The white kitten seemed to have heard her talking. He stopped feeding, and looked around curiously, trying to work out where her voice was coming from. Then he stumbled towards her, uttering that tiny squeak of a mew she’d heard before.
“Hello, sweetie,” Mia whispered, and the kitten mewed back, trying to scrabble his way up the side of the pen.
“Wow! He’s never done that before!” Emily murmured, her eyes wide.
[Êàðòèíêà: i_015.jpg]
“Can I pick him up?” Mia asked hopefully. “Would Silky mind?”
Silky was still feeding one of the tabbies and the black kitten, but she had her head up, and she was watching Mia and the white kitten carefully.
“It should be OK, don’t you think, Mum?” Emily asked. “We’ve picked them up before, and you can see he wants you to!”
Very gently, Mia reached into the pen and scooped up the white kitten, snuggling him carefully in her lap.
The kitten let out a little breath of a purr, padding at her school skirt with his paws. Then he curled up with a contented sigh. This was what he had wanted.
“He’s so soft!” Mia whispered. “And I’m sure his whiskers have grown since I last saw him. Just look at them!”
The kitten stared up at her. He liked her voice. He recognized it from when she had come before, and the girl’s smell. She had stroked him, and he’d wanted her to cuddle him. He yawned and his waterfall of white whiskers shimmered.
“None of the others have whiskers like that!” Mia laughed. “You should call him Whiskers, Emily. You haven’t named them yet, have you?”
Emily shook her head. She had a huge smile suddenly.“Well, we’ve only named the black kitten, because we’re keeping her! She’s going to be my birthday present!” She picked up the black kitten, who seemed to have fallen asleep while she was feeding. “I’m calling her Satin, to go with Silky, you see?” She snuggled the kitten under her chin lovingly.
[Êàðòèíêà: i_016.jpg]
“You’re so lucky!” Mia smiled, but her stomach turned over. Of course. The kittens would have to go to new owners. She sighed, and the white kitten made a little grumbling noise as his comfy lap shifted. She’d only known Whiskers – she couldn’t help calling him that, even though she knew it wouldn’t be his real name – for a couple of weeks, but already she knew she would miss him.
Chapter Five [Êàðòèíêà: i_012.jpg]
Whiskers wriggled himself further into the cosy fold of the blanket. He was still only very tiny, but he was starting to understand more about the world, and today the world feltcold. He didn’t like it. Usually he would have snuggled up next to his mother, but she had disappeared. Now that he and his sisters were a bit bigger, nearly four weeks old, she did that every so often.
Something soft landed in the pen next to him, and Whiskers twitched and woke out of his half-doze. It was a big, round, bright pink thing. He had no idea what it was. Neither did his two tabby sisters, who prowled towards it together, hissing fiercely. They were very good at being fierce. Whiskers and Satin watched worriedly as one of the tabby kittens dabbed a paw at the pink thing. It bounced a little. She tapped it again, and it wobbled in an interesting sort of way, so she jabbed at it with her claws out, this time.
[Êàðòèíêà: i_017.jpg]
The balloon burst with an enormous bang, and the tabby kittens jumped back in surprise, eyeing the shrivelled bit of pink rubber that was left. Whiskers cowered back in the corner of the pen, mewing with fright and wishing his mother would come. He had no idea what had happened! How had the round pink thing disappeared, and why had there been that terrible noise?
Silky shot back into the room, convinced that someone was hurting her babies, and leaped into the pen, checking them all frantically. Whiskers pressed up against her, shivering.
“I’m sorry, kittens.” Emily crouched down by the pen. “I didn’t mean to scare you. It was only a balloon – I’m blowing them up for my birthday party, and that pink one must have rolled off the table.”
Whiskers mewed again, eyeing the other strange round pink things he could see on the kitchen table. Did that mean there were going to be more horrible noises? When Emily tried to give him a comforting stroke he let her, but he was trembling, and showing his tiny little teeth.
“Oh no…” Emily said sadly. “It really scared you, didn’t it? Never mind, I’ve got some good news. Mia’s coming later, and she’s staying the night. That’ll be nice, won’t it? You love Mia, don’t you?” She sighed to herself, almost crossly. “And Mia loves you too, she just doesn’t know it yet.”
Mia had been visiting the kittens almost every day, and she always made straight for Whiskers.“I wish she’d just hurry up and work out that she should take you home,” Emily told Whiskers sadly. “Mum’s already talking about looking for new homes for you in a few weeks’ time. I’ve given Mia loads of hints, but she doesn’t get them at all, and I don’t want to come out and sayit in case it makes her miserable about Sandy again.”
She tickled Whiskers behind the ears.“You want to be Mia’s kitten, don’t you, Whiskers? You never play as nicely with anyone else. And you’re always sad when she goes home. You mewed after her yesterday, and you looked really lonely, even though you were cuddled up next to Silky.” She sighed. “Anyway, you’ll all have to be super-cute tonight for my sleepover,” she told the kittens, half-seriously. “Mia’s coming, and Libby and Poppy. At least, they are if it doesn’t snow before then. It’s so cold now! You’d better groom your babies, Silky. Put their party fur on!”
“Oh, did you do all the balloons, Emily? Good. I’ll hang them up in the hall, you go and get changed. Leah’s just putting the birthday banner on the front door.” Emily’s mum hurried into the kitchen, and gave her a quick hug. “Are you excited about your party?”
Emily nodded, laughing.“Course I am. But it’s so chilly! I’m not sure about sleeping on the living-room floor now!”
Her mum nodded.“I know, I hope it doesn’t get too much colder before Christmas, it’s still only November.”
Leah came in, rubbing her fingers.“I’m frozen,” she moaned, but then her eyes widened. “Hey, look at Satin!”
[Êàðòèíêà: i_018.jpg]
The black kitten was teetering on the edge of the pen, and as they watched, she half-jumped, half-fell on to the kitchen floor, where she stood up and shook herself, trying to look as though she meant to do exactly that.
“Oh, my goodness…” Mum muttered. “We’re in for it now. They’ll be everywhere. We must remember to keep the kitchen door closed. They would choose today of all days!”
The two tabby kittens were now standing on their back legs, peering over the top of the pen and staring at their sister with huge, round eyes, as though they couldn’t believe what she’d managed to do. Satin had set off to investigate the kitchen and was sniffing thoughtfully around the table legs.
“Shall I let her explore for a bit?” Emily asked, and Mum nodded.
“I expect she’ll wear herself out quite soon. Go and get changed – they’ll all be here in a minute! Just make sure you shut the kitchen door!”
[Êàðòèíêà: i_004.jpg]
Mia looked at the kittens a little anxiously. Libby and Poppy had just arrived, and the kitchen had suddenly got very noisy. She hoped Silky and the kittens wouldn’t mind.
But Satin and the two tabby kittens were loving the attention. They put on a beautiful performance of stalking a piece of wool, and then climbed all over Libby and Poppy. Satin then snuggled up on Libby’s knee, while the tabbies fought each other for the wool. Only Whiskers was still in the kitten pen, hiding behind Silky.
“The little white kitten’s so cute!” Poppy said, reaching into the pen to pick him up. Whiskers shied away from her, but she didn’t seem to notice – she grabbed him, and took him out of his lovely safe pen, dangling him in front of her.