Charlie the Kitten Who Saved a Life

by Sheila Norton

  With which she picked me up and held on to me while she unlocked the flap. As Ollie jumped through, she put me back down and I was so excited, I ran around the room madly, knocking into two chairs and the side of the fridge with the stupid collar.

  ‘You’re back,’ he meowed at me. ‘I’ve been looking for you everywhere.’

  ‘I know, I’ve been lost, and living rough, and – oh my tail and whiskers, it’s so good to see you! I’ve got so much to tell you about.’

  ‘So it seems.’ He stared at me. ‘I’d like to rub faces with you, but what you’re wearing makes that a tad difficult. And I have to say, you’re not looking too good. You’ve lost weight, haven’t you? And what’s happened to your eye?’

  ‘It’s a long story. But first, can you tell me how I can get this dratted thing off? It’s driving me mad. I keep bashing into things, and they won’t let me go outside. Maybe if you could chew the edge, there, or get your claw in between the collar and my neck …?’

  Oliver looked at me seriously for a moment.

  ‘Did the vet put it on you? Have you had some kind of operation done?’

  ‘Well, yes, he did something to my bad leg, see? It’s still a bit sore but I think it’s getting better now.’

  ‘Exactly, Charlie. It’s getting better because of whatever the vet did, and they only make us wear those collars to help us get better. So you need to keep it on.’

  ‘Whose side are you on?’ I said sulkily. ‘I thought I could rely on you to help me.’

  ‘No. You can rely on me to tell you what you need to know. Don’t you trust your humans anymore? Was it their fault you got lost, or what?’

  ‘No. It was … well, it was partly Caroline’s fault, I suppose, but I don’t blame her, she’s still only a kitten really and she made a bad mistake. I suppose I did forget how to trust humans, for a while, but now I’m back home, of course I do trust my family.’

  ‘So stop fighting against them, Charlie! They’re only making you wear the collar, and keeping you indoors, until you get better. And looking at you, quite frankly you do need a period of convalescence. I hate to think what you’ve been through.’

  ‘Just you wait till I tell you all about it,’ I said. Then I sighed. ‘But I suppose you’re right, I’ll just have to give in and put up with this till they say it can come off.’

  ‘That’s my boy. Be sensible. Now, finish your breakfast and then I’ll give your face a wash, shall I, as it doesn’t look as if you can do it yourself.’

  ‘Thanks, Ollie. It’s so good to be back with you. Afterwards we can lie in that sunny corner of the lounge together while I tell you my story.’

  ‘Charlie, I’d love to, but if it’s a long story it’s going to have to wait till another day. I’ve got to go and visit Nicky today.’

  ‘Nicky?’ I lifted my head from my food bowl to look at him as well as I could round the edge of the collar.

  ‘Yes. I’m really worried about her. Not quite as worried as I was about you, of course, but now that I know you’re back, and safe, I want to try and help her. If only I could work out how.’

  It was so typical of Oliver. He’s spent half his life helping the humans in the village. No wonder they all think he’s a special kind of cat.

  ‘What’s happened to her?’ I asked him. As you know, I’m very fond of Nicky myself, so I didn’t like to think of her being in some kind of trouble.

  ‘She’s just so unhappy these days. And it’s all her stupid male’s fault.’

  ‘Daniel? Why? What’s he done?’ I had a sudden memory of Nicky and Laura chatting on the sofa of our holiday home. ‘Oh, is it something to do with him going to the pub? Nicky mentioned that when she came to Mudditon. I suppose as you live at the pub, you must see him in there?’

  ‘Yes, I see him every single night! And he doesn’t just have one quick drink of beer and then go home. He’s there for ages. I pop in to see Nicky most days, and quite often she’s crying, Charlie, because he’s leaving her on her own all the time with their human kitten and she’s told me she thinks he doesn’t want to be with her anymore. It’d be different if she were a cat, wouldn’t it. Our females expect to be left with the kittens while their males go off hunting and … um, well …’

  ‘… and philandering. I know all about it, Ollie. You don’t need to be coy with me. I’m grown up now, I keep telling you, and I might be neutered, like you, but I’ve been living with some guys who spent most of their lives talking about either stealing food or mating with females.’

  ‘Really?’ He looked a bit shocked.

  ‘Yes. Let me tell you—’

  ‘I do want to hear all about it, Charlie, but at the minute I can’t think straight for worrying about Nicky. I seem to be the only one who can cheer her up.’

  ‘Oh, all right then.’ I felt a bit let down. What about cheering me up? I had a bad leg and a bad eye and wasn’t allowed out, after all. ‘Go off and cheer her up. Don’t worry about me.’

  ‘Don’t be like that. I’ll come back, all right? I promise. Meanwhile you promise me you’ll be a sensible kitt … sorry, cat … and stop complaining about wearing that collar and staying indoors. I want you to get better.’

  So we both kept our promises. I settled down, accepted that my life was going to be severely restricted until the vet allowed me back my freedom, and tried to be patient. And Oliver duly came back to see me again the next day.

  ‘So what’s the news with Nicky?’ I asked, but he just shook his head sadly and said there was no change.

  ‘I keep hanging around Daniel every evening in the pub, meowing at him, trying to persuade him he ought to go home, but he’s so stupid when he starts drinking beer, he just thinks I’m being friendly. I’m going to have a word with Tabby. He’s helped me in the past when I’ve wanted some support with a difficult human. He sometimes needs a bit of persuasion, though!’

  ‘Good luck with that, then,’ I said, knowing what my father’s like. And as I expected, the next couple of times Oliver came back to see me, it was to report that he’d had no luck finding him.

  ‘Probably taken himself off somewhere for a few days,’ I said. ‘He’ll be back eventually.’

  ‘I know. I’m not worried about him – Tabby can look after himself. I was just hoping he could help me think of a way to do something about Daniel.’

  I sat up, suddenly excited. So excited, I forgot about my collar for a minute and nearly knocked Ollie over with it.

  ‘Never mind about him,’ I meowed, ‘I’ll help you.’

  ‘You?’ Oliver looked startled. ‘But you’re only—’

  ‘Don’t you dare say I’m only a little kitten. If you’d only let me tell you what I’ve been through recently …’

  ‘I’m sorry, Charlie. I realise you’re dying to tell me your story, and I haven’t been very good company, have I? You know how I worry about my favourite humans.’

  ‘Yes, I do. But I’m trying to tell you, I’ve become a very brave and very resourceful cat since I went away. And, well, you’ve done such a lot to help me, when I was growing up, I think it’s time you let me help you, for once, instead of trying to rely on my unreliable father.’

  Oliver purred at me thoughtfully.

  ‘That’s all very well, and I appreciate the offer. But for one thing you’re not allowed out. And even if you were, you wouldn’t be much use in a crisis while you’ve got that thing stuck on your neck.’

  ‘So wait a few more days, can’t you, for mewing out loud? What’s the rush? If he’s in the pub every single evening …?’

  ‘I suppose you’re right.’ He got up and flicked his tail anxiously. ‘I just hate seeing Nicky so upset.’ Then he glanced back at me and added, ‘And to be honest, I’m having a hard job thinking of you as a grown-up cat. You’re still not looking all that well, either. Are you sure you’d be up for whatever it is we have to do?’

  For the love of catnip! Over the course of the summer, I’d been lost in a strange town, rescued t
wo human kittens from an accident on the beach, been violently attacked by feral cats, persuaded their leader not only to submit to me but to adopt me into their gang, learned to survive by scavenging and sleeping rough, and saved an old lady from vicious seagulls. And Oliver was asking if I thought I could manage a little bit of persuasion of a friendly human?

  ‘I think I can cope,’ I said, trying to toss my head at him but once again getting unbalanced by the stupid collar.

  ‘Well, I guess I need to start accepting that you’re not such a little kitten anymore,’ he said. ‘OK. I don’t suppose it’ll be long now till they take you back to the vet, so let’s say that as soon as they let you outside again, you come and meow for me at the pub after dark. Daniel’s bound to be there. You’ll have to follow me and do what I tell you.’

  ‘Fine,’ I said, feeling a bit patronised, as you can imagine. ‘But when you hear what I’ve been up to—’

  ‘Yes, I know, I know – I’ll hear all about it, Charlie, don’t worry, just as soon as we’ve sorted out this problem, all right?’

  And with that, he meowed for Laura to let him out again, and with a wave of his tail, he was gone.

  CHAPTER

  NINETEEN

  When the day finally came for the vet to take the collar off me, I nearly jumped off his table with joy. I felt light and free and frisky as a … well, frisky as a little kitten, I suppose.

  ‘He certainly seems to have cheered up a lot since last week,’ the vet said, and Laura laughed.

  ‘He hasn’t been very happy about being kept indoors. It’s just lucky his friend Oliver has been visiting, to keep him company.’

  ‘Oliver, the pub cat? He’s a very unusual cat, that one, isn’t he? Seems to understand humans, somehow – and befriending another cat, too? That’s unusual in itself.’

  ‘No it isn’t!’ I meowed at him. ‘You humans just think it’s unusual because you don’t understand us. We often make friends with other cats actually.’

  But, of course, even vets don’t bother to learn Cat, do they, although you’d have thought it should be part of the job. So he completely ignored me, and busied himself instead with checking my leg and my eye, and putting a nasty, cold hard object into a very personal part of my body to take my temperature.

  ‘Well, I’m pleased to say that he’s on the mend,’ he said eventually. ‘The leg’s healed well, his eye has cleared up, and he seems to be putting some weight back on. He should be fine to go outside again now and get back to normal. Just bring him back in if you’re at all worried, won’t you.’

  ‘Of course. Thank you.’

  ‘I’m just glad it’s been a happy ending for the little fellow,’ he said, giving me a stroke. ‘Hard to imagine how he survived while he was missing, but I reckon he lost a few of his nine lives in the process.’

  ‘No, I didn’t!’ I protested. I’m pretty sure I would have known about it if I had!

  ‘Come on then, Charlie,’ said Laura, picking me up and putting me in the horrible basket to drive me home. ‘You can go off and play with Oliver now, to your heart’s content.’

  Play? We had business to attend to! But of course, in the meantime, I was certainly looking forward to a run around outside. I’d noticed from the kitchen window that there was quite a layer of fallen leaves now on my lawn, and I was itching to get out there and dance around in them. I really wanted Caroline to come outside and play with me, but as usual, after school she was too tired to do much apart from lying on the sofa. I hadn’t told Ollie yet of my worries about her, but I knew he loved her too. At the moment he was far too concerned about Nicky to think of anything else, but I decided that as soon as I’d helped him with that situation, I’d ask his advice about Caroline.

  After my dinner that evening, I trotted off down the lane into the village, as arranged, to meet Oliver at the pub where he lives. I jumped up onto the windowsill, pleased to find my injured leg was working so much better now, and meowed through the glass until he saw me.

  ‘Is Daniel in there?’ I asked when Oliver appeared from his cat flap in the back yard.

  ‘Yes, as usual. Thanks for coming. You look more normal now.’

  ‘I should hope so, without that thing round my neck. So what are we going to do? Leap on his lap and yowl in his ear till he goes home?’

  He stared at me. ‘That’s a bit aggressive, isn’t it?’

  I blinked. Was it?

  ‘Not where I’ve come from,’ I said, thinking back to some of the tactics the feral boys used.

  ‘Charlie, wherever you’ve been recently, please remember you’re back in polite cat society now,’ he admonished me. ‘We don’t go in for jumping on humans and yowling at them, around here – not unless they’ve hurt us, of course.’

  ‘No, all right, fair enough,’ I said, duly chastised. ‘So, what do you say we should do? Sing to him? Blink him kisses?’

  ‘No need for sarcasm, either. I thought perhaps we should bring Nicky to the pub and let him see how upset she is.’

  ‘How’s that going to work? She’ll be looking after her human kitten, Benjamin.’

  ‘I know. She can bring him with her. When he sees her with the baby he’ll remember his responsibilities and feel ashamed of himself.’

  I didn’t want to argue with Oliver, but it sounded pretty unlikely to me. For a start, I wasn’t convinced we’d be able to persuade Nicky to bring the baby out to the pub at night, and even if she did, I suspected Daniel wouldn’t be impressed.

  ‘What’s wrong?’ Oliver said, as I hadn’t replied. ‘Are you not up for it after all?’

  ‘Of course I am. Come on then, let’s give it a go,’ I said.

  I followed him down the road to Nicky and Daniel’s house, and once again I showed off the strength of my newly healed leg by jumping up onto the nearest windowsill. Oliver jumped up beside me and we put our noses up against the cold glass.

  ‘She’s there, sitting on the sofa,’ Oliver said. ‘Come on, let’s make a noise and get her to let us in.’

  ‘Hang on, who’s that?’ I said. A tall, thin male with lots of facial fur was sitting next to Nicky on the sofa. ‘Is it her father?’

  ‘No, I don’t think so. I think it’s the male who lives next door. Put your ear against the glass, Charlie,’ Oliver said, doing the same himself. ‘Let’s try to hear what they’re saying.’

  In fact I could only hear the male’s voice at first. Nicky didn’t seem to be saying a lot.

  ‘I prefer Thai food myself,’ he was saying. He had a peculiar kind of smile on his face, and he seemed to be leaning too close to Nicky. She didn’t look very comfortable and was edging further along the sofa. ‘I know a nice little Thai restaurant in town. The food is delicious, and it’s a really nice atmosphere in there. Do you like Thai? I think you’d enjoy it. Maybe I could take you there one of these evenings when you’re all on your own.’

  Nicky gave a funny little laugh that didn’t sound quite right. ‘I’ve got Benjamin asleep upstairs, remember.’

  ‘Can’t you get a babysitter? We wouldn’t have to be out late. I’d drive you.’

  ‘No, Kevin, I can’t. It wouldn’t be right.’

  ‘So is it right that he spends every evening at the pub? You’ve already told me you’re fed up with being left on your own.’

  ‘I shouldn’t have said that.’

  ‘You wouldn’t have said it if you didn’t mean it. I’m glad you felt you could confide in me, Nicky. Glad to be here for you, as a friend, you know, someone you can talk to. You obviously need that, and God knows you deserve it. You work so hard, looking after Benjamin all on your own, as well as minding other people’s children.’

  ‘It’s my job. It’s what I do. Dan works hard too.’

  ‘Yes, but he’s not being fair to you, is he? You deserve to have a bit of fun in your life too. You need someone to take you out, treat you a bit special and show you some attention. Everyone needs that, don’t they?’

  He reached out a paw to
take hold of one of hers, but she moved it away, staring straight ahead of her, going a bit red in the face.

  ‘Don’t, Kevin,’ she said. ‘I … look, I’ll go and make us both a cup of tea, shall I?’

  She got up, but as she did he reached out for her paw again, giving it a little stroke.

  ‘I’m not here to upset you in any way, Nicky. I’m just trying to be a friend to you.’

  ‘I know, and I appreciate it.’ She shifted from one back paw to the other, still looking uncomfortable. ‘So: tea or coffee?’

  ‘I’ve heard enough,’ Oliver said, jumping down from the windowsill. ‘It’s bad, Charlie, very bad. Worse than I thought. They’re on the verge of mating, I’m afraid. It’s the same as what happens with unneutered cats when they’re getting randy.’

  ‘Really?’ It was nothing whatever like the kind of mating I’d witnessed among my feral cat friends. There was no long drawn-out meowing and paw brushing involved in that, unfortunately, although I think their females might have liked it a bit better if there had been.

  ‘Yes. I can’t expect a little kitt—cat … like you to understand such things, but I can assure you we need to move fast.’

  ‘What are we going to do, then? Rush in and jump him? Go for his throat?’

  He gasped. ‘Charlie, what in the name of all that’s warm and cosy has come over you since you went missing? We don’t go for the throat of a human, even if we don’t like what they’re doing.’

  ‘Sorry. I keep forgetting myself.’

  ‘Yes, well, the sooner you remember yourself the better. No, what we’re going to do is go back to the pub and persuade Daniel to come straight home, right this minute, before it’s too late.’

  ‘How are we going to do that? Jump on …?’ I stopped quickly, seeing the look he was giving me. ‘Whisper in his ear?’ I tried instead.

  ‘We have to walk backwards and forwards to and from the pub door,’ Oliver said, as we started to run back down the road. ‘Watch me, and do what I do, OK? I taught Daniel to understand a bit of Cat body language when there were some important issues last year. It’ll soon come back to him. As long as he hasn’t had too many of those drinks of beer. It seems to make humans extremely forgetful.’