Читать книгу Dougal's Diary - David Greagg - Страница 56

What an amazing day! My head is still spinning and I don't know what to say. In the morning they opened my cage (I was still in the same one) and they put somebody else in with me in the top box. So I got up and had a sniff. Girl Cat! I pushed my nose out below her box and this little black face looked down at me. For a moment I thought it was Black Kitten and I mewed at her. What was that? she asked me. I'm sorry, I thought you were Black Kitten! I explained. She put her little head on one side and said, Well actually I am black and I am a kitten; so couldn't I be Black Kitten?

Then the human in the white coat looked at me very forcefully and said something, running her paws around my new friend's face. I didn't understand the words, but it was fairly clear that she was asking me to look after the little black kitten because she's smaller than me and she needs a big brother to keep an eye on her. I can do that.

Maybe I haven't been picked because I'm a Bad Cat. If I'm a Good Cat somebody will pick me, maybe? So I touched noses with her and we got to know each other. She's very sore from her operation. She must have had it very recently, because you can tell she's in pain and it looks terrible. All her tummy is stitched up and she has lots of fur missing. Maybe that's why we didn't go out to the yard today, because she's still sick. I washed her face all over and she lay on her side with her little black paws folded across each other.

And I felt like I was being a mum. We had a meal together and she was a bit - well, unusual. She wolfed down all her food incredibly fast, and then the little trollop started on my bowl as well. I just stared at her and she looked back at me and said, What? And I said, Look, you just don't DO that! She ignored me completely and went on eating my food while I sat back and watched her. I found out why she did that later on, but for now I was a bit stunned. And afterwards she had the nerve to walk up to me and wash my face. Which still had, I could swear, some bits of food on it.

When I'd had a chance to think it over, I thought of Black Kitten and her strange habits at mealtimes, and I began to think maybe she was Black Kitten after all. There is simply no way a perfect stranger would have done that to me. I hadn't seen Black Kitten for a terrible long time and who knows what might have happened to her. Anyway, I would treat her as if she really were my little sister and we'd take it from there.

Later that day the door opened and two humans came in. There was a man and a woman; and the man had lots of fur all over his head. I just looked at him and really hoped he'd get to us. I hadn't dared to hope for days now, and I suddenly realised that my big two-cat cage was right down at the end of the room. Before the humans even got to us they'd have to look at everybody else first! What chance did that give us? What was it I had to do again? Look cute, that was it. Well, no point doing that until they get closer. I looked through the bars of my cage and waited.

I noticed that the male human went first and he was trailing one paw along the outside of all the cages. He went past everybody else and they just stared at him.

Then I understood what he was doing. He wants a cat, but he wants somebody who wants him! And if you don't play with his paw he won't pick you!

He was getting closer to my cage and still nobody had worked it out! I thought it was obvious, but clearly nobody else thought so. Or maybe they didn't like him. I looked carefully at his face. Hard to tell under all that fur, but I thought he looked nice. Finally he got to my cage and I reached out and touched his paw with mine. He leaned over and purred at me. I sank in my claws as gently as I could and began to wash his paw. I called softly to Black Kitten above me. Come on! This is important! This could mean freedom!

Then I backed off while she got down to the cage floor and let her do the same. She was smart enough to copy what I'd done. Claws in, gently as you can, wash the human's paw with your tongue. Look cute. Purrzz

I wondered if he'd pick both of us. I couldn't stand it if he picked this little food-thief and I got left behind again. Somehow I didn't think he would. I was right, because the humans in the white coats lifted us out of our cage and we both went to the room with the desk.

Black Kitten was scared, but I told her not to be. I'd been here before. This was where you went before the humans put you in a big box and took you to their house. I tried to tell her this, but I don't think she understood what I was trying to say.

The humans did a lot of talking and a lot of scratching with long, narrow toys on bits of paper. We found out later that humans did this a lot. The man started playing with me and I was so desperate to be cute I played really hard and patted his paws and did all the things I hoped he'd like.

Then he did something really strange. He held up his paw and blew on my nose. I looked at him carefully and saw that there was blood all over him. How had that happened?

I looked carefully at him while he said some things and showed me his paw with scratches all over it. There was blood and everything, and I realised he was telling me that I'd done that to him.

Oh no! I really was trying too hard to be cute. But this human didn't hit me so he's probably going to be kind. I kept on playing, but more gently, and then Black Kitten came to play as well. We both scampered around the room while the humans talked to each other. I tried not to get too excited. I'd scratched my new human and he still hadn't sent me away! Be cute! I told her. If we're both in this room I think they're going to take both of us! So she did cute kitten things too.

Then the man leaned over us both. Dougal, he said to me. Dougal! I have a name. That's my name now. I began to feel a bit safer, because the other humans hadn't given me a name. Or if they had, they hadn't told me so I knew. And my new friend was to be called Shadow.

They put both of us in a big box and locked the top and Shadow nuzzled me. I could tell she was worried, but I told her it was all right. We're being picked and we have names; this is good.

It might be wonderful, but I'm trying not to get my hopes up too high. I liked the man. And I felt good about the woman, too. She had red fur and was quieter than him, but she seemed warm and kind as well. She put a furry rug in our box, which was sweet of her. And we were going to our new home, and we sat on the bottom of the box and we didn't say a word the whole way.

Is this what's supposed to happen? Shadow asked me. I touched noses with her and told her not to worry. I had worked out by now that she wasn't really Black Kitten, but I had made up my mind I was going to look after her anyway. She would be my new little sister.

I could hear the big box with wheels making quiet noises. This was a gentle ride and I could hear the two humans talking softly. This sounded good too, I told her. We'd all heard stories in our cages about humans who shouted. Cats can't stand being shouted at. It makes us horribly embarrassed and we don't know what to do - because we can't understand what they're angry about; or even whether it's our fault or not. These two were speaking softly to each other and the woman trailed her paw over the top of our box and said something soothing. We could smell her as she did this, and I think it was meant to be reassuring. Shadow sat where she was and snuggled closer to me. I could smell her fear, but I told her again that this would be all right.

The big box with wheels stopped, and I heard the door open. Then the man picked us up and carried us into the house. It smelt unusual, and I could definitely smell another cat there. At least one other cat. Well, we will have to worry about that later. The first thing we have to do is settle in and see what they've got for us. I heard more doors opening and closing and then the humans did something to the top of the box and the lid flew open. We looked up and there they were, looking at us and calling us by our names. I jumped out of the box and had a careful look around.

Shadow didn't want to get out, with her stitches being sore and everything, so the man lifted her carefully out of the box and put her on the floor. She touched noses with me again. I told her, This is our new home.

It's a very unusual home. It's not that big and the floors are curved instead of flat but there are LOTS of things to hide behind and explore and they've got us a Cat Castle! We had one at home - well, what used to be my home anyway - and it was one of the things I really missed. But we did what you have to do first, which is to walk right round the room and smell everything and make sure everything is all right. So we did; and it was.

There's a really big bed and Shadow looked panicky when she first saw it. What's that? she wanted to know and I told her, It's a bed. She didn't even know what a bed was. But we went all round the walls and it was downhill all the way round the walls and uphill towards the middle of the room. It was very odd, but I didn't mind. Then Shadow ran into the Cat Castle and made crinkly noises inside the tunnel, so I went round to the other end and we chased each other through it and we climbed on top of it and played with the little toy mousie on top. It was wonderful fun.

You could tell there'd been other cats here. There were faint smells from long ago, but we knew there'd been quite a few from the odd little wisps of scent around the floor, especially under the bed. I don't know where the other cats had gone, but we had this room to ourselves.

Our humans kept coming in to see how we were and we chased each other and looked cute. Shadow asked me constantly was this going all right? and was this what was supposed to happen? and I told her yes, this is all good.

They are gentle and they don't shout or hurt us and the dirt tray is big and fresh and we have water and munchies and they feed us lots. This is everything a cat could wish for. We chased each other and she kept crying when we wrestled and I didn't understand what was wrong. We're supposed to do this, I told her. What's wrong with you?

The man came in and lay on the bed for a while and we chased each other all around and over him. Whenever Shadow and I were wrestling I found he put his long paw between the two of us and I had to fight her around his paw. Later I realised that he was protecting her belly so that I couldn't scratch her and mess up her stitches. At the time I just thought he was playing too and that was fine by me.

Late at night he came and pulled back the cloth things and got into the bed and turned the light out. Shadow looked at me and asked, What do we do now?

I wasn't sure. I didn't know if we were allowed to cuddle up to him or not, but I was pretty sure that if we wanted to sleep on the bed we'd have to stake our claim right away. So we did. I climbed up onto the bottom corner of the bed and Shadow cuddled up to where his back paws were. Soon we were all asleep and it was wonderful. We were safe in our new home and our humans clearly loved us and I was so happy I couldn't stop purring all night.