Читать книгу BAD CAT, GOOD CAT - Lynne Banks Reid - Страница 6

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.”