Холли Вебб - A Kitten Called Tiger

“I hope he’s come out of the cat carrier,” Mum said, looking over her shoulder. “But I can’t see him. I’m surprised he’s so shy – he seemed really daring at Rosie’s house. He was definitely the most adventurous of the four.”

“Mum! Look!” Ava pointed across the kitchen at the wall, next to the fridge. Mum was always saying that she wanted to change the wallpaper, she thought it was too bright and plasticky-looking but Ava liked it. The paper was yellow, with a bright pattern of jam jars on it. Right now, though, halfway up there was a little stripey kitten.

“How did he get up there?” Mum gasped.

“He must have climbed up,” Ava giggled. “I suppose the paper’s squishy enough that he can stick his claws in. Poor Tiger! Are you stuck? Shall I get you down?” She walked slowly over to the wall. “How long have you been up there, silly boy? What did you do that for, hey?”

“Just be careful, Ava,” said Mum. “Don’t pull at him, it might hurt his claws.”

Ava put one hand under Tiger’s bottom and tried to lift his front paws up a bit to unhook the claws.

“How is he?” Dad asked, putting his head round the door. “Settling in OK?”

Mum sighed. “You could say that. Look!”

Dad laughed. “Wow! That’s one way to get rid of that wallpaper! Can you get him off there, Ava?”

“His claws are stuck right in,” Ava said worriedly. “I can’t lift his paws away and he’s so panicked he’s just clinging on. At least I’m holding him up now, so it’s not like he’s hanging there by his claws… What are we going to do? Should we call Rosie?”

Dad shook his head. “Just a minute, I’ve got an idea.” He reached out and gently rubbed the top of Tiger’s closest paw. The kitten looked round at him, his ears laid back, and his eyes wide and anxious-looking.

“What are you doing, Dad?” Ava asked.

“My mum did this when our cat climbed the back of the sofa and got stuck. Our old grey cat, Smokey – remember, Grandma Shirley showed you his picture.”

Ava nodded. Her gran loved cats – she’d had several and Ava had seen photos of all of them. Smokey was the beautiful grey long-haired cat that Dad’s family had owned when he was about Ava’s age.

“It’s working,” Ava whispered as Tiger relaxed his claws and his paw came away from the wallpaper with a little popping noise. “Do the other paw, Dad!”

Dad rubbed Tiger’s furthest paw and it happened even quicker this time. Tiger was free – his hind paws hadn’t been stuck in nearly as deeply. Ava lifted him away from the wall and put him down carefully on the floor.

The kitten stalked away, shaking his ears crossly, and Ava pressed her hand across her mouth, trying not to laugh. “I think he’s embarrassed that he got stuck,” she whispered to Dad. “He’s pretending it didn’t happen!”

“I hope his paws are all right,” Mum said, leaning sideways to look at the way Tiger was walking. “He’s not limping, is he?”

“No, I think he’s fine.” Ava crouched down to check and Tiger looked round at her curiously. “Hey, Tiger. You’re OK, aren’t you? No sore paws?”

Tiger padded up to her and dabbed his nose against her knee.

Dad smiled. “Maybe that was a thank you.”

“Mum, where’s Tiger?” Ava dashed out into the garden, where her mum was planting some cuttings. Ava’s best friend Jess’s dad worked as a gardener and he’d given them to Mum at school the day before.

“Isn’t he in the kitchen? He was asleep in his basket a few minutes ago. I think he was worn out after you girls waved that feather toy at him for so long.” Mum stood up, taking off her gardening gloves.

“He’s definitely not. I came down to check on him after I’d finished my maths homework.” Ava looked around the garden worriedly. “He didn’t slip out after you, did he? He’s not supposed to go outside yet!”

“I’m sure he didn’t.” Mum was silent for a moment. “I wonder where your sisters are…?”

Ava wheeled round and hurried back into the house. Lucy and Bel had been in their room, she’d heard them giggling. But they knew Tiger was supposed to stay in the kitchen for the first few days! She bounded up the stairs and burst into their bedroom.

“Go away! We’re busy!” Lucy said crossly but Bel looked nervous. She put a doll’s blanket over something in front of her – something that was moving!

“You’ve got Tiger up here!” Ava cried. “You have! You know he’s supposed to stay in the kitchen – we’ve not even had him for a day!”

Tiger peered out from underneath the blanket and Ava gasped. They’d been dressing him up. A doll’s sock was falling off one of his front paws and there was a hat balanced on one twitching ear.

Ava scooped him up and cuddled him against her. “You mustn’t do that! He’s not a toy!”

“How come you get to play with him and we don’t?” Bel demanded. “We were just having fun. He’s our kitten, too.”

“You can play with him properly, with cat toys! But you shouldn’t dress him up like a doll.” Ava slipped the sock off his paw – the hat had fallen off already.

“Give him back!” Lucy whined.

Bel stamped her foot. “You’re not taking him, it isn’t fair!”

“Oh yes, she is,” Mum said from the doorway. “You knew he wasn’t allowed to come upstairs yet. And what’s this about dressing him up? Take Tiger back to the kitchen, Ava, I need to talk to Bel and Lucy.”

Ava carried Tiger downstairs, stroking him gently. “I bet you wish you could go back to Rosie’s house, where everybody was sensible,” she whispered. “I can’t believe my stupid sisters were dressing you up. They were probably going to put you in the doll’s pushchair, weren’t they?”

Tiger nuzzled under her chin. He hadn’t liked Lucy and Bel pulling him around, although he had got to explore their room while they argued over which clothes to put on him and that had been interesting. So many things to clamber around and sniff and investigate. But he liked Ava’s calm, gentle voice, and the way she was stroking his back over and over.

Ava sat down at the kitchen table, holding Tiger in her lap. She wasn’t holding him tight, and she was expecting him to leap down from her knee and go and find somewhere to hide. Probably he’d want to tuck himself away inside his basket – it was one of those soft furry igloo ones, so he had his own little cave to snuggle in. But he stayed, kneading up and down on her leg with his needle-sharp claws.

“It’s a good thing I’ve got jeans on,” she whispered to him. “Are you OK? You’re not still scared?”

Tiger turned himself round slowly and then settled down into a little heap on her lap. He looked around and spotted his feather toy lying on the floor close to his basket. Perhaps Ava would wave it for him some more? Then he slumped down again. No. He was too sleepy…

Ava watched him, a huge smile on her face. He was going to sleep – on her lap. Surely that meant he was happy, even after Lucy and Bel had been so awful.