The Perfect Kitten Page 3

  Abi crouched down by the kitten but Flower hadn’t even noticed that the front door was open. Abi heard the door close and went to get her cereal. Flower finished her drink and padded out into the hallway.

  “I nearly missed them!” Mum said, coming back with a relieved look on her face. Then her eyes met Abi’s and they both whirled round at the sound of the front door clicking open.

  “It’s the bin lorry!” Ruby cried excitedly, waving to the man pulling the dustbin away from the front gate. “Hello! Hello!”

  The bin man waved back and Ruby jumped up and down happily. Behind her, a curious white kitten hurried towards the door and Abi raced up the hallway.

  “Ruby, don’t let her out!”

  Ruby turned round, surprised and then horrified, as Flower slipped past her feet. Abi lunged forward, grabbing the white kitten just before she shot out of the door.

  “Oh Abi, well done!” Mum gasped, hurrying down the hall after her. “That was close!”

  “I’d have been so cross with her,” Sky said when Abi told her about it later on.

  “I was a bit – but Ruby’s only little and she was really upset when Mum explained what she’d done wrong.” Abi shook her head. “It’s so tricky! I never thought we opened the front door that much. But we do, loads. And in the summer we leave the back door to the garden open all the time. Or we did.”

  Sky made a face. “Are you thinking an indoor cat’s going to be too much trouble?”

  “No way! We’ll just have to be careful. Flower’s so gorgeous. She’s still a bit shy sometimes, but we’ve only had her for a few days. I think she likes us.”

  “Of course she likes you,” Sky said encouragingly. “Or she should do. It sounds like you’re being perfect indoor cat owners.”

  They were trying, anyway – but it was a lot more work than anyone had expected, even after all they’d done to get ready. After Flower had climbed the curtains for the third time, Mum and Chris decided she needed something of her own to climb. So on Saturday they went to the pet shop to choose her a cat tree – a sort of special climbing frame for a cat with scratching posts, a box to hide in and a little hammock to sleep in.

  Flower loved it and the hammock was her new favourite sleeping place, much better than her basket. She lolled about in it with her paws in the air and her chin hanging over the edge so she could see what was going on.

  Abi wasn’t sure if Flower was so nosy because of her deafness or if all cats were like that, but the little kitten hated to miss anything. She had to climb and sniff and probably scratch everything that came in the house. She loved Abi and Ruby’s room because it was full of toys and blankets and things to explore and snuggle under. Sometimes she slept on Abi’s bed, but Mum always came and got her before she and Chris went to bed. Mum wasn’t sure that Flower would be able to make it down the stairs when she needed the litter tray.

  Halfway through Flower’s second week with the family, Ruby brought home a junk model from school. Junk modelling was her favourite thing about Reception but Mum had made a rule – one model in, one model out. Otherwise Abi and Ruby’s room would be completely full of cereal packets stuck to toilet-roll tubes.

  The new model was a cat – actually it was Flower, or so Ruby said. Abi couldn’t quite see it, only that there were some soggy bits of white tissue paper stuck on.

  “Flower knows it’s her,” Ruby said proudly, setting it down on the floor in front of the kitten and watching as she sniffed it and then tried to climb inside the tissue box that was her body.

  “You know what,” Abi said thoughtfully, “there was something like that on one of the websites I was looking at about indoor cats.”

  Chris looked at her in surprise. “What, making junk models for them to shred? Ruby, if you don’t want her to eat it, I’d go and put it somewhere high up in your bedroom.”

  “Not to claw at. To get food out of.” Abi frowned, trying to remember. “It said that outdoor cats spend ages tracking and hunting, and even if they never actually catch anything it’s good for indoor cats to have something like that too. That you should make their food into a puzzle. There was a picture that looked just like one of Ruby’s models. It was all loo rolls stuck together, and there were cat biscuits hidden inside it. Like the biscuits Flower sometimes has for her tea now.”

  “That’s a great idea.” Chris reached out to the back of the kitchen door, where there was a cloth bag hung on a hook. “There you go. We were saving these for Ruby to take into school. Loads of loo rolls.”

  “Can I help?” Ruby asked, cuddling her junk cat protectively while Flower pranced around her ankles, purring with excitement.

  The pyramid of loo roll tubes was so huge it took ages for all the glue to dry. Abi and Ruby had made it very carefully. They cut extra holes in some of the tubes and blocked other ones off half way with milk-bottle tops so that it was like a kitten intelligence test. When it was finally dry enough to let Flower anywhere near, it became her new favourite toy.

  She was asleep in her hammock when Abi gently shook the box of special dry kitten food close by and then tapped her fingers on the box. Flower’s eyes snapped open, bright blue against her white fur, and her ears twitched. Even though she couldn’t hear, Flower still used her ears for signalling. They twitched a lot.

  She hopped down the levels of her cat tree and hurried into the kitchen to her food bowl, which was empty. She sniffed at it, confused, and then turned round to stare accusingly at Abi. They had shaken the food box at her – Abi had touched her hand to her mouth too, the way she always did when there was going to be food. But there wasn’t any.

  Abi was tapping her fingers on the floor though, and Flower could still smell cat biscuits. She sniffed curiously at the pile of cardboard tubes that Abi and Ruby had set down in front of them. That was where the smell was coming from, she was almost sure. She peered in. Yes, there was definitely a cat biscuit inside, but the tube was just a little too narrow to get her head in. She mewed and Ruby reached for the biscuit.

  “No, don’t get it for her,” Abi said. “She needs to work it out.”

  With a confused little hiss, Flower stretched up, so she could reach in with one small paw. She scrabbled about a bit and then hooked out the biscuit, sending it bouncing on to the floor. Then she gobbled it up triumphantly.

  “You see!” Abi yelped, high-fiving Ruby. “I told you she’d do it!”

  “She’s finding more,” Ruby said, giggling as Flower nearly tipped over the pyramid by standing right up on her hind legs to claw out a biscuit from the top. “She likes it!”

  The cat tree and the food-hunting pyramid were meant to help keep Flower busy inside, so she didn’t feel stressed because she couldn’t go outdoors. They worked – but not completely. The kitten still loved to sit on the back of the sofa and watch the comings and goings in the street. She was fascinated by cars driving up and down the road – Abi could see her following them, turning her head as they sped by.

  She still wanted to see what was going on every time they went to the front door too. She couldn’t hear the bell but Abi thought she could maybe feel it – their doorbell was quite loud and sharp. Flower always seemed to come running when it rang, unless she was upstairs.

  Abi and Ruby had to pick her up every time the door was answered or she’d be trying to slip round Mum or Chris’s feet. Flower would wriggle eagerly in their arms, her whiskers twitching as she sniffed all those outdoor smells.

  After the bin men, there were a couple of other near misses where Flower was just so wriggly that Abi couldn’t hold on to her. Chris had to shut the door quite suddenly on the postman to stop the little kitten dashing out.

  That night at dinner he told Mum and Abi and Ruby that he was thinking of building Flower a catio – a cat patio out in the garden with wire sides and a roof so she could sunbathe and explore outdoors.

  Abi giggled and looked down at Flower, who was sitting on her lap, hoping Abi would drop bits of sausage. “I bet she’ll
still try and get out of the front door.”

  “Of course she will.” Chris rolled his eyes. “But it’s better than nothing. She obviously really likes the idea of being outside.”

  A couple of days after her near escape past the postman, Flower was dozing in her hammock, softly flexing her tiny claws in and out as she dreamed. She blinked and squeaked to herself, and half woke up as she felt Chris’s heavy footsteps going past the living room, where the cat tree was. She popped her head out, watching him walk into the kitchen, and wondered what he was doing. It didn’t feel as if it was food time, but it might be…

  She wriggled out of her hammock and hopped down on to the floor, meaning to follow Chris. Then she noticed the shopping bags that he’d left in the hallway. They were just by the living-room door – one big bag full of books and a couple of empty ones. They looked interesting.

  She sniffed at them – so many smells! Food smells and people smells and others she had no idea about… Flower scrabbled her way up the side of the largest bag, trying to investigate – and then she realized that she could get inside. The bag of books smelled strange, but the plasticky stuff they were covered in was good for her claws. She flexed them in and out happily.

  Then the footsteps thumped back and the bags swayed and lifted. There was a rush of cool air.

  Flower didn’t know it, but she was outside at last.

  “Chris – hi!”

  The library books shifted under Flower’s paws as Chris set the bag down and started chatting to the neighbour who’d waved at him. The bag slumped open, revealing the pile of books and the little white kitten perched between them. Flower peered over the edge of the bag and then hopped out. Chris and the neighbour were too busy gossiping and complaining about someone dumping an old mattress on the grass verge down the road to notice her. Flower padded away, sniffing thoughtfully at the cars-and-lorries smell of the air.

  She wandered along the pavement, flinching at the rumble of the cars’ wheels and the way the air moved as they sped by her. It ruffled her fur and her whiskers, and she knew that they were large and perhaps dangerous. A big truck went past, scaring her with its heavy rattling vibration and Flower crouched down by a gatepost, where it felt a little safer.

  Then there was a sudden rush of air and movement as a car rolled past her into the driveway, so close that the ground shook under her paws and her ears and whiskers were blown straight back.

  The kitten stumbled backwards with a mew of fright. She had never seen a car so close up – she didn’t know what was happening.

  The car’s engine was turned off and the terrifying shake of the ground settled to an uneasy nothing. Flower stayed frozen for a couple of seconds and then raced away, desperate to escape the fearful rumbling thing that she was sure had almost flattened her. She dashed wildly along the pavement, shooting round a corner into a side road and then down a little alley.

  The shuddering vibrations of the cars were a little further away now and her hammering heart slowed. She flung herself under a clump of scruffy bushes and crouched there among the dead leaves and dust, shivering each time another car shook the ground.

  Mum didn’t have any meetings after school that day so she brought Abi and Ruby home, rather than Chris picking them up as he usually did. They opened the front door in the careful, kitten-watching way they’d learned, peering round to make sure that Flower was nowhere nearby, and then bundling themselves in.

  But Flower wasn’t anywhere to be found. They searched and searched, all over the house, in every cupboard and on top of every bookcase, in all the places they’d ever found her lurking.

  “Perhaps she’s asleep and can’t hear us…” Abi said, even though she knew that couldn’t be true. Somehow Flower always knew when they were home. She would appear, padding eagerly down the hall and rubbing herself round their ankles until someone picked her up.

  “Maybe she’s got out,” Mum said worriedly, looking about as though she expected to see an open window.

  “She can’t have done.” Chris shook his head. “I checked before I went to the library and the shops. She was asleep in her cat tree – and even if she hadn’t been, I’d have noticed her sneaking out of the door. She’s got to be here somewhere. She just has to.”

  But she wasn’t, even though they searched everywhere all over again, with Ruby crying and Abi trying very hard not to. At last even Chris had to admit that Flower wasn’t anywhere to be found. “We’d better go and look for her outside,” he said, sounding shaken.

  “What if she’s gone in the road?” Abi whispered. She was thinking about what Maria had said – that the road in front of their house was too dangerous for a cat. Any cat, let alone a kitten who couldn’t hear and had never been outside before. Not since she was really tiny and been found in a box, anyway.

  Mum swallowed. “I’m sure she wouldn’t… She’d be scared. I expect she’s hiding in someone’s garden. We’ll go and look.”

  They went outside, peering around the front garden, looking under all the bushes and over the fence into next-door.

  “Flower! Flower!” Ruby called, and Abi glared at her.

  “She can’t hear you, Ruby! Don’t be silly!”

  Ruby sniffed loudly and began to cry again. “Abi’s being horrible to me!”

  “You’re right, Abi, but you shouldn’t shout at Ruby like that,” Mum told her. “Actually, I wonder if there is a way we can call her? Tapping isn’t going to work, not unless she’s really close.”

  “I don’t think so. There’s too much noise and vibration from the road.” Chris shook his head. “And I still don’t understand how she could have got out. I’m going to walk down the street and look in all the gardens. Do you want to come with me, Abi?”

  “Yes.” Abi nodded. She was so worried and upset that it was making her grumpy, and if she stayed searching their garden she’d probably snap at Ruby again.

  They walked out on to the pavement just as a car raced past and Abi shivered. She tried to imagine what it would have felt like to Flower if she’d come out on to the pavement – the kitten would have been terrified. Abi leaned over the fence, trying to see round the bushes in next-door’s garden, while Chris did the same in the garden along.

  “Are you all right?”

  Abi looked up in surprise. She hadn’t noticed their neighbour, Annika, opening her front door. “We’ve lost our kitten,” she explained. “Sorry about leaning over your fence – I was looking for her. She’s meant to be an indoor cat, you see. She’s deaf.”

  “Oh no – well you’re very welcome to come into the garden and see if you can find her.” Annika stepped out on to her front path and crouched down to look around. “What colour is she?”

  “She’s white and she’s really tiny.”

  Annika looked up, her eyes widening. “A really little white cat? I think I saw her this afternoon!”

  “You did?” Abi felt her hands tighten on top of the fence. “Where was she?”

  “Running down the pavement. She was further along the road, a few houses down from the supermarket.” Annika frowned. “And she was definitely going that way.”

  Abi stared at her. The supermarket was right at the end of the road. She had been hoping that Flower would be in Annika’s garden or possibly the next one along. How could Flower have gone so far? She must have been terrified, with all the cars speeding by on the busy road. “Wh-when was that?” she asked, her voice shaking a little.

  “Well, my shift finished at two,” Annika said. “So it must have been about half past, I guess.” She looked worriedly at Abi. “It might not have been her…” she added gently.

  “Did she have blue eyes?” Abi asked, not sure whether to hope Annika would say yes or no.

  “I think so… She was running, I didn’t see her for very long…”

  “Thanks – I’d better tell Chris.” Abi turned to look for her stepdad but he was already walking back towards them.

  “Did Abi explain, Annika? About ou
r cat?” Chris asked.

  “Annika saw her!” Abi burst out. “All the way down the road, going towards the supermarket!”

  Chris turned round to look, and Abi saw him make a face without meaning to. He was thinking what she was thinking – that their road joined on to another one close by the supermarket, which was even busier. It definitely wasn’t somewhere a little deaf kitten wanted to be running about.

  “Thanks, Annika. You’ve been really helpful.” Chris nodded to her. “Sorry to disturb you. We’ll go and look down there for her now.”

  Abi slipped her hand into his as they walked along and Chris squeezed her hand. “We’ll find her, Abi,” he said firmly. “It’s going to be OK.”

  Abi nodded. She wanted to think so too. But as the cars kept rolling by, she wasn’t so sure that her stepdad was right.

  “There must be a better way of looking for her,” Chris said, running his fingers through his hair and looking down the street. “This just isn’t working.”

  They’d been out for over an hour now. Mum and Ruby had helped to start with but then Ruby got tired and upset and Mum had taken her home for a snack. Abi and Chris had kept on searching. Abi had even nipped back into the house for the tin they kept the kitten biscuits in, as she was sure Flower felt the vibrations when they shook them at home. There was probably too much going on for her to notice it out here but Abi was going to try everything.

  “Mum could put a post about Flower on the school parents’ online chat,” Abi suggested. “The one where people ask about which day is swimming and what to bring for trips. Loads of people from school live on this road. Someone else might have seen her.”