Charlie the Kitten Who Saved a Life

And so the night went on. Exhausted, aching and starting to feel sick, I was forced to sample things I thought no self-respecting cat would ever let pass their whiskers. Now that my hunger had been eased, I really didn’t want to try balls of pig meat smeared with a bright red spicy sauce, or prawns that had been ruined by being covered in that awful batter stuff. But I didn’t want to offend Big and his friends, who were teaching me how to scavenge and might just as happily have left me to starve.

‘You’ll get a taste for these things in due course,’ Tail-less tried to comfort me as I retched on a piece of funny-tasting red sausage wrapped in stale bread.

But I wasn’t sure I ever could. When they finally led me back to their yard, Big showed me his sleeping place in a mossy crevice of a brick wall – and taking pity on me, offered to share it with me. Then I lay awake for ages, watching the dawn break, thinking about Julian and Laura, and whether they’d gone to the hospital to find Caroline and Grace. And whether Caroline’s wounds hurt as much as mine did. And … whether they all missed me. But eventually I mewed myself quietly to sleep, curled up against Big’s bony back, and dreamt I was back here in Little Broomford, chasing stupid pigeons in the Big House grounds. Oh, if only that dream would come true!

CHAPTER

ELEVEN

When I woke up the sun was shining brightly, but I could see from the length of the shadows that the day was already half over. I guessed I’d have to get used to this more nocturnal lifestyle while I was living with the feral gang. I just hoped it wasn’t going to go on for too long.

‘I need to start exploring the town again, to try to find my human family,’ I told Big when I found him washing himself under the lamppost. ‘It’s not that I don’t appreciate your generosity in letting me stay with you and the boys. It’s very good of you to give me your protection.’

As you can tell, despite him calling me a hero the previous day, and seeming to like me well enough now, I was still a little wary of Big and I didn’t want to offend him.

‘All right, all right, no need for all that,’ he said. ‘I get it, you’re not one of us, and I suppose you’re missing your nice easy life with your tame humans.’ He paused. ‘But I’m not sure you should be off exploring on your own. You’re only a kid, and not very streetwise. You’ll probably get yourself lost again. Your eye is so swollen you can’t see properly.’

Yes, and whose fault was that?

‘What am I going to do, then? If I don’t find them soon, they might finish their holiday and go back to our normal home. And I’d never be able to get back there on my own. It’s on the other side of the universe – our car had to carry us here and it took nearly a whole day.’

‘Oh, they’re holiday humans, are they? Huh! They’re the worst sort,’ he said.

‘Mine aren’t!’ I retorted. ‘They’re very kind humans, actually, and they love cats.’

‘I bet they wouldn’t love us. Humans never do. They treat us like we’re rats,’ he said. ‘But still, I think a couple of us should come with you if you’re going to start touring the streets looking for them. I warn you, though, there could be a few fights if we trespass into other cats’ territories.’

‘I expect you’ll win, though.’

‘Of course we will. That goes without saying!’

Black, Stinky and Tail-less had joined us by now, and Tail-less was meowing about going to the harbour to try to steal a fish or two.

‘Good idea,’ Big agreed. ‘Let’s show our new little friend how it’s done. We have to be careful, as well as crafty,’ he said, as we began to move off.

‘Yes, you explained about the angry humans and the vicious seagulls,’ I said. It didn’t sound like my idea of fun. ‘Shouldn’t we just stay away?’ I think I’d proved myself not to be a Cowardy Cat now, but to be fair, my bites and scratches from the previous day were still sore, and I was walking with a limp.

‘What, and miss the chance of a nice bit of fish, fresh from the sea?’ squawked Stinky.

‘You can stay in the shadow of the humans’ pub place, and watch us from there,’ Big said. ‘Tail-less will stay with you and watch out for seagulls swooping down. Black and Stinky – you stand guard by the harbourmaster’s hut as usual. I’ll be the runner today. If anyone sees one of those humans by the boats, coming after me, you give me the cat-call, OK?’

Despite my anxiety, the whole operation was actually carried out so quickly, the humans still had their backs turned when Big returned, a whole fish hanging from his mouth.

‘Tuck in,’ he meowed to me and Tail-less. ‘I’m going back for another.’

‘Cod. Yum, my favourite,’ said Tail-less.

And I have to admit, it was the freshest, most delicious fish I’d ever tasted. No wonder these boys took such a risk for it.