Karen's Kittens

  The author gratefully acknowledges

  Stephanie Calmenson

  for her help

  with this book.

  Contents

  Title Page

  Dedication

  1 Rainy Day

  2 Pets Everywhere

  3 “I’m Bored”

  4 The Disappearing Tail

  5 Growly

  6 Kittens!

  7 Birth Announcements

  8 Babies

  9 Names

  10 Free Kittens!

  11 Where is Rosie?

  12 Karen’s Search

  13 A Home For Ruby

  14 Good-bye, Ruby

  15 Welcome Back, Ruby

  16 Karen’s Kitten Party

  17 Surprise!

  18 Bob

  19 Pokey

  20 Part-time Kittens

  About the Author

  Also Available

  Copyright

  Rainy Day

  Plink! Plunk! Plink! Plunk!

  Raindrops were falling on the lid of the garbage can out in the yard. The noise was making me crabby. I am usually not a crabby person. I am usually a gigundoly happy person.

  My name is Karen Brewer. I am seven years old. I have blonde hair, blue eyes, and a bunch of freckles. Oh, yes, I wear glasses, too.

  My brother, Andrew, is four going on five. He looks a lot like me, but he does not have so many freckles and he does not need glasses.

  I had been listening to the raindrops falling — plink! plunk! plink! plunk! — ever since I got home from school. That was ages ago.

  Andrew had been home even longer. That is because he is not in real school yet. He is in preschool, which is only half a day.

  And poor Emily Junior had been home all day long. Emily Junior does not go to school. That is because she is a rat — my pet rat. Hmmm. Maybe someday she will follow me to school like Mary’s little lamb. That would be an adventure. And I love adventures.

  I have been training Emily Junior to be a circus rat. I know she is going to be a great star someday. She just needs a little more practice.

  “Jump, Emily, jump!” I said.

  “You keep telling her to jump, but all she does is run in circles,” said Andrew.

  “Maybe in rat language jump means run. And run means jump,” I said.

  Andrew rolled his eyes.

  “Watch this,” I said. “Run, Emily, run!”

  Emily Junior laid down and went to sleep. I guess in rat language run means sleep.

  “Let’s see if Rocky and Midgie want to play,” said Andrew.

  Midgie is Seth’s dog. (Seth is our stepfather.) Rocky is his cat.

  “Okay,” I said. “We can dress them in secret disguises. Then we can see if Seth recognizes them when he comes home.”

  Andrew and I went downstairs to find Midgie and Rocky. We found them all right. They were curled up together under the kitchen table. They were fast asleep.

  “Seth said we should not bother them when they are sleeping,” I reminded Andrew.

  Plink! Plunk! Plink! Plunk!

  “I know what. I will call Nancy. We can have a rainy day tea party,” I said. Nancy Dawes is one of my two best friends. Hannie Papadakis is my other best friend. We call ourselves the Three Musketeers.

  I was counting on Nancy to save the day. I dialed her number. The phone rang once. It rang twice. It rang three times. Boo. No one was home.

  Andrew and I had already played about a million games of Go Fish. We were just going to have to play a million and one. I took the cards out of the box again.

  “Bor-ing!” said Andrew.

  “Oh, well,” I said. “Soon we will be at the big house. We are never bored there. At the big house something interesting is always going on.”

  Pets Everywhere

  Not many people have two houses. But Andrew and I do. We have the little house and the big house. I will tell you why, starting from the very beginning.

  A long time ago Mommy and Daddy got married. While they were married, they had Andrew and me. Then things started to change. Mommy and Daddy loved Andrew and me a lot. But they decided they did not love each other anymore. At least not enough to stay married. So they got a divorce.

  Mommy and Andrew and I moved out of the big house in Stoneybrook, Connecticut. That is the house Daddy grew up in. We moved into a little house not too far away. After a while, Mommy met a nice man named Seth and they got married. That is how Seth got to be our stepfather. And that is how Midgie, Seth’s dog, and Rocky, Seth’s cat, came to live with us.

  Meanwhile, back at the big house, Daddy got married again, too. He married a nice woman named Elizabeth. And she moved in with her four children. Now they are my stepbrothers and stepsister. They are: Charlie and Sam, who are in high school; David Michael, who is seven, like me, only he likes to brag that he is a few months older than I am; and Kristy, who is thirteen. Kristy happens to be one of my most favorite people in the whole world. She reads to me and talks to me and plays with me. And she is a great baby-sitter, too.

  That is not all. I have an adopted sister named Emily Michelle. Daddy and Elizabeth adopted her from a faraway country called Vietnam. Emily Michelle is two and a half years old. (I named my rat, Emily Junior, after her.)

  The last person I will tell you about is Nannie. Nannie is Elizabeth’s mother. That makes her my stepgrandmother. She takes care of Emily Michelle when Daddy and Elizabeth are at work and the rest of us are at school.

  Now I can tell you about the pets at the big house. There is Shannon, David Michael’s great, big Bernese mountain dog puppy. There is Boo-Boo, Daddy’s fat, mean old cat. There is Crystal Light the Second, my goldfish. And there is Goldfishie, Andrew’s you-know-what.

  Andrew and I live at the little house most of the time. But every other weekend and on some vacations and holidays, we live at the big house.

  To make things easier, Andrew and I have two of almost everything. That is why I call us Karen Two-Two and Andrew Two-Two. (I thought up those names after my teacher, Ms. Colman, read a book to our class. It was called Jacob Two-Two Meets the Hooded Fang.)

  I have two bicycles, one at each house. I have two sets of clothes, toys, and books. I have my two best friends: Nancy lives next door to the little house and Hannie lives across the street and one house over from the big house. I have two stuffed cats. Goosie lives at the little house. Moosie lives at the big house. And I have two pieces of my special blanket, Tickly. (I kept leaving Tickly at one house or the other. Finally I had to rip Tickly in half. But I do not think it hurt much.)

  Guess what I did the other day. I counted all the people and all the pets at my two houses. (I am very good at math.) Here is what I got: four people and three pets at the little house, and eight people (not counting me and Andrew because we only live there sometimes) and four pets at the big house. That makes twelve people and seven pets altogether. I have people and pets everywhere!

  I think there are enough people. But sometimes I wish I had more pets. A rat and a goldfish are nice to have. But I would like to have a cat or a kitten of my own, too. Or maybe two cats or kittens! One for each house. After all, I am Karen Two-Two.

  “I’m Bored”

  “See you later, alligators!” called Mommy as we raced up the driveway of Daddy’s house.

  I really did feel like an alligator sloshing through the mud in my green rainboots and slicker.

  The door opened before we even had a chance to knock. Our whole big-house family was waiting to greet us!

  “Hi, kids,” said Daddy. He usually gives us each a big hug. But we were dripping wet. Daddy helped Andrew take off his slicker.

  “Come on, Karen,” said Kristy. “I’ll help you get your boots off.”

  “Yo, Pro
fessor, I think you need windshield wipers on your glasses!” said David Michael. (My glasses are the reason he calls me “Professor.”)

  “Very funny,” I said. But maybe windshield wipers were not such a bad idea. I just had to figure out a way to attach them. They would look cool!

  “Why don’t you kids go to your rooms and unpack,” said Elizabeth. “Dinner will be ready soon.”

  I love my room at the big house. I said hello to Moosie and to Tickly. Then I put the book I wanted to read with Kristy on my night table. It was called Churchkitten Stories by Margot Austin. I figured if I could not have kittens at least I could read about them.

  “Let’s go, Andrew!” I called when I finished unpacking. I hurried back downstairs. There was lots of noise coming from the kitchen. I did not want anything fun to happen without me.

  As soon as Andrew and I got there, Nannie brought out a big plate of hamburgers and rolls and lots of gloppy stuff to put on them. Yum!

  There was a plate of tomatoes in front of Emily Michelle.

  “ ’Matoes, ’matoes,” sang Emily Michelle. She stuck her foot up on the table and started wiggling her toes.

  “I bet I never did anything silly like that when I was little,” I said.

  “When was that?” said Sam. “Last week?”

  Sam is a big tease. I decided to act very grown-up and ignore him.

  “Please pass the ketchup,” I said in my most grown-up voice.

  After we ate and cleaned up, I waited for something interesting to happen. Something interesting always happens at the big house. Well, almost always.

  But Daddy and Elizabeth went to their room early to read. Nannie went out with a friend. Sam and Charlie went to a movie. David Michael disappeared into his room and put up a sign that said, “Do not disturb — or else.” Emily Michelle was asleep. Even Shannon and Boo-Boo were pooped out.

  “Hey, what is this?” I said to Andrew.

  Andrew shrugged. “Want to play Go Fish?” he said.

  “No way!” I replied. I ran upstairs to find Kristy. She was in her room combing her hair.

  “I’m bored,” I announced.

  “Then find something to do,” said Kristy.

  “I can’t,” I said. “I want something fun to happen.”

  “I’m sorry I can’t help you. I have a baby-sitting job,” said Kristy. And she hurried downstairs.

  “No, no, no, no, no!” I said to myself. But I got out the cards anyway and played six more games of Go Fish with Andrew.

  I was so bored by the time I went to bed, that sleeping sounded like fun. Whoopee.

  The Disappearing Tail

  I woke up Saturday morning trying to remember what had happened the night before. Why couldn’t I remember? Then I figured it out. I could not remember what happened because nothing happened.

  “Good morning, Moosie,” I said. “I hope your life is more exciting than mine these days.”

  I went to the playroom to check on Crystal Light. She was swimming around in the bowl. Then I remembered what I did last night. I played six games of Go Fish with Andrew.

  Well, the sun was shining in my window and something was bound to happen today. After all, I was at the big house!

  Nothing happened at breakfast. Except Emily Michelle spilled her bowl of Fruity-O’s on the floor. And Kristy got three phone calls in a row.

  “I’m going to play outside!” I called to anyone who was interested.

  I looked over at Hannie’s house. I knew it was empty, though. Hannie had gone away with her family for the weekend.

  I looked at my other friend, Melody’s, house. But I knew I would not see her either because she had gone to a ballet class.

  Somebody sighed loudly. It was me. Life was gigundoly boring.

  Since nothing was happening in front of the house, I checked out the backyard. I was just in time, too. As soon as I got there, I saw a furry, gray tail disappear inside Daddy’s toolshed.

  What was the shed doing open? I knew that Daddy was inside the house and he always makes sure the door of the shed is closed when he’s not there.

  And whose furry, gray tail was it?

  In case you did not know it, I happen to be a first class detective. I even had a detective agency once and solved a lot of mysteries. I would solve this mystery, too. Oh boy! This was exciting. Something was really and truly happening!

  I ran to the toolshed to investigate.

  “Aha!” I said. The bottom of the sliding metal doors was all rusty. They were stuck open. There was just enough space for a gray, furry-tailed thing to slip through.

  I looked inside the shed. It was dark because the windows were dirty. I waited for my eyes to get used to the darkness. Hmm. Instead of windshield wipers, maybe I should attach flashlights to my glasses. That would be a good thing for a detective to do.

  Uh-oh. Something was moving in the back of the shed. It was a fat, gray tiger cat! She was making herself comfortable on a pile of old rags.

  I pushed the doors open a little bit more and squeezed inside the shed. I inched closer on my tippy toes. I was trying not to scare the cat.

  “A-rowwwl!” she growled.

  Who was scared now? Me! I raced out of that shed.

  “Dadd-eee!” I called.

  Growly

  “Come on, Daddy! Hurry!” I cried.

  “I’m right behind you, Karen,” said Daddy.

  He looked pretty funny. He was wearing bright red fish-shaped oven mitts. They covered his hands and went all the way up to his elbows. That is so he would not get scratched if he tried to pick up the cat.

  I slipped between the doors of the shed.

  Daddy could not fit through the opening though. He had to push the doors wider apart. The sun came pouring in and I got a good look at the cat. Boy, was she fat!

  Daddy took a few steps closer to her.

  “A-rowwl! A-rowwl! A-rowwl!” she growled. But she did not move.

  The cat looked at Daddy. Daddy looked at the cat.

  “She is going to have kittens, Karen,” said Daddy. “And probably pretty soon.”

  “Neat!” I said. “We can help her.”

  “We can help her best by leaving her alone. She will know what to do,” said Daddy. “And we can let her raise her family here in the shed. But for now, we better not touch her.”

  “Not touch her?” I repeated. “Can I at least bring her some food and water?”

  Daddy said that would be all right. I hurried into the kitchen. I filled a bowl with water. Then I put some of Boo-Boo’s cat food on a plate. I did not bother asking Boo-Boo first. Since he was such a mean old cat, he probably would not want to share.

  I ran back to the toolshed. On the way, I tripped over a rock and spilled everything. Boo. I had to pick up all the food, then fill the bowl with water again.

  I hoped the cat would not have her kittens before I got back to the shed.

  She didn’t. I was starting to feel lucky. Saturday had started out boring. But it was not boring anymore. And I had wanted a cat or a kitten. Now I was going to have both!

  I hope the kittens will be born tonight, I thought. I will get to see them before I have to go back to the little house tomorrow afternoon.

  Let’s see. I needed a name for the cat. What could it be? I tapped my foot on the ground while I thought. The cat did not like that.

  “A-rowwwl!” she growled.

  I jumped back.

  “Naming you is easy,” I said. “I am going to call you Growly.”

  Kittens!

  Hundreds of cats, thousands of cats, millions and billions and trillions of cats!

  It was Sunday morning. I had been dreaming of a book I read in school called Millions of Cats. That is how many cats I wanted to find when I went out to the toolshed. Well, maybe not that many. Especially if they growled like Growly.

  My big-house family was awake. Everyone wanted to see if Growly had had her kittens yet. We marched out to the toolshed together. I was the leader.
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  Well, there weren’t a million. Or a thousand. Or even a hundred. But there were kittens all right. Five tiny ones nursing away at Growly.

  “Ooh,” said Elizabeth.

  “Aw,” said Daddy.

  “They are so pudgy,” said Kristy.

  “They are so little,” said Andrew.

  “They are so … ugly,” I said. I made a face. “I thought they would be cute and cuddly like the kittens on TV commercials. You know, the ones for kitten chow.”

  “Don’t worry, Karen,” said Elizabeth. “Kittens grow fast. You will see changes in them every day.”

  “I hope so,” I said. These things were squirmy. Their eyes were closed. They looked a little like rats. But not cute rats like Emily Junior.

  I took a step closer to see if I could find anything cute about them.

  “Don’t touch them yet,” warned Kristy.

  “I won’t,” I promised. I stared and stared. And you know what? I decided they were cute after all — even if they were not funny and fluffy like the TV kittens. I decided they were sweet.

  “I changed my mind!” I announced. “I think they are cute after all. So, Daddy, can we keep Growly and her kittens?”

  “I’m sorry, honey,” said Daddy. “We have way too many pets in our house already.”

  “Oh, please, puh-lease!” I cried. “After all, they were born here, so they belong here.”

  “They really are cute and sweet,” said Kristy. “Can’t we keep just a couple?”

  “No, we cannot,” said Daddy.

  “I want a kitten!” said Andrew.

  “Kitty!” said Emily Michelle.

  “The answer is no and that is final,” said Daddy. “But I will tell you what. We can let Growly stay here until the kittens are grown up enough to leave her. By then, I hope we will have figured out what to do with them.”

  “When will that be?” I asked.

  “Kittens can usually leave their mother in about eight weeks,” said Elizabeth.

  Eight weeks! That was a long time. Two months. I would get to watch them grow.

  I looked at Growly with her five little kittens all in a row. She looked tired. But I think she looked proud, too.