The Clever Little Kitten by Holly Webb

 

Chapter One
Sparkly Whiskers
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    Molly sat at the kitchen table, staring sleepily into her cereal. She was tired, but she was smiling. She had a feeling that today was going to be a good day. She gave an enormous yawn, and giggled.
    It was still dark outside. Molly really hadn’t wanted to get out of bed, but Kitty, her little sister, had been riding an imaginary horse up
and down the landing, and the horse kept stopping to neigh loudly outside Molly’s bedroom door. Kitty liked someone to play with.
    â€œWhy are you so sleepy, Moll?” Dad asked. He looked tired too, but that was because he’d been called out to one of the sheep farms in the middle of the night, for an early lambing.
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    â€œKitty woke me up…” Molly yawned hugely again, and tried to remember the dream she’d been having. She couldn’t remember exactly what it had been about. Just that it was special.
    She leant her chin on one hand and nibbled some more cereal. Usually, when Molly had a dream that felt important, it meant that something exciting was going to happen.
    Molly smiled to herself, licking her spoon thoughtfully. Perhaps she was going to meet another magical animal. It felt so long since she’d helped a shy little piglet called Mouse. She’d missed that wonderful feeling of magic swirling around her.
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    Molly closed her eyes, hunting for any wisps of her dream that might be floating around. What sort of animal had she been dreaming about? Did someone need her help?
    â€œMoll-eee! Look!” Kitty demanded. “I made a dragon out of my toast!”
    At the exact same time, the phone rang loudly.
    Molly jumped, and just managed to catch her cereal bowl before it tipped into her lap. All the last little bits of her dream went straight out of her head. Except for something to do with whiskers…
    Molly’s mum got up to answer the phone and her dad gulped his tea in a hurry. At this time of the morning, it was probably an emergency vet call.
    â€œOh, hello, Janie. Oh no! Yes, you’d better bring her over, poor little thing. Yes, I’ll tell Sam and he’ll meet you at the surgery in a few minutes.” Molly’s mum looked sad as she put the phone down. “That was Janie. You know William’s
mum? They got a kitten just a couple of days ago, and she’s had an accident. Janie’s going to bring the kitten over to the surgery straight away.”
    â€œWhat’s happened?” Molly asked anxiously. She really hoped it wasn’t a serious accident.
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    She loved living right next to her dad’s surgery, and being able to visit all the animals, but sometimes it could be sad.
    â€œShe’s trapped her tail, apparently. I’m not sure how it happened.”
    Molly made a face. William was a friend of Kitty’s from nursery. Kitty loved him, because exciting things always seemed to happen when he was there. Like the nursery’s giant snails somehow escaping from their tank, and trailing slime all across the new whiteboard.
    â€œWilliam’s got a kitten?” Kitty asked, wide-eyed. “I want a kitten!”
    Molly sighed. She would love a kitten too. But Mum and Dad thought she and Kitty weren’t old enough to be responsible for a pet. If William had accidentally hurt his new kitten, it would just make Dad even more sure he was right.
    Molly’s dad picked up his cereal
bowl and drank the milk out of it, while Kitty glared at him. Mum told her off for that. “Sorry. Got to rush!” he explained. “And only dads are allowed to do that, Kitty!”
    Kitty was all set to argue, but Dad had gone, heading across the yard to the old barn that had been converted into Larkfield Farm Vets.
    â€œI hope the kitten’s OK,” Molly said, staring after him worriedly.
    Her mum gave her a quick hug. “You can go over to the surgery after school to see. We need to get going now,