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Two little kittens
When Elia was eight years old his owners, mum Lovina and her daughter, Suzanne, who loved him very, very much, were worried that he was lonely so they decided to get him a kitten for company. They went to their vet who put them in touch with a lady who had two kittens ready to go to a good home. They went to the address the vet gave them and the lady came to the door holding one of the kittens. Then she took them into the sitting room to meet the other one.When Lovina and Suzanne saw the kittens they knew at once that they couldn’t possibly only take one of them – so they took both! The kittens cried on their way back to Lovina and Suzanne’s house because they’d never been in a cat basket or car before so Suzanne spent the journey talking and singing to them and trying to stroke their fur and little, pink noses to make them feel less frightened. When Suzanne peeped through holes in the basket, this is what she saw: A cheeky little face! Suzanne knew right away that she was going to love her. The question was – would Elia love her?? Lovina and Suzanne carried the kittens, still miaowing up the long flights of stairs to their flat. They got in and even before they took their coats off they called out to Elia. “Elia! Elia!” they called. Elia had been lying on Lovina’s bed, cleaning himself and he looked up suspiciously when he heard the kittens crying. “Who’s this?” he wondered. Not at all sure that he liked the crying sounds coming from his cat basket. Lovina and Suzanne lifted the kittens out and put them on the bed beside Elia. He sat up and glared at the little bundles of fur who sat down on their tiny bottoms with a flump, amazed to see such an enormous, strange cat who didn’t seem very friendly. But the wonderful thing about kittens is that they are not afraid of anything! After a moment or two they skipped up to Elia who turned away from them in disgust! “Oh no,” he thought, “I have a terrible feeling that these two rascals have come to stay! Well I don’t want them in my house so I’m just going to ignore them.” And that’s what he did. He jumped off the bed and went stamping through to the sitting room but guess what happened? The two little kittens rolled off the bed and went scampering after him! He tried sitting in his basket in the kitchen, one of his favourite places in the whole flat – but no sooner had he got himself curled up and settled when two little faces, smiled up at him. This was almost too much for Elia. He tried turning his back on them but they just waddled round the basket until they could sit grinning up at him again! This went on for a few days and the kittens got bolder and bolder. Sometimes when he was sitting in his basket trying to ignore them one would get up on its back paws and give him a cheeky tap on his ear!! Once when he was stretched out on a rug, one even pounced on his tail and bit it! This was too much! Elia knew there was only one thing to do: he had to take charge! He turned round and faced the cheeky little rascals and gave them a very stern look. “Now look here,” he said. “If we’re going to live happily together there are one or two things you’ll have to get straight. First I don’t like you biting my tail. I know I sometimes swish it or tap it up and down but that’s what grown up cats do to show how Second, my basket is out of bounds to you, especially when I’m having a well-earned snooze. So stop trying to climb in beside me and don’t tap my ears when I’m trying to have a sleep. You’ve ruined my afternoons! If you follow these simple rules I’ll teach you all I know about finding food and making the flat a playground. Do you understand?” They did. What the kittens didn’t know was that Elia was a master thief! He could sniff out where food was hidden, wriggle into all sorts of hiding places and help himself to tasty bits which Lovina thought he’d never reach. His most famous “snaffle” as liked to think of it had been the night before Suzanne’s christening party. Lovina was sleeping a lot at that time and Suzanne’s grannies, Peggy and Meg had been in charge of the cooking. Lovina told them to lock the turkey – what a challenge for Elia – in the big cupboard in the kitchen but the grannies didn’t believe he’d manage to “snaffle” anything as big as a turkey. They wrapped it in two layers of polythene and went off to bed, happily. Well, of course, Elia couldn’t believe his luck! Even though the turkey was bigger and heavier than he was, he didn’t give up. He clawed and bit off the wrapping until… there it was before him… all juicy and delicious! He couldn’t manage to eat all of it, he knew but he was going to give it his best effort. He ate a bit, had a rest, ate another chunk and so on until he’d eaten most of the turkey’s leg. After that he was so full he could hardly jump off the unit and crawl to his basket. He was so happy… until everyone woke up the next morning and saw the turkey. Perhaps it’s better not to describe what happened next but let’s just say that Lovina and the grannies served up a one-legged turkey at the party… and nobody noticed! Elia’s speciality was breaking into the fridge and Lovina and Suzanne had tried all sorts of things to try to keep him out – but you can’t beat a master thief! By the time our story begins Lovina and Suzanne were sealing up the fridge with lots of strips of sellotape – often six or seven pieces. Needless to say the sellotape trick didn’t work but it slowed him down a bit and Lovina and Suzanne hoped that if they checked the fridge regularly they might catch him in the act. Well, it was a thought! Elia decided that fridge-raiding was the most important skill to teach the kittens so he led them into the kitchen and stood in front of a big, shiny box. He pointed to it and said, “This is what the family calls a fridge. They keep all sorts of delicious food in here: sausages, bacon, chicken, cheese, butter, milk – oh I could go on and on. I’m going to show you how to open the door and take out what you want. You mustn’t let Lovina catch you, though or you’ll be in trouble.” Elia then stretched up on his hind legs and began scratching at something on the side of the box. And sure enough a moment later he sat down, pulled the corner of the box with his left paw and the big door swung open. To the kittens’ amazement and delight they saw… just as Elia had promised! “Now be careful because it’s cold in there,” he warned. “But step in and help yourselves.” He added, “When Lovina sees what we’ve done she’ll be angry and will shout at us but never mind that. It’s worth the trouble for the goodies we can steal. And kittens,” he continued, “stolen food is always much, much more delicious than any you’re actually given. It has the added thrill of danger attached to it.” The kittens didn’t need to be told twice. They stepped in and sniffed round. Buster selected a string of tasty sausages, and dragged them out on to the kitchen floor to eat. Budgie was happy to knock down the butter dish and take long, deep licks of the creamy, yellow bar. Mmmm it was lovely. Elia reached for his favourite, bacon and was just tucking into it when he heard footsteps in the hall. “Run!” he shouted. “Here’s Lovina!” Sure enough, it was. And yes, she was angry. And yes, she shouted at them… but the kittens had learned a valuable lesson; fridges contain delights. Just don’t be caught helping yourself from them. When she was older, Budgie could open the fridge, stand on her hind legs, squeeze out an egg and drop it on the floor so that the shell would break and she could lick up the yolk. It became one of her favourite treats! Although Elia was strict and boxed them round the ears when they did something which annoyed him, they became friends. He showed the kittens the warmest, softest places to sleep. And how to behave like big, grown up cats; things like not sticking your whole head in the feeding dish at meal times because you got in such a mess and it was definitely not dignified. That although the noisy box in the corner which the family called a television , often seemed to have birds inside it, if you jumped up to catch them, they just disappeared! It was all rather wonderful! The kittens settled in, Elia had a new mission in life – to keep them in order and Suzanne and Lovina had two beautiful new pets. Copyright Lovina Roe. Contact Lovina@yourstory-biographies.co.uk or telephone 07721777243 |
Stories for Adults
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| Contact: Lovina@yourstory-biographies.co.uk |