Layla beamed back at her. “No problem. I need the practice,” she said happily, glancing meaningfully between Edie and Barbie, who was now trying to climb up her fleece.
“Practice? Hey, come in before she disappears down the back of you and makes another run for it.” Edie beckoned Layla inside and shut the door, and Barbie sprang down from Layla’s arms and marched away in a kitten huff, tail whipping from side to side. Edie giggled. “I don’t think she’s talking to us now. Anyway, what are you so excited about?”
“I persuaded them! Actually, I think it was mostly Barbie. Remember when my mum and dad came over to have coffee with yours the other day and Barbie was playing, and then she spent all that time sitting on my dad’s lap?”
“He did look pretty happy about it,” Edie observed.
“He’s never had a cat, he’s always said he wasn’t a cat person. But they know all about Barbie’s sisters – I showed them the photos I took on my phone that day we found them, and so…”
“You’re going to adopt one of the naughty torties?” Edie threw her arms round Layla. “That’s amazing! Barbie’s going to have her sister living next door!”
“We went to see them at the shelter yesterday afternoon and we’re picking her up the weekend after next! They have to come and do a home visit first, and the kittens have to be eight weeks old to leave their mum.”
“Which one? The one with more ginger, or the darker one?”
“This one.” Layla showed Edie a photo on her phone – Layla holding a gorgeous tortoiseshell kitten against her shoulder. They were nose to nose and Edie thought she’d never seen her friend look so happy. “She’s the dark one, but she’s got a big ginger streak down her nose. And her whiskers are white on one side and black on the other!” She smiled blissfully. “Sorry, Edie, but I think she’s even cuter than Barbie.”
Edie grinned. “That’s OK. But don’t you listen to her, Barbie! She thinks your sister’s more gorgeous than you are!” she added to her kitten, who’d forgotten to be cross and was marching back down the hall towards them, dragging a huge catnip-stuffed fish in her mouth. It was nearly as big as she was and she kept tripping over it. Eventually she just gave up and lay down on her side, hugging the fish and kicking at it with her hind paws.
Edie shook her head as she crouched down beside her. She tickled Barbie’s cream-coloured tummy, and the ginger kitten gave up on the fish and came to nudge against Edie’s arm, rubbing the side of her head up and down Edie’s sleeve, and purring and purring.
“She really loves you,” Layla murmured, and Edie smiled at her.
“Dad says it’s because I’m the one who feeds her but he’s only being grumpy.”
“No, it’s more than that. Do you think the tortoiseshell kitten will love me, too?” she added shyly. “I’m going to be looking after her.” She reached out to run her hand over Barbie’s ears and the kitten purred for her as well.
“Of course she will. It looks like she already does in that photo.” Edie gathered Barbie up in her arms, gently combing her fingers through the kitten’s long ginger fur. “Imagine if we hadn’t stopped to find out what that noise was,” she said, looking round at Layla wide-eyed. “We’d never have found them all.”
“Best walk home from school ever,” Layla said seriously and then she laughed as Barbie wriggled in Edie’s arms so that she was snuggled in the crook of her elbow, on her back like a baby. Her pale ginger paws were folded on her chest, and she yawned, wide enough to show her needle-sharp white teeth. Then her green eyes closed slowly, and she breathed out a tiny, quiet purr.
Barbie batted a cautious paw at her new cat flap. She had only been allowed to go out for a few days, and she was still a bit confused by the flap – the way it sometimes opened and sometimes didn’t – and she didn’t much like the bang it made when it shut behind her. She usually jumped through it as fast as she could. She patted it again and then dived through, out into the garden.
It was sunny and warm, and there were butterflies. She loved butterflies. They were like the feathery toy that Edie waved for her – they bounced and fluttered, and she never knew which direction they would go in. She had tried chasing them, but they were hard to catch…
Barbie turned as she heard the back door open behind her, and Edie stepped out carrying a sandwich. Barbie eyed the plate hopefully. Edie was good at sharing, and her sandwiches often had ham in them, or cheese. She liked cheese. She padded over to Edie and started to weave around her feet.
“Layla!” Edie called across the garden. “Are you there? Is Amber out?” She hopped up on to the garden bench and looked over the wall.
“Yes! She’s chasing butterflies, I really hope she doesn’t catch one.”
“Barbie loves doing that, too. Oh! Hello, Barbie!”
Barbie was scrabbling at the wall, and Edie watched impressed as she climbed all the way on to the top, next to Edie’s elbow. The little kitten perched there looking proud of herself and Edie scratched her behind the ears.
“Aren’t you clever? Look, who’s that?” Edie whispered to her, pointing across Layla’s garden. “Can you see?”
Barbie’s tail fluffed up a bit and Edie watched her, a little worried. She wasn’t sure how Barbie was going to feel about another cat so close to her own garden.
Amber came pacing down the garden towards the wall. There wasn’t a bench on her side, so she couldn’t jump up, but she stood beneath the wall, gazing up at Barbie, her golden eyes round and curious.
The two kittens stared at each other, and Edie and Layla stood watching. Neither of them had been sure how their kittens would react when they met. Would they even understand that they were sisters?
Then Amber stood up, patting her front paws against Layla’s leg, asking to be picked up. Layla lifted her, and Amber leaned out of her arms, reaching forward curiously towards the wall.
Barbie leaned over, too, and the kittens sniffed at each other. Amber wriggled and Layla reached up to put her on the wall next to Barbie.
“Do you think they remember?” Edie whispered, as the sisters inspected each other carefully, sniffing and nudging. Then she smiled as Barbie stepped closer to Amber and rubbed her head all round Amber’s, nuzzling at her gently. “They do, look! They know they’re sisters!” Edie rested her chin on her arms, watching as Amber snuffled round Barbie, and smiled at Layla on the other side of the wall.
“We rescued them both,” Layla whispered.
“We’re never going to let anything happen to you,” Edie told them. Then she laughed as Barbie padded back along the wall to nuzzle a cold little nose lovingly against her cheek.
Collect them all
Biography
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STRIPES PUBLISHING
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