by Gwyneth Rees
Cosmo had to tap his father quite hard on the back to get his attention. ‘Mother says she thinks it’s nearly time,’ he mewed urgently.
The adult cats instantly became quiet. ‘I’d better go up and see if she needs anything, then I must come downstairs and wait,’ Mephisto said, sounding very serious.
‘I’ll come upstairs with you,’ Felina offered. ‘She might need some help. Why don’t you take the kittens to the competition, Tani? It will be probably be better if they’re out of the way.’
‘What competition?’ Cosmo asked.
‘Cleo is about to hold his catwalk final for the adult cats,’ Tani told him. ‘Meowface came to tell us about it while you were upstairs. He wanted to know if I was still going to take part.’
‘You are, aren’t you, Mother?’ Hagnus called out.
‘It does seem a shame to miss it,’ Tani mewed.
So it was decided that Mephisto and Felina would stay with India, while Tani took the kittens with her to the school.
Cleo, Meowface and the adult finalists (including Albert-of-the-street) were already there when Tani and the kittens arrived. Cleo himself seemed deep in conversation with the female Persian, Tallulah Poppypuss, who had apparently been trying to comfort Cleo since he’d found out that Selina wouldn’t be doing a nose-shortening spell on him after all.
‘She’s been telling him that having a perfect Persian face like hers, isn’t as wonderful as he thinks,’ Meowface said, ‘because her humans are always taking her to their sort of cat shows, where she has to sit in a cage and get stared at all day. She’s been trying to convince him that he’s the lucky one, not her. And get this . . . She actually licked his nose a few minutes ago. I’ve never seen him let another cat lick his nose in all the time I’ve known him!’
As the catwalk final began, the kittens watched from the side excitedly, and since there was only a small crowd this time they all cheered extra-loudly as each cat finalist walked very slinkily up and down the catwalk bench.
After all ten cats had walked up and down twice, Cleo (who seemed rather pleased to be the only judge again) jumped up on to the bench himself and walked along it very nimbly before declaring that he was now going to announce the winners in reverse order. He waited for all the cheering and calling out of finalists’ names to stop before shouting out, ‘The runners-up are as follows . . . third place goes to our only alley-cat finalist! Will Albert-of-the-street please step forward to collect his prize?’
Everyone miaowed their congratulations as Albert-of-the-street bounded forward to take a bow and collect his fish fingers.
‘Second prize,’ Cleo continued, ‘goes to our elegant Siamese finalist – Tani.’
Hagnus and Matty leaped about with excitement as Tani was awarded her prize of a meal for two at a local fish restaurant (and promptly went over to ask Albert-of-the-street if he happened to be doing anything that evening).
‘Finally, I wish to announce the winner,’ Cleo miaowed, pausing dramatically until the room was silent again. ‘The winner of Cleo Cattrap’s Amazing Catwalk Extravaganza is . . . the incredibly well-groomed . . . extraordinarily gracious . . . beauty of beauties . . . feline of felines . . .’ And to everyone’s amazement he called out the name of Tallulah Poppypuss – who was now making enormous gooey eyes at him.
‘But she’s a Persian!’ Meowface spluttered in total disbelief.
As all the other cats miaowed their applause, Cleo purred and rubbed his head against his new catwalk queen, who was doing the same back.
‘Don’t tell me he’s fallen in love!’ Meowface miaowed – so loudly that every cat in the assembly hall heard him and started to cheer even louder.
‘It looks like it,’ Cosmo said happily. And he suddenly got the feeling that from now on, Cleo wouldn’t mind any more about not having a perfectly flat nose.
Cosmo and Mia arrived back at the house to find that the Two-Shoes family had come home from the hospital. Cosmo was delighted to see Scarlett, who was sitting in the kitchen with Spike on her lap while Goody made them all a pot of eye-of-newt tea.
‘Do you know, now that we’re home I suddenly feel completely worn out?’ Gabriel called from the living room, where he had just finished brushing off the grey cat hairs from the seat of his favourite armchair.
Mephisto was curled up on the rug in front of the fireplace, looking worn out too.
‘Father, have the kittens been born yet?’ Cosmo asked him.
Mephisto opened one eye very slightly and murmured, ‘Of course they have – why do you think I’m looking so exhausted?’
Cosmo and Mia raced upstairs to find that Felina was guarding the door of the bedroom. ‘You can go in, Cosmo, but you must be very quiet,’ she told him. ‘No tearing about!’
Cosmo crept into the room and went over to the Moses basket, where India was lying on her side being suckled by her newborn kittens. Cosmo stood and stared at them. He couldn’t believe how tiny they were – or how many of them there seemed to be!
‘Felina was right about the heartbeats,’ his mother said. ‘There were nine – but one was mine, which means there are only eight kittens.’
‘Only eight!’ Cosmo repeated, staring in awe at his new brothers and sisters, and thinking that eight still seemed like an awful lot to him.
‘Where’s your father?’ India asked.
‘He’s curled up on the rug downstairs,’ Cosmo said. ‘He says he’s exhausted.’
‘Is he really?’ India sounded less than amused, but before she could say anything else, they heard footsteps on the stairs.
It was Scarlett. ‘Now, Spike,’ they heard her say, ‘it’s time for your nap. Come and see your lovely new Moses basket.’
The bedroom door opened and Scarlett walked in, carrying her baby brother in her arms. ‘Wow!’ she gasped when she saw India.
And India started to mew at her, most indignantly, that the extremely large-and-comfy cat basket was already too full and that she couldn’t possibly make room for a witch-baby as well.