Misty the Abandoned Kitten

“Good idea. We definitely need to get the fishy flavours then, they stink! My mum won’t buy the tuna and prawn cat food, she says it makes her feel sick! A hungry kitten would smell it a mile off, I should think. Oh, Amy, this is so exciting.” Lily gave her a hug. “It’s almost like you’re going to have your own cat after all!”

“She might not come,” Amy said cautiously, but she hugged Lily back, unable to keep the smile off her face.

“You definitely want this kind!” Lily took a foil pouch of cat snacks from the shelf. “They smell really strong. The kitten won’t be able to resist them.” She placed the cat treats in her basket. “I’ve just thought, you’ll have to give her a name. What are you going to call her?”

“I named her the first time I saw her,” Amy admitted. “She’s called Misty. Because I saw her coming towards me out of the mist, you see.” She picked up a different packet of cat treats and added them to Lily’s basket.

“Let’s get these too – if this cat on the front was a kitten, it would look exactly like Misty.”

“Very, very cute,” Lily said.

“She is.” Amy nodded. “I really hope she comes back this afternoon so you can see her! Oh, look, Mum’s waving at us to hurry up.” Amy’s mum was waiting outside the pet shop for them.

“Goodness, you needed a lot of cat food!” she said to Lily, as the girls came out of the shop.

Lily giggled. “Stella is very greedy,” she said, winking at Amy, or trying to; she wasn’t very good at it, and had to screw up her face.

“Lily, are you all right?” Amy’s mum asked. “Is there something in your eye?”

Amy burst out laughing, and her mum shook her head. “You two – sometimes I think it’s a good thing I don’t know what you’re up to.”

Amy and Lily grinned at each other. Secrets were such fun – and this was definitely the best one they had ever had.

They sneaked the cat food out into the garden while Amy’s mum was preparing their tea.

“Wow!” Lily looked up at the tree house. “Your dad built that? He’s brilliant!”

“It’s cool, isn’t it?” Amy agreed.

Lily hauled herself up the ladder and gazed around the inside of the tree house, admiring the bookshelf and the big purple beanbag.

“Come on, let’s open these.” Amy tore at the foil packet of cat treats eagerly. “I thought we could spread them out along the branch that almost touches the fence. I’m pretty sure Misty could jump on to it.”

Amy carefully leaned out of the doorway to sprinkle some cat treats on to the wide branch below. “Now we need to wait,” she said, edging backwards. She emptied the rest of the packet in the doorway just in front of her, then sat hugging her knees and staring over the gardens, searching for a little black figure.

Amy and Lily had meant to be totally silent, so as not to scare away the kitten, but they couldn’t resist chatting. They were deep in a discussion of exactly why Luke Armstrong in Mrs Dale’s class was so mean, when Amy suddenly clutched Lily’s arm.

“Look!” she ordered, in a hissing whisper.

“Oh!” Lily gave a little squeak of excitement. “Is that her?”

“I think so.” Amy leaned out to look further along the fence, where a black shadow was clambering over the ivy branches. “Yes, it’s her! Oh, I hope she can smell the cat biscuits.”

Scrambling through the leaves, her paws slipping on the thin branches, the kitten certainly could. She was terribly hungry. Charlie was still stealing all her food, and no one seemed to notice – Sarah was always busy, and Mrs Jones wasn’t very well and was spending most of her time resting in her chair. Quite often she had Charlie sitting on her now, and she would stroke him, while the kitten watched miserably from under the sofa, or peeping out from under the bookcase.

But now she could smell something tangy and lovely, and her stomach was making little rumbling noises. She trotted eagerly along the fence. Oh, the smell was getting even stronger and better.

The kitten stopped suddenly, and wobbled on the fence. She was there – the girl from yesterday! And there was another one with her. The kitten watched them warily.

Then the girl she’d seen before held out a little packet, and tipped something out of it, and the kitten knew that was where the wonderful smell was coming from. The tip of her little pink tongue stuck out, she was so hungry.

Amy couldn’t help giggling. The kitten was so cute, with her tongue just poking out like that. It made her look really silly.

The kitten put her front paws up on the tree branch, and the girls exchanged excited glances. Then she jumped all the way up, and found the first cat treat. She crunched it up in seconds, and scampered forwards, sniffing for more. When she got to the end of the branch, after about six more treats, she stopped and looked anxiously at Amy and Lily. She could see – and smell – the big pile of treats just in front of them.

Amy sighed. “Perhaps she’s too frightened to come closer,” she whispered.