Шейла Нортон - Charlie The Kitten Who Saved A Life

‘Rest? In a self-catering cottage?’ she said quietly. ‘I’ll still have to do everything, Julian, the baby won’t stop being demanding just because we’re at the seaside, and you won’t even be there to help.’

‘And I’m not coming!’ Caroline said, her face all red and cross. ‘I don’t want to spend the whole school holiday at boring Mudditon-on-Sea. My friends are all planning stuff. Going into town on the bus and going to the cinema and things, and I’ll be the only one not around!’

With which she stomped back upstairs and slammed her bedroom door.

Julian got to his feet, looking upset.

‘Leave her,’ Laura said. ‘She’ll come round.’

‘I’m sorry,’ he said, spreading his paws out helplessly. ‘I’ve got it all wrong, haven’t I? I’d better cancel it.’

‘No, don’t.’ She looked up at him now, smiling. ‘Sorry I wasn’t more excited, love. I’m just so tired, I can’t think straight.’

‘I thought it’d be a nice surprise. We all need a break. Things have been so tense recently. I’m worried about Caroline, she’s looking pale and sad all the time, and she keeps shutting herself away upstairs. I thought the sea air would do everyone some good.’

‘I know. It is a nice idea. I’m sure we’ll have fun.’

Her smile looked a bit strange, like she didn’t really mean it. Julian went upstairs again to get changed, and I jumped up on the sofa next to her. She looked at me over the top of the baby’s head.

‘Not really my idea of fun, Charlie,’ she whispered. ‘On my own with a crying baby and a sulky girl who doesn’t want to come. But what can I do? I don’t want to hurt his feelings.’

I meowed back at her and she took one hand away from the baby to pat me gently on the head. But like all humans, she didn’t understand Cat, so she didn’t know I was trying to say something very important to her: ‘What about me? Who’s going to look after me while you’re away? Doesn’t anyone think about me anymore?’

The next day, when Julian had gone to work and Caroline was at school, Laura’s friend Nicky came round with her baby, Benjamin. Benjamin was a lot bigger than our Jessica, and was now managing to stand on his back paws and do a funny sort of walk for a few steps before he fell over. It beats me why humans bother with all that effort of walking on two paws. What’s the point? I’ve tried it, several times, but it just doesn’t work. It seems like the most unnatural thing in the world.

I liked Nicky. She always made a fuss of me, playing with me and scratching me on the head and under the chin just the way I like, making me purr with pleasure.

‘So, is Caroline excited about it?’ Nicky asked when Laura had finished telling her about the holiday.

‘No. She’s not happy at all.’ Laura sighed, shaking her head. ‘She told Julian she doesn’t want to come and she’s hardly spoken a word to either of us since. She’s gone off to school in a huff this morning.’

‘Well, I suppose a whole month is a long time. She’ll probably miss her friends. She’s getting to an age where her friends are just as important to her as her family.’

‘I know. And of course, she’s already cross enough about September when she’s going to a different school from her friends in the village. I really hope we’re doing the right thing, Nicky, sending her to the private school. It’s been so nice seeing how she’s made friends now, after all that time off being so lonely while she was ill.’

That was before I came to live with them, but I knew all about it from Oliver, because he used to visit the family before I was born. Caroline had been very poorly, and apparently Laura had been her nurse until Julian decided he wanted her as his female.

‘She’ll come round. She’ll make new friends easily enough once she starts at St Margaret’s,’ Nicky said, and Laura sighed again.

‘I do hope so. We’re quite worried about her, to be honest. She seems so tired and listless all the time these days. Almost everything I say, she snaps my head off. I asked her to tidy her room a few days ago and she said “You can’t tell me what to do, you’re not my mother .”’

‘Oh dear. That must have been hurtful.’

‘Well, I guess she must still think about her mum. It’s only natural, even though Caroline was quite little when she died. I’ve never tried to take her place.’

‘I know. And she does love you really, Laura. Perhaps she’s just feeling tired. It’s the end of term – all the kids are probably ready for a break.’

‘Yes, that’s true. Anyway she’s got her check-up at the hospital next week. We’re going to ask her consultant to run some tests.’

‘Really? You’re that worried?’ Nicky took hold of Laura’s paw. ‘You don’t think the leukaemia has come back?’

‘That’s what we’re frightened of, obviously,’ Laura said quietly. ‘It’s hard not to fear the worst. She’s only been in remission for a year.’

Nicky put her arm round Laura. I could tell I wasn’t going to get stroked anymore so I jumped down and ran off to play outside. As you know, my house is the one they call The Big House, so I have a lot of lovely grounds within my territory, a lot of borders to patrol to make sure none of you lot sneak in without my permission. It’s quite a responsibility. It was a lovely warm day, with all sorts of wonderful scents in the air, and dopy insects and birds out of their trees and bushes, so I was having fun jumping around, chasing my shadow in the sunshine, and I must have been gone longer than I thought.

When I finally returned, they were all home. And to my disgust, nobody took the slightest notice of me again, because there was another argument going on.

‘I can’t believe you’re going to do that!’ Caroline was saying crossly to her father. ‘How could you? He’ll hate it!’

‘No he won’t,’ Julian said. ‘It’ll be like a holiday for him.’

Oh, more talk about holidays. I didn’t want to hear it. I just wanted my dinner. I meowed loudly at them all, walking around them and flicking my tail.

Laura looked down at me, frowning.

‘Perhaps I could ask Nicky if she and Dan could look after him,’ she said. ‘Although it is a whole month. It’s a bit much.’

I stopped meowing abruptly. Were they talking about me ?

‘No. I’ve said, he can go to the cattery,’ Julian said. ‘He’ll be fine.’

The cattery ? I felt my fur begin to stand on end. Oliver had told me about that place. I’ll never forget the story, it’s haunted me ever since. You really want to hear it, Nancy? Well, it was apparently our father – Oliver’s friend Tabby – who was sent to the cattery once, when his humans went away. He said it was the worst experience of his nine lives. He was kept in a cage, day and night, with just a bed and a litter tray. And although there were lots of other cats there, he couldn’t see them, he just smelt their fear and heard them crying. He wasn’t allowed out to hunt, and although he was fed regularly he felt too stressed to eat much. Apparently the humans who looked after him there were friendly, and gave him plenty of strokes and cuddles, but he didn’t know whether to trust them or not, and had no idea whether he was ever going home again. He had nothing in the cage that smelt of home or his humans, and by the time they finally came back to collect him he was so upset he wouldn’t have anything to do with them for days – he went off on his own and they thought he’d run away. Of course, eventually he gave in because he was so hungry, but Oliver said it took him a long time to get over it.

Yes, it’s a horrible story, isn’t it? So, as you can imagine, when I heard the cattery being mentioned, I let out a long, mournful cry of distress. Caroline dived on me and picked me up, holding me tight. Her eyes looked all wet.