Kitten Kaboodle (13 page)

‘Eeeek! Houdini!’ I yelled. I made a grab for Kaboodle and caught him round the middle.

He whipped round and tried to nip me on the wrist, and in so doing, dropped the hamster he’d been carrying in his jaws. The poor little thing lay where he had landed, his huge shiny black
eyes blinking rapidly. Thank goodness he was still alive.

I held on tightly to the kitten and hissed at him, ‘I’m going to put you down – in a minute. Do exactly as I say or, boy, will you live to regret it.’

Kaboodle flattened his ears and gave the beginnings of a snarl, but quickly thought better of it and spat back, ‘Don’t get stressy.’

If Jazz wasn’t alive and well and living just around the corner, I would have said that Kaboodle was the reincarnation of my stroppy best mate.

‘Now, stay there.’ I set the kitten down behind me very, very slowly, and then turned my full attention to the stunned hamster I picked him up as gently as I could and opened the
cage again, then I lowered him in next to Mr Nibbles, who had been watching the whole procedure from the hamster wheel.

I closed the cage softly and let out the breath I’d been holding.

‘You,’ I said to Kaboodle menacingly, ‘are in so much trouble, I cannot even
begin
to tell you how much.’

The little kitten made a big show of not listening to me, licking a front paw and slowly wiping it over one ear. Then he looked at me, all golden wide-eyed innocence, and said,
‘What?’

‘What do you mean,“what?”?’ I growled, trying not to shout in case it upset poor Houdini any further. ‘I catch you in the act of stealing a hamster with intent to
murder and munch it, and all you can say is “
what?
”’

Kaboodle gave the cat equivalent of a shrug, twitching his head to one side and licking his shoulder. ‘All’s fair in lunch and war,’ he muttered.

‘You are incredible,’ I said. ‘These little guys are not LUNCH, they are someone’s pets.’

‘Pets?’ scoffed Kaboodle. ‘More like meals on wheels. Ha ha! Get it? Hamster wheel—’

‘Very cleve r, I don’t think.’ Then something struck me. ‘How did you get in here anyway?’

Kaboodle purre d. ‘Easy. I slipped in behind you. You humans are so noisy. And so unobservant . . . as I’ve already told you.’

I sat down heavily in an armchair. ‘Incredible,’ I said, shaking my head. ‘First you run off and make me – well, Jazz anyway – believe you’ve been run over or
something, then you hassle me in front of Jazz so I end up shouting and she thinks I’m shouting at her, and now this. I’m beginning to wish I never agreed to look after you.’

Kaboodle looked down at the floor.

‘And now I feel all shaky after seeing you with Houdini hanging from your jaws like that. What if he doesn’t make it? You’ve probably traumatized him forever. What will I say
to Mr Smythe? He’ll be livid! And he’ll probably tell everyone in the street about it and then no one will let me look after their pets, and that will be the end of my Pe t-Sitting
Service. Actually,’ I added, ‘I think this
is
the end of my pet-sitting career. It’s too mega stressful.’

The kitten padded over to me and looked up at me with a pleading expression on his face. ‘I really am sorry,’ he mewe d. He jumped up lightly and nestled into my lap, purring like a
jet engine. ‘I guess . . . that is . . . I just got a bit jealous,’ he confessed, nuzzling against my arm, which was firmly strapped against my chest in a defensive pose.

I sighed and shifted so that Kaboodle could settle closer to my body. ‘You were jealous,’ I repeated, trying to continue the tone of annoyance in my voice, but hearing it wavering as
the purring on my lap got louder.

‘Yes,’ said the kitten. ‘You see, when I saw you put that leaflet through the door, I thought, “There’s a girl after my own heart – a loner, someone who will
understand me.” I used to live with creatures who understood me – six of them, in fact. My brothers and sisters. But Mum couldn’t look after us all forever. That’s the way
it is with cats. Once you’re weaned off your mother’s milk, you have to make your own way in the world. That’s how I ended up at Ms P’s. And don’t get me wrong, Ms P
takes roya lly good care of me. But she goes away a lot so I knew she’d be looking for someone to leave me with. I couldn’t bear the thought of being cared for by someone who I
couldn’t get along with. Then I saw you. And I knew right away that you would be a soulmate. That’s why I behaved myself so well when Ms P introduced us. I knew she’d only let you
look after me if she thought I’d be happy with you.’

‘So?’ I said grumpily, not willing to let him know that I was melting with every word he said. ‘That doesn’t explain you getting jealous of a hamster.’

‘It’s not just the hamster!’ Kaboodle protested. ‘It’s you and Jazz – together all the time, telling each other eve rything . . .’ He tailed off,
looking utterly miserable.

I raised my eyebrows. ‘You really
are
jealous! ’ I said. ‘But listen, you’re going to have to put up with Jazz. She’s my best mate, a lways has been, always
will be.’

‘Not at the moment,’ Kaboodle pointed out quietly.

‘I know,’ I admitted. ‘But we’ll sort it out. We have to. She’s my best mate, like I said.’ She was also my only mate. But I wasn’t going to say that to
Kaboodle. ‘Can I have a hug?’ I asked.

Kaboodle climbed into my arms and snuggled down. I would feed the hamsters in a minute, I thought, as I watched Houdini finally pick himself up and wobble over to the water bottle hanging
through the bars of the cage.

At least one good thing might have come out of the rather fur-raising adventure the poor little creature had had that day – he might avoid attempting to live up to his name quite so
spectacularly next time!

D
ad was pacing up and down the kitchen when I got home He was talking into the phone and looking worried.

‘I’m going out of my mind! What if she’s run away? I’ve been working so hard recent— Oh, thank goodness, she’s just come in. Look, I’ll call you
back.’

He threw the phone down on to the table and ran over to me I was horrified to see it looked as though he’d been crying. I felt a wave of sickness surge into my throat.

Oh no I’d told him I was going to Jazz’s and he’d found out I hadn’t gone there after all.

I closed my eyes and prepared to be screamed at, but instead I felt Dad’s arms around me and I was scooped up in a massive bear hug.

‘Where have you been?’ he mumbled into my shoulder.

‘I, er, we went out for a walk,’ I said.

Dad set me back down.

‘In the rain? Bertie, look at me,’ he said, lifting up my chin and staring directly into my eyes. ‘Tell me the truth.’

This was pants. I hated lying to Dad. But then I thought, maybe I didn’t have to lie any more? After all,it wasn’t as if I’d been getting up to anything bad. I’d only
been feeding a cat and two hamsters. OK, so one of them nearly became a hamster sandwich, but he didn’t have to know that. Still, I didn’t relish the thought of explaining just
why
I had decided to look after other people’s pets.
Because I’m lonely and you won’t let me have a pet of my own, Dad . . .
I didn’t think that would exactly
cheer him up. I decided to keep it simple.

‘I’m sorry,’ I muttered. ‘Jazz and I had a fight, and I went off in a huff.’

‘What’s the matter with you two these days? That’s the second fight you’ve had in as many days,’ Dad said sadly. ‘Anyway, why didn’t you come home and
tell me all about it? You’re too young to be wandering the streets alone.’

I smiled and shook my head. ‘Wandering the streets!’ Made me sound like some kind of smelly tramp or something.

That was when Dad snapped. ‘Don’t you smile at me, young lady! I’ve been beside my self! I’ve rung round everyone I could think of and I was about to call the police
– you’ve been gone hours! You could at least have called me.’

And then I flipped too. I don’t know whether it was the tangled feeling of guilt in my head, or the fact that Dad had just shouted at me, but all of a sudden I heard myself shout back,
‘
Called
you? And you would have picked up the phone, would you? Cos the way I see it, you don’t make any contact with the outside world unless it’s to do with your horrible
job! And you know what? I’m GLAD you’ve been worried about me. I’m glad you’ve actually noticed I
exist
for once! Why do you
think
I didn’t come home
right away? Do you think I’d want to discuss my personal problems with someone who has a closer relationship with his LAPTOP than he does with his own daughter?’ I was shaking with
fury.

Dad’s jaw had dropped so far open I could see his fillings and the dangly thing at the back of his throat. I turned and ran up to my room and slammed the door shut as hard as I could. My
head was tight and my eyes stung. I was so angry I thought I might choke.

I should have felt bad for yelling at Dad like that, especially when deep, deep down I knew he was right to have a go at me. And I’d lied to him. But I couldn’t hear any of those
little voices in my head telling me to calm down and apologize. There was a louder voice drowning them out, telling me I had every right to be livid with everybody and everything. Including
myself.

Why hadn’t I told Dad about the Pet-Sitting Service when I’d first had the idea? He might have given me marks out of ten for initiative. Better than that, he might have realized the
reasons behind it and started acting like a real dad for once. But it was too late now . He was furious with me. If I went downstairs and told him the truth, he’d probably only go on about
how irresponsible it was to go ahead and start up the business without his permission, and then he would rant and rave about how unsafe it was to be going into other people’s houses on my
own. So I did the only thing a girl can do in such circumstances – I climbed the ladder up to my bed, buried my head in my pillow and finally let the tears loose, sobbing until my face
ached.

I heard Dad come and knock gently on my door at one point, but I couldn’t bear the thought of having to talk to him, so I pulled my pillow over my head and snuggled down into my duvet. It
was getting dark outside now. I just wanted the day to end and for sleep to creep over me so that I didn’t have to think about cats or hamsters or best friends. Or dads.

Eventually my tear-sore eyes started to feel heavy, and the thoughts racing around my head slowed to a numb, cotton-woolly feeling. I was almost asleep when a soft thud on the foot of my bed
jerked me fully awake again. I jolted from the duvet and saw the silhouette of something pacing near my feet. I went cold and felt a scream rising in my throat when I heard:

‘Purrrrr – don’t get stressy, it’s only me.’

‘Kaboodle!’ I gulped at the dryness in my mouth. ‘You frightened the life out of me.’

‘The window was open.’ The kitten walked up the bed and nuzzled his soft little head against my arm.

I pushed him away roughly. ‘I’m cross with you,’ I snapped.

Kaboodle mewed indignantly. ‘Why? I gave you a perfectly good explanation about that tailless rodent, didn’t I?’

‘This isn’t about the hamster,’ I said. ‘Well, it is – but it’s mostly about Dad getting cross with me, and he wouldn’t have done if I’d been with
Jazz, and I wasn’t with Jazz because – OOH!’ I shook my head. My brain was a nest of wasps.

Kaboodle sidled up to me again and purred loudly. ‘Don’t worry. I’ll fix it,’ he announced. ‘Isn’t that what friends are for?’