The Kitten Nobody Wanted

Chapter One

“Oh, Mia, look! I told you Mrs Johnston had a new cat. Isn’t she gorgeous? So fluffy!” Mia’s mum stroked the little black cat, who was sitting proudly on Mrs Johnston’s front wall.

Mia’s best friend Emily tickled the purring cat under the chin. “She’s so lovely!”

Mia’s mum looked over at Mia hopefully, then sighed. She hadn’t even glanced up as Mum and Emily petted the cat. She was staring firmly at her school shoes as she marched on down the road. It was as if she hadn’t heard.

Mum and Emily exchanged worried looks, and hurried after her. Emily lived a few doors down from Mia, and the girls usually walked to school together. Their mums and Mia’s gran took it in turns to go with them, now that Emily’s big sister Leah had started secondary school. Gran lived in a little flat at the side of Mia’s house, and looked after Mia when her parents were working. She’d moved in with them a few years ago, when she’d been ill and it had been difficult for her to live on her own.

“See you tomorrow, Mia!” Emily called, as she turned into her drive.

“Bye! Call me if you get stuck on that homework!” Mia was very good at maths, and Emily wasn’t. Emily had been moaning about their maths homework all the way back from school.

Mia flung off her coat and hurried upstairs before Mum could start going on about Mrs Johnston’s gorgeous cat again. She could hear her mum asking her if she was OK, if she wanted a drink or a chat, but she ignored her.

Mia just didn’t want to hear. She’d never realized before how many cats there were in her road, or on the way to school. Now that she couldn’t bear to see them, there seemed to be cats everywhere.

She slumped down on her bed, and looked sadly at the navy blue fleece blanket spread over her duvet at the end. It had a pattern of little cat faces scattered over it – and there were still ginger hairs clinging on to it here and there. Sandy had slept on it every night, for as long as Mia could remember. She still woke up in the middle of the night expecting her old cat to be there – sometimes she even reached down to stroke him, waiting for his sleepy purr as he felt her move. It was so hard to believe that he was really gone.

She looked at the photo on her windowsill. It had been taken a couple of months earlier, at the beginning of the summer holidays, just a few weeks
before Sandy died. He was looking thin, and they’d taken him to the vet’s, but that day he’d been enjoying the late summer sun in the garden, and Mia had been sure he was getting better. Looking back now, she realized that he hadn’t been jumping and pouncing and chasing the butterflies like he usually did, just lying quietly in the sun. But she hadn’t wanted to believe that there was anything wrong with him.

Tears stung her eyes as she stroked the glass over the photo, wishing she had the real Sandy snuggled up on her lap.

How could Mum keep pointing out other cats, and expecting her to want to stop and stroke them? Dad had even suggested going to the cat rescue centre to look for a kitten! Mia didn’t want a kitten, ever. She was never going to replace her beautiful Sandy.

Mum was calling her from downstairs, asking if she wanted a snack. Brushing the tears away, Mia carefully straightened Sandy’s blanket, and went down to the kitchen.

She could tell that Mum was watching her worriedly as she ate her apple. It only made her feel worse.

“Shall I go and fill up the bird feeder?” she asked, wanting an excuse to leave the room. Mia knew Mum was only trying to help, but she really wasn’t, and any minute now she was going to start talking about kittens again, or getting a rabbit, like she’d suggested yesterday.

Mia grabbed the bag of bird food from the cupboard, and let herself out of the back door, taking a deep breath of relief. A blackbird skittered out of her way as she went over to refill the feeder, and she murmured to it soothingly as she unhooked the wire case.

“It’s all right, I’ll be gone in a minute. And I’ll probably drop bits, you can come and peck them up.” She poured in the seed, and then hung up the feeder and perched on the arm of the bench, shivering a little in the autumn sun. She didn’t want to go back inside just yet.

All of a sudden, a damp nose butted her hand, and Mia jumped, a strange, silly hope flooding into her.

But when she turned round, it wasn’t her beautiful Sandy playing tricks on her. It was a pretty, plump white cat, with blue eyes, and Mia recognized her. Silky, her friend Emily’s cat.

“Hi, Silky,” she whispered. “You look a bit round, pusscat. Emily needs to stop giving you so many treats.”

Silky rubbed up against her affectionately. Cats always liked Mia, and Silky knew her anyway, as Mia spent loads of time over at Emily’s house. Sandy had known Emily too, although he’d always chased Silky if she came into his garden.

This garden.

Mia swallowed and gently pushed Silky away, then walked swiftly back into the house.

Her mum was standing by the kitchen window – she’d been watching, and she sighed, very quietly, as Mia hurried back inside.

“Are you OK, sweetheart?” she asked.

“I’m going to do my homework,” Mia muttered, trying not to sound tearful. She was so sick of people worrying about her. Dad had talked to her for ages at breakfast that morning about Sandy. But she was perfectly all right! Why couldn’t everyone just leave her alone?

Chapter Two

Mia and her gran called for Emily on their way to school the next morning. Emily waved at them through the front window as they walked up, and then she disappeared, and flung open the door.

“Guess what!” Emily shrieked.

Mia shook her head, laughing, as Emily came running down the path.
“What? You finished the maths homework and it was easy?”

Emily shuddered and made a face. “No, it was awful, I don’t even want to think about it. I’ll have to tell you – you’ll never guess. We think Silky might be going to have kittens!”

Gran smiled delightedly, and Mia gasped. “What, really? Kittens? When will she have them?”

“We’re not quite sure. Mum’s going to take her to the vet’s today to check. We were looking at her last night, and we just realized how big she’d got round the middle! Mum’s a bit annoyed though… Well, she’s excited, but she says it’s going to be a big fuss, and we’ll have to find homes for all the kittens.” Emily frowned. “But me and
Leah are going to work on Mum to let us keep one of them.”

“Oh, wow…” Mia murmured. “You know, Silky came into our garden yesterday, and I thought she was looking a bit plump. But I didn’t realize she was having kittens!”
I only looked at her for a moment before I pushed her away,
Mia added in her head, feeling a bit guilty.

Emily chattered on happily about the kittens all the way to school, wondering how many there would be, and whether they’d be white like Silky.

Mia joined in with a comment here and there, but thoughts were buzzing around inside her head. She still loved cats, of course she did. But it was definitely hard to be around them right now, when every cat seemed to remind her so much of Sandy. It wouldn’t be so difficult if her mum and dad weren’t so keen for them to get another pet – they seemed to think Mia needed another cat to get over Sandy properly. And now Emily was all excited about kittens as well…

“What’s the matter, Mia? You’ve gone all quiet,” Emily asked, as they waved to Gran and went in through the school gates.

Mia smiled and shook her head. “I’m fine. I’m glad I’m walking home with you and my mum today – can we pop in and see Silky, and ask your mum what the vet said?” She was trying hard to sound excited, like she knew she should, and it must have worked, because Emily beamed at her.

“Of course you can!” Emily said, giving her a hug. “I can’t wait to tell everyone about Silky having kittens! I just hope it’s true!”

Emily told Mia’s mum the news as soon as they came out of school. She’d come straight from work to pick them up and hadn’t spoken to Gran, so it was a total surprise.

“Oh, Mia, isn’t that lovely? Kittens!”

“Mmm.” Mia tried to sound enthusiastic. She really didn’t want to spoil things for Emily. “Can we go and see Silky on the way home?” she asked. “Emily’s mum took Silky to the vet, so she should know for certain by now – maybe she’ll even know when the kittens might be born.”

Mum nodded. “Of course!”

They hurried back to Emily’s house, and Emily burst through the door, racing ahead and calling for her mum. “What did the vet say? Is she
definitely having kittens? When will they come?”

“Sooner than we thought!” her mum said, laughing. “Could be only a couple of weeks, the vet said. And she felt Silky’s tummy, and she thinks there are at least three kittens, possibly more.”

“Three!” Emily breathed, crouching down next to Silky, who was curled up in her furry basket. “That explains why she’s so fat!”

Mia sat down next to her friend, and stroked Silky gently. She was very
well-named
– her fur was beautifully soft and smooth. She wasn’t asleep, but her pretty blue eyes were half-closed, as though she was tired. She probably was, Mia thought.

“Three kittens to find homes for,” her mum sighed. She looked thoughtfully at Mia’s mum. “I don’t suppose…”

Mia saw her mum smile, and glance over at her, raising her eyebrows. Emily’s mum glanced at her too, and nodded understandingly. Mia could tell exactly what Mum meant –
Maybe, but I’m not sure about Mia. 

She gave Silky one last gentle stroke. It was odd to think that there were tiny kittens squirming around inside her.

“Mum, I’ve got loads of homework,” she pointed out, getting to her feet. “We’d better go.” They didn’t really need to leave that minute, but she didn’t want her mum and Emily’s exchanging any more of those secret looks.

The subject didn’t go away, though. Dad was full of questions at dinner time, wanting to know when the kittens would arrive, and what Silky had looked like.

“Silky’s such a sweet cat,” he said, looking at Mia. “She’ll have cute kittens, Mia, don’t you think?”

Mia nodded. “But they won’t be as gorgeous as Sandy,” she said, eyeing her dad firmly. “We’ll never find another cat like him.”

He shook his head, with a sigh. “No, I suppose not. But different can be good too, you know, Mia.” 

When she went up to bed that night, Mia lay there for ages, hugging Sandy’s blanket and thinking. She’d never actually had a kitten of her own. Sandy had been older than she was, he was about two when she was born. Gran had a lovely photo of him that she kept in her little living room, one that Mum and Dad had sent her when she still lived in her old house, before she came to live with them all a few years later. It was a photo of Mia as a baby, sitting up in her bouncy chair, and reaching out a fat little hand for Sandy’s tail as he strolled past.

Mum had photos of Sandy as a kitten, too, in her photo album.
He’d been super cute – with round green eyes that looked too big for his little whiskery face, and apricot pink pads to his paws. They were darker by the time Mia knew him, from going outside and roughening them up. But he was still beautiful, and his eyes were like emeralds.

Mia gulped, and buried her face in the blanket. It still smelled of him. She really wanted to be excited for Emily, but even the thought of kittens made her miss Sandy so much. She wasn’t sure she could bear to see them for real.