Шейла Нортон - Charlie The Kitten Who Saved A Life

‘Charlie!’ she said, throwing the paper down. ‘What are you doing?’

‘Looking after Jessica,’ I meowed. Wasn’t it obvious?

‘Get away from the baby’s face,’ she said. ‘And … what on earth is that ?’ She bent down and picked up my toy mouse. ‘What is this revolting dirty old thing doing in here? I don’t want it on Jessica’s blanket!’ She picked it up and sighed at me. ‘Honestly, I can’t take my eyes off her for one single minute while you’re around, can I?’

I ran off to hide behind the sofa while she fussed around with the baby, straightening out the blanket and moving it even closer to her chair, as if to protect her from me. I couldn’t see what I’d done wrong. It wasn’t as if it was a real mouse. Or perhaps that was what she’d prefer? I decided to try that next time.

From behind the sofa, I watched Laura with the newspaper for a while. I loved the rustling noise it made when she turned the pages, and one of my favourite things was to jump up on her lap, on top of the paper, so that I could tread all over it, scrunching it with my paws. She used to laugh when I did that, but these days she just sighed loudly and lifted me off her, so there wasn’t much point. But when Jessica started to cry and Laura laid the paper down on the floor to pick her up, I couldn’t resist it any longer. I dived across the room, jumped on the outspread pages and had a lovely time walking round in circles, making satisfying scrunching sounds.

‘Charlie!’ she snapped, sounding really cross this time. ‘Get off! What on earth is the matter with you these days?’

I yowled in protest as she pushed me off the paper and put it back on the arm of her chair. It looked a bit torn but I knew she got a new one every day so I couldn’t see why it was such a big deal.

‘Go and play outside,’ she told me as she sat down to feed Jessica. ‘I really can’t cope with you being difficult at the moment.’

Me, difficult? I went out, feeling hurt and unloved. If that was how she felt, I wouldn’t bother hunting for a mouse for baby Jessica after all. So there!

Julian and Caroline were home when I came back into the kitchen later. Caroline had gone into the lounge to watch the TV.

‘The consultant sent us to have blood samples taken for testing, and if the result is suspicious of the illness returning, she’ll have to have a bone marrow biopsy,’ Julian was telling Laura.

‘Oh no. Not again. Poor Caroline,’ Laura said. ‘Did he say he thinks it is the leukaemia?’

‘He wouldn’t say. He said her symptoms might just as easily be something else, but of course with her history he wants to rule it out.’ Julian sighed. ‘He did say the blood test results might not be back with the GP for a while, though.’

‘And we’re supposed to be going away tomorrow. Do you want to wait until we get the results? It wouldn’t hurt to put off going for a few days.’

I thought Laura actually sounded quite cheerful about the idea. But Julian shook his head.

‘No. The results might take longer than that, and anyway I can phone for them from Mudditon.’

‘But if she does need the biopsy …’

‘Laura, I’m trying to be positive here! I think we should go ahead as planned. Caroline needs this holiday as much as we do. The sea air will do her good. If she does have to have the biopsy, I’ll just have to bring her back for a few days.’

‘OK.’ Laura put her paws round Julian’s middle. ‘You’re right, we mustn’t keep thinking the worst.’

‘Hard not to, though.’ He sighed. ‘Well, hopefully the holiday will help take our minds off it.’

The next morning, everyone was up before me. Jessica had, as usual, woken me up during the night so I’d decided to go out for a moonlight stroll. You know how pleasant it is, on a summer’s evening, to scamper around outside in the dark, when most of the humans are asleep. Having such good night vision is a wonderful thing! I like trying to catch little field mice and voles unawares on nights like that. I was having such fun, I didn’t stop at the boundary of my own territory but carried on chasing one little mouse all the way down the lane into the centre of Little Broomford village. Suddenly a bigger cat loomed out of the darkness in front of me, making me skid to a stop, stifling a whimper of fright. I shouldn’t have wandered this far at night – I was probably trespassing in someone else’s territory and might have been about to get told off, or worse, attacked, for my cheek.

‘Charlie, it’s me!’ the bigger cat meowed, just as I was about to make a run for it.

‘Oh, hello, Ollie!’ I felt a bit embarrassed, then, for behaving like a scaredy-cat. But he came up to me and rubbed his face against mine.

‘It’s brave of you, isn’t it, being out in the village on your own at this time of night?’

I was still a little kitten to Oliver, you see. He’s always been protective of me.

‘It’s such a nice night for hunting,’ I explained. ‘I was chasing a mouse, and I got carried away.’

‘Well, let’s go back up the lane together. How are you – I haven’t seen you for a few days.’

‘I know. To be honest, so much has been happening at home, with my humans, I’ve been so worried … I hardly know where to start.’

‘What’s wrong? Are they in trouble?’

‘I don’t know. I can’t work it out – you know how complicated humans are. They’re all really stressed and cross with each other—’

‘Well, you’ve been saying that since the new kitten – Jessica – arrived, haven’t you?’

‘Yes, but it’s got even worse lately. It’s Caroline I’m most worried about. She seems so unhappy, a lot of the time. I know Julian and Laura are worried about her too. You don’t think she’s got that horrible illness again, do you, Ollie?’

‘I certainly hope not. It was so good to see her getting better, I’d hate to think of her being ill again. Is that what Julian and Laura think, then?’

‘They seem to, yes. Julian took her somewhere today to see a consultant , and he looked very worried when they came back. I wish I knew what I could do to make her better.’

‘It’s really hard to know how to help humans, sometimes,’ Oliver said seriously. And he should know. As you’re all aware, he’s famous for having helped everyone in the whole village, back before I was born. ‘You need to listen carefully to their conversations and try to pick up clues.’

‘All they do is argue, these days,’ I said sadly. ‘And a lot of the rows are about the holiday.’

‘Oh yes, you told me about that. It means they’re going away somewhere, right? And have they decided yet what’s happening to you? Not the cattery, I hope?’ he added with a shudder.

‘No. They say they’re taking me with them. I’m a bit nervous about it, though, as I don’t really understand where we’re going, or why. Nobody seems to be looking forward to it. But at least I’ll be with Caroline. I’m sure she’ll look after me. I only wish I could make her happy.’

‘Try taking a nice fat mouse back for her tonight?’ Oliver suggested.

‘Laura would go mad. She keeps telling me off about things like that. She seems to think they’re dirty.’

‘Yes, it’s odd how humans aren’t always pleased with our gifts. But surely Caroline would be grateful, at least?’

‘I could try it,’ I said doubtfully. ‘But I think she might just prefer a cuddle, to be honest.’

‘That’s the best thing,’ Ollie agreed. ‘Humans always like cuddling us. They think they’re doing it for our sakes, but of course, it’s really the other way around. They’re very needy creatures, you know, Charlie. Very fragile, emotionally. It’s a good thing we cats are so well-balanced or we’d never be able to cope with them.’