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“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.”

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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 [Êàðòèíêà: i_002.jpg]

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.

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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!”

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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!”