“Oh, look, she’s there, watching out for us!” Maddy beamed. She ran up the garden path, watching Biscuit leap off the back of the sofa. She could hear a little scuttle of paws, and then frantic mewing and a scrabbling noise as the kitten clawed at the door. As soon as her mum opened it, Maddy swept the kitten up to hug her.
School wasn’t any easier the next day, or the day after that – but at least Maddy had Biscuit to cheer her up at home. And she was really looking forward to Saturday – the vet had said Biscuit could go out in the garden then, even though it wasn’t quite three weeks since her vaccinations. He’d said it would be fine as long as she wasn’t around any other cats.
Maddy didn’t give Biscuit as much breakfast as usual on Saturday morning. And just in case Biscuit did wander too far, Maddy made sure she had a full bag of the kitten’s favourite chicken-flavour treats.
Biscuit was still staring suspiciously at her food bowl, wondering why breakfast hadn’t seemed to take as long to gobble down as usual, when she realized that the back door was wide open. She’d seen it open before, of course, but only when someone was holding her tightly, and even then they always whipped it shut before she could wriggle free and go investigating. She crept over to it, keeping low to the ground, expecting any minute that Maddy or her mum would catch her.
But Maddy was outside! She was standing by the door, calling her! Biscuit hurried so fast out of the door, she almost tripped over the step. She shook herself crossly and pattered down the path to where Maddy was.
There were so many smells! She sniffed curiously at the grass, and patted it with one paw. It was cool and damp, and taller than she was!
“Have you got the treats?” Her mum appeared in the doorway. “In case Biscuit goes running off. She could get under the fence if she really tried, remember.”
Maddy waved the foil packet. “It’s OK. Oh, look, Mum! She’s seen a butterfly!”
The orange butterfly was swooping carelessly past Biscuit’s nose, and she watched it in amazement. Maddy had dangled pieces of string for her, and feathery toys, but she had never seen anything like this. She reached out her paw and tried to bat at the butterfly, and then tried again with the other paw, but it flew behind her, and she almost fell over trying to chase after it.
“You can’t have it, Biscuit,” Maddy laughed. “I don’t think butterflies are very good for you. And they’re all legs and wings; I bet they don’t taste nice.”
Biscuit stared after the butterfly, which was flittering over the fence to next door’s garden. She thought it looked delicious. But there was no way she could get over the high fence to follow it.
Chapter Four
Maddy and Biscuit spent so much time playing in the garden that on Friday evening, Maddy’s dad came home with a surprise. He put the big box he was carrying down in front of Biscuit’s cat basket with a flourish.
“What is it?” Maddy asked, peering round to see the front of the box. Biscuit blinked at it sleepily. She was worn out from racing round the garden with Maddy after she had got back from school.
“Oh, a cat flap! Thanks, Dad!”
“We can put it in tomorrow. It’s over three weeks since Biscuit had her vaccinations now, so we can let her out on her own.”
Maddy nodded. “I suppose so. But she’s still not quite fourteen weeks old. She’s only little.”
“I think cats like to explore though,” Dad pointed out. “She’ll be able to climb trees. Chase more butterflies…”
Biscuit suddenly perked up, bouncing up in her basket and staring at him, ears pricked. Dad laughed. “You see!”
Maddy had been worried that Biscuit might find the cat flap hard to work, or that she just might not like it – Kate had told her that Ben had taken ages to get used to his. He preferred to have someone open the back door for him. But as soon as Biscuit understood what the cat flap did, she took to it immediately. She spent most of Saturday afternoon popping in and out of it, coming back into the kitchen every five minutes to make sure that Maddy was still there.
Maddy had been a bit anxious that Biscuit might try going into one of the next-door gardens, but even though she’d sniffed at the holes under the fence, she didn’t seem to want to crawl through them. There was plenty in Maddy’s garden to keep her busy.
Maddy was doing her homework at the kitchen table on Sunday morning, with Biscuit curled on her lap. Her science worksheet seemed to be taking ages. It was probably because she kept thinking about her science lesson on Friday. She’d had to pair up with Sara, a girl she didn’t really like, and Sara had kept on making mean little comments throughout the lesson. So now every time she tried to write about the differences between solids and liquids, she just started thinking about how much she missed having Kate to work with. Kate would have said something really funny about Sara, Maddy was sure.
At least she’d seen Becky, one of the girls who sat on the table behind her, making faces at Sara. She’d rolled her eyes at Maddy in an “Ignore her!” sort of way, and Maddy had smiled back.
Now Biscuit yawned and jumped lazily off Maddy’s lap, making for her cat flap. She was bored with sitting still, and Maddy didn’t seem to want to play. Biscuit had tried chasing her coloured pencils across the table, but Maddy had put them away instead of rolling the pencils for her to chase.
The garden was full of interesting smells, and some bees were buzzing around the lavender bushes. Biscuit watched them, fascinated, her tail tip twitching. She was watching so closely that she didn’t see Tiger and Tom sneaking under next door’s fence. It wasn’t until the two big ginger cats were right behind her that Biscuit heard them creeping through the grass, and whirled round. She was sure it was one of these cats who’d been staring in at her through the window.
The ginger cats had their ears laid back as they snuck towards her. Biscuit backed away from them into the lavender bush. She didn’t quite understand what was happening, but she knew the two cats weren’t friendly. Her tail bushed out, and she darted a nervous glance towards the door. Could she make a run for her cat flap? But one of the big ginger cats, the one with the torn ear, was between her and the house, his tail swishing from side to side.
Tiger, the one with the darker stripes, was almost nose to nose with her now, hissing and staring. Biscuit was practically squashed into the lavender bush – she couldn’t retreat any further.
Tiger cuffed her round the head with one enormous paw, sending her rolling, and Biscuit wailed miserably. What was she supposed to do? Why were they attacking her?
Inside the house, Maddy was still gloomily eyeing her homework. She glanced up as her mum came into the kitchen, looking confused.
“Maddy, can you hear a strange noise? It almost sounds like a baby crying. A sort of howling.”
Maddy yelped and suddenly pushed her chair away from the table, racing for the back door. She hadn’t been paying attention to the noise, but now she was sure it was Biscuit.
She flung open the door, and Tom jumped round, hissing at her, but Tiger and Biscuit hardly seemed to notice. They were in the middle of the lawn now, and Tiger was about three times the size of Biscuit with all his ginger fur fluffed up. They were making strange wowling noises still, circling round each other. As Maddy watched, Tiger leaped on Biscuit again, and the two cats seemed to roll over and over, twisting and scratching.