Холли Вебб - The Rescued Kitten

Edie tried to pull at the clump of fur, but it was stuck so tightly that it didn’t budge and she could feel the kitten flinching. “It’s no good, I’m only hurting her,” she whispered, looking round at Layla anxiously. “What are we going to do?”

“Scissors! I’ve got scissors in my pencil case!” Layla shrugged off her backpack and fished inside for her pencil case. “Here, look, and they’re nice and sharp. You can just cut the fur away.” She passed a pair of scissors to Edie and Edie leaned in closer to the kitten.

The tiny creature opened her eyes again, but when she saw Edie looming towards her, and the shiny blades of the scissors, she started to struggle.

“It’s OK,” Edie whispered. “We’re trying to get you out of there.”

“Is it working?” Layla asked worriedly, peering over Edie’s shoulder.

“Yes … nearly there.” Edie snipped at the ginger fur. She cupped her left hand underneath the kitten to catch her and cut through the last chunk of fur. The kitten slumped into her hand, limp and floppy like a beanbag toy.

Edie passed the scissors to Layla and crept backwards, the kitten cupped in her hands. The tiny thing stirred and wriggled a little as she was brought out of the shadow of the hedge and into the light. The two girls stared down at her.

“She’s so little,” Layla whispered. “What’s she doing here on her own?”

“I don’t know.” Edie cuddled the kitten against her school dress for a minute, trying to reach round to her backpack. “Ugh, I can’t do this with one hand – can you get my cardigan out? We can wrap her up in it – I know it’s not all that cold but you’re supposed to keep tiny kittens warm and it was chilly under that hedge.”

Layla found the cardigan and Edie wrapped the kitten up in it, so that just her little ginger face was peeping out. Her eyes were closed again and Edie was sure that wasn’t a good sign. “She’s got a cut on her front paw, too, did you see? Maybe she was trying to claw her way out of the wire. Come on – we’d better not run and bounce her around but we can walk fast.”

Layla nodded and they hurried along the path with the kitten in Edie’s arms.

“Mum! Mum!” Edie rang the doorbell for a second time and called in through the open front window.

“I was in the kitchen…” Edie’s mum pulled open the door, rolling her eyes at the two girls. “I didn’t take that long!”

“No, I know, sorry – Mum, look!” Edie held out the sad little bundle in her arms.

“Oh my goodness. Where did you find a kitten?” Edie’s mum took the cardigan and looked down worriedly. “Was it hit by a car?” Then she looked up, confused. “No, you’d have gone to Dad at the surgery if you were by the road. So what happened?”

“We found her in a hedge. She was caught on some barbed wire. I had to cut her fur with Layla’s scissors. Is she going to be OK?”

Edie’s mum gently put the bundle on the kitchen table. The kitten was lying there, curled up on Edie’s cardigan, not moving at all. Edie could just about see she was breathing but that was it.

“I don’t know,” her mum said slowly. “She could have been there for a while, you see, and she’s very tiny. Maybe about five weeks old? That’s very small to be away from her mother. Edie, can you get me a cardboard box out of the garage? Not a massive one – just something we can make into a nice little nest for the kitten.”

When Edie came back with the box she saw that her mum had found a hot-water bottle and was filling it up. “We need to get her nice and warm,” she explained. “Not too warm, though, we’ll wrap the bottle in a towel. Edie, could you—” but Edie was already racing up the stairs to the airing cupboard. Her mum padded out the box with the hot-water bottle and the towel, and gently lifted the kitten inside. “I’m pretty sure we’ve still got some of that kitten milk from the last time we had kittens here,” she murmured. Then she looked up at the girls. “Look, we’ll do the best we can, of course we will, but you have to understand, she’s very little and she’s injured and shocked. She might not have the strength to get through this.”

Edie swallowed and nodded, and she felt Layla’s hand slip into hers. “We can try, though?” she whispered.

Her mum nodded. “Definitely. Just … don’t get your hopes up too much.”

The kitten blinked wearily. She was warm and she wasn’t being jogged about any more. She wasn’t caught up in the wire now either, she was somewhere soft and comfortable. That was good. The kitten flexed her tiny claws in and out of the towel, and a shiver ran over her. But her mother still hadn’t come to find her and she was so hungry. And the wound on her neck hurt, and so did her paw. She was sure she wouldn’t be able to walk on it, even if she had the energy to try.

What was happening? Where was her mother and why hadn’t she come back?

Layla had to go home to get ready for her swimming lesson but she made Edie promise to call her later. “I still can’t believe we found her,” she murmured, as she backed reluctantly out of Edie’s kitchen. “You will tell me what happens, won’t you? I’ll be home by six.”

“I promise,” Edie agreed. “We’d never have got her untangled from the wire without your scissors. She’s your rescued kitten, too.” She waved to Layla and hurried back into the kitchen. The kitten was snuggled into the towel that Edie’s mum had put on the floor of the box, covering the hot-water bottle. Edie’s mum had dressed her cut leg, and the bandage looked huge on her tiny paw.

“I’ve got that bear you can heat up in the microwave like a hot-water bottle,” Edie suggested. “Shall I get it? The bottle isn’t covering the whole box. There’s a cold bit on one side.”

Edie’s mum shook her head. “No, that’s good. She’s too little for her body to warm up or cool down by itself, so the box needs a warm side and a cooler one. Once she’s feeling warmer she’ll move herself away from the hot-water bottle. Hopefully, anyway.” She was watching the kitten, frowning a little as the tiny creature lay slumped on the towel.

“Can’t we give her some milk?” Edie asked. “Wouldn’t that make her feel better?”

Her mum nodded. “It would. I just want to wait a little bit – she’s so floppy, I think she’s still cold. If she’s been under that hedge for a while, she’ll have lost all her body heat. Ah, look… I think she’s rousing.”

The kitten was still flopped on the towel but she’d raised her head and had turned towards the sound of Edie’s mum’s voice. She definitely looked more awake. And this time, when she tried to mew, she managed to make a noise. A definite, hungry little meow.

“OK!” Edie’s mum laughed. “Let’s see if we can get some milk into her.” She picked up the box of milk powder and a little feeding bottle that she’d found in the cupboard. “This is kitten milk – it’s meant to be like her mum’s milk, it has all the right nutrients. If she’s five weeks old, she should still be feeding from her mum. She’ll be starting to eat solid food as well, but we’ll stick with milk for now.”

She spooned milk powder into the bottle and added warm water, stirring it around.

“That isn’t very much,” Edie pointed out.

“I know – but she may not want to take it. And we can always make more. Later on we’ll weigh her, so we know exactly how much milk she should have but let’s see what she thinks of the bottle first. Some kittens don’t really like bottles, it probably feels a bit weird.”

Edie watched anxiously as her mum lifted the kitten out of the box.

“You sit down,” her mum suggested. “We’ll put her on your knee and I’ll hold the bottle.” She laid the kitten on Edie’s lap, stretched out on her front so she looked like a furry ginger frog. Then she tickled the kitten under her little white chin and laughed when the kitten stretched her head up. “That’s it, sweetie pie. Here. What’s this?” Very gently, Mum squeezed the bottle so a little milk dribbled out on to the kitten’s neon-pink nose and dripped into her mouth.