t think even he could resist you,” she added to Barbie.

Barbie rubbed her tiny face against Edie’s hands and purred. It seemed far too loud a noise for such a tiny kitten to make.

Edie’s dad sighed. “Typical. I’ve been looking after her all day, and she didn’t do any of that to me! She’s obviously decided you’re her person.”

Edie looked at him sideways.“Dad … now she’s better, can we keep her? You and Mum didn’t really say for definite the other day…”

“She’s keeping us. Look at her. Yes, Edie, don’t worry, she’s staying.”

Barbie nudged lovingly at the girl, rubbing up against her hand and scenting her properly. Now everyone would know that Edie was hers.

Then she gave a surprised little squeak as she was gently lifted out of the box and Edie snuggled her up against the cardigan she was wearing. Barbie sniffed at it curiously and stuck her tiny claws into the fabric, pulling herself up like a mountain climber. It was hard work but she climbed all the way to Edie’s shoulder and batted a paw at Edie’s plait, which was swinging temptingly next to her. It was so close – she could reach it if she stretched out, just a little. Barbie leaned over a bit further and her paws slid on the cardigan. She could feel herself slipping down and she scrabbled frantically for a second, and mewed.

Edie’s hand closed round her tummy, scooping her up again and setting her gently back in her safe box. The kitten yawned and slumped down, her front paws splayed out against the soft towel. She wriggled a little and breathed out a tiny, squeaky snore.

“Look, there’s a rainbow!” Layla pointed out of the kitchen window. “It’s really sunny and beautiful outside now.”

Edie came to stand beside her.“Amazing! Hey, do you want to come out searching for Barbie’s family again? I can’t help worrying about them – I mean, if there are other kittens and the mum had to abandon them, too… They could be out there on their own.”

“Because she couldn’t feed them? Would she do that?” asked Layla.

Edie sighed.“I don’t know. We still don’t know what happened to Barbie. I just hate thinking of kittens being hungry and cold.”

“Yeah…” Layla nodded. “Let’s try again.”

“Maybe we should look in other places – all round the field and in that little copse nearby.”

“That’s a long way from where we found Barbie,” Layla said doubtfully.

“I know but you just saw her climb up my cardigan and she’s only five weeks old! Mother cats do amazing stuff to look after their kittens. She might have carried them for miles. She’d have had to keep putting them down and leaving them – she can only carry one in her mouth at a time – so it would have taken ages but they can do it.”

“Mmm. Maybe…” Layla nodded. “OK. Should we tell your dad?”

Edie nodded and went to find him in the little office space under the stairs.“Dad, me and Layla are going to look for Barbie’s mum.”

He looked round.“OK… But if you find her, don’t touch her, will you? Feral cats can be fierce, especially if they’re protecting their kittens. Where are you going to look?”

“Round the edges of the field and in the copse?”

Edie’s dad checked his watch. “OK, but I want you back by five thirty – so you’ve got just over an hour. And don’t go on the road.”

“We won’t!” Edie hurried out before her dad could change his mind. She was allowed to go off exploring with Layla and her other friends, but she had a feeling Dad didn’t really like it. He worried too much.

“We could start by checking the hedges all round this field,” she suggested to Layla. They were standing in a corner of it. “She might just have made a nest in the bushes.”

It sounded simple enough, but the field was enormous and the rain had left the grass soaking wet. By the time they were halfway round, the girls were drenched and feeling a bit hopeless. They hadn’t seen any sign of a mother cat or more kittens.

“What about those sheds?” Edie asked suddenly. The buildings were over on the far side of the next field near a copse of trees and looked like they’d been abandoned for a while – she could see holes in all the roofs.

“Do you think it’s OK?” Layla said doubtfully. “Mum always says not to go inside anywhere like that, in case it’s dangerous.”

“I know, my mum and dad say the same. We won’t go inside – we’ll just look around.”

“All right,” Layla agreed.

They worked their way round the corner of the big field to a gap in the hedge and then round the next field to the tumbledown buildings. They walked into a yard with old sheds on three sides.

“I think this used to be part of the same farm that our houses were in,” Edie said. “Mum said it was a machine store or something. But it’s really falling down.”

Layla peered carefully at the walls and the open doorways.“We could just put our heads round the doors,” she suggested. “That would be OK.”

The old sheds seemed to have been abandoned for a long time. They were almost completely empty, with just a few bits of dusty equipment here and there. But in the smallest and least falling down of the three buildings, there was a pile of old sacks, and on them was a gingery, furry bundle of kittens.

Edie and Layla forgot completely about being safe and never going inside abandoned buildings. They crept as quietly as they could into the shed, and crouched down by the squirming mass of fur.

“How many?” Edie whispered.

“Um, three, I think? No … four? It’s really hard to tell when they’re all on top of each other. No, it is three, look, that leg belongs to that one.” Layla pressed her hand over her mouth, trying not to laugh out loud and disturb the kittens. “They’re so sweet – oh, they’re wakingup! Sorry, kittens…”