Шейла Нортон - Charlie The Kitten Who Saved A Life

I wasn’t listening anymore. His Human words were all running into each other, making no sense to me. I’d switched off. I was waiting for that needle, and just hoping the end would be quick.

‘Pass me the scanner,’ he said to the nurse, and the next thing I knew, something cold was being run over the back of my neck. Here comes the needle , I thought. Oh well, this is it. Goodbye, cruel world. Goodbye, Caroline. Goodbye, Laura, Julian … but before I’d even finished my litany of farewells, the vet was speaking again. I tried to concentrate this time, to tune in and hear what he was saying. It might be the last thing I ever heard, after all.

‘Would you ladies mind holding him on this side, while I check the computer?’

Jean and Shirley grabbed hold of me together. There was silence, apart from some tapping noises as Mr Caswell did something on his computer. And then:

‘Well I never! That is a surprise. You’re quite right, ladies. Well done – you have found our missing hero!’

Hero? Was he talking about me? Was he not going to kill me, then? I tried to lift my head to look at him. He was smiling.

‘Poor Charlie, eh! He must have really been through it these past few weeks to end up in this condition. Well, it’s good news. I’m going to give Mr Smythe a call right now. I think he’s still staying in one of the hotels down at the seafront. He told me he’s taken a week off work and was going to search the town day and night until he found this little chap. His daughter is inconsolable, apparently, breaking her heart over him.’

‘Oh, I’m so pleased we found him!’ Jean said, clapping her paws together.

‘Me too.’ Shirley looked like she was about to start mewing.

‘You’re in line for a hefty reward,’ the vet said to the two females as he picked up his phone, but they were both shaking their heads.

‘Oh, we don’t want any money, do we, Shirl?’ Jean exclaimed. ‘We just want Charlie taken back where he belongs.’

‘That’s right,’ Shirley agreed, as the vet started talking on his phone. ‘That poor little girl will be so happy!’

Poor little girl? Were they talking about Caroline? I tried to sit up, but they were still holding me firmly. Were they saying I wasn’t going to be killed? No injection? No roasting and eating with ketchup? Could it really be true?

‘Am I going home?’ I meowed loudly. ‘Are you not going to hurt me?’

They all laughed. ‘It’s as if he knows he’s going to be all right now,’ said Jean. ‘Look, he’s completely settled down. I think he trusts us now.’

‘I’ve spoken to Mr Smythe,’ the vet said. ‘He’s on his way.’ Mr Caswell came over to the table and started tickling me under the chin. ‘Yes, you’re a nice boy really, aren’t you, Charlie?’ he said very gently. ‘Not a wild cat at all, just a poor little tabby who got lost.’

To my surprise, I found myself purring. I’d misjudged him. He liked me! And the two females weren’t catnappers after all – they were my rescuers! I rubbed my head against their hands and purred at them too, and they all laughed again, sounding as happy as I was, now beginning to feel myself.

The young nurse lifted me down to the floor and put a bowl of lovely milk in front of me. I fell on it and lapped it all up.

‘That’s it, Charlie, now let’s get you some food too,’ she said, sounding like she was almost mewing too. ‘You’ve had a rotten time, by the look of you, and you must be starving. But it’s all over now. Your master’s coming to get you. You’re going home, Charlie. You’re going home to your little girl!’

I was asleep in a kind of cage thing in a back room of the vet’s when I heard Julian’s voice. I wasn’t very happy about being put in the cage, just when I’d made up my mind to trust Mr Caswell and Ginny the nurse, and thought they liked me. But I’d been well fed, and after all the trauma I’d been through, I was exhausted, so I gave in, let them shut the cage door and settled down on the mat inside the cage. I was just in the middle of a very satisfying dream where I was playing with a fat frog at the edge of the big pond at home, when I heard Julian calling me.

‘OK,’ I meowed in my dream, ‘I’ll just make this frog jump one more time, then I’ll come in …’, and then I woke up with a start, looked around me, and remembered where I was. Julian was smiling at me through the door of the cage.

I jumped up, purring at the top of my lungs. I’d never been so happy to see anyone! I put my front paws up to the cage door, trying to get out, trying to lick him through the bars, meowing and purring for all I was worth.

‘Hello, boy. What a welcome!’ Julian said. His voice sounded wobbly.

Ginny reached around him to unlock the cage and he took hold of me, hugging me close.

‘Look at the state of you,’ he murmured. ‘You poor little fellow.’

‘Mr Caswell says he must have been living rough, and he’s definitely got into a fight or two,’ Ginny said. ‘He was half wild with fear when the two ladies brought him in.’

‘Where are they?’ Julian looked around him as he carried me through to the vet’s room. ‘I wanted to thank them. I offered a reward.’

‘They said they wouldn’t accept anything,’ Mr Caswell said, turning round from wiping down the table. ‘They were just thrilled to bits to have found Charlie and that he would be going home safely.’

‘But I must thank them, at least! And if they won’t accept the reward, I’ll send the money to a cat charity.’

‘Well, I’m sure Jean and Shirley would really appreciate that. They’re both cat lovers.’

‘Oh, you know them? They live locally?’

‘Yes. They both have pets registered here, and bring them in for their regular check-ups and so on.’

‘Would you be able to give me their phone numbers, then, or is that against your data protection?’

Mr Caswell was smiling. ‘It’s fine, Mr Smythe. They actually asked me to give you their contact details. They asked if you’d be kind enough to update them on Charlie’s recovery.’

‘Of course I will,’ Julian said, taking a piece of paper from the vet and putting it in his wallet. ‘Now, what do I owe you?’

‘Nothing yet , because I haven’t actually started Charlie on any treatment. I was waiting to consult you about it. I’m sure you’re keen to take him straight home, but he’s going to need that abscess on his leg lanced as soon as possible. I could do it right now, but he’ll need to wear an Elizabethan collar afterwards to stop him licking and chewing at the wound.’

‘One of those big protective collars? Animals hate wearing them, don’t they?’

‘At first, yes, until they get used to them. But as you’ve got such a long journey it might not be a good idea to upset him any further today. What I’d suggest is, I’ll give Charlie a quick shot of intravenous antibiotic now, and after you get him home, see your own vet about getting the abscess treated. I’ll give you some antibiotic and anti-inflammatory drops for that poor eye, too. And he also needs a flea treatment. Would you like me to do that now?’

And so I was put back on the shiny table and subjected to a needle after all, as well as a dose of flea stuff on the back of my neck. Then I had something dripped into my sore eye, which made me shake my head and twitch my ears madly. But this time I wasn’t screaming or quaking with fear, because my own human was holding me, whispering words of comfort in my ear and stroking me all the while it was happening.