Marina Golomidova - Max’s Adventures with His Loyal Friends

Translator William Mann

Illustrator Ekaterina Bakhareva

© Marina Golomidova, 2020

© William Mann, translation, 2020

© Ekaterina Bakhareva, illustrations, 2020

ISBN 978-5-0051-3459-2

Created with Ridero smart publishing system

In London, in the borough of Islington, there’s a house – a tall house of four storeys with turrets, spires, chimneys, and weathervanes that spin around when the wind blows. And in this house live four cats: limping Hunter with his glossy black fur; Matilda, the tiny Siamese princess; handsome Tom with his fluffy coat and tufted ears; and flirty, flame-haired Sienna.

The first of them to move into the house was Hunter. A few years before, he’d been living under a bridge – he used to hunt mice and live off the scraps thrown to him each night by kind-hearted Billy, the kitchen boy in the restaurant next door. But one day, chasing after a little grey mouse, Hunter got hit by a car. And no doubt he wouldn’t have survived if it hadn’t been for Auntie Jane, the owner of the house in Islington, who came to the poor cat’s rescue as he lay dying by the side of the road.

Poor Hunter was in an awful state: he had a nasty cut to the head and broken paws. He couldn’t even lift up his tail to greet this kindly woman who’d picked him up from the pavement.

But Hunter was taken to hospital for an operation and he managed to pull through – although afterwards he couldn’t run fast any more. Once in the new house he got his strength back in no time and grew plump and stately. On his birthday Auntie Jane gave him a beautiful carved walking stick that was studded with jewels, a hat that was stuck with a goose feather, and a pair of reading glasses – because Hunter, although he couldn’t go hunting any more, had started to read and even write books on the subject.

The next to arrive at the house was Matilda. She was of royal birth, a real princess, and she’d come to London from far away – from sultry Thailand – to meet her husband-to-be, who was a tomcat of very high standing. But on the sky-blue steamship that was taking her across the ocean she came down with a dreadful bout of seasickness, and her fur, which had been so silky and delicate, lost its mother-of-pearl shine and then started to fall out. When at last Matilda arrived in London she had lost all trace of her former beauty, and the tomcat’s owners turned up their noses at her. Poor Matilda was sent to a pet shop, but nobody wanted to buy her, even though she really did come from Siamese royalty. Customers would say, “Don’t try that with us! There’s no way such an ugly cat could be a princess! And besides, she’d leave fur all over the floor!” It was all very painful for Matilda. After all, she was used to being admired wherever she went. She’d been a great beauty: elegant and graceful, with a magnificent coat the colour of pearl. Matilda was so unhappy that she just lay there and wept and wept – which only annoyed the customers and the pet-shop owner even more. In a fit of anger the owner wrote on her cage: “Anyone who buys this cat gets a free box of tasty cat food.” But somehow nobody wanted to buy her even with the cat food thrown in. Matilda might have died of a broken heart there in the pet shop if it hadn’t been for Max – Auntie Jane’s nephew – who came across Matilda when he went to buy food for Hunter. Now, by this time Max had learned cat-language from Hunter, so he instantly knew why she was crying so piteously. He felt desperately sorry for the little cat, so thin and shabby and grieving so bitterly, and he asked his auntie to buy Matilda. Well, everyone knows that Auntie Jane is the kindest auntie in all the world – and naturally she did as Max asked her straight away.

So Matilda came to live in the house in Islington with the turrets and the weathervanes. Hunter was just delighted with the newcomer, and – true gentleman that he was – showered her with compliments. There wasn’t a trace of doubt in his mind that she was a real Siamese princess – and of course, all it takes is for somebody to believe in you to make your sorrows disappear. In no time at all, Matilda’s dazzling beauty had returned. And as for her perfect manners and her regal bearing, well, nobody could have taken them from her.

A few months later, the number of furry residents in the house grew again. One gloomy day, in the last month of the winter, there was a knock at the door. Auntie Jane came downstairs to see who was there. But there was nobody to be seen – just a large basket wrapped up in an old sheet. She lifted up the edge of the sheet and found two little kittens inside. They were absolutely tiny, but so adorable! The first one, slightly bigger, had a dark coat with white paws and long tufts on his ears. One glance was enough to see that the second cat – slightly smaller with a flame-coloured coat – was a girl: she had flirty eyes that were full of life, and long eyelashes.

Max’s auntie called for him. He came at once, and as soon as he saw the kittens his heart was filled with happiness.

“Are these kittens ours?” he asked.

His auntie shook her head.

“I don’t know whose they are, or how they got here. I think we’ll need to call the police so they can try and find the owners.”

“Oh Auntie, let’s not call the police, they can stay here with us. They were brought to us on purpose, after all! And I promise to look after them myself!”

“But we’ve already got Hunter and Matilda. You don’t think they’ll mind us bringing two more furry residents into the house?”

“No, Auntie. Hunter and Matilda are so kind-hearted – and they’ll be happy to have some new friends here.”

The kittens were looking at Max with smiles on their faces. They’d taken to him straight away. And he asked them in cat-language, “What are your names?”

“I’m Tom, and my sister’s called Sienna. Our owner left us and she never came back. We were all on our own for three days. We were hungry and cried so loudly that a neighbour heard us. After feeding us she decided to bring us here to your house – because everyone knows that Jane is so sweet and kind.”

Then beautiful Matilda came out onto the front porch, looked at the kittens and said to Max, “Mmmrrrrr, but who are these splendid creatures? I’d be more than happy to look after them.”

Then came Hunter – he put his glasses on, stroked Auntie Jane’s left leg with his tail, and purred indulgently: “Welcome to our humble abode!” Sienna turned her pretty little eyes towards Hunter, climbed out of the basket, shook out her little apron with its pink frills, and then stepped into the house with great dignity.

That’s how it came to be that there were four friends together in the house in Islington: Hunter, Matilda, Tom and Sienna. And you’ll hear all about their adventures in the tales to come.