Kitten Smitten Read Online Free

Dad’s face had returned to its normal pinky-whitish colour and he had stopped shaking and heaving with hysterical laughter.
    ‘So you’ve come back down to Planet Normal then?’ I said, mustering as much sarcasm as I could.
    Dad grinned. ‘Sorry, but I just couldn’t shake this picture I had in my head of – of,’ he struggled to maintain control. ‘You know, of Jaffa perching over the sugar
bowl, her tiny bottom … perfectly balanced … so as to aim right into the …’ He tailed off and the wheezing took over again.
    My eyes rolled into the back of my head. ‘For goodness sake!’ I snapped. ‘Where is Jaffa, by the way?’ I realized I’d left Dad in sole charge while I’d been
out of the room, which in his present state was not an entirely sensible idea.
    Dad just shook his head, tears running down his face. Useless.
    Scrabble, scrabble!
    ‘What was that?’ I asked, spinning round to where I thought the sound had come from. It sounded as if it was above my head, but that couldn’t have been right.
    Scrabble, scrabble, scrabble!
    It was coming from above my head. I looked up. The only things above me were the ceiling, the light fittings and—
    ‘DAD! She’s on top of the cupboards! Quick – stop laughing, for goodness sake – she’s stuck! Get a chair or something. DAD!’
    Oh, that man was hopeless sometimes. I grabbed a chair and then because I wasn’t tall enough to reach the top of the cupboard, I climbed on to the work surface and stretched up to where
Jaffa was peeping over the top of the cupboard where we kept the cereals.
    ‘It’s OK, Jaffa. I’m here. Just jump!’ I said, reaching forward and trying not to fall off.
    Those jewel-like eyes just stared and stared. Then Jaffa stretched her mouth alarmingly wide and did that silent mewing thing again.
    Dad hiccuped and dried his eyes. ‘Bertie, come down. You’ll fall—’
    Too late. I leaned back too far and slipped off the work surface on to the floor. Picking myself up with stars whirring in front of my eyes, I tried to tell Dad to do something useful and get a
stepladder. But before the words were properly formed in my mind there was a soft thud and Jaffa landed on my tummy, walked up to my face and pushed her nose against mine.
    How could I be cross with such an adorably cute ball of fluff after that?
    ‘Wow, Jaffa!’ I breathed, gently stroking her sticky-uppy fur as she rubbed against my cheek. ‘Life sure is going to be interesting with you around the place.’
     
4
New Kid on the Block

    J affa kept us busy round the clock for the next couple of d ays, ‘missing’ her new litter tray more than once, getting stuck on curtain
rails by using the curtains as ladders (Dad nearly lost his sense of humour over that), and falling asleep in the washing machine (only once, thank goodness). That had totally freaked me out. Dad
had dumped a load of clothes on her and had been about to switch the machine on, when he’d spotted a small frightened face peering out at him through the door.
    It wasn’t until the morning of day three that I finally remembered to unplug my mobile from the charger and check my messages. I wasn’t that into using it, mainly because now my
pet-sitting days were over, no one except Dad and Jazz had the number and Dad had said I wasn’t allowed to use it unless it was for emergencies. But Jazz had always ignored that fact and
texted me constantly. And she got pretty cheesed off when I didn’t respond right away.
    So when I finally scrolled through my messages, I felt a sickening lurch of guilt as I saw that I had so many unread ones from Jazz that the inbox was full to bursting. And there were a
gazillion voicemail messages from her too. She’s going to be seriously mad at me, I thought grimly as I took the plunge and called up her name from my address book.
    As usual she answered after the first ring. I dimly wondered whether she walked around with her phone permanently strapped to her ear, but