For Paloma and David.

Naturally.

Contents

1. Cat-Crazy

2. A Bad Cat Arrives

3. Paloma Feels Funny

4. More Badness

5. From Bad to Worse

6. A Good Wash

7. A Good Cat Arrives

8. White Cat? Black Cat!

9. The Second Peony

10. Turk Does Himself No Good

11. The Night Party

12. A Brave Little Cat

13. David and Paloma Have a Row

14. Peony and Turk Make it Up

15. Parents With a Problem

16. Abandoned

17. Going Feral

18. The Lie is Discovered

19. Where Are They?

20. Peony in a Mess

21. Turk To The Rescue

22. Peony Springs a Surprise

Copyright

About the Publisher

1. Cat-Crazy

This is the story of two families, two children and two cats. Of course, the cats are by far the most important.

As you’ll know, if you happen to have a cat in your family, every cat behaves as if he or she were the king or queen of the house. Cats aren’t there for people, people are there for cats. And the first cat in my story definitely believed that that was the way things should be.

The first thing to say about this cat is that he was bad. I can’t easily tell you what a bad, bad cat he was. But I’m going to try. Because, although he was bad, I like him. And so did David. He was David’s cat. Well… David was his person.

A word about David.

David was crazy about cats. He’d always watched movies about cats, starting with Tom and Jerry. He’d seen The Aristocats too many times to count, and more recently he’d been given a DVD of a Japanese film with warrior cats who wore armour and fought with swords. The film was all in Japanese but David didn’t care. He made up what they were saying to each other, and dreamed of having a Wii of it so he could practise sword-fighting, cat-hero-style.

He shared all this with Paloma, the girl who lived next door to him. Paloma was the same age as him. They were friends for one main reason: they were both cat-crazy. Her favourite books were Slinky Malinki and Orlando the Marmalade Cat.

David was more into serious books about cats. He really knew a lot about them; about where different kinds of cat came from, and how in Egypt people thought they were gods while in England some people thought they weren’t gods at all, but devils and witches’ helpers.

He found all this wonderfully exciting, and it was very good for his reading. These books were quite grown-up and had long words in them. But that was good too, because David and Paloma collected words, and especially cat-words. His favourite at the moment was ‘cat-aclysm’, but he also liked ‘catacomb’. He knew what they meant, too (something very bad happening to a cat, and an underground place for dead cats).

On birthdays he often got given books about cats. But as his next birthday came close, his parents asked him an important question.

“You can choose between two big presents,” his dad said. “One is a Wii.”

A Wii! His dream! He couldn’t imagine anything he’d like better.

“Oh, yes, please!” he said excitedly.

“Well, but wait. The other thing you might want is a cat.”

David stood there, his mouth open. He’d asked for a cat so often, and the answer had always been No.

“A real cat?”

“Yes. We think you’re old enough now to take care of it.”

David was speechless. A cat was something he felt he didn’t just want. He needed it. The Wii of his dreams just floated away. From then till his birthday, all he dreamed about was his cat that was coming.

2. A Bad Cat Arrives

The cat arrived on his birthday.

When David first saw him, he was so happy he couldn’t move or speak. He just stood there gazing. Out of the carry-box came a snow-white cat with long, silky fur. He stalked out of the little gate, his tail unfolded and stuck up straight. When he saw David, he stood still and gazed back. He had blue eyes.

He was the most beautiful creature David had ever seen.

“Are you pleased with him?” his dad asked.

David shook his head. Shaking your head usually means no, but in this case it meant, “I’m so pleased I don’t know what to say.” He just silently hugged his mum and then his dad and then bent down, picked up the cat, and tried to hug him too.

Now, I’m not going to start making excuses for this cat. But David just might have hugged him too tight. In any case, the cat reached up a pawful of claws and scratched David on the nose. (I did tell you he was bad.)

“OW!” shouted David, and dropped him. This didn’t bother the cat, who landed on all four feet and began to run round and round the living room like a mad thing.

All three of them tried to catch him, but he was too quick for them. He was like a streak of white lightning. When they cornered him near the window, he leaped up on to the sofa, and then on to anarmchair, and from the back of that, on to the mantelpiece.

His long fluffy tail was switching dangerously. It knocked over a vase, which fell to the floor and smashed into a hundred bits. Don’t even ask about the water and flowers that were in it.

David’s mum was very upset. “Oh, you bad cat!” she cried.

The noise of the crash had upset the cat too. When she reached for him, he thought, I’m for it! She’s going to hit me!

He put his ears back, his mouth made a pink diamond, and he looked like a snake. He hissed. If she hadn’t backed off, he’d have bitten her.

David thought he was magnificent, like a little tiger, or one of the god-cats in Egyptian wall paintings.

“Shhhhh, shhhhh!” said David. “Don’t be angry!” He reached up and lifted the cat off the mantelpiece. (The cat knew at once that this one wasn’t going to hit him.) David stroked his fur gently. “I’m going to take you to meet Paloma,” he said.

David’s dad said, “Be careful he doesn’t run away.”

David looked at him in horror. “Run away? Why should he?”

“Just be careful. If you’re going out the front, keep hold of him. He doesn’t know that he lives here yet.”

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