The Abandoned Kitten

by Sue Mongredien

  Dad saw the expression on her face. “How about coming for a walk with me and Meg before I start making the tea?” he said. “We can take the frisbee with us to the park and have a game.”

  Lily smiled. “Yes, please,” she said gratefully. Moping around after Tiny wasn’t going to make her feel any better, she realized – but fresh air and frisbee with Dad and Meg might help a bit.

  Mum kept everyone up to date whenever there was news from the rehoming centre. Sheena went on the home visit to see the people who wanted to adopt Paddy and Socks, and decided that they were suitable owners and could collect their new kittens within the week. The family due to adopt Tiny had now filled in all their forms and arranged a home visit, too. It was really happening.

  Thank goodness Lily’s birthday came along to cheer her up. Presents and treats were the best kind of distraction! Mum and Dad gave her a new red bike, and Jacob and Max gave her one roller skate each, which they thought was very funny. Cards and gifts plopped through the letterbox from her cousins, and Lily was allowed to invite Martha and Zoe home after school for her birthday tea, before her ice-skating party the following weekend.

  When she, Martha and Zoe came home that afternoon, a delicious smell of baking wafted from the kitchen. Lily just caught a glimpse of a yummy-looking chocolate birthday cake before Dad whipped it away into a cupboard out of sight. Grandma was there as a special surprise with another present and card for Lily. “Happy birthday, Lily-pops,” she said, giving one of her big squeezy hugs.

  “Thanks, Grandma,” Lily said, hugging her back.

  “Mum will be back from work soon,” said Dad, dropping a kiss on her head. “Why don’t you girls go and play while we start getting tea ready?”

  Lily took her friends upstairs to show them her presents, and then they decided to play hide-and-seek around the house. “I’ll be the seeker,” Martha offered and put her hands over her eyes. “One, two, three. . .” she began counting.

  The boys were playing, too, and everyone scattered to find the best hiding place. Jacob bolted for the hall, where there was a downstairs cupboard. He always hid there! Zoe headed for the bathroom while Max ran into the living room. Lily, meanwhile, hurried to the kitchen and was just about to squeeze into the tall cupboard where they kept the broom and mop when she caught sight of a shiny marble down in the corner by the door. It reminded her of Tiny, and how much she’d liked playing with it.

  Lily had a sudden pang of missing Tiny, and couldn’t help wondering where she was, and what she might be doing now. Was she living with her new family yet, with a different house to explore? Maybe she’d already forgotten about Lily.

  “. . . eighteen, nineteen, TWENTY! Coming, ready or not!” she heard Martha yell just then.

  “Shh!” Lily said to Dad and Grandma, who were setting out plates of food on the kitchen table. Then she quickly crammed herself into the cupboard and crouched in the darkness, listening hard to try to make out where Martha and the others were. She could hear footsteps thudding upstairs and hoped that somebody else would be found first. Then she heard another sound – the front door opening. Mum was home!

  “I’m back!” Mum called. “Where’s that birthday girl of mine? I hope she hasn’t eaten all the cake without me.”

  Laughing, Lily emerged from the cupboard. “Here I am!” she cried, forgetting about hide-and-seek. Then she stopped in surprise as Mum walked into the room holding a cat carrier.

  “What’s in there?” Lily asked. “Have you brought another animal home to look after?”

  “Why don’t you open it and see?” Mum replied, carefully setting the carrier down on the floor. Her eyes were twinkling and Lily felt her heart pound. What had Mum brought back this time?

  Lily fumbled to open the fastening of the cat carrier, her fingers trembling on the catch. Meg gave a sudden woof and hurried over, her ears up and her tail wagging. She sniffed the cat carrier and barked again, her tail thumping on the ground. If ever a dog could look like she was smiling, Meg was that dog.

  Lily began to feel more excited than ever. At last she pulled open the door of the carrier… and there was Tiny!

  Lily stared in delight, hardly daring to believe her own eyes. “Tiny!” she cried, picking her up and cuddling her. “What are you doing here?”

  “Surprise!” laughed Dad.

  “Goodness me!” Grandma exclaimed. “What a dear little kitten!”

  Lily barely heard them, she was so pleased to see Tiny again. “This is the nicest surprise of the whole day!” she cried as Meg licked Tiny lovingly. The kitten immediately burst into a rumbling purr. “But what’s she doing here?” Lily went on. “It’s just… I thought she’d be with her new family by now.” She felt confused. Was she missing something? “Is everything all right?”

  “Everything’s fine,” Dad said with a grin.

  “She was meant to be with her new family by now,” Mum explained, “but they phoned this morning, very apologetic, to say that there had been a change of plan. The mum – Mrs Cartwright – found out yesterday that her office will be relocating to a different site, about a hundred miles away, next year. They’re probably going to have to move house, so it’s all a bit of a shock.”

  “What, so they don’t want Tiny any more?” Lily asked.

  “It’s not that they don’t want her,” Mum replied. “They just didn’t think it was fair to adopt her while they’re making such a big decision. If they do move, they’ll get another kitten in their new house, apparently. So. . .”

  “So… what’s going to happen to Tiny?” Lily asked, hope swelling inside her. “Is she. . . Could we. . .?” She couldn’t get the words out. Surely Mum hadn’t brought the kitten here just to take her back to the rehoming centre again?

  “Well,” Mum said. “Dad and I have been thinking. We’ve all missed the kittens – not just us but Meg, too. And we were talking last night about maybe adopting a cat of our own sometime. Then when Tiny’s new family pulled out today, it felt like fate. So here she is, the youngest member of the Hart family back home again. And she’s here for keeps this time.”

  Lily couldn’t speak she was so happy. Her eyes shone as she snuggled her face into Tiny’s stripy fur. Back home! Here for keeps! Already she was thinking about all the fun things she and Tiny could do together, all the games and adventures they could have, and how much she was going to enjoy seeing her grow up. She was so glad Mum had brought her home!

  Martha burst into the room just then, followed by Zoe, Jacob and Max. “FOUND YOU!” she sang, and then her hand flew up to her mouth as she saw Tiny on Lily’s knee. “Ohhhh!” she squeaked. “Is that another birthday present?”

  “No, she’s not a present,” Mum said with a smile, “but she is a much-loved member of this family – and one we simply couldn’t let go. Martha and Zoe, meet Tiny.”

  Jacob and Max whooped with excitement and high-fived each other, and then everyone fussed around Tiny, stroking and petting her. Tiny purred and purred, clearly very pleased to be back.

  “Welcome home, Tiny,” Lily said, tickling her under the chin. She still couldn’t quite believe she was there, and staying for good. “You’ve just made today the best birthday ever!”

  Six weeks later, Tiny wasn’t quite so tiny any more! Her legs had grown much longer, and her tail was fluffier. She and Meg were as close as ever, curling up to sleep together in the dog basket every night, with Meg still fussing over her like a mother. When Tiny wasn’t snoozing, she was playful and adventurous, chasing everything and pouncing on it with her front paws. She particularly liked one of Max’s old white teddies and would drag it around the house as if it were a real animal she’d caught.

  One afternoon when Dad brought Lily, Max and Jacob home from school, he told them he’d been working on a new painting that day. “A very special one,” he said as he opened the front door to let them all in. “See if you can spo
t why.”

  Dad had hung the new picture in the hall and they crowded round to look at it. Mum was off work that day, and stood with them, her arm around Dad. At first glance, the painting was similar to the one that hung in the living room, with the Hart family flying off on the back of a green dragon. But as Lily looked closer, she realized that this time, Dad had drawn them perched on a big red dragon… with an extra passenger on its back.

  “There’s Tiny!” Lily laughed, spotting the little kitten who was sitting behind her in the picture. Dad had painted her with a striped paw outstretched, as if she was trying to catch Lily’s dangling plait. “Oh Dad, it’s great!”

  Dad smiled. “Well, I couldn’t have us flying away for an adventure without Tiny, now could I?” he said. “Leave her behind? No way.”

  Lily grinned as, right on cue, Tiny bounded out of the living room and gave a great big meow as if to say, Nobody’s leaving me behind!

  “We’d never go anywhere without you, Tiny,” she promised, reaching down to pick her up. “You’re one of the family now, aren’t you?”

  Tiny purred, clearly glad about that, and Lily cuddled her close. “If I could purr, too, I would,” she told the kitten. “Because I feel very, very happy.”

  “That’s what I like to hear,” Mum said with a smile. “Now then, is anyone hungry? We’ve got crumpets. . .”

  Jacob and Max both started cheering and jumping up and down, Meg woofed and Tiny gave a gigantic leap from Lily’s arms and began wildly chasing her own tail round and round in circles. Lily just laughed again. Being part of her crazy, noisy family was brilliant fun – and now that Tiny had joined them, it was even better.

  The Real-Life Rescue

  Although the characters and animals in Lily’s story are fictional, they are based on a real-life rescue in which four tiny kittens were found abandoned in the rain and were brought into an RSPCA centre.

  Staff at the centre leapt into action to save the week-old kittens, giving them intensive round-the-clock care with bottle feeds every three hours.

  When an RSPCA Animal Care Assistant took the kittens home with her at night, her pet dog Missey decided to lend a paw, too. Missey took a real shine to the kittens. She cleaned them, gave them a good lick all over, and was like a surrogate mum to them. She didn’t seem to mind that they were kittens. In fact, Missey was hand-reared herself so it was like she was repaying the favour.

  Four-year-old Missey, a crossbreed, was bottle-fed by RSPCA staff when her mother rejected her as a puppy. She was taken in by her owner when she was six weeks old.

  The kittens – two males and two females – were named after the X Factor judges: Louis, Gary, Kelly and Tulisa. They were all successfully adopted and are now healthy and happy one-year-old cats. Here are some photos of them during their early weeks:

  One of the kittens is hand-fed with special kitten milk

  Missey mothering the kittens

  The rescued kittens in their basket

  Meet A Real RSPCA Worker

  - Kirsty Martuccio

  Cattery Supervisor, RSPCA Gonsal Farm Animal Centre

  Lily’s story is based on a real-life animal rescue. Could you tell us about a similar rescue you were part of?

  Unfortunately, the RSPCA often deal with abandoned kittens. I looked after three kittens that were thought to be about one week old. They were very small, their eyes were still closed and their ears curled. Like Lily’s story, one was smaller than the others, but with careful hand-rearing all three survived.

  Sometimes kittens are brought in by members of the public who have heard a noise and found a bag or box with the kittens in under a bush or abandoned in a car park or rubbish bin. This might be because the mother cat hasn’t been neutered and unexpectedly had kittens. The owner might be dumping the kittens rather than taking responsibility for them.

  Sometimes an Inspector or Animal Collection Officer will be called to collect the kittens. Occasionally someone might leave them by the entrance to an Animal Centre and the staff will find them in the morning. The RSPCA always look after them and work to find them happy new homes.

  How do you treat newborn kittens?

  All newborn kittens, if abandoned and not with mum, are hand-reared. They will be allocated to a member of staff who will take care of them twenty-four hours a day, including taking them home after a long day at work to give them nightly feeds. They will be fed by a special kitten-rearing bottle with special kitten milk and are closely observed to ensure they are gaining weight and feeding well. They are also toileted after each feed, burped (like a baby) and kept warm with blankets and heat pads.

  Sometimes, if a kitten doesn’t take well to a bottle, we will try to adopt them on to another nursing mum in the cattery. To do this, you have to exchange scents by rubbing the kitten on the mum and keeping a very close eye to ensure that she accepts them. It doesn’t always work but occasionally they are natural mummies and will just roll over and accept them, which is lovely.

  Why did you want to work for the RSPCA?

  I’ve always had a strong interest in feline nursing care and behaviour, and to work for the RSPCA is something I’d always dreamed of doing.

  I have a huge amount of respect and passion for the work the RSPCA does, especially at the rehoming centres. Abandonment of animals is sadly increasing, making the RSPCA’s job harder and harder. Saying that, it’s the best job in the world being involved with rescuing animals and seeing them finally have the life they all deserve – a truly rewarding job which I wholeheartedly enjoy!

  Could you describe what a typical day at work is like?

  This is tricky! Every day is different! You have the routine work, which will be feeding and cleaning the cats. Once this is completed, there will be general health checks and treatments, such as f lea or worm medication. Grooming is a daily task, as well as general stimulation and socialization between cats.

  Cats come in at any time, so they need health checking and assessing. We also work with the public on a daily basis, trying to find the right cat for them and their lifestyle. People think it’s just a matter of coming in and picking whichever one they like, but that’s not always the case due to some of the cats’ histories – for example, mistreatment.

  Also, we try and promote animals regularly, keeping the press releases going and featuring cats that have been with us a long time, etc.

  No day is planned or the same – that’s what keeps it so interesting and fun!

  What is the best thing about being a Cattery Supervisor?

  The best thing about being a Cattery Supervisor is the freedom to do as much as I can to get these animals into the right homes! I work with such a great team of staff and have wonderful managers who aren’t afraid to try new approaches to get the animals’ stories out there and reach our goal – finding them their forever home!

  To find out more about the work the RSPCA do, go to:

  www.rspca.org.uk

  Some Tips for Looking After Your Cat

  Interact with your cat. Gentle petting and handling of your kitten when they are young will help strengthen the bond between you and your new cat. Just make sure you clean your hands before and after handling them.

  Get some cat toys. Cats are playful and love to get rid of their energy by playing with toys. You can even make your own using old socks and ping-pong balls! Just make sure any toys are safe for your pet.

  Ask an adult to buy a tall, strong scratch post to help keep your cat’s claws short and to avoid your furniture getting damaged.

  It is important that your cat eats a suitable, balanced diet, and always has access to clean drinking water.

  Litter trays should be cleaned at least once a day, or more often if needed.

  Your cat should have a comfortable, dry, draught-free, clean and quiet place to rest undisturbed. Safe hiding places to go to
when they are feeling afraid are important too.

  Facts About Cats

  A group of cats is called a “clowder”.

  Female cats tend to be right pawed, while male cats are more often left pawed.

  Cats can jump up to five times their own height and sometimes jump on to a fence, or a cupboard, as they like to be up high.

  Cats use a variety of sounds to communicate, including purrs, meows, trills, chirrups, growls, yowls and hisses.

  Cats can give birth to a litter of between one and nine kittens.

  A cat usually has about twelve whiskers on each side of its face.

  Domestic cats sleep for twelve to eighteen hours a day.

  Take a sneak peek at an extract from Lamb All Alone, another exciting story based on a real-life animal rescue.

  “Mum! Kate! The field – the sheep – underwater. . .” Ben burst through the kitchen door, breathless, with Jess running ahead of him.

  “Slow down,” said Mum as Ben struggled to get his words out. “Start again. What’s going on?”

  “The bottom field has flooded! And Mr Green’s sheep are still out there!”

  “What? No way – he should have moved them by now,” said Kate.

  “Come and look!” said Ben, running back down the hall with Kate and Mum following close behind. Ben stood aside so they could peer through the steamed-up glass of the back door to see for themselves.

  Kate shook her head. “Those sheep – and those lambs! They’re so tiny! We’ve got to call Mr Green!”