Holly Webb - The Curious Kitten

George raced out of his bedroom and almost crashed into his mum on the landing.

“George? What’s going on? What was all that noise? Are you teasing Pirate?”

“No! I’ll explain in a minute.” He dodged past his mum, tore down the stairs and out of the front door.

“Please come down,” George whispered, gazing up at the kitten. “I really don’t want you to fall.”

His mum appeared at the door, looking really cross. “George! What is going on? Get back in here!”

“I can’t, Mum. Look…” He pointed up at the kitten, and his mum came over to see.

“Oh!” Mum cried. “Whose kitten is that?”

“I don’t know. But she’s stuck on the roof.” George felt bad not explaining how the kitten had got on to the roof in the first place, but he hadn’t exactly told his mum a lie…

“How on earth are we going to get it down?” Mum said. “Poor little thing – it looks terrified!”

“Kitty!” Toby clambered down the front step and pointed up at the kitten.

Mum caught his hand quickly. “Yes, it is. But the kitty’s stuck, Toby. Shh, now, don’t scare it.”

“Mum, what are we going to do?” George whispered.

“Pirate!” His mum gasped, pointing up at George’s window. “How did he get up there?”

George craned his neck to look up at the window. He could just see Pirate’s black-and-white face, pressed up against the opening. But Pirate was too big to squeeze through the way the kitten had. He just stood there, yowling.

Cleo could see him, too. The older cat looked enormous, and she was sure it was about to leap out of the window after her. She backed away, hissing, but her claws slipped on the tiles, and she slid even further down the steep roof with a terrified mew.

Mum turned to George. “We need a ladder. There’s one in the shed – at least, I think there is… Stay here with Toby and try to calm the kitten down. First I’m going to get Pirate off there before he hurts himself or frightens the little one even more.” She pushed Toby’s hand into George’s and disappeared inside.

George looked up at the kitten clinging desperately on to the roof and felt so guilty. He should never have brought her into the house.

“Just hold on,” he called softly. “It’s going to be OK. We’ll get you down. And then I promise we’ll try and find who you really belong to.”

“Are you all right?” said a man’s voice from behind George.

George whirled round. It was Luke from next door. George hadn’t even heard his van drive up. “Hi!” he said breathlessly. “Do you have a ladder in your van? Mum’s gone to look for one, but she’s not sure where it is.”

“What do you need a ladder... Oh, I see.” Luke peered up at the kitten clinging to the garage roof. “Hold on a sec.” He hurried back to his van.

George went back to murmuring nonsense to the kitten and trying to stop Toby from climbing up the drainpipe to get to her. He glanced up at his bedroom. Mum must have grabbed Pirate and put him somewhere safe, because now his window was wide open. Maybe Mum thought the kitten could jump back in. But George was pretty sure such a little cat couldn’t jump up there from the steep roof, not without sliding back down again.

“I’ve shut Pirate in the kitchen,” said his mum, rushing out. “But I can’t find the ladder, I think it must be in the garage.”

“It’s OK.” George pointed to Luke, who was coming up the path with a stepladder. “Luke’s got one.”

His mum gave a huge sigh of relief. “Hi, Luke. You turned up just at the right time. I’ve got a bag of cat treats. I was thinking we could try and coax the kitten back up to the window with them, but it’ll definitely be easier this way.”

Luke unfolded the ladder and slowly moved it towards the garage. “I don’t want to scare it away,” he said. “Pass me some of those treats.”

Mum emptied a few into his hand and he climbed up the ladder, holding out the treats towards the kitten. “Come on, puss. Here, look. Don’t you want them?”

Cleo hissed feebly at the strange man. She was so frightened she didn’t know what to do – she could only cling on.

George watched, his heart thumping. What if Luke couldn’t reach? Or the kitten tried to dodge him and fell?

“Hold the ladder, can you?” Luke called down quietly to George’s mum. “I need both hands… Aha! Got you.” The kitten wriggled in his arms as he climbed back down the ladder one-handed. “There we are. You’re safe now. Yes, you eat those.”

He laughed as Cleo sniffed out the cat treats at last, leaning over to nuzzle eagerly at the bag in George’s mum’s hand. “Well, it doesn’t look like she’s come to any harm, does it?” He peered at Cleo’s black and white and ginger coat, frowning. “I wonder… But it’s too far, surely. Here, can you hold her a minute?” Luke passed the kitten to George and dug in his pocket. “Would you say she looks like that?” He held out a slip of paper, with a little photo of a kitten on it.

“Yes,” George’s mum said, looking at the leaflet. “I think so…”

“I don’t believe it.” Luke shook his head. “Well, that girl who lives opposite the house I’m working on is going to be pleased, if this really is her. Are you Cleo, hey?”

“Cleo!” George gasped. He stared at the kitten. “ Amber’s Cleo?”

Luke looked thoughtful. “I think her mum did say she was called Amber. She’s got red hair?”

“That’s her! This is Amber’s cat? She’s in my class. So that’s why she’s been looking so upset.” He looked down at Cleo, his cheeks reddening. He’d wanted to steal Amber’s kitten! “But how did she get all the way over here?” he asked suddenly. “Amber told me she lives on the other side of town, by the adventure playground.”

Luke made a face and nodded towards the van. “Well, guess where that’s been parked. Right outside her house.”

“Amber did say her kitten was really nosy,” George said. “She was worried about her getting run over, because she’d started going out on to the street.”

“You think she got into your van?” George’s mum said in surprise, shaking out a few more cat treats and feeding them to Cleo.

“She must have done. I’d better take her home,” Luke sighed. “And apologize for catnapping her.”

“You didn’t mean to!” George’s mum laughed. “I’m sure they’ll just be delighted to have her back. Do you want to borrow Pirate’s cat carrier? The poor kitten probably won’t like it much, it’ll smell of Pirate, but you’ll need to put her in something.”

“Before she eats all the cat treats and makes a getaway!” Luke agreed.

“Can I come with you?” George asked shyly. “I won’t get in the way or anything. I’d just like to help take her home.”

“If it’s OK with your mum. You can sit in the front with me and hold the carrier. I don’t want it wobbling about.”

“Of course you can,” Mum said. “Hold on a minute and I’ll get it out of the garage.”

George smiled. He could imagine how pleased Amber was going to be. If he’d lost Pirate, he’d have been in a real state.