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“I’ll be really good, I promise,” Maddy said. “I’ll even clean out the litter tray.” She wouldn’t mind, she thought, peering into the basket. The kittens had heard their voices, and were starting to wake up. Dilly was watching Maddy carefully, obviously guarding her babies.

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One of the ginger kittens popped its head up and stared curiously at Maddy. She laughed, and his eyes widened in surprise.

“Oh, sorry!” Maddy whispered. “I didn’t mean to scare you.”

All the kittens were awake now, gazing at her with big green eyes. Maddy sighed.“How am I ever going to choose one of you?” she murmured. She hadn’t thought she’d like a ginger kitten, but they were cute too – their pink noses clashed with their orangey fur.

One of the tortoiseshell kittens put its paws up on the side of the basket, and nosed at Maddy’s hand. Its nose felt chilly and tickly, and Maddy stifled a laugh. She didn’t want to make the kitten jump.

“Is this a girl kitten?” she whispered to Donna. She’d guessed that the ginger kittens were boys and the tortoiseshells were girls, but she knew it wasn’t always that way round.

“Yes, she’s a sweetie. Very friendly, she loves to have her head rubbed.”

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The kitten looked at Maddy hopefully, and Maddy gently scratched the top of her head. Ben had always liked that. The kitten purred, and turned her head sideways, nestling into Maddy’s hand.

“She’s lovely,” Mum said quietly.

“Could we have her?” Maddy breathed. The kitten was still purring and cuddling up against her hand. She was so little and perfect. Maddy was desperate to pick her up, but she wasn’t sure she should.

The kitten solved the problem by clambering over the side of the basket– it was a soft, squashy one, and the sides were so high that she looked like she was trying to climb over a bouncy castle. There was a lot of scrabbling, but eventually she landed on the kitchen floor, looking very proud of herself, and set to work mountaineering up on to Maddy’s lap.

“Oooh, claws.” Maddy giggled, and carefully scooped a hand under the kitten’s bottom to give her a bit of a lift. The kitten finally reached her lap, looking quite worn out by the effort, but she purred delightedly when Maddy made a fuss of her.

“Well, it looks like she wants to be ours too,” Dad said, reaching out a finger to scratch behind the kitten’s ears. “What are we going to call her?”

Maddy looked down at the kitten, who was busily curling herself into a neat little ball.“See that orange patch on her back. It’s completely round. Don’t you think it looks just like a biscuit?”

“Biscuit?” Mum laughed. “That’s a really cute name for a cat. It does look like a little ginger biscuit, against that white fur.”

Maddy nodded.“It’s the perfect name for her.”

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Maddy had the whole of the rest of the Easter holidays to get to know Biscuit, and play with her. Her mum and dad were right– having her kitten did mean she spent less time worrying about going back to school without Kate. She also did a lot of reading – they’d bought a book on cat care at the pet shop, and she got a couple more out of the library, too.

“Did Donna take the kittens to have their first vaccinations?” she asked Mum at breakfast, the day after they’d brought Biscuit home.

Biscuit was sitting on her lap, looking hopefully at Maddy’s breakfast. The cereal looked quite like her cat biscuits, she thought, but it didn’t smell the same. She reached up, stretching her neck, and sniffed harder. Definitely not cat biscuits, but a very good smell all the same. She put her front paws on the edge of the table, and darted her raspberry-pink tongue at a drop of milk that Maddy had spilled.

It was sweet and cold, and Biscuit gave a delighted little shiver. Maddy was checking her cat book and didn’t notice when Biscuit edged a little further forward, and stuck her tongue in the bowl to lap up her leftover cereal. She got in a good few mouthfuls before Maddy spotted her.

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“Biscuit! You shouldn’t be eating that! Oh, Mum, look, she’s got milk all over her whiskers!”

Biscuit settled back on to Maddy’s lap, licking her whiskers happily. She liked her food better, but it was nice to have a change…

“Oh dear! I suppose a little bit won’t have done her any harm. You’d finished, hadn’t you? And yes, Donna gave us the vaccination certificate.” Mum looked in the folder she’d left on the countertop. “She had them done about three weeks ago.”

Maddy checked the book again.“Then we need to take her to the vet soon! She’s supposed to have the second vaccination three weeks after the first one. And then in another three weeks, she’ll be allowed to go outside.”

“Actually, yes, that’s what Donna’s put in this note. She said we should probably have Biscuit microchipped at the same time.”

Maddy nodded. Her book mentioned that, too. The tiny microchip went under the skin on the kitten’s neck, and it would have a special number on it, so that Biscuit could be easily identified by any vet if she got lost.