Copycat (2 page)

Pinkie reacted differently. ‘You’re a cosseted cat,’ she retorted. ‘Sammy and I have to do the best we can for ourselves without any other creature’s help. And I wouldn’t have it another way even if I could.’ She wasn’t used to sitting in human dwellings and the unusual warmth and cleanliness made her uneasy. ‘When will your master return?’ she asked nervously.

‘Not till it’s dark,’ Buster replied. ‘Don’t worry, you’re safe for the moment.’ He got into his basket and appeared to be ready for sleep.

‘But we can’t stay here!’ Pinkie mewed. ‘You saved our skins, Buster, and we shan’t forget it. We’re out of place, though. We have to leave. We shall be discovered.’ She was very jittery.

‘Relax,’ Buster soothed her. ‘There’s nothing to be afraid of here. I’ll see to it. I’ll know when my master’s coming and I’ll hide you.’

‘We don’t want to be hidden! Do we, Sammy?’ Pinkie begged her mate. ‘We want to go.’

‘Wait. Wait, Pinkie,’ Sammy said coolly. ‘We can’t go anywhere until we know the risk of capture has passed.’

‘Exactly,’ purred Buster. ‘I’ll look after you. You can share my food. See that tall cupboard? There’s a big space behind it where you can hide while my meal is being prepared. I used to hunt for mice round there. Never found any, though. It’s the perfect place for you two. Afterwards, when I’m left to myself – out you come again! And then we’ll make plans. I’ll try to think of a way to help.’ He began to lick his chest fur in a methodical way. He was quite in control of the situation.

Shortly after dark the room was swept momentarily by a brilliant light. Pinkie scurried to the hiding place at once. Buster got up, stretched and yawned. ‘The master’s back,’ he said. He knew the light meant the man’s car had turned into the drive.

‘Will he come in here first?’ Sammy hissed.

‘No, not straight away. You’ve plenty of time.’

The front door banged. Buster’s owner’s footsteps sounded in the hall, then the cats heard the creak of the stairs. The footsteps continued overhead. There was the noise of running water. ‘He’ll come soon now,’ Buster announced. Sammy crept behind the cupboard and huddled beside Pinkie.

A young man opened the kitchen door, flicked on the light switch and began to talk to his pet. ‘There you are, then.’ Buster threaded his way in and out of the man’s legs, his tail held high. ‘I suppose you’re hungry, like me? Yes, that’s it. We’ll get it all ready. Now, don’t trip me up, good boy.’

To Sammy and Pinkie, hidden but wary and tense, the man’s presence in the kitchen seemed to last an eternity. Two or three times Pinkie almost fled from cover when the man approached the cupboard. Somehow she managed to keep a grip on herself and at last the man took his own meal on a tray out of the room, switching off the light.

Buster called them. ‘There’s food here. I left you some. I usually go with him now. I’ll be brought back here later when he goes to bed. After you’ve eaten, you’d better keep out of sight.’ He trotted away to his human companion.

Sammy and Pinkie appreciated what little Buster hadn’t eaten of the cat food. Then Pinkie said, ‘I don’t like it here. Let’s go
now
– the way we came in.’

But Sammy said, ‘I’m tired. And it’s warm in here. We can’t come to any harm. Don’t you want to see if Buster comes up with an idea?’

‘Oh – Buster!’ she scoffed. ‘What does he know about what we want? You heard what he thinks of us. He’s so superior.’

‘No. No, I don’t think so,’ Sammy disagreed. ‘We’re different, that’s all. You and I have to get right away from this area, from the city itself if we can. Otherwise we’ll always be under threat. Buster does understand that. I’m willing to wait and hear what he has to say about it. He might be able to help. How about it?’

Pinkie sighed. ‘Why ask? I know when your mind’s made up.’

—3—

On the move again

Buster’s return to the kitchen was hours away. In the meantime Sammy and Pinkie tried to doze. Eventually the pet tabby’s owner felt ready for bed and Buster was carried to his basket and given a good-night cuddle. The kitchen door was closed soon after and the man retired upstairs.

‘Come on. Now’s the time,’ Buster called.

Sammy and Pinkie emerged eagerly.

‘I’ve thought of the perfect way to get you out of your difficulties,’ Buster announced. ‘I’ll arrange for my master to take you.’

‘What?’ Pinkie screeched. ‘What are you talking about?’

‘Patience,’ Buster soothed her. ‘Let me explain.’

‘It’ll need some explaining,’ the white cat retorted. ‘We don’t want any involvement with humans.’

Buster gave her a long-suffering look and even Sammy was irritated. ‘Pinkie,
please
.’

‘If you’ll just listen,’ Buster sighed. ‘My master is the key to it all. He has a car.’ He wiped a paw across his whiskers. ‘Those machines travel at quite unimaginable speed. It could take you anywhere.’ He paused and looked at the cats dramatically.

‘Out of the city altogether?’ Sammy asked.

‘Very probably. When my master comes back in the evening there are often strange scents all over the car, not at all like those from the city. So it’s a good guess it has travelled a long way.’

‘Why ever would your master want
us
in his car?’ Pinkie demanded. ‘He doesn’t even know about us.’

‘Of course he doesn’t,’ Buster answered. ‘And he won’t.’

‘But how would we get inside without him knowing?’ Sammy asked, mystified.

‘Simple. There are plenty of plants in the garden you can hide amongst. Then, as my master prepares to leave, I distract him. I know how to do
that
. Works every time. You two run up and jump in. There are rugs and all sorts of things you can burrow under in the back.’

‘No,’ said Pinkie. ‘We won’t be doing that. We’d be trapping ourselves. How would we get out again? Sammy and I have had one ordeal of that sort already and one that I shall never forget. I want nothing to do with humans or their machines. I’d rather we got away from here at our own pace.’

‘Don’t be so hasty,’ Sammy cautioned. ‘I have more experience of humans than you have. There’s nothing to fear from one of the kind who keeps a cat for a pet! I think Buster’s plan is a good one. The best we can hope for, anyway. It’d save us a lot of hardship and difficulty and worry – imagine what it would be like creeping along bit by bit and trying to dodge those patrols every day.’

‘I’m only trying to help,’ Buster assured Pinkie. ‘But if you prefer to –’

‘It’s all right,’ Sammy told him decisively. ‘Pinkie will see sense. She’s a very clever cat. And, of course, naturally wary.’

‘Very understandable,’ said Buster.

Pinkie was mollified. She saw there was no more to be said. ‘Well, we’d better go back to our new den for now,’ she sighed. ‘We don’t want to be found lying here in the morning.’

But of course there was no question of that. Long before the young man rose, Buster had taken Sammy and Pinkie through the cat-flap to the garden and shown them the best place to lie in wait near the car.

‘You’ll be quite unobserved there,’ he told them as they screened themselves behind the foliage of a thick shrub. ‘I hope you won’t have to wait too long. I’m sorry there’s nothing to eat.’

‘You’ve done more than enough,’ Sammy assured him. ‘How many other animals have you helped?’

‘Others? None, actually.’

‘Then why us?’ asked Pinkie.

‘I just happened to be on the spot at the right time,’ Buster explained. ‘I saw your predicament. Who wouldn’t come to the aid of a brother creature if he could? Besides, it’s interesting to see the other side of life.’

‘Oh. You mean us semi-wild beasts?’ Sammy joked.

‘I wouldn’t put it quite like that. You have your lifestyle, I have mine. Doesn’t mean we all have to ignore each other, does it?’ His friendship was perfectly genuine and he added, ‘I’m only sorry we’re separating so soon after we met. Good luck.’ With a farewell miaow, Buster went back indoors.

Sammy was aglow. ‘What a delightful animal,’ he purred. ‘Human care and consideration have made him like that. He doesn’t have any battles to fight. Life’s no struggle for him. We must strike him as coarse and hard by comparison.’

Pinkie was offended. ‘Speak for yourself,’ she said indignantly. ‘But you’ve certainly fallen under his spell, haven’t you? Perhaps you envy him?’

‘No. Not envy,’ Sammy answered. ‘I was a pet once and I turned my back on that way of life. To be free and independent is everything to me. You know that already. But I sometimes feel I’d like to be – well, just a little more respectable.’

The cats lapsed into silence, thinking their own thoughts. Pinkie wasn’t entirely happy about this interlude with a domestic pet. She could see that it had had an unexpected influence on Sammy which perhaps didn’t bode well for the future. She was impatient to be away before any more harm might be done.

The cats listened to the various noises from inside the house and from the street. Even now, in this private garden, they feared the return of the tramp! tramp! of those heavy boots. So it was a relief of sorts when the young man appeared, carrying his case ready for work. He opened one of the car’s rear doors and put his case on the floor, and at that moment Buster began to miaow urgently from the low garden wall. The man turned, his hand still on the door. Buster called some more.

‘What is it? What do you want?’ the man laughed. ‘Have you found something there?’ He strolled over and tickled his pet behind the ear. Sammy and Pinkie shot from cover and leapt inside the car. They clawed frantically at the rugs, desperate to get out of sight. Fortunately the car’s back seat, which was rarely used, was strewn with an accumulation of paper, packages and a few items of clothing as well as the two thick car rugs. So the cats, hearts a-flutter, were easily able to make themselves invisible.

Buster watched carefully until they were safe and then instantly appeared to lose all interest in his master. He jumped off the wall and went trotting along the pavement to next door’s garden. The young man, who was quite used to his pet’s ways, stepped up to his car, shut the door on Sammy and Pinkie and got into the driving seat. The cats’ journey was about to begin.

They remained absolutely still and quiet. The car stopped several times, sometimes briefly, sometimes for lengthy periods. The young man was a sales representative and had many calls to make on his customers. But, for as long as the din of the city could be heard each time the car stopped, Sammy prevented Pinkie from moving. He wanted to be sure they had quit the city before stirring, because that was the only way he would be satisfied that he and Pinkie were beyond the reach of the vans, the snares and the tramping boots. So they waited for the quieter, more peaceful sounds they recalled from their earlier life in the countryside.

They tried to catnap, but the jolting of the car, their nagging stomachs and their anxiety made it impossible. But they were not alone in feeling the demands of hunger. Around midday the salesman pulled into a pub car park for a hasty lunch.

The pub overlooked a river and the surroundings were peaceful. The man got out, locked the car and strode away. The general quietness was soon noticeable to the two cats.

‘I think this is it,’ Sammy said excitedly. ‘I think we’ve made it, Pinkie. We’ve left the city behind!’

Cautiously they sat up and looked out of the nearest window. There were no people visible, no moving vehicles and no massed buildings crowding the roadside. The river’s murmur was just audible.

‘The man’s going to get a big surprise when he comes back,’ Pinkie said. ‘I hope nothing goes wrong now.’

‘Don’t worry,’ Sammy said. ‘We haven’t come all this way to let things slip at the last moment. We won’t have much time. We must jump just as soon as the door begins to open.’

There was a final tense wait. Luckily the young salesman had a busy day and couldn’t spare long for his break. A sandwich and a fruit juice was all he had time for. He came striding across the car park. The cats were ready. The driver’s door opened and Sammy and Pinkie fled, almost leaping on top of the man in their haste to get through the gap. Buster’s owner staggered and cried out.

‘Good God! What on earth . . .?’ He spun round, still in a state of shock, in an effort to see what had struck him, and spotted the cats scampering across the car park towards the river. His jaw dropped and he watched them in a complete daze. It was a long time before he was able to collect his thoughts.

Sammy led the way to the river bank. The first priority was to get under cover again. He and Pinkie had no way of knowing whether the man would give chase. There were some strollers on the towpath by the river. The cats avoided them and ran in amongst some rank weeds. A train abruptly thundered across a nearby bridge. On the other side of the river there was a cluster of tall buildings along the waterfront. New ones were under construction, and the noise of machinery and human shouts leapt the width of water and assailed the cats’ ears.

‘I don’t think we’ve escaped the city,’ Pinkie wailed. ‘Look, Sammy, we’re still in its clutches!’

—4—

‘We have to change’

Sammy tried to be cheerful. ‘We don’t have to worry,’ he said. ‘We’ve got all this water between us and that . . . that . . .’

‘Menace?’ Pinkie suggested.

‘Yes, well we must simply stay on this side,’ he countered. ‘Maybe it’s different over here.’

‘We’ve hardly begun to look yet.’

‘No. There’s plenty of time for exploring. We’re not under any threat right now. And if you feel anything like me, the main thought in your mind at this moment is food.’

Pinkie had no argument with that. Both cats were skilful hunters and they soon found there were voles and mice to be had in the long grass by the river. With hunger partly satisfied, Sammy began to think about finding a temporary den. Always in his thoughts was the need for a safe haven. He didn’t dare give voice to his fear that he and Pinkie might even now be within reach of the men who were rounding up the strays. He had longed to have the countryside around him again, but it was all too obvious that he hadn’t achieved his desire.