The Frightened Kitten

“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.”

“OH!” Maddy huffed, and she stomped back inside. Biscuit was not going to fight, because Maddy wasn’t going to let any other cats hurt her. She didn’t care how scratched she got.

But as she shut the kitchen door, slamming it hard enough to set the cat flap swinging, Maddy had a sudden, awful thought.

She could protect Biscuit now, but what about tomorrow, when she went back to school?

“Perhaps we shouldn’t have got a cat flap…” Maddy said worriedly.

Her dad scratched his head thoughtfully. He’d been out running when Biscuit got into the fight, and had missed the whole thing. “I can’t exactly put that chunk of door back. Anyway, Biscuit’s getting bigger all the time. She won’t be such easy pickings for those two next door soon.”

“I don’t think Biscuit’s ever going to be as big as they are,” Maddy said. “But it’s good for her to be able to go out. She loves being in the garden! Or she did, anyway,” she added sadly.

Biscuit hadn’t been outside again since the fight that morning. She’d retreated into the dining room. There was a lovely patch of warm sun coming through the glass doors at the back of the room. Biscuit lay in it, feeling the soft warmth on her fur. It made her feel better – not so jumpy and scared.

She stretched out on the carpet lazily and gazed out of the big window through half-open eyes, hoping to spot some butterflies.

Instead, the next time she blinked, Tiger and Tom were there. In her garden, staring at her, just on the other side of the window.

Biscuit’s tail fluffed up and she hissed in panic. For a moment, she forgot that there was glass there and they couldn’t reach her through it. She was sure that Tiger was about to knock her over again. She raced out to the kitchen and Maddy, mewing in fright.

“Oh! They’re back in the garden!” Maddy picked Biscuit up, cuddling her.