Charlie the Kitten Who Saved a Life

So, you see, Oliver, that was why my cat flap was locked again when you came round to see me. We meowed to each other from either side of the flap, but when Laura saw you, she said, ‘Oh dear, sorry, Oliver, I don’t think we’d better have you in here today, not with the television people coming round, with their cameras and everything. An extra cat will just add to the confusion.’

And eventually, of course, you gave up and went off, probably wondering if they were keeping me indoors because I was ill again. I wasn’t. I was excited, although I wasn’t quite sure what I was excited about yet. Grace turned up, and she and Caroline sat in the kitchen with me, talking and giggling together and looking at their watches all the time and wondering how much longer it would be before they got here.

‘Who?’ I meowed. ‘Who are these people who need me to be shut in the house till they get here?’

The doorbell rang, and everyone seemed to jump. Julian marched to the front door with Caroline and Grace running behind him, and Laura took off her apron and picked Jessica up from the carpet. I scampered after everyone and Julian called to Caroline to hold me and stop me running out when he opened the door.

‘Oh, hello!’ He held the door open and Nicky walked in as we all stared at her as if she was a stranger. ‘It’s just Nicky,’ he called back to Laura.

‘Who were you expecting, then?’ she said, laughing. ‘The queen?’

‘Not quite!’ he said. ‘Come in. Laura’s in the lounge.’

‘We’re waiting for the TV people,’ Caroline told her. ‘They’ve come to make a film about Charlie.’

‘It’ll just be a little piece for the News, Caroline,’ Julian warned her. ‘Don’t get too carried away.’

‘Really? How exciting!’ Nicky said. She smiled at Laura and Jessica as we all walked through to the lounge. ‘It’s actually Charlie I’ve come to tell you about,’ she added as Caroline put me down on the sofa. ‘You’ll never guess what happened last night.’

‘What?’ Laura looked alarmed. ‘He didn’t get into a fight or anything, did he? He’s only just been allowed out again. I didn’t think he’d start going out at night so soon.’

‘Nothing like that. He was out visiting Oliver at the pub, apparently – Dan saw them in there. And … well, this is going to sound really weird, but he says they made him come home.’

‘Made him …?’ Julian glanced at Laura, who glanced at me, frowned, and looked back at Nicky.

‘How do you mean?’ she said.

‘I don’t know. I think it must be Oliver. Daniel always did say he thought that cat had some special power to make him do things. But the thing is …’ She sat down next to Laura, went a bit pink, and went on quietly, ‘Well, the thing is, my next door neighbour had come in for a chat.’

‘Not Kevin the Creep?’ Laura said, laughing.

‘Yes. Only it wasn’t quite so funny anymore.’ Nicky looked at Caroline and Grace now, then looked back at Laura, raising her eyebrows like it was some kind of code. ‘He was being a bit too friendly. If you get my meaning.’ The eyebrows again. It must have been human body language.

‘What, was he coming on to you, Nicky?’ Caroline said, nudging Grace, and they both started giggling.

Nicky went even pinker, and looked down at her lap.

‘Oh my God,’ Laura said. ‘And Daniel came home just in the nick of time?’

‘Yes, with the two cats! And as you can probably imagine, he was pretty upset.’

‘Not with you, though, Nicky?’ Julian said.

‘No. He told me afterwards he’d overheard me telling Kevin to back off, that I wasn’t interested. But Kevin started to argue the toss, and … well, Dan got hold of him and nearly hit him.’

‘Oh my God!’ Laura said again, putting her hand to her mouth. Even Caroline and Grace had their mouths open wide with surprise, while Julian was trying to look serious.

‘But he didn’t, I hope?’ he said.

‘No.’ Nicky glanced down at me again. ‘But only because this little chap stopped him. It was unbelievable, honestly, you should have seen him. He threw himself at Dan and clung to his jacket by his claws, yowling at him. It brought Dan up short, and by the time he’d lifted Charlie off himself, he’d calmed down.’

‘Oh my …’ Laura just stopped herself from calling the God person yet again. She shook her head, and everyone in the room stared at me. I felt a bit self-conscious.

‘Sorry!’ I meowed. ‘It just seemed like the right thing to do at the time. Ollie was proud of me.’

But it seemed like Ollie wasn’t the only one.

‘That’s amazing,’ Laura said, reaching for me and giving me a hug.

‘Clever little Charlie,’ Caroline said, coming over to stroke me. ‘I said he was a hero, Daddy, didn’t I?’

‘Oh, come on! It was probably just a coincidence,’ Julian said, shaking his head. ‘He might have simply jumped up at Daniel to get a cuddle from him, and clung on with his claws to stop himself from falling.’

‘You weren’t there, Julian, with all due respect,’ Nicky said quietly. ‘You didn’t see him.’