Holly Webb - The Homeless Kitten

“Lily! You should be asleep!” Dad sighed.

“I could hear mewing, it woke me up. What’s wrong?”

“It’s a bit tricky feeding more than one at once – the white kitten was asleep, so we thought we’d leave him till last but now he’s woken up and he’s not happy about waiting,” Mum explained. “I expect he can smell the milk.”

Lily was just about to crouch down and peer into the box when Hugo gave a mournful “Arrrooo!” and she realized that he had the kitten between his paws.

“Oh, Hugo’s looking after him!”

“He lifted the kitten out of the box in his mouth,” Dad told her. “I was a bit worried. But then I think mother cats do the same thing.”

“Is all that mewing bothering you, Hugo?” Lily asked. Then she turned back to look at Mum and Dad. “Shall I feed him? Since I’m awake anyway? We’ve got another bottle and Hugo’s getting upset, you can tell. He doesn’t like Stanley crying like that.”

“Stanley?” Mum smiled at her. “Since when is he called Stanley?”

Lily went pink. “I just think he looks like a Stanley. It’s such a cute name.”

“It is cute,” Mum agreed, passing Lily a bottle. “But just remember we’re not going to have them for long, Lily. Only until the shelter can find a foster home.”

“I know.” Lily gently scooped up the white kitten and carried him over to the table. Hugo followed her, resting his muzzle on her lap so he could watch what she was doing. Stanley seemed to have learned exactly what to do with the bottle from his two previous feeds – he practically jumped at it, sucking greedily at the milk with funny little slurping noises.

“Wow, you really were hungry,” Lily murmured. “Mum, look, I think I can actually see his tummy getting bigger!”

Her mum laughed. “They’re really guzzling it down, aren’t they. Oh, Lily, listen!”

“I can feel it…” Lily whispered back. Stanley was purring.

“Which one’s your favourite?” Mara leaned over the kitten pen, admiring the three kittens. Lily had emailed her best friend to tell her about their amazing discovery, and Mara had been desperate to come and see the kittens as soon as she’d got back from her holiday in Spain.

They were about five weeks old now – big enough to walk around really well. They stomped all over each other, squeaking loudly, and they were always wrestling and jumping out at each other. They loved playing with all the toys Lily had persuaded Mum and Dad to get from the pet shop, too. Their favourite was a feathery stick, a bit like a feather duster, and Lily spent ages waving it about for them.

Dad had found a big shallow plastic storage box up in the loft when he was looking for the sterilizer and he’d brought it down to use as a pen to keep the kittens in. It meant they had space to move around but they were safer than they would be loose in the kitchen. But it hadn’t lasted long. They still used it to sleep in but they’d learned to wriggle and scramble their way out after just a few days.

“Stanley – he’s my favourite,” Lily said, pointing him out. “He’s like a little fluffy snowball!”

“He is cute,” Mara agreed. “But I love the stripes on the other two as well. Isn’t it loads of work looking after them all?”

“They’re starting to eat proper food now – special kitten food mixed with a bit of their milk. At least that means we can just feed them really late at night and then early in the morning. No one has to get up in the middle of the night any more.” Lily reached her hand into the plastic box and Stanley staggered determinedly towards her, licking at her fingers.

“They’re so gorgeous. If it was me, I don’t think I’d be able to give them away,” Mara said, lifting one of the tabby kittens on to her lap. They were both girls, and Carly had named them Bella and Trixie. “You’ve spent your whole summer holiday looking after them but then you don’t get to keep them. That doesn’t seem fair!”

“I know.” Lily sighed. “But we were never going to keep them. They were originally supposed to go to another foster family as soon as they had the space. But when Amy came to check up on them, a couple of days after they came here, she said we were doing so well maybe we should just keep them until they were ready for rehoming. And luckily Mum and Dad said yes!” She smiled as Stanley butted his head against her hand and let out a squeaky little mew. “It’s not food time yet, baby…”

“So they won’t go to the shelter, then?”

“Their photos are up on the shelter website already but they’ll just send anyone who’s interested in adopting them round to us. So at least the kittens won’t have to get used to a new place.”

Mara nodded. “And I suppose you’ll be able to see if the people are nice.”

Lily nodded. She didn’t like thinking about the kittens’ new owners – especially not Stanley’s. Even though she was making the best of it to Mara, she couldn’t imagine not having a box of kittens in their kitchen… But they already had Hugo.

“Do you think Hugo will miss them?” Mara asked, as she heard scrabbling at the kitchen door.

Lily opened the door, checking that the kittens weren’t about to dart through and Hugo trotted in, immediately coming over to inspect his kittens.

“Definitely.” Lily stroked his nose. “He does that every time he’s been out for a walk. He has to come back and make sure they’re all OK. Yes, don’t worry, I looked after them for you. Trixie’s over there, see?”

Hugo was looking around for the other tabby kitten, and when he spotted her peeking out from behind the kitchen bin he went to round her up, gently nosing her back over towards the plastic box.

“He wants them all in the box the whole time,” Lily explained. “He’s like a sheepdog, herding them about.” She watched proudly as Hugo picked up the tabby kitten in his mouth and dropped her, wriggling, back into the box.

“I thought he was biting her!” Mara said, looking a bit worried.

“No. He’s so gentle. He just holds them in his mouth. Their mum would have done the same thing. Oh, Hugo, look, Stanley’s coming out now.”

The white kitten was clambering out of the box, half falling, half jumping out on to the kitchen tiles. Hugo seemed almost to sigh. He lay down in front of the box between the two girls, making a big furry barrier between Stanley and the rest of the kitchen.

Stanley nuzzled him, nose to nose, and both girls “aaahhed”. Stanley marched along the whole length of Hugo and started to pat at his feathery tail as Hugo twitched it from side to side and then jumped on it with fierce little growls. Hugo watched him, clearly enjoying the game. As soon as Stanley was clinging on with all four paws, he swished his tail faster so that the kitten swept across the floor and both girls burst out laughing.

“They go together so well,” Mara said. “Both of them white and fluffy.”

“I know.” Lily nodded. They really did. If only they could keep Stanley, he and Hugo would be a perfect pair.