Charlie the Kitten Who Saved a Life

The cattery

? I felt my fur begin to stand on end. Oliver had told me about that place. I’ll never forget the story, it’s haunted me ever since. You really want to hear it, Nancy? Well, it was apparently our father – Oliver’s friend Tabby – who was sent to the cattery once, when his humans went away. He said it was the worst experience of his nine lives. He was kept in a cage, day and night, with just a bed and a litter tray. And although there were lots of other cats there, he couldn’t see them, he just smelt their fear and heard them crying. He wasn’t allowed out to hunt, and although he was fed regularly he felt too stressed to eat much. Apparently the humans who looked after him there were friendly, and gave him plenty of strokes and cuddles, but he didn’t know whether to trust them or not, and had no idea whether he was ever going home again. He had nothing in the cage that smelt of home or his humans, and by the time they finally came back to collect him he was so upset he wouldn’t have anything to do with them for days – he went off on his own and they thought he’d run away. Of course, eventually he gave in because he was so hungry, but Oliver said it took him a long time to get over it.

Yes, it’s a horrible story, isn’t it? So, as you can imagine, when I heard the cattery being mentioned, I let out a long, mournful cry of distress. Caroline dived on me and picked me up, holding me tight. Her eyes looked all wet.

‘That’s just great

,’ she said, although I didn’t think it was, at all. ‘Not only are you taking me away from all my friends for a whole month, just before I have to say goodbye to them forever to go to that stupid new school – but now you’re even taking my cat away from me! It’s so unfair!’

I agreed. It was. I didn’t want to go to the cattery. I wondered if I should run away before they took me there. Caroline started to cry, and I joined in.

‘Oh, for heaven’s sake,’ said Julian. ‘What do you want me to do? We can’t take him with us.’

‘Can’t we?’ Laura said quietly. She put a paw on Julian’s arm. ‘It might be a better option.’

‘How?’ he demanded. ‘You can’t just take a cat to a strange place. He’ll run off and get lost. Is that what you want?’ he asked, turning to Caroline.

‘No!’ she said. ‘I don’t want any

of it! I don’t want to come! I’ll stay at home with Charlie.’

‘Julian, I’m sure we could manage it,’ Laura said. ‘He’s been neutered, so he’s not so likely to stray.’

‘But we’d still have to keep all the doors and windows shut the whole time – and in summer too! It’s just not realistic. He’ll get out and get lost.’

‘We’ll have to make sure he doesn’t.’

Laura and Julian were looking at each other. I could tell they were more worried about Caroline being upset than about me suffering the stress of the cattery, but just thinking about being shut in one of those cages, I let out another loud yowl of distress and finally Julian gave a little laugh – the type that sounded like he wasn’t really amused – and said:

‘All right, all right. I give in. We’ll take him with us.’ He turned to Caroline again. ‘But you’ll have to play your part in keeping him safe.’

‘I will,’ she said. She nuzzled my head with her cheek and I purred happily. Thank goodness. No cage. ‘I will, because Charlie’s the only one around here who cares about me.’

With which she carried me upstairs to her room and we lay on her bed together.

So it seemed like I was going on holiday, whatever that meant. I’d have preferred to stay here and play with my friend Oliver. But I never get a say in anything!

CHAPTER

TWO

I had mixed feelings about baby Jessica. When they first brought her into the house, everyone, even Caroline, was ridiculously excited about her, but I didn’t seem to be allowed anywhere near her.

‘Keep Charlie away from her,’ Laura said on the very first day they brought her home. ‘You hear terrible things about cats and new babies.’

I felt quite upset by this. I mean, it was true I didn’t like her constant high-pitched mewing, but I’d never have done anything to hurt her – she was only a tiny human kitten. Sometimes she smelt nice and milky, but at other times, when Laura or Julian were doing things with her bottom that made me feel violently ill, I didn’t want to be anywhere near her. I hoped it wouldn’t be long before they trained her to use a litter tray. Because of Jessica, I started being shut in the kitchen quite often, and if I protested by meowing loudly about it, I got told off. That seemed quite unfair because nobody told the baby off for crying, and I think she was louder than me.

By the time the holiday was being discussed, I suppose I was getting used to the situation. But Caroline’s excitement about having a baby sister had completely worn off. That day after the argument about the cattery, she poured out her heart to me as we lay on her bed together.