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Ella’s parents were calling her as they headed back, and her dad was starting to pull away the boards blocking the door.

“Ella! There you are!” he said angrily as she crouched to go through the hole. “What have you been doing? You should never have gone in there; what have we told you about playing in dangerous places like that?”

“I wasn’t playing, Dad!” Ella said indignantly. “Look!” And she opened her jacket to show them her tiny passenger. “Fluff found her. But I’m not sure—” Her voice wobbled. “I can’t see her breathing,” she whispered, tears stinging the corners of her eyes.

“Let me see.” Her dad lifted the kitten out, and she lay floppy and lifeless in his big hands. He was silent for a horribly long moment. “She is. But only just. Come on, we need to get home right now and ring the vet. We need to tell them we’ve got an emergency coming in.”

[Êàðòèíêà: img_36]

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Ella had been to the vet’s surgery before, to take Fluff to have all her vaccinations, but this time there was no hanging around in the reception. She and her parents raced in, Ella cradling the kitten, and were rushed straight through to the surgery. It was the same vet who’d looked after Fluff before, and she smiled, recognizing Ella.

“The receptionist said you’d found a stray kitten?” she asked, gently taking the scarf-wrapped bundle from Ella.

Ella nodded.“She’s so tiny, and she’s only just breathing,” she explained. “It wasn’t really us that found her though, it was Fluff.”

“We think she must have been abandoned by her mother,” Ella’s dad put in. “Fluff and Ella found her in an old cottage on some woodland near us.”

The vet nodded thoughtfully.“She looks about three or four weeks old to me. Only just old enough to survive without her mother. She’s very weak – I think she’s had a couple of days on her own in the cold. I’m going to put her on a drip to get some food into her, and we’ll put her in an incubator, get her really nice and warm.” She smiled, looking at Ella’s anxious face. “I think you found her just in time. I can’t promise, but it looks to me as if she’s just cold and hungry, nothing worse. You might even be able to take her home in a couple of hours.” She started to get the equipment she needed.

[Êàðòèíêà: img_37]

“Oh, that’s fantastic!” Ella squeaked, not noticing that Mum and Dad looked a bit shocked. “That’s really good, because I don’t think Fluff will understand where she is. She looked so upset when we drove off. She was watching us through the window—”

“Ella, Ella, hang on,” Mum interrupted. “We don’t know who this kitten belongs to. And we already have Fluff, I’m not sure we can—”

“Mum!” Ella was horrified. “We have to take her home! Fluff saved her – what are you going to tell Fluff if we go back without her?”

Dad looked thoughtful.“Didn’t the people who moved from that house down the road a few days ago have a white cat? I’m sure I remember seeing one around. Was she pregnant? Maybe she decided to have her kittens in that cottage. Cats do that sometimes, don’t they?” he asked the vet. “Find strange places to havetheir kittens?”

The vet nodded.“It’s to do with wanting to be private, and keeping the kittens safe. If her owners were moving, she might not have liked all the mess of packing up at home.” She was laying the white kitten in what looked like a fish tank. “This has got a heat mat to warm her up gently,” she explained. “I’ll take her through to the ward when she’s settled.”

Ella peered through the plastic side. The kitten looked really cosy, but that gave her a horrible thought.“What happened to the other kittens?” she asked worriedly. “Do you think they’re outside somewhere? There was only this little one in the cupboard.”

“Maybe the mother carried them back to the house,” the vet said thoughtfully. “Or perhaps she only had the one. That happens sometimes, and it would mean that it wasn’t too obvious she was going to have kittens. Her owners might not have known.”

Mum looked sad.“So they took her with them and left the kitten behind.”

“Yes, she might have had to go home for some food. Thank goodness for Fluff,” the vet said, smiling.

Mum sighed, and shook her head.“I suppose you’re right, Ella. After what Fluff did, we have to take this one home too.” Then she smiled. “I might have known it wouldn’t stop with one!”

“You mean we can keep her?” Ella asked, hopping up and down. “Really?”

Her dad grinned.“Why not. I took ages putting in that cat flap, we might as well use it… Ooof!” he gasped as Ella hurled herself at him for a hug.

“Thank you, thank you, thank you! I can’t wait to tell Fluff!”

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Back at home Fluff was sitting anxiously on the window sill. She didn’t quite understand where Ella and the kitten had gone, but Ella had whispered that they were looking after her. She stared out at the snowy street, watching for the car, waiting for Ella. As they pulled up in front of the house, she jumped up with her paws scrabbling on the glass, mewing excitedly. Where was the kitten?