“Oh, she is coming to me,” Abi whispered as the white kitten padded across the floor. “Hello, kitten.” Then she looked up at Maria. “It seems weird not to talk to her.”
“I know what you mean. And of course you still can – just as long as you don’t get cross when she doesn’t notice. Actually, if you talk, she might understand your body language. Go big on the facial expressions,” Maria suggested. “Big smiles if you’re pleased with her and frown if she’s jumped up somewhere she shouldn’t.”
“Is it OK for Abi to stroke her?” Mum asked, and Ruby reached towards the kitten. “Me too!”
“Your turn in a minute, Ruby,” Chris said.
“It’s fine to stroke her – but just tap your fingers on the floor in front of her first, Abi, so you don’t give her a shock. She’s looking at you right now anyway but it’s a good idea to get into the habit of showing her you’re there.”
Abi tapped her nails on the floor and the kitten put her head to one side, obviously intrigued. She sniffed Abi’s fingers, and stood still while Abi gently stroked her little pink ears. Then she began to purr, a huge clickety purr that made Abi laugh.
“She’s so noisy!”
“Yes, that’s another thing about deaf cats – she can’t hear how loud she’s being. And it might be that she enjoys the feel of making a noise. She’s got a really loud meow as well.”
“Ruby, do you want to stroke her?” Abi suggested. “She’s so soft.”
Ruby nodded eagerly and scrambled down from Mum’s knee. “Shall I tap?” she asked Maria seriously, and Maria smiled at her. “Yes, that would be great. Well done.”
The white kitten looked round as Ruby banged the floor and Ruby gazed silently back at her. Abi couldn’t believe how good her little sister was being – it was almost as if the kitten had made her shy. Ruby reached out her hand slowly and the kitten padded forward and licked her fingers.
“Her tongue’s all rough!” Ruby whispered. Then she looked round at Mum and Chris. “When are we taking her home?”
Abi had hoped they might be able to take the white kitten home straight away, once Mum and Chris had signed all the paperwork and paid her adoption fee. But they weren’t going to be allowed to have her until the weekend. There was a lot to do first, Chris pointed out as they were driving home. “We need to get her a basket – maybe one of those igloo ones. Litter trays, food bowls, toys. A scratching post.”
“Yes, and we need to walk round the house and think about what we need to do. Maria’s going to come back for a visit in a day or two, to help us get ready for an indoor kitten,” Mum said, turning round to look at Ruby and Abi in the back of the car.
Abi sighed. “Does that mean we have to tidy up again?”
Chris snorted with laughter. “Actually, Maria gave me a leaflet to read about indoor cats while your mum was signing papers. It says that they like a nice cluttered space with lots of stuff to hide behind. So our house should be perfect.”
“Can I have a look?” Abi asked, and Mum found the leaflet and passed it back to her. Abi glanced through it. “Wow. There’s a lot to learn, isn’t there? I didn’t know we had to give the kitten grass.”
“What?” Chris sounded surprised. “I missed that bit. Grass, really?”
“Yes. It says here that it helps them get the hair out of their stomachs. Why would they have hair in their stomachs though? Oh, I suppose it’s because they’re always licking themselves. We have to have a little pot of grass for her to nibble on!”
When they got back home, Abi finished reading the leaflet lying on her bed. There was a lot to do. Mum had already said they’d have to get some sort of screen to put over the windows – she hated the idea of keeping them all closed in the summer.
While Mum and Chris were making dinner, Abi sat at her desk and started making a list of everything they needed for their kitten. It was a long list but she didn’t mind. Every little thing she wrote down seemed to make the kitten more theirs. And in a few days’ time, they would be bringing her home.
The white kitten sniffed anxiously at the sides of the box and mewed. She didn’t know what was happening but the last time she had been carried in a box she had been taken away from her mother. She had been well fed at the shelter and her brother and sister had been there to snuggle with, but it wasn’t the same. With her mother she had been safe and warm…
The box tipped a little and the kitten slid into the corner with a frightened squeak. She crouched there, huddled and mewing for what seemed like hours as the box swayed and tipped and lurched. And then it stopped – she was on solid ground again, she could feel it. She sat up and glared as the flaps at the top were opened.
There were faces peering inside and she crouched back into her corner miserably. She was somewhere new, she could smell it.
“She doesn’t look very happy,” Abi said. “I wish we’d got her one of those special carriers with a wire front so she could see out.”
“We will,” Mum agreed. “It was just getting a bit expensive, everything all at once. So when Maria said we could have this carrying box, it seemed like a good idea. But you’re right, she looks positively cross. Don’t you, sweetheart?”
“Get her out,” Ruby begged. “I want to cuddle her.”
The kitten squeaked again as Mum reached in to lift her out. “I don’t think she wants cuddling right now, Ruby. She’s a bit confused.”
“Shall we just let her look at her new basket and toys?” Abi suggested. “I thought she’d be happy to have a proper home. But I don’t think she understands that’s what this is yet.”
The kitten slunk across the floor, sniffed cautiously at the igloo basket and darted inside. Then she crouched down in the opening and peered out suspiciously at the family staring back at her.
Chris sighed but he was grinning, and Abi frowned at him. “What are you smiling like that for?”
“I don’t know. I suppose I’ve just never seen a crosser-looking cat. She’s so tiny and sweet but every hair of her is cross.”
“Perhaps we should feed her,” Mum suggested, and Abi hurried to fetch one of the new kitten food pouches they’d stocked up with.
The kitten twitched as she saw Abi gently tilting the food bowl towards her. She could smell the food – the same kind that she was used to. She was quite hungry… Slowly, she put her nose out of the basket and eyed the people crowded around. There were too many of them.
“She isn’t just cross, she’s scared,” Abi said suddenly. “We should leave her alone.”
“But I want to cuddle her!” Ruby said, looking upset.
“Me too.” Abi sighed. “But we have to wait a bit. Look at her, Ruby. She’s really frightened. She doesn’t even want to come and eat her lunch.”
“She’s like you were, Ruby, on the first day of Reception,” Mum pointed out. “Let’s all give her some space.”
Ruby sniffed. On her first day of school, she’d had to be bribed with the promise of a new pot of bubble mixture to stop holding on to Mum’s legs, and she still had days where she didn’t want to go into the classroom. She tiptoed away from the kitten and sat down on a kitchen chair to watch.
The kitten stepped carefully out of the basket and went to the food bowl. For a little while she was more interested in the food than she was worried about this strange new place. But once the bowl was empty, she looked around and they were all still there, watching her.
The bigger girl was sitting on the floor with a feather toy in her hand. There had been one of those to play with before. The kittens had loved it, dancing and jumping and falling over each other to catch the feathers and twinkling ribbons.