Charlie the Home-alone Kitten Read online

  “Gorgeous,” the woman agreed. “I had a pony just like her when I was your age.”

  Eva grinned and crossed her fingers. She moved on to the dog kennels, where a young couple were looking at Becks.

  “Beautiful!” the woman sighed, bending down to the Great Dane’s eyelevel. “These dogs have lovely, gentle natures in spite of their size. Oh Ben, wouldn’t it be great to give Becks a home!”

  Fingers crossed! Eva smiled and went on, past Penny’s and Bruno’s kennels. This could work out brilliantly – if only Jake Adams could make it here in time!

  “Hello, Eva!” Outside in the yard once more, she heard Annie’s dad call her name. “Where’s Jake? Is he here yet?”

  Eva took a deep breath and held back her answer. “I don’t know. Better ask Mum!” Phew! She breathed a sigh of relief as Jason dashed on. Then she spotted Annie hanging about by herself outside the cattery.

  “What a day!” Eva said, starting to tell Annie about Charlie. “He hadn’t been left home alone after all! You know the woman in the blue sports car who ran into the lamp-post? Well, it turns out she—”

  “Stop!” Annie pleaded. She shook her head unhappily. “Didn’t Dad tell you?”

  “No. What?”

  “About the accident. The police got back in touch. It looks like the woman in the blue car—”

  “Bobbie,” Eva interrupted. “Roberta, shortened to Bobbie.”

  “Yes, whatever. Well, it looks like she was doing under thirty miles an hour after all. And it was Mum who drove out without looking.”

  “Whoa!” Eva stared at her friend.

  “I know. Mum’s in floods of tears. I expect she’ll have to apologize to Roberta.” Annie predicted that the next few days at home were going to be tough. “We don’t know yet if the police will charge her.”

  “Wow!” Eva took a step back. “Hey, look, the sun just came out!”

  “Just in time for me to make my announcement about Jake,” Heidi muttered as she passed by with Mark. “I’m not looking forward to this!”

  Eva glanced at her watch and saw that it was almost two o’clock. OK, I guess it was too much to hope for, she told herself. It would have been like a little piece of pure magic if Jake had shown up in time!

  Still expecting the soccer star to appear through the door, the crowd of visitors gathered round. Eva spotted Jason Brooks and Karl’s friend, George Stevens, along with a hundred other eager faces. This was the moment they had all been waiting for. “Oh no, poor Mum having to tell them!” she groaned.

  “Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for coming,” Heidi began. “We’re glad that so many of you have turned up to see the work we do here at Animal Magic.”

  Heidi smiled at the excited crowd and took a deep breath. “Unfortunately…”

  But just as Eva hung her head, dreading her mum’s next words, a car drove slowly into the yard and came to a halt.

  All heads turned. The driver’s door opened and Jake Adams stepped out.

  A big cheer went up as everyone turned to greet the great man. Heidi Harrison stood outside her surgery door, wearing a look of stunned surprise.

  Thank you! Eva clasped her hands together and jumped up and down on the spot.

  “Jake, can I have your autograph! … Jake, write on this cup-final programme! … Jake, you’re the best striker United ever had!”

  As the crowd swamped Jake Adams, Bobbie got out of the car with Marietta. They saw Eva and beckoned her across. “You’re a total star!” Marietta told her. “Bobbie has told me everything you and Karl did for Charlie.”

  Eva grinned and blushed, unable to think of a thing to say. In any case, she saw that Jake had finally escaped from his fans and was standing by the surgery door, ready to make a speech. He looked shy and uncomfortable, waiting for the noise to die down.

  “I just want to say what a great place this is,” Jake began. “Heidi and her team are doing a brilliant job, and all the animals that end up at Animal Magic are extremely lucky. I just wish there were more centres like this.”

  “Yeah!” Eva said, along with a lot of other people in the crowd.

  “They need your support,” Jake went on, “so now that you’re here, why don’t you stick around and adopt a pet, like we did? Go on, do it. Show that you care!”

  “Cool!” Eva cried, clapping loudly, and then cheering as Jake disappeared inside the surgery. “We love you, Jake!” she yelled. “We so love you. We really do!”

  Chapter Eleven

  “We’ve found new homes for three rabbits and two guinea pigs,” Mark said.

  Karl clicked his mouse and brought up the details on the Animal Magic website. He put ticks next to pictures of the pets who had been adopted.

  “We also found owners for six dogs, including Penny, Bruno and Becks,” Joel reported.

  “Brilliant!” Eva nodded happily. “And what about Rosie?”

  “Maybe,” Joel said. “It depends what we find out about her present owners when they come back from their holiday. If it turns out the way we want it to, she’ll go to the Boswells, because they can offer her a lovely new home.”

  “Cool.” Their Open Day had worked out perfectly – better than even Eva could have hoped.

  “Best of all, in the cattery we matched nine cats with new owners,” Heidi told everyone. “Wilma and Snap both went to a very nice retired lady in town.”

  “Oh, poor Treacle,” Eva whispered. “That means he’s left here by himself.”

  Karl clicked and ticked. “That’s twenty-one animals altogether,” he said. “How cool is that!”

  “Twenty-two!” a voice said, and they all turned to see Bobbie, Jake and Marietta standing at the door of the office.

  Karl counted again. “Three plus two plus six plus one plus nine. That makes twenty-one,” he insisted.

  But Bobbie came forward holding a squirming tabby kitten in her hands. “I’d like to adopt Treacle,” she said with a smile. “If you think I’ll be a good owner, that is.”

  Heidi looked at Eva. “What do you think?”

  Eva went up to Bobbie and took Treacle from her. She cuddled him close. “I think you’ll be perfect!” she said to Bobbie. She was sure Bobbie would care for him and feed him and keep him safe. “You know Dad found him in an air vent behind a factory?”

  Bobbie, Jake and Marietta listened to the whole story as Eva took Treacle out into the warm sunshine.

  “Dad works for a parcel delivery company. He was in the factory car park when he heard a miaowing sound coming from the air vent, so he went to take a look…”

  Karl, Heidi and Mark stood in the doorway watching Eva chatter to their guests.

  “So cool!” Karl sighed, staring at Jake and suffering from a serious case of hero worship.

  “A good day!” Heidi said, bringing out a cardboard pet carrier for the kitten. Animal Magic had done its job.

  Eva popped Treacle into the carrier and took him over to Jake’s car.

  “He’s been microchipped, and he’s had his jabs,” Eva assured Bobbie. “No need to worry about that.”

  As Jake started the engine, Marietta leaned out of the window. “Thanks, Eva!”

  Eva nodded and smiled. Her dad came to join her and put his arm around her shoulder.

  “Give me a shout any time you need me,” Jake told him as he pushed the car into gear.

  As they watched the soccer star leave the yard, Eva looked up at her dad. “OK,” she said, her eyes sparkling, a grin splitting her face from ear to ear. “When do we have our next mega Animal Magic Open Day?!”

  Copyright

  STRIPES PUBLISHING

  An imprint of Little Tiger Press

  1 The Coda Centre, 189 Munster Road,

  London SW6 6AW

  Text copyright © Jenny Oldfield, 2006

  Illustrations copyright © Sharon Rentta, 2006

  Cover illustration copyright © Simon Mendez, 2006

  First published as an ebook by Stripes Publishing in 2012.
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  eISBN: 978–1–84715–293–0

  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.

  www.stripespublishing.co.uk