“Can we have him?” Olivia turned round. “Ben, don’t you think he’s gorgeous?”
“I suppose. The ginger ones were really fun, but he looks friendly, too,” Ben said.
“Let’s get him out so you can give him a stroke,” Debbie suggested.
“Oh, yes please…” Olivia gazed through the wire at the kitten. He was scrabbling at it now, looking as though he liked the idea too. Debbie opened the front of the pen, and laughed as he scampered out before she could catch him.
The kitten skidded to a stop in front of Olivia’s feet, and glanced up, suddenly shy. He looked at Olivia sideways, obviously wondering who she was and if she was friendly.
Olivia stretched out her fingers to him, and he sniffed them, and then rubbed the side of his face up and down her hand. “Ahhh. Do you think I could pick him up?” she asked Debbie.
“Give it a try. Don’t worry if he wriggles away, he’ll probably be a bit excited.”
But the kitten snuggled happily against Olivia’s school jumper, and purred. This was just what he wanted. So much better than being all alone in the pen, and the girl smelled nice.
Olivia stroked him gently behind the ears. His fur was soft and velvety, and he nuzzled a tiny, cold pink nose into her neck, making her giggle. “Oh, listen to him purring! He feels like a little lawn mower!”
The kitten closed his eyes happily, and kneaded his paws into Olivia’s shoulder.
Debbie smiled. “He’s definitely taken to you.”
Olivia’s eyes glowed as she looked up at her parents, kitten paws tangled in her jumper. “Please can we have him?”
“But what about the ginger ones?” Ben grumbled, but then he stroked the top of the kitten’s head. “I guess he is quite cute,” he admitted.
Dad nodded, smiling. “So what are we going to call him then?”
In the end, the name was obvious. Smudge just fitted. Olivia’s mum suggested Alfie, and Ben wanted to call him after his favourite footballer, but Smudge just looked like Smudge.
He fitted into the house too. Debbie had said that he was already house-trained. She’d also explained that Smudge had had all his vaccinations, and was safe to go outside, but it would be better not to let him out on his own for the first couple of weeks, while he got used to his new home. Dad was glad about that, as it gave him a bit longer to fit the cat flap.
On his first night, Olivia had left Smudge curled up in his new basket. She’d lined up all his toys next to him, and given him one of her old toy cats in case he was lonely. Then she’d refilled his water bowl, and given him a prawn-flavour cat treat as a bedtime snack.
“Olivia, it’s way past your bedtime!” Mum put an arm round her shoulders. “He’ll be fine. He’s used to the Rescue Centre. I’m sure our kitchen’s much nicer than that pen he was in.”
Olivia nodded. “Yes, but he doesn’t know our house yet, and he doesn’t understand what’s happening. What if he thinks we’re never coming back?”
“Come on. You’re not sleeping in the kitchen with him, Livvy.”
Olivia sighed and looked back sadly as Mum shooed her out. The light from the hallway gleamed in the kitten’s huge eyes. He looked sad too.
Upstairs, Olivia got ready for bed. But she couldn’t stop thinking about Smudge, alone in the dark kitchen. Perhaps she should just go and check on him?
Ben was lying on his bed reading, and he glanced up as Olivia went past. “Mum’ll hear if you sneak downstairs, Olivia. She always catches me.”
Olivia leaned round his bedroom door. “How did you know what I was doing?” she hissed. “I might just have been going to the loo!”
Ben shrugged. “I could tell by the way you were looking at the stairs.” He frowned. “Hey, is that Smudge making that noise?”
From downstairs came a faint but pitiful wailing, along with a scratching sound. The noise of kitten claws scrabbling at a kitchen door.
Olivia hung over the banisters, listening to the sad little howls.
Eventually Mum came out of the living room, frowning. “I hope he’s all right,” she said over her shoulder to Dad. “Oh, Olivia. Is he keeping you awake?”
“Can’t we let him come upstairs?” Olivia pleaded. “He sounds so lonely.”
Mum sighed and glanced at Dad.
Dad shrugged. “Well, he is house-trained.”
“Thank you!” Olivia smiled with delight, and ran down the stairs to open the kitchen door.
Smudge shot out, and she gathered him into her arms, cuddling him against her pyjamas. “Don’t worry, Smudge,” she whispered. “I’ll look after you.” She carried him upstairs, and put him down gently on her bed.
Smudge looked around interestedly, and padded up and down Olivia’s duvet, inspecting it carefully. Olivia tried not to laugh. He looked so serious. Then he marched over to her pillow, curled himself up in the hollow between the pillow and the duvet, and went to sleep.
Chapter Three
Smudge had only been there a few days, but Olivia’s house was definitely his home now. He had explored every possible hole and hiding place, and got stuck in several of them. But Olivia or Ben or their parents were always there to rescue him. Except for today. Dad was at work, Olivia and Ben had gone to school that morning, and as it was Thursday their mum had to go into school to work too. Smudge was all on his own for the first time, and he didn’t like it. He wandered around the house, his tail twitching. He’d already been into every room that was open, and he knew that no one was there, but he kept hoping that maybe if he looked again he would find somebody.
He padded back into the kitchen, and sniffed hopefully at the door. Olivia and Ben had taken him out into the garden when they got home from school yesterday. It had been his first taste of the outside world, and his ears flickered back and forth as he remembered watching the birds, and chasing after the little jingly ball that Olivia had rolled along the patio.
There it was, in the corner by the kitchen cupboards. Smudge trotted over and patted the ball with one paw. It rolled along, the little bell jingling, and he pounced on it. The ball slid along the polished tiles, and so did Smudge, rolling over on to his back, wriggling and clawing at it. But then the ball slid away from his paws and stopped against the kitchen table leg, and it wasn’t as much fun any more.
Grumpily, Smudge lay there on his back, licking his paws. He’d already had quite a long sleep in the recycling box on the kitchen counter. (Ben had emptied it that morning, and it was just the right size for Smudge to feel cosy in, much better than his basket.) Now he wanted someone to play with.
Perhaps by the time he got upstairs, Olivia would be back in her bedroom? He trotted through to the hallway and started to struggle up the stairs.
He was big enough to climb them, but it was an effort, and he had to scrabble and heave himself up each step. He sat down for a little while at the top of the stairs, his sides heaving, and then he crept along the landing and nosed his way round Olivia’s door.
