The Kidnapped Kitten

“When I’m at home with her in the mornings, she follows me around, you know.” Mum sniffed. “And I’m always having to rescue her from the washing machine. It’s a wonder I’ve never actually put it on with her in it! I love her too, Tia, and we will do our absolute best to find her.”

“Sorry,” Tia murmured. Somehow knowing that Mum was really missing Milly helped.

Dad smiled. “She’s a little terror, isn’t she? But nobody wants a better-behaved cat, Tia. We want our cat. Now I think this photo of her in the garden is the best. What shall we say on the poster?”

Milly stared at the door, wondering when the man would come to bring their food. He’d fed them that morning, but the food hadn’t been the same kind she had at home. She’d left it for a while, but then finally eaten it – she’d been too hungry not to.

She had tried to dart out of the cage when the man put her food bowl in, but he’d batted her away. She felt hopeless – she couldn’t see how she was ever going to get out of here. And she was hungry again.

Tia always fed her at about this time of day. Where was Tia? Milly had been hoping that Tia would come and take her away from this horrible place.

She began to wail, over and over again. The Persian cat didn’t join in, he just stayed in the corner of his cage, sulking. But the other two cats started to howl too.

The door banged open, and the man stamped in, scowling. “Shut up!” he yelled, hitting the front of the cage.

Milly let out a frightened little whimper. No one had ever shouted at her like that before. People had been cross or snapped, “Milly, no!” But this was different. She cowered at the back of the cage as he shoved in a fresh bowl of food. She didn’t even think about trying to escape this time. She didn’t want to go any closer to the man than she had to.

“I’m glad it’s Saturday and we can be out looking for Milly,” Tia said to Lucy. Her mum had texted Lucy’s the night before to ask if Lucy could come and help.

“That’s a brilliant photo,” Lucy said, as she gave Tia some sellotape to stick the poster to a lamp post. “Anyone who sees Milly will definitely recognize her.”

Tia sighed. “I don’t think anyone will see her, though. I still reckon it was those catnappers Laura told me about. Mum did ring the police, and they said they’d make a note of it, but there wasn’t a lot to go on. Actually, do you mind if we run back and ask Mum if we can go and tell Laura what’s happened? I want to warn her to keep Charlie safe.”

“Good idea,” Lucy agreed. “If the catnappers did take Milly, I bet they saw Charlie too. They might come back, mightn’t they?”

“Exactly.” Tia shuddered.

They hurried back down the road to meet Tia’s mum and Christy, who were doing the lamp posts at that end. Mum had told the girls they could go further up the road as long as they stayed where she could see them. Dad had gone to the street that ran behind theirs, in case Milly had jumped over the back fence.

“Mum! Can we go and tell Laura what happened? I want to warn her to keep Charlie in.”

“Oh, Tia… I’m sure it’s nothing to do with catnappers,” Mum said, patting her shoulder. “Milly’s just wandered off. Cats do!”

“Please?”

“Well, OK. But don’t bother Laura for long.”

Tia and Lucy crossed over the road, and rang Laura’s bell.

“Hello! I’ve just seen you from upstairs, putting up posters.” Laura frowned. “Milly’s not lost, is she?”

“Yes.” Tia gulped. “Actually, I’m sure she’s been stolen. There was a man asking me about her, just a couple of days ago…”

Laura gasped. “Youngish? Short blond hair? With a blue van?”

“I don’t know about the van…” Tia started to say. “Hang on, yes, there was a van…” She scowled to herself, wishing she could remember. It just hadn’t seemed important at the time. “I think it was blue. You saw him too, then?”

“Yes! He was asking me about Charlie. He was nice, he said my cat looked very special, and I was all set to say Charlie was a Bengal. Then I remembered that newspaper article, and I just smiled at him and went inside. I felt a bit guilty afterwards. I was rude…”

“He was nice to me too,” Tia whispered sadly. “If he was asking about Charlie, that’s not just chance, is it? He’s a cat thief, and Milly really has been stolen.” Tia’s eyes filled with tears. “He’ll sell her to someone else, and we’ll never get her back!”

Chapter Seven

Milly flattened her ears. She could hear the man coming. She gave a small, nervous mew. He frightened her.

He had a pile of food bowls in one hand, but in the other he was holding a cat carrier. What was happening? Then she suddenly realized – perhaps he was going to take her home! She purred, hoping she was the one he had brought the carrier for.

She stood nicely as he opened the cage door, and let him pick her up and put her in, though usually she would scrabble and fight.