Willow the lonely kitten Read online

  Eva jumped up, sending Tigger sliding to the floor. “It’s happening again!”

  Miss Eliot, Annie and Eva rushed to the window to see Willow miaowing to be let back in.

  “Poor thing!” Miss Eliot murmured with a shake of her head. “I’d adopt her myself, but Tigger wouldn’t like it. He’s been an only cat for far too long.”

  “Watch out, here comes Mr Shannon!” Annie warned as she spotted Jake walking towards the house, briefcase in hand.

  He immediately spotted Willow, and bent down to stroke the top of her head. Then he scooped her up and took her inside. But a few moments later he reappeared with a cat basket.

  “What’s he doing now?” Eva demanded, so mad that she was ready to rush out and confront Jake Shannon.

  Miss Eliot tried to calm her. “Wait. Now Mrs Shannon has joined them. Her eyes are red. She looks upset. Oh dear!”

  Jake and Julie seemed to be arguing. Jake had Willow in the basket and was opening the car door. Julie was in the driving seat, wiping her eyes.

  “He’s getting in – they’re driving away!” Annie cried.

  “Where to? What are they doing?” Eva couldn’t wait any longer. She rushed to Miss Eliot’s front door and ran into the garden – just in time to see Julie reverse out of their drive and pull away.

  Chapter Nine

  “Oh no, what now?” Eva felt rooted to the spot. In her mind’s eye she saw Jake and Julie Shannon driving out of the village into the countryside, choosing a deserted place and stopping the car to dump their unwanted kitten.

  “This is awful,” Annie groaned as she joined Eva on the pavement. “If only we had a car, we could follow them.”

  Miss Eliot had stopped to put on her coat. Now she came out of the house, shaking her head.

  Annie turned to Eva, flustered. “What do we do?”

  “We have to get back to Animal Magic,” Eva decided. “I’ll look up the Shannons’ mobile phone number. Jen or Mum can try to call them.”

  So the girls said goodbye to Miss Eliot and sprinted to Main Street. “Please don’t let us be too late!” Eva gasped as she and Annie ran on until they came to the rescue centre. She was so worried that at first she didn’t notice the car parked in the yard.

  “Eva, wait!” Annie grabbed hold of her arm and pointed to the Shannons’ car. “They didn’t drive off with Willow – they brought her back here!”

  In Reception, Heidi and Jen listened patiently to Julie’s tearful account.

  “I’m so sorry,” she wept. “I’ve brought Willow back. I love her dearly, but I can’t keep her.”

  Eva and Annie were quiet as they came through the door. Jake Shannon glanced over his shoulder and gave them an apologetic smile.

  “I’m so, so sorry, Willow!” Julie cried.

  “And in spite of what you might think, it hasn’t got anything to do with her weeing on the carpets and scratching the furniture.” Jake stood up for Julie.

  “It turns out that I have a severe cat allergy,” Julie explained through her tears. “I got up this morning and I could hardly breathe. My eyes were streaming. So I went to see my GP. He confirmed that I didn’t have a cold, but was having a serious allergic reaction to Willow.”

  Jake put his arm around his wife and took up the explanation. “Obviously we didn’t want to leave Willow outside on Saturday, but Julie was finding it so hard to breathe – it was as if she was having an asthma attack – and we both panicked. But then yesterday we got some tablets at the chemist’s and she felt a bit better. She wanted to try again. Then this morning she felt even worse and decided to see the doctor. Her allergy is very acute and he advised us not to keep Willow.”

  I never expected this! Eva thought, going up to the counter and lifting Willow out of the cat basket. The kitten was shaking. “Hush!” Eva whispered.

  “Take Willow into the cattery,” Heidi told her. She turned back to Julie. “Don’t feel bad,” she said kindly. “You weren’t to know you were allergic.”

  “Julie’s never lived in a house where there’s been a cat before,” Jake explained.

  “You did the right thing,” Heidi said. “And don’t worry about Willow.”

  Julie dried her tears. “She’ll go to a good home?”

  Heidi nodded. “Of course. And until that special person finds her, we’ll take good care of her here.”

  “I want to spend lots of time with Willow!” Eva announced the minute she’d come home from school next day.

  After she’d dropped off her school bag in the house, said hi to Holly and played with her for ten minutes, she’d hurried to the cattery.

  Jen agreed that the lonely kitten needed plenty of attention. “At the moment she’s a bit wary of people – not surprising after what she’s been through.”

  “I’ll take her to Reception,” Eva decided. “It’ll do her good to be around people.”

  So she took Willow from her cage and carried her to the busy reception area, where Cath Brown happened to have called in for a chat with Heidi and Karl.

  “I saw Rocky on your website,” Cath said. “I was browsing – getting ideas for my own website which I plan to set up – and the picture of Rocky hit me between the eyes. He’s a handsome chap.”

  Karl nodded. “Rocky’s brilliant.”

  “He might be what I need,” Cath admitted. “I’m isolated out at Leebank. I could do with a good guard dog.”

  Eva tickled Willow’s tummy. “You hear that? If Rocky goes with Cath, it’ll be cool.”

  “Listen, Cath.” Heidi made a suggestion. “I know it’s dark, but would you like Karl to take you and Rocky along Main Street, so you can get a look at how good he is on the lead?”

  Quickly agreeing, Cath waited for Karl to bring Rocky from the kennels. “By the way,” she told Eva as she watched her play with Willow. “Seeing the kitten reminds me – I was down in my field this morning finishing off the repairs to my fence, when I saw someone in the garden at Willow Cottage. I thought it must be a new tenant, but when I bumped into Brian Verney, he told me he hasn’t found anyone for the cottage yet. So I’m still on my own down the lane, except for the ponies, of course.”

  “And maybe Rocky!” Eva smiled at Cath as Karl came back with a pleased-looking dog. “He loves walks,” Eva explained to Willow as Rocky went off with Cath and Karl. “And I think Cath likes him, so fingers crossed…”

  It was only later, when she was in bed, that Eva thought again about what Cath had mentioned.

  So who was in the garden at Willow Cottage? she wondered. Why would anybody be snooping around unless they wanted to rent the place?

  The clock ticked on her bedside table and a bright moon shone through the gap in her curtains.

  Maybe the old tenants came back for Willow, she thought. But then again, why would they? The Hineses definitely didn’t want her, or else they wouldn’t have dumped her in the porch. Anyway, stop thinking about it and go to sleep!

  But the clock ticked and Eva stayed awake.

  Wait a sec – what did Mr Verney tell Cath about his no-cats rule? He said he thought the Hineses had lied and told him they were looking after Willow for a friend. But what if they weren’t lying? What if they were telling the truth?

  Eva sat up in bed. “Willow’s owner came back to collect her!” she breathed. “But when she got to Willow Cottage it was empty and Willow had gone!”

  Chapter Ten

  “Tom Ingleby is still keen on having Willow up at High Trees Farm,” Mark told Eva when she came home from school the next day. “He saw her back on the website and says he’ll pop in tomorrow teatime.”

  All day Eva had been in a fever of what-ifs and buts. What if Willow’s owner really did come back? But maybe they’re not a good owner. Either way, I have to find out. Eva had been in such a hurry to get back home that she’d left the books she needed for her homework in her school locker.

  “Dad, can we ask Mr Ingleby to wait a while?” she asked now.

  Mark gave his daught
er a quizzical look. “Why?” he asked.

  “I want to call Mr Verney,” she said, deliberately keeping it vague.

  Her dad thought for a while, then smiled. “More detective work? OK, Eva, go ahead. You’ve got twenty-four hours.”

  With fumbling fingers, Eva dialled the farmer’s number. “Hello, Mr Verney? This is Eva Harrison from Animal Magic…”

  “Well?” Eva’s dad asked when she came off the phone. He’d watched her face change from a frown to a smile and back again. “Was it good news, or not?”

  “Mr Verney said that a woman did ring him this morning to ask what had happened to the Hineses.”

  “The old tenants at Willow Cottage?”

  Eva nodded. “Mr Verney told her that they’d gone without leaving a forwarding address. But, Dad, I think the woman might be Willow’s real owner!” And she raced on and explained her brainwave from the night before.

  “Slow down!” Mark begged. “Take me back to the conversation you just had with Brian Verney. Did this mystery woman leave a name?”

  Eva sighed and shook her head. “That’s the problem,” she confessed. “She talked to Mr Verney, then hung up without telling him who she was.”

  “It’s so sad,” Eva murmured to Willow when she went to the cattery to take her out of her cage. She pulled up a stool and sat the kitten on her lap. “There’s a woman out there and I’m sure she’s looking for you, but there’s no way I can find out who she is!”

  Willow snuggled against Eva’s warm sweatshirt. She looked up at Eva with her sweet bandit’s face.

  “So even if she is your real owner, you’ll probably go to live with the Inglebys,” Eva went on. “They’re very nice, I promise, but you’ll have to chase mice and work hard when you grow up.”

  Miaow! Willow sat on her haunches and reached up to paw the gold logo on Eva’s sweatshirt.

  Suddenly, Karl burst into the cattery. “Guess what!” he said. “Cath just rang to say she’s been thinking about it all day and she’s finally decided to take Rocky. She’s on her way right now.”

  “Brilliant!” Scooping up Willow, Eva rushed to Reception, where she waited eagerly with Heidi for Cath to arrive.

  Karl soon reappeared with an excited Rocky, who wagged his long tail and padded on his big paws around the waiting area.

  At last Cath’s Land Rover drew up in the yard. “Here she is – and she’s got someone with her,” Karl reported from the porch. He held the door open for Cath and her companion.

  “Hey, Rocky – that’s my boy!” Cath smiled as he recognized her from the previous day. Rocky hurried to greet her with a low woof and an extra big wag of his tail. “Eva, Heidi, Karl – this is Lucy and I think you’ll be very pleased to meet her!”

  Eva smiled at the young stranger who stood in the doorway. The dark-haired woman wore a sloppy, patterned jumper, jeans and fur-lined boots. At first Eva thought the visitor was staring at her, but then she realized that Lucy’s gaze was fixed on Willow.

  “Lucy knocked on my door just as I was leaving to come here,” Cath explained as she stroked Rocky and made a fuss of him. “Over to you, Lucy,” she said with a smile.

  “I’ve been handing out these leaflets at all the houses around Leebank.” The woman showed them a pile of printed notices.

  Eva took one and read it. “Lost – black and white kitten, eight weeks old. £50 reward.” She read it again, to make sure. “You’re Willow’s owner!” she cried.

  Lucy Marriott’s story made perfect sense.

  “My dad fell ill. He lives in Scotland and I had to go and look after him,” she told Eva, Heidi and Karl. “It was very sudden. I’d just moved into the Okeham area – Danny and Polly Hines were the only people I’d met and they agreed to take care of my new kitten at the last minute. I’d no idea they were about to do a runner. As soon as Dad was well enough for me to leave, I phoned Polly and she said that they’d had to leave Willow Cottage in a big hurry. She told me they’d left Pixie in the back porch with plenty of food and water. But when I came back to collect her, she’d disappeared. And I’ve been trying to find her ever since.”

  “Pixie – is that Willow’s real name?” It felt strange to Eva to hand the kitten over to Lucy. She had a lump in her throat and tried hard not to let her feelings show.

  “Yes. I’d only had her for a few days before I left.” Lucy smiled as she took Willow. “I like the name ‘Willow’, though. Perhaps I could change it.”

  “That would be nice, for Eva’s sake,” Cath said. “Eva’s the one who saved Willow’s life.” And she told Lucy the full story of what had happened. “There was no food in the dish and the temperature outside was pretty low. But Eva never gives up on an animal in trouble,” she concluded.

  “Then I’ll definitely call her Willow as a way of saying thank you!” Lucy promised, with a warm smile at Eva. “Plus, I’ll donate the fifty pounds reward to Animal Magic. And I’ll leave you my address so you can come and visit her any time you like.”

  Willow and Lucy Marriott had left the rescue centre in Cath’s car. The last glimpse Eva had of the kitten was of her snuggled in a blanket inside a pet carrier that Heidi had provided. She looked warm and happy – glad to be going home at last.

  “Bye, Rocky,” Karl murmured as Cath let him jump up into the back of her Land Rover.

  “Bye, Willow,” Eva sighed.

  She, Karl and Heidi had been joined by Mark and Holly. Together they watched the red lights on the back of Cath’s car disappear down Main Street.

  “Well done, everyone,” Heidi said as they stood in the dimly lit yard.

  “Yes,” Mark agreed. “It was great detective work on Eva’s part. And thank heavens Lucy turned up when she did! But we’ll have to let poor Tom Ingleby know…”

  Karl sighed, then picked up a stick and threw it. “Fetch!” he told Holly.

  The puppy ran and neatly caught the stick. Everyone clapped.

  “Well caught, Holly!” Eva cried. “We’ll teach you lots of new tricks and enter you into competitions and train you to be the best sheepdog in the country, if not the whole world!”

  Mark laughed, putting his arm around Eva’s shoulder. “And if Eva’s teaching you, you probably will be!”

  Copyright

  STRIPES PUBLISHING

  An imprint of Little Tiger Press

  1 The Coda Centre, 189 Munster Road,

  London SW6 6AW

  Text copyright © Jenny Oldfield, 2009

  Illustrations copyright © Sharon Rentta, 2009

  Cover illustration copyright © Simon Mendez, 2009

  First published as an ebook by Stripes Publishing in 2012.

  eISBN: 978–1–84715–302–9

  The right of Jenny Oldfield and Sharon Rentta to be identified as the author and illustrator of this work respectively has been asserted by them in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988.

  All rights reserved.

  Apart from any use permitted under UK copyright law, this publication may only be reproduced, stored, or transmitted, in any forms, or by any means, with prior permission in writing of the publishers or, in the case of reprographic production, in accordance with the terms of licences issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency.

  A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

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