The Frightened Kitten

by Holly Webb

  The place smelled very odd; sharp and chemical to her sensitive nose. But at the same time, it was slightly familiar. Had she been here before?

  Maddy put the carrier down on the floor, and Biscuit sniffed suspiciously. There were other smells, too. A strange, strong, worrying smell. It smelled like a dog. A dog had visited her old home once, and she hadn’t liked it. She shifted nervously inside her carrier. It was coming closer!

  Biscuit gave a horrified squeak as a furry face loomed up in front of her carrier. The puppy peered in curiously and nudged the wire door with his nose.

  The kitten bristled, her fur standing on end and her tail fluffing up to twice its size. She hissed furiously at the dog. This was her carrier! She lashed her claws at his nose, but they scraped harmlessly down the wire.

  “Barney, no!” his owner cried. “Oh, I’m so sorry, I hope he didn’t frighten your kitten.”

  Maddy’s mum laughed. “Actually, I think she tried to fight back; she’s a determined little thing.”

  Maddy looked anxiously into Biscuit’s carrier. “Are you all right? Sorry, Biscuit, I was helping Mum fill in the forms. I didn’t see what was happening.” Then she smiled with relief. Biscuit was sitting in the carrier with her tail wrapped smugly round her legs. She wasn’t afraid of some silly dog!

  Chapter Three

  “She’s going to miss me while I’m at school,” Maddy said worriedly. She had her coat and her rucksack and her lunchbag – and a kitten sitting on her shoulder, sniffing with interest at the rucksack. “It’s the first day I won’t have been here to play with her.”

  “I’ll be here though,” her mum pointed out. Maddy’s mum worked part-time at another school, but she didn’t go in on Mondays or Fridays. “I’ll play with her lots, Maddy, I promise. And your dad’s working from home tomorrow. She’ll gradually get used to being left. It’ll be fine.”

  Maddy nodded doubtfully. She’d spent the whole holiday playing with Biscuit and fussing over her. Now she just couldn’t imagine a whole day at school without seeing her. And without Kate…

  “Come on, Maddy. We’d better go.”

  Maddy sighed and then carefully unhooked Biscuit’s claws from her coat. She put her down gently and rubbed her ears. “Be good,” she told her. “I’ll be back soon.”

  Biscuit stared up at her. She didn’t understand what was happening, but she could tell from Maddy’s voice that she wasn’t happy. The kitten gave an uncertain little mew and patted at Maddy’s leg with a paw, asking to be picked up again.

  “Maddy, now,” her mum said firmly, seeing that Maddy was close to tears. She shooed her out of the door, leaving Biscuit all alone in the house.

  Biscuit sat by the front door for a little while, hoping that they’d come back, but she couldn’t hear any footsteps heading up the path. She was very confused – she just didn’t understand why Maddy had gone away. Eventually, she padded back into the kitchen. She had seen Maddy and her mum and dad use the back door, even though she wasn’t allowed out of it yet. Perhaps they would come in that way?

  She waited for what seemed like a very long time, but no one came in by that door, either. So she wandered through the house, mewing every so often. Where had they all gone? Were they ever coming back? She looked at the stairs for a while, but she still found them very difficult to climb. Maddy had carried her up there a couple of times, but it took her ages to manage a whole flight of stairs by herself.

  Sadly, she trailed into the living room, and clawed her way up the purple throw that Maddy’s mum had draped over the sofa. It already had quite a lot of little claw marks in it – Biscuit had quickly discovered that the back of the sofa was an interesting place to sit. She sat down, peering out of the window, hoping to see Maddy coming up the front path.

  Instead, she saw a large gingery face staring back at her.

  Biscuit was so surprised that she jumped backwards with a miaow of fright, and fell on to the seat of the sofa.

  What was that? Another cat? In her garden? Biscuit had never been out in it, but she was quite certain that it was hers. She sat shivering on the sofa, not daring to climb up and look again. The other cat had been a lot bigger than she was. What if it was still there? At last, Biscuit scrabbled her way up the throw again, and peeped over the back of the sofa.

  The big ginger cat had gone.

  Biscuit was so relieved that she curled up on the back of the sofa, and went to sleep.

  “She was fine, Maddy!” Mum said, as they walked home from school. “When I got home from dropping you off and doing the shopping, she was asleep on the back of the sofa. And then the rest of the day I fussed over her every so often, and she was perfectly all right.”

  Maddy nodded, looking relieved. “I wonder if she was watching for us coming home, and that’s why she was on the back of the sofa.”

  “Maybe.” Her mum laughed. “Actually, I think she’s just nosy. She likes watching people go past. Anyway, how was school?”

  Maddy could tell that her mum was trying not to sound worried about her. She shrugged. “OK.”

  “Who did you sit with?”

  “Lucy. And Romany.”

  “And it was all right?”

  “Mmm.” Maddy didn’t want to tell her mum that she’d felt miserable and lonely all day, and that even though Lucy and Romany had been nice, she’d hardly talked to them. She couldn’t help thinking that they were Kate’s friends, not hers, and they didn’t really want to hang around with her. Luckily it had been netball club at lunch, so she hadn’t had to mooch around on her own in the playground. But she didn’t have a club every lunchtime. She sped up, hurrying home to see Biscuit.

  “Oh, look, she’s there, watching out for us!” Maddy beamed. She ran up the garden path, watching Biscuit leap off the back of the sofa. She could hear a little scuttle of paws, and then frantic mewing and a scrabbling noise as the kitten clawed at the door. As soon as her mum opened it, Maddy swept the kitten up to hug her.

  School wasn’t any easier the next day, or the day after that – but at least Maddy had Biscuit to cheer her up at home. And she was really looking forward to Saturday – the vet had said Biscuit could go out in the garden then, even though it wasn’t quite three weeks since her vaccinations. He’d said it would be fine as long as she wasn’t around any other cats.

  Maddy didn’t give Biscuit as much breakfast as usual on Saturday morning. And just in case Biscuit did wander too far, Maddy made sure she had a full bag of the kitten’s favourite chicken-flavour treats.

  Biscuit was still staring suspiciously at her food bowl, wondering why breakfast hadn’t seemed to take as long to gobble down as usual, when she realized that the back door was wide open. She’d seen it open before, of course, but only when someone was holding her tightly, and even then they always whipped it shut before she could wriggle free and go investigating. She crept over to it, keeping low to the ground, expecting any minute that Maddy or her mum would catch her.

  But Maddy was outside! She was standing by the door, calling her! Biscuit hurried so fast out of the door, she almost tripped over the step. She shook herself crossly and pattered down the path to where Maddy was.

  There were so many smells! She sniffed curiously at the grass, and patted it with one paw. It was cool and damp, and taller than she was!

  “Have you got the treats?” Her mum appeared in the doorway. “In case Biscuit goes running off. She could get under the fence if she really tried, remember.”

  Maddy waved the foil packet. “It’s OK. Oh, look, Mum! She’s seen a butterfly!”

  The orange butterfly was swooping carelessly past Biscuit’s nose, and she watched it in amazement. Maddy had dangled pieces of string for her, and feathery toys, but she had never seen anything like this. She reached out her paw and tried to bat at the butterfly, and then tried again with the other paw, but it flew behind her, and she almost fell over trying to chase after it.

  “You can’t have it, Biscuit,” Maddy laughed. “I don’t
think butterflies are very good for you. And they’re all legs and wings; I bet they don’t taste nice.”

  Biscuit stared after the butterfly, which was flittering over the fence to next door’s garden. She thought it looked delicious. But there was no way she could get over the high fence to follow it.

  Chapter Four

  Maddy and Biscuit spent so much time playing in the garden that on Friday evening, Maddy’s dad came home with a surprise. He put the big box he was carrying down in front of Biscuit’s cat basket with a flourish.

  “What is it?” Maddy asked, peering round to see the front of the box. Biscuit blinked at it sleepily. She was worn out from racing round the garden with Maddy after she had got back from school.

  “Oh, a cat flap! Thanks, Dad!”

  “We can put it in tomorrow. It’s over three weeks since Biscuit had her vaccinations now, so we can let her out on her own.”

  Maddy nodded. “I suppose so. But she’s still not quite fourteen weeks old. She’s only little.”

  “I think cats like to explore though,” Dad pointed out. “She’ll be able to climb trees. Chase more butterflies…”

  Biscuit suddenly perked up, bouncing up in her basket and staring at him, ears pricked. Dad laughed. “You see!”

  Maddy had been worried that Biscuit might find the cat flap hard to work, or that she just might not like it – Kate had told her that Ben had taken ages to get used to his. He preferred to have someone open the back door for him. But as soon as Biscuit understood what the cat flap did, she took to it immediately. She spent most of Saturday afternoon popping in and out of it, coming back into the kitchen every five minutes to make sure that Maddy was still there.

  Maddy had been a bit anxious that Biscuit might try going into one of the next-door gardens, but even though she’d sniffed at the holes under the fence, she didn’t seem to want to crawl through them. There was plenty in Maddy’s garden to keep her busy.

  Maddy was doing her homework at the kitchen table on Sunday morning, with Biscuit curled on her lap. Her science worksheet seemed to be taking ages. It was probably because she kept thinking about her science lesson on Friday. She’d had to pair up with Sara, a girl she didn’t really like, and Sara had kept on making mean little comments throughout the lesson. So now every time she tried to write about the differences between solids and liquids, she just started thinking about how much she missed having Kate to work with. Kate would have said something really funny about Sara, Maddy was sure.

  At least she’d seen Becky, one of the girls who sat on the table behind her, making faces at Sara. She’d rolled her eyes at Maddy in an “Ignore her!” sort of way, and Maddy had smiled back.

  Now Biscuit yawned and jumped lazily off Maddy’s lap, making for her cat flap. She was bored with sitting still, and Maddy didn’t seem to want to play. Biscuit had tried chasing her coloured pencils across the table, but Maddy had put them away instead of rolling the pencils for her to chase.

  The garden was full of interesting smells, and some bees were buzzing around the lavender bushes. Biscuit watched them, fascinated, her tail tip twitching. She was watching so closely that she didn’t see Tiger and Tom sneaking under next door’s fence. It wasn’t until the two big ginger cats were right behind her that Biscuit heard them creeping through the grass, and whirled round. She was sure it was one of these cats who’d been staring in at her through the window.

  The ginger cats had their ears laid back as they snuck towards her. Biscuit backed away from them into the lavender bush. She didn’t quite understand what was happening, but she knew the two cats weren’t friendly. Her tail bushed out, and she darted a nervous glance towards the door. Could she make a run for her cat flap? But one of the big ginger cats, the one with the torn ear, was between her and the house, his tail swishing from side to side.

  Tiger, the one with the darker stripes, was almost nose to nose with her now, hissing and staring. Biscuit was practically squashed into the lavender bush – she couldn’t retreat any further.

  Tiger cuffed her round the head with one enormous paw, sending her rolling, and Biscuit wailed miserably. What was she supposed to do? Why were they attacking her?

  Inside the house, Maddy was still gloomily eyeing her homework. She glanced up as her mum came into the kitchen, looking confused.

  “Maddy, can you hear a strange noise? It almost sounds like a baby crying. A sort of howling.”

  Maddy yelped and suddenly pushed her chair away from the table, racing for the back door. She hadn’t been paying attention to the noise, but now she was sure it was Biscuit.

  She flung open the door, and Tom jumped round, hissing at her, but Tiger and Biscuit hardly seemed to notice. They were in the middle of the lawn now, and Tiger was about three times the size of Biscuit with all his ginger fur fluffed up. They were making strange wowling noises still, circling round each other. As Maddy watched, Tiger leaped on Biscuit again, and the two cats seemed to roll over and over, twisting and scratching.

  “Stop it!” Maddy yelled. She raced over to them, shoving at Tiger, ignoring the hissing and scratching at her hands. She snatched Biscuit up, and yelled at Tiger and Tom, sending them scuttling away under the fence.

  “Maddy, are you all right?” Her mum came running out. “It all happened so quickly, I didn’t realize what was going on. Is Biscuit hurt?”

  “I don’t think so, but she’s shaking.” Maddy carried the kitten inside. “Those horrible cats!”

  Her mum sighed. “I suppose they’re used to coming into our garden. They think Biscuit’s in their territory.”

  “Well, she isn’t!” Maddy snapped. “It’s our garden and she’s our cat!”

  “Yes, we know that, but I bet the cats don’t. Give her to me, you need to run your hands under the tap. They must hurt, you’re all scratched!”

  Reluctantly, Maddy handed Biscuit over to her mum.

  “She’s so scared,” Maddy said, her voice shaking as she washed her hands. “Tiger’s so much bigger than she is. He could have really hurt her.” Then she laughed a little. “I saw Biscuit scratch his nose, though, before he ran off.”

  “Did they go under the fence?” her mum asked. “Is there a hole we could block up?”

  Maddy dried her scratched hands and made for the door. “I’ll go and see.”

  Biscuit gave a worried little mew as she saw Maddy opening the door, and Maddy stopped to stroke her. “Don’t worry. I’m not going to let those ginger bullies anywhere near you.”

  She hurried out into the garden, checking the fence. There were holes all the way along – not huge ones, but big enough for a cat to squeeze through.

  It was going to be difficult to block them all up. And the fence wasn’t that high, either. She was pretty sure that Tiger and Tom could climb it without too much effort.

  “What are you doing?” someone asked in a sneery sort of voice.

  Maddy straightened up from the flower bed. It was her next-door neighbour Josh, who owned Tiger and Tom. He was a couple of years older than she was and went to secondary school, so usually Maddy was too shy to say much to him. But not today.

  “I’m looking at the fence! Your cats just came into my garden and beat up my kitten!” she snapped at him.

  Josh shrugged. “Sorry. But cats fight. It’s what they do.”

  “Don’t you care? She’s terrified!”

  “There isn’t anything I can do, cats chase each other and they fight. There’s loads of cats round here. Your kitten’s going to get into fights, Maddy, stop being such a girl.”

  “OH!” Maddy huffed, and she stomped back inside. Biscuit was not going to fight, because Maddy wasn’t going to let any other cats hurt her. She didn’t care how scratched she got.

  But as she shut the kitchen door, slamming it hard enough to set the cat flap swinging, Maddy had a sudden, awful thought.

  She could protect Biscuit now, but what about tomorrow, when she went back to school?

  “Perhaps we should
n’t have got a cat flap…” Maddy said worriedly.

  Her dad scratched his head thoughtfully. He’d been out running when Biscuit got into the fight, and had missed the whole thing. “I can’t exactly put that chunk of door back. Anyway, Biscuit’s getting bigger all the time. She won’t be such easy pickings for those two next door soon.”

  “I don’t think Biscuit’s ever going to be as big as they are,” Maddy said. “But it’s good for her to be able to go out. She loves being in the garden! Or she did, anyway,” she added sadly.

  Biscuit hadn’t been outside again since the fight that morning. She’d retreated into the dining room. There was a lovely patch of warm sun coming through the glass doors at the back of the room. Biscuit lay in it, feeling the soft warmth on her fur. It made her feel better – not so jumpy and scared.

  She stretched out on the carpet lazily and gazed out of the big window through half-open eyes, hoping to spot some butterflies.

  Instead, the next time she blinked, Tiger and Tom were there. In her garden, staring at her, just on the other side of the window.

  Biscuit’s tail fluffed up and she hissed in panic. For a moment, she forgot that there was glass there and they couldn’t reach her through it. She was sure that Tiger was about to knock her over again. She raced out to the kitchen and Maddy, mewing in fright.