The Frightened Kitten (4 page)

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.

“Stop it!” Maddy yelled. She raced over to them, shoving at Tiger, ignoring the hissing and scratching at her hands. She snatched Biscuit up, and yelled at Tiger and Tom, sending them scuttling away under the fence.

“Maddy, are you all right?” Her mum came running out. “It all happened so quickly, I didn’t realize what was going on. Is Biscuit hurt?”

“I don’t think so, but she’s shaking.” Maddy carried the kitten inside. “Those horrible cats!”

Her mum sighed. “I suppose they’re used to coming into our garden. They think Biscuit’s in their territory.”

“Well, she isn’t!” Maddy snapped. “It’s our garden and she’s our cat!”

“Yes, we know that, but I bet the cats don’t. Give her to me, you need to run your hands under the tap. They must hurt, you’re all scratched!”

Reluctantly, Maddy handed Biscuit over to her mum.

“She’s so scared,” Maddy said, her
voice shaking as she washed her hands. “Tiger’s so much bigger than she is. He could have really hurt her.” Then she laughed a little. “I saw Biscuit scratch his nose, though, before he ran off.”

“Did they go under the fence?” her mum asked. “Is there a hole we could block up?”

Maddy dried her scratched hands and made for the door. “I’ll go and see.”

Biscuit gave a worried little mew as she saw Maddy opening the door, and Maddy stopped to stroke her. “Don’t worry. I’m not going to let those ginger bullies anywhere near you.”

She hurried out into the garden, checking the fence. There were holes all the way along – not huge ones, but big enough for a cat to squeeze through.

It was going to be difficult to block them all up. And the fence wasn’t that high, either. She was pretty sure that Tiger and Tom could climb it without too much effort.

“What are you doing?” someone asked in a sneery sort of voice.

Maddy straightened up from the flower bed. It was her next-door neighbour Josh, who owned Tiger and Tom. He was a couple of years older than she was and went to secondary school, so usually Maddy was too shy to say much to him. But not today.

“I’m looking at the fence! Your cats just came into my garden and beat up my kitten!” she snapped at him.

Josh shrugged. “Sorry. But cats fight. It’s what they do.”

“Don’t you care? She’s terrified!”

“There isn’t anything I can do, cats chase each other and they fight. There’s loads of cats round here. Your kitten’s going to get into fights, Maddy, stop being such a girl.”