‘Friends who understand,’ the other female said, smiling back at her. ‘We all need that. Well, Oliver, I’m very grateful to you too.’
And she gave me a little rub of my head and I went on my way, feeling happy and satisfied with myself. Perhaps I was getting a bit too pleased with myself, with all this flattery from everyone. But you see, I kept remembering that sneering look on Tabby’s face and the haughty way Suki dismissed me, and I was determined that one day they’d be jealous of me.
Of all my new friends in the village, it was Sarah’s family who were the most grateful to me, and I knew that was because of the change in little Rose. She was far more chatty and smiley these days, behaving like any human kitten should – running around the house, giggling at things with her sister, rushing home from the school bus excited about this or that. Apparently the young male called Michael Potts hadn’t said another single word to her about Sooty or the accident since I’d attacked him. I heard Grace say to her mother that some other boys from their class had seen the confrontation that day, and teased him afterwards about being frightened of a little ginger cat.
‘They said he was a coward because he only picked on little girls like Rose, and when a little cat hissed at him he ran away,’ she said. ‘He didn’t like being laughed at by his friends, so he stays away from Rose now and ignores me too.’
‘Good,’ Sarah said. ‘We have a lot to thank Ollie for, don’t we?’
‘Yes. And he’s going to help the Foxes tonight, too.’
Grace ran over to pick me up and give me a hug, but I was too alarmed by what she’d said, and I yowled and dug my claws into the cushion I was sitting on, refusing to be lifted.
‘What’s the matter, Ollie?’ she said, laughing at me. ‘Are you in a grumpy mood today?’
What could she expect, with all this talk about foxes? And, just as I’d feared, a bit later, when I’d been resting peacefully in my favourite chair, the doorbell rang and there was a shout from Grace:
‘That’ll be them. The Foxes!’
As you can imagine, I was instantly leaping out of the chair and making a dash for the cat flap.
‘No!’ Rose cried out, seeing me run past her. ‘Mummy, don’t let Ollie escape.’
I couldn’t believe it. The whole family seemed to be in on the plot to bring foxes into the house to eat me up – even Rose! Sarah rushed to lock the cat flap before I could get there, so I turned tail, thinking I could leg it out of the front door when they opened it to let the foxes in. But to my horror, Sarah then shut me in the kitchen, calling out to Grace:
‘OK, let them in now. I’ll keep Ollie in the kitchen until you’ve closed the front door and then he can come out.’
Meowing in distress, I crept under the kitchen table and tried to make myself as small as I could against the wall. I could hear children’s voices, but no foxes barking yet, although I knew they must be out there somewhere. After a few minutes Sarah came back in.
‘Oliver, what on earth’s the matter?’ she said, bending down and holding out her hand to me under the table. I was cowering on the floor, and low rumbling growls of fear were coming up out of my chest. ‘Come on, all the Foxes are here to see you.’
And before I could run again, she’d grabbed me in a paw-lock and carried me into the lounge. I closed my eyes and prepared to say goodbye to the world. How many lives was I down to, even if I believed in that piece of folklore? But all I heard was a chorus of children calling out to me:
‘Hello, Oliver!’ and ‘Oh, isn’t he lovely?’ and ‘Is he asleep?’
I opened one eye slowly, and then the other, and glanced round the room suspiciously. Where were the foxes? I decided to stay clinging onto Sarah until I knew.
The little girls were all laughing.
‘Is he scared of us?’ one asked.
‘He’s just a bit shy of strangers,’ Grace explained importantly. ‘He’ll be all right when he gets used to you. Just talk to him quietly but don’t rush him or try to stroke him straight away.’
One of the girls came a bit closer to me and bent down to look me in the eyes.
‘Hello, little shy Oliver-cat,’ she said softly. ‘I’m Alice.’
‘And I’m Olivia – my name’s like yours,’ said another. ‘I’m Evie.’
‘I’m Katie.’
All the children were eagerly introducing themselves, even the couple I’d already met when they came to play before. And then Grace added:
‘And we’re all the Foxes – the best Six in Broomford Brownies!’
I did think it was strange that these nice children would want to call themselves foxes. But perhaps that was why they all dressed in brown. And at least, now I knew it was only them and not real foxes coming to play, I could relax.
‘We’re going to study you, Oliver,’ Grace said. ‘And you can help us to be the first Six to get our “Friend to Animals” badges.’
‘And I’m going to be helping you too, girls, with your work for the badge. I want to learn all about it because Brown Owl says I can start training to help lead the pack when the full meetings start again,’ said Sarah.
‘Oh, Mummy, that’s exciting,’ said Grace.
‘Yes. I’ve been looking for a new interest, something I can do to help the village community.’
‘And it’s all because of Ollie. We got the idea of meeting in each other’s houses because of him, didn’t we?’
‘Yes, he’s a very special cat,’ Sarah said, smiling at me. ‘Because of Ollie, it seems lots of people in the village are getting together now. Only this afternoon I heard one of the young mums, Hayley, saying some of the mother-and-baby group have started meeting in each other’s houses now. She seemed convinced Ollie had introduced her to two of the other ladies.’
And I purred with pride and happiness. But you know what I’ve heard some humans saying? Pride comes before a fall.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
The following day, I overheard Sarah telling Martin she’d be going out for the day while the children were at school.
‘I’m going to start the Christmas shopping,’ she said.
‘What?’ Martin said. ‘It’s only the middle of November!’
‘I know, but Anne and I are going to have a day in town together and just make a start on it. We’ll have lunch out. It’ll give us a chance to have a good talk about Brownies, too.’
‘Fair enough. I suppose Christmas will come round quickly, like it always does.’
‘I know.’ Sarah was quiet for a minute. ‘I only wish it could be a happier time for our neighbours. Young Nicky isn’t even looking forward to it. I don’t suppose they’ll be buying presents.’
‘No. Daniel was telling me they still haven’t told her parents their visit’s off, either.’
Nicky and Daniel had been getting very chatty with Sarah and Martin. It was nice to see my two sets of carers becoming good friends.
‘I’ve been thinking about that,’ Sarah said. ‘Mart, couldn’t we offer to have Nicky’s family to stay here for a couple of nights?’
‘What, over Christmas?’ Martin said, frowning. ‘Won’t that be a bit much?’
‘I don’t see why. We haven’t got anyone coming this year, have we? They can spend the day with Nicky and Daniel and just come in here to sleep.’ She shrugged. ‘We could at least offer. I’d really like to help them out.’