Charlie the Kitten Who Saved a Life

First there was the trip to the vet’s to get my leg seen to. I can’t deny that, despite my more mature outlook on life and having been proved beyond all doubt not to be a scaredy-cat, I still cowered in the travelling basket mewing in fear when we set off in the car. And the smell of the vet’s room brought back terrible memories of my experience at that other vet’s. I knew I’d behaved really badly on that occasion. Already, I was finding it hard to believe how furiously I’d fought with the humans who were trying to help me. I supposed I really must have been turning into a feral cat at that point. It wasn’t a pleasant thought. This time, although I was frightened, I did try not to bite the vet’s fingers or struggle quite so much. Although Caroline couldn’t come with us because she was at school, and Julian was at work, it was at least reassuring to have Laura there, stroking me and saying calming things to me, while baby Jessica sat in the corner in her car seat waving her paws at me.

‘It’s all right, Charlie,’ the vet said, holding me gently. ‘This won’t take too long.’

It felt plenty long enough to me. He kept poking around on my sore leg, making me jump and growl, and kept up a running commentary to Laura and his nurse, saying things like Just clipping his fur back and Here we go and Right, just cleaning it up again now. I was glad when he finally announced OK, I think that’s going to heal nicely now, Charlie boy.

But that wasn’t the worst of it. Before he allowed Laura to take me home, he took hold of me and fastened something round my neck. I shook my head from side to side, trying to get rid of it, but it was stuck tight.

‘What is it?’ I meowed crossly at Laura, but to my annoyance she was laughing at me.

‘Oh, look at him!’ she said. ‘Poor Charlie, he’s not going to like that one bit!’

‘I know. But it’s important that he doesn’t lick that wound,’ the vet said. ‘We don’t want any more infection. Keep it on for a week, and keep him inside. Then bring him back to see me – I’d like to check on him anyway – then we should be able to dispense with it.’

What on earth was it? I spent the whole journey back home tossing my head from side to side, knocking the thing against the edges of the basket.

‘Suffering codfish!’ I shouted at Laura as she carried me in from the car. ‘What in the name of bloody catnip …?’

I stopped, growling to myself unhappily. I really didn’t want to revert to the kind of language I’d picked up during my homeless period. But honestly, this was unbelievable! What were they doing to me? Hadn’t I been through enough? And when I saw the cat flap being locked before Laura had even taken me out of the basket, I yowled at her crossly. Even though I’d seen it locked with my own eyes, I went straight up to it to butt it with my head in protest, but the huge thing round my neck got in the way. Even if I’d been allowed out, I wouldn’t have been able to get through my flap. It was ridiculous! How was I supposed to live like this?

‘Oh dear,’ Laura said. ‘You’ll get used to it, Charlie. It’s only for a little while.’

Huh. I went to lie down in my bed and have a sulk, but have you ever tried lying down with a gigantic collar around your neck? And there was worse to come. Later on when Laura put my dinner down on the floor, I had to lean right over the dish, so that the collar was touching the floor all the way round it. I felt like I was cut off from the rest of the world while I was eating. Caroline came home from school just as I finished my meal, and she gasped with surprise when she saw me.

‘Oh! What’s Charlie got that thing on for?’

‘It’s to stop him trying to lick his wound. And he’s not allowed outside till I take him back to the vet’s next week.’

‘Ah, he won’t like that, will he?’

‘No. So we’re back to being careful about open doors, Caroline.’ Laura gave her a look, which I understood only too well.

‘OK. I’ll be careful, I promise,’ Caroline said. They both stood for a while, watching me as I tried unsuccessfully to wash myself after my meal.

‘I can’t even have a wash!’ I meowed crossly, shaking my head so that the stupid thing knocked against the kitchen units. ‘Do you want me to get even muckier than I was when I was living rough?’

‘And we’ll need to groom him,’ Laura told Caroline. ‘He can’t do it for himself while he’s in the collar. And the vet said that it’s best not to take it off, at all. He’ll get used to it more quickly if he wears it all the time.’

Well, that was just great, wasn’t it? I charged around the house angrily for a bit, trying to shake the thing off, but of course all I succeeded in doing was knocking everything over and falling over twice myself.

‘Charlie, calm down, you’re not helping matters!’ Caroline said, giggling. She bent down to pick me up. ‘You do look funny.’