Холли Вебб - The Brave Kitten

She crouched down on the floor in front of the cage. There were six of them, in two rows on top of each other, and the caramel cat was in one of the bottom ones. “You look really miserable,” Helena told him. “Aren’t you going to have any breakfast?” She was whispering, and trying not to stare the cat in the eyes. She knew he wouldn’t like it.

Even though Helena didn’t have a cat, Gran had given her a book all about them last Christmas. It was because Helena had told Gran her secret Christmas wish, when Gran had asked what present she might like. What Helena really wanted for Christmas was a cat, but it was a secret because Helena knew that Mum would never let her have one. She’d asked before, lots of times, and Mum had always said no. Helena could sort of see why – her mum was a teacher at the school Helena went to, so they were both out all day. A kitten would be lonely and bored and miserable, and Mum thought it wasn’t fair. Helena couldn’t help thinking that she could make the rest of the time so special that the kitten wouldn’t mind. But she knew Mum wouldn’t agree.

Gran had given Helena a tiny china cat and the book, which had loads of beautiful photos and told you all the things you needed to know to be a cat owner. She’d written in the front that Helena might not need it right now, but she would have a cat of her own one day. And meanwhile, please could she come and practise on Gran’s cats, Snow and Smudge, as they were getting fat and needed Helena to play with them!

On Saturday Helena had gone home and read everything she could find about cat injuries. After she’d read everything there was in the book from Gran, she’d gone online to look up more information. Now she was worried that the cat was traumatized by the accident. She’d had to get her mum to explain what traumatized meant. It was that the memory of the accident and the time at the vet’s might make the cat really upset, and perhaps not very friendly.

That made a lot of sense to Helena. She’d broken her arm falling off the climbing frame at school and even though that had been a year ago, she’d never gone back on the climbing frame.

Hopefully, if she made the little caramel cat’s stay at the vet’s as nice as possible, he’d think about that, rather than the car, and the cage, and his leg hurting. It had to be worth a try, Helena thought.

The cat sniffed at the food and even though cats didn’t really shrug or sigh, Helena was almost sure he did. I just can’t be bothered , he was thinking – she could tell. He didn’t even eat a mouthful.

Slowly, Helena reached into the cage and tickled him under the chin with one finger. He was such a handsome cat, even with the ugly plaster on his leg – a soft peachy colour all over, with darker caramel stripes, and no white on him at all, apart from his drooping whiskers. His nose was apricot-pink and his eyes were huge and golden. He was going to be big, Helena thought, when he was fully grown. His paws were enormous, as though he needed to grow into them.

The cat curled himself into her hand a little, enjoying the soft touch of the girl’s fingers. He didn’t understand why he was here, shut up in this cage. The white thing was back on his leg again and now it smelled even worse, if that was possible. And it had tasted disgusting when he’d tried chewing at it. This whole place smelled wrong. Too clean. He hated it. He wanted to go back to his house and his garden, and his little patch of street. But he didn’t know where home was – he hadn’t known for a while. He’d gone exploring and then, somehow, he hadn’t known how to get back home. He didn’t understand it – he had thought he would always know. But it had been a long time now, and he’d been hungry and tired and frightened when he tried to cross that road. Now he was further away from his home than ever.

He almost felt like whipping his head round and nipping at the girl’s fingers with his teeth. But not quite. That patch under his chin was his favourite place to be stroked, and she wasn’t stopping. She’d reached all the itchy bits now, and he wheezed out the faintest breath of a purr.

“Oh! Are you purring?” Helena whispered. “Are you feeling better?” She ran her hand gently over his smooth head, and sighed. “If you don’t have an owner, you’ll have to go to the animal shelter when you’re a bit better, so they can look after you till someone wants you. I hope you cheer up before then, caramel cat. You’re so beautiful, and I think you’d be a lovely pet. But no one’s going to take you home if you just hide at the back of your cage. You’ll end up staying at the shelter for ages.”

The little golden cat stayed flopped on his blanket, and Helena tried not to think Maybe for ever …

“So how’s the cat now?” Helena’s friend Katie asked. “I suppose you haven’t seen him since yesterday.”

“No, and I bet Mum’s going to say it’s too late to nip over to the surgery on the way home,” Helena sighed. They were waiting for Helena’s mum to come over from the staff room to pick them up from football club after school. She usually dropped Katie home, too, or sometimes Katie stayed for tea. “She did let me text Lucy last night, and Lucy said he hadn’t taken the cast off again. He still hadn’t tried standing up, though, and he’d not eaten much.”

“And nobody knows who he belongs to?” Katie asked anxiously. “Poor little cat! What’s going to happen to him?”

Helena sighed. “Lucy said that if no one claims him in another day or so, he’ll have to go to the shelter. But I don’t think anyone’s going to want a limpy, miserable cat who won’t even come and say hello, even if he is pretty. They’re putting a photo of him in the local paper, too. Maybe his owner will see that.”

“Sorry I’m late! Are you telling Katie about the cat?” Helena’s mum had hurried up behind the girls without them noticing. “I wonder if they’ve found his owner yet.”

“That’s just what we were talking about,” Helena said, with a tiny sigh. Of course, she did want the cat to go back to his old home. But a little bit of her was imagining him coming home with her instead.

“Don’t worry, Helena,” her mum said gently. “Even if he has to go to the shelter, it’ll be fine. I know quite a few people who’ve got their cats and dogs from there. The animals are looked after really well, and the staff take a lot of care finding new homes for them.”

“I suppose so,” Helena murmured.

Katie gave her a sympathetic look – she realized what Helena was wishing. Her family had a fat black Labrador called Charlie, and Helena loved to come with her to walk him. Katie knew how much her friend wanted a pet of her own.

Lucy called Helena that evening, while she was helping her mum make dinner.