Holly Webb - Sammy the Shy Kitten

Emma nodded eagerly, and Keira laughed. “She can’t wait – I’m surprised she hasn’t told everybody already! Here, I’ll lead Sparky back.”

Emma handed over the reins and hurried Liz along to the barn door. “Be really quiet!” she whispered, putting a finger up to her lips. Then she led the way inside, tiptoeing over the dusty floor.

“Where is she?” Liz hissed, and then she gasped as Emma pulled her sleeve and pointed into the stall. “Kittens! Oh, wow, I never even thought of that!”

“Three of them,” Emma said, beaming. “Aren’t they beautiful? Can we put down some food for Tiggy in here? I bet she’s really hungry.”

Liz nodded. “Yes, definitely. I’ll go and get her some now. Gosh, three more cats. That’s a lot…”

Emma looked up at her worriedly. “I hadn’t thought about that.”

Liz made a face. “Well, they are lovely, but I’m not sure how many more cats we can look after, to be honest. We’ve already got five. I suppose I should have expected this to happen, but none of them have had kittens till now. Probably we should have got them neutered, but they’re all so shy. It was a nightmare the one time I had to take Susie to the vet because she’d been in a fight. She was really tricky to catch, and she hated being in the car.”

“So…” Emma swallowed – her mouth had gone dry with excitement. When she spoke again, her voice sounded oddly squeaky. “If the kittens couldn’t stay here, would you want to find homes for them?”

Liz nodded slowly. “That would be perfect, wouldn’t it? Nice homes where they’d be properly looked after.”

Emma gazed thoughtfully at the wriggling bundles of fur. “I didn’t think of them being pets,” she murmured. “I thought they’d be a bit wild, like Tiggy.”

Liz shook her head. “I think it’s to do with how much they get used to people when they’re little. Tiggy and Susie and the others are half-wild because they’ve never had a proper indoor home or spent much time around people. But it doesn’t mean it has to be the same with these little ones.”

Emma nodded. That made sense. “How are you going to find them homes?” she said. “Would you just … ask people if they wanted them?”

Liz smiled at Emma. “I suppose so. Are you thinking you’d like a kitten? What would your mum and dad say?”

“I don’t know.” Emma sighed. “But I can ask. I love the idea of taming a little wild kitten!”

Liz snorted. “I wouldn’t put it that way to your mum, Emma. She’d worry about you getting your fingers bitten off. Come on, let’s go and find Tiggy something to eat.”

“Dad!” Emma ran over to the car where her dad was waiting and flung her arms around his waist. “You’ll never guess what happened!”

Her dad blinked at her in surprise. “Did Sparky behave himself for once?”

Emma shook her head and laughed. “Nope, actually he was really tricksy and I fell off. But I’m OK! It’s Tiggy – she’s had three kittens, and I found them!”

“That is exciting! Are they really small?”

“I think they’re only a day or two old,” Emma explained. “Liz said Tiggy had disappeared for a couple of days, so I guess she went off to hide and make herself a little nest. The kittens are teensy – only about this big.” She held her hands apart to show him. “Do you want to come and see?”

Dad wrinkled his nose. “I’d love to – but what about Tiggy? Isn’t she really shy? If loads of people start tramping past her kittens, she might get upset.”

Emma nodded. “I know. But Liz said that seeing as I found them, I can take some food back for Tiggy. You could come with me. Liz has made her a special treat – she found a bit of fish in the freezer. She reckons Tiggy deserves it!”

Dad grinned. “I haven’t seen any tiny kittens for years – not since my cat Bella had kittens when I was about your age.”

“Did she?” Emma looked surprised. “Didn’t you have her neutered, then?”

“She was a stray that Granny May adopted,” Dad explained. “Well, she adopted us, really. She was sitting on the front doorstep one day when we came home from school. We hadn’t even got as far as taking her to the vet, to be honest. We were just getting used to having a cat when the kittens arrived. We had her neutered after that… One litter of kittens was fun, but your gran didn’t want to find homes for any more.”

“You’re so lucky,” Emma sighed. “I wish we had kittens. Or a grown-up cat – I wouldn’t mind.” She gave her dad a sideways look. “Dad, if you really like cats, why don’t we have one?”

Her dad looked thoughtful. “Well, it would have been tricky when me and Mum were both working full-time. But I suppose now we’ve changed our shifts around we could…” Emma’s parents both worked at the local hospital. “I don’t know what your mum would think, though, Ems. She’s never had a cat.”

“I don’t see how anybody could not like a tiny little kitten,” Emma said coaxingly.

“Perhaps because it’ll turn into a great big cat clawing the sofa? You know your mum likes everything really tidy in the house.”

“A cat could be tidy…” Emma said hopefully. “Oh, Liz has got the food, look!” Liz was standing by the car-park gate, holding a couple of bowls. Emma grabbed her dad’s arm, hauling him after her.

“We’ll be really careful,” she told Liz, as she took the food bowl. “Oh, you’ve got some water, too. I was going to ask you about that.”

Emma’s dad took the water bowl and followed her across the yard to the old barn. “I can hear them rustling about,” he whispered to Emma, as they tiptoed over to the stall.

Tiggy was looking anxious, and she half stood up as Emma and her dad came to the door of the stall. The kittens squeaked a little and shifted around in the straw nest as their mother moved. Emma ducked her head, trying to see the kittens without staring at Tiggy – she knew from a cat programme she’d seen on TV that cats didn’t like to make eye contact sometimes. “It’s OK,” she whispered. “We brought you some delicious food. Fish – can you smell it?”

She was sure that Tiggy’s whiskers flickered, and the fluffy cat was definitely eyeing the bowls.

“I’ll put the food here.” Emma crouched down and stretched out her arm, trying to get the bowl into the stall without scaring Tiggy. “And Dad’s got you some water, too.” She glanced across at her dad. “Can you see the kittens? Look, they haven’t even got their eyes open!”

The kittens wriggled and made tiny mewing noises, calling for Tiggy to feed them. They were like little furry balloons, Emma thought, all plump and squidgy. Their fur was still quite short and fine, so the pink skin showed through on their tummies and paws, and their tails were almost as thin as string.

“I wish we could stay and watch,” she murmured to Dad, as she edged away, still crouching. “But Tiggy might not want to eat while we’re here because it’ll mean leaving the kittens.”