Even though Lily hated the thought of someone else taking her lovely kittens home, she could see that Candace and Jack were going to be amazing cat owners. At least they were only taking Bella and Trixie, she thought sadly. She wondered how Stanley would feel all on his own.
Stanley watched, confused, as the strange people put his sisters into a cat carrier. They were mewing, not sure what was happening, and he squeaked back anxiously. Where were they going? And why wasn’t he going, too?
He hurried to the edge of the plastic box as the kitchen door opened and they all started to walk out – those people were taking his sisters away! Panicking, he clawed his way up the side of the box, his paws slipping, and scrambled out on to the floor to chase after them. But the door closed before he was halfway there, and he sat under the table and mewed frantically.
He jumped up when the door opened again and Lily let Hugo in. The big dog came nosing under the table and lowered his head to Stanley. He licked the kitten with one great swipe of his huge pink tongue and then slumped down to the floor next to him, resting his muzzle between his paws.
Stanley patted at one of Hugo’s long white paws, nibbled it and then snuggled wearily into the kitten-sized space between Hugo’s paw and his nose, curling up into a sad little ball.
“Night, Mum.” Lily peered round her mum’s office door on her way to bed. “Oh, that one’s so cute. Wow, you can really see how fluffy he’s getting.” Lily leaned over her mum’s shoulder, admiring the photos of Stanley on her computer. “What are you looking at the photos for? Are you sending them to Grandma?” Lily’s grandma loved cats, too. She lived in Scotland so she hadn’t seen the kittens yet but Lily had been telling her all about them on the phone. Grandma had told Lily how jealous she was.
Her mum looked up. “No, I wasn’t. Maybe I should though, I hadn’t thought of that. I was actually looking for a good photo to send to Amy for the shelter website. The one they’ve got up there now is all the kittens together – we need one of just Stanley on his own.”
Lily took a step back, suddenly feeling breathless. She knew that Stanley was going to be adopted, too, of course she did. But this made it all too real – and too soon. He looked so cute in the photo on Mum’s screen – he had his mouth open in a mew and his little pink tongue was showing. His eyes were shining emerald green and his fur was standing out around his head in a fluffy halo. Anybody would want to adopt him, Lily thought miserably. Who could resist such a gorgeous boy?
“Oh, Lily…” Mum turned round in her chair, reaching out to hug her. “I know you love him…”
“Couldn’t we keep him?” Lily pleaded. “He’s so special…” Her voice wobbled and her throat felt like it was closing up. She couldn’t get any more words out.
“You know we were only looking after them for a little while, darling.”
Lily nodded and sniffed and then dashed out of Mum’s office, racing upstairs to her bedroom. She flung herself down on her bed, burying her face in her pillow, her eyes full of tears. Why couldn’t they keep Stanley? He got on amazingly with Hugo. Mara had been right when she said they made a perfect pair. Hugo had looked after Stanley all morning after Bella and Trixie had gone. In fact, Lily was pretty sure that Hugo would be as upset as her if Stanley went to a new home.
She just had to explain all that properly to Mum and Dad. Lily rubbed her eyes and sniffed determinedly. Maybe she should write down a list of reasons to keep Stanley, just to make sure she didn’t forget any of them. And then she would find just the right time to convince her family…
Lily woke up suddenly, her heart racing. She sat up in bed and peered around anxiously, trying to work out what was wrong. Everything in her room looked strange and ghostly in the darkness. Why had she jumped awake like that?
She was just about to settle down again, fussing with the crumpled sheet and wishing the night wasn’t so hot, when loud barking erupted downstairs – mixed with ear-splitting yowls. Hugo was obviously furious, it was his angry bark, over and over again – and then there was a crashing sound.
Lily flung back the sheet and headed downstairs at a run, not even stopping to think what was going on. Something awful was happening. She could hear voices in Mum and Dad’s room – they’d clearly been woken up, too, and Carly appeared in her bedroom doorway as Lily started down the stairs.
She was surprised to see the kitchen door was open but then realized that Mum and Dad must have left it ajar to keep the room a bit cooler for Hugo and Stanley to sleep in. Hugo wouldn’t come out of the kitchen anyway, he loved his basket. But maybe Stanley had come out of the kitchen and got lost in the dark. Had that crash been him knocking something over in the living room, maybe? That wouldn’t make Hugo react so badly though, would it? He was still barking – quieter barks now and furious growls. Lily couldn’t remember ever hearing him so upset.
Lily switched on the kitchen light, murmuring, “Stanley? Hugo? What’s the matter?” Then she gasped. The kitchen looked as though someone had run round pushing everything that they could find off the surfaces. The pile of newspapers from the recycling box was scattered all over the place. The vase of flowers that had been in the middle of the kitchen table was tipped over, cascading water down on to the tiles. There was even a mug smashed on the floor just below the sink.
Hugo was standing in front of the sink, growling angrily at the window above it. Lily shivered, suddenly wondering if there had been someone in the garden? Perhaps Hugo had been woken by a burglar? Could he have made all this mess just by jumping about, trying to raise the alarm? Even though he wasn’t usually clumsy, he did sometimes knock things over by flailing his tail around when he was really excited.
“It’s OK, Hugo, shh,” Lily murmured. “What’s wrong? And where’s Stanley?” she added. When she’d gone to bed, Stanley had been curled up in Hugo’s basket, snuggled in between Hugo’s paws, and both of them had been asleep. There was no little white kitten in the dog basket now, or in the big plastic box.
“Stanley?” Lily called worriedly. Where was he? She ducked down, searching under the table and behind the bin but there was no little white kitten.
“Lily, what’s going on?” Dad hurried into the kitchen, with Mum and Carly close behind. “Wow! What happened here?”
“I don’t know! Hugo’s really upset and I can’t find Stanley. He isn’t anywhere.”
Hugo came over to Dad, sniffing and nosing at his hands, and Dad rubbed his ears comfortingly. “Hey, he’s got a scratch on his nose,” Dad said. “What happened, boy?”
“Oh, Hugo, did you cut yourself on that broken mug?” Mum crouched down to look, too.
Hugo pulled away and padded over to the sink cabinet again, this time leaping up and planting his paws on the edge of the sink. He wasn’t supposed to jump up like that but nobody stopped him.
Then a little white face peered out from behind the curtains. Stanley – with his long white fur all fluffed up. He was huddling in the corner of the windowsill, looking terrified.
“There he is!” Lily exclaimed gratefully. “How on earth did you get up there?” She hurried over to the windowsill, picking up Stanley and cuddling him close. She’d never have thought that Stanley could make the jump on to the counter – he must have jumped on to a chair to get him halfway. “Come on, Stanley, it’s OK. What happened?”
“It’s pretty obvious,” Dad said anxiously. “They’ve been fighting. Hugo couldn’t have cut his nose on that mug, not unless it actually fell on him. That’s a cat scratch.”