While they argued, I was planning my life. I wasn’t going to be Leroy McArthur’s cat. If he took me, I’d run away at the first opportunity. My back legs quivered with new strength and excitement, ready to leap out and escape. My time of recovery had passed, and the heat of courage flooded back into my body. If Leroy tried to bully me, I’d hiss at him and scratch his hands. I’d never let him catch me again.
The door opened and Rick the vet came in. To me he was like a human angel. His aura shone white and cool blue, and he emanated calm. He knew exactly where he had to go, what to do next, who needed him most, and it was the troubled boy sitting belligerently on the floor.
‘Hello, Leroy! What are you doing down there?’
Leroy looked up at him.
‘I want Timba back, and SHE won’t let me have him.’ He stabbed an angry finger at the receptionist, who rolled her eyes.
Rick didn’t try to make Leroy get up, but sat on the floor with him, and looked intently into the boy’s eyes. ‘You’re upset, Leroy, I can see that,’ he said kindly. ‘Are things not going too well?’
Leroy’s mouth quivered.
‘I don’t want none of my toys, or computer games, or my football, or nothing,’ he wept. ‘I just want Timba.’
‘You love him very much, don’t you?’
Leroy nodded hard, great sobs shaking his small body.‘I wanted a pet all my life, and I found Timba … it’s like he were put there for me. I never meant to hurt him, and I won’t hurt him again. I promise.’
‘Has anyone taught you how to look after a cat?’
‘No. Me mum just shouts at me. She don’t teach me NOTHING,’ Leroy cried bitterly. ‘And I get bullied at school all the time cos she don’t wash my clothes and the other kids say I stink.’
‘That’s really tough,’ Rick said quietly. ‘So what is it about Timba that you like?’
‘I dunno.’ Leroy hesitated and turned his big eyes to look at me. ‘It’s like … cos when I hold him he’s alive, and I can feel his heart beating, and I know he loves me … don’t you, Timba? And it don’t matter to him if I’m a bad boy.’
‘A bad boy? Are you?’
‘Yeah.’
Rick allowed a silence, and it was full of messages, like the silence of the Spirit Lion.
‘And are you always going to be bad, Leroy?’
‘No. When I grow up I’m gonna change the world … like the White Lions … only no one believes me. I’m gonna go to Africa and save all the animals.’ A fire burned in Leroy’s aura, courage from long ago, and Rick sat there nodding thoughtfully. He unfolded his long legs and stood up, crossing the room in two hungry strides. My heart went cold as he opened my cage. Surely he wasn’t going to give me back to Leroy?
‘Come on, beautiful Timba,’ he said, and scooped me into his luminous hands. ‘I want to see you hold him, Leroy … gently and lovingly. Can you do that?’
My plans to scratch and bite melted away when I saw Leroy’s smile of delight. I heard myself purring and felt his heart race with joy as he held me close. Around his hands the light shone gold. It was transformational. The whole child shone with happiness … just because of me. I was powerful!
The new purr I had developed in those few days was a precious key that could unlock the hardest of human hearts, and a new skill was being born in my mind … bonding. So far I hadn’t bonded with anyone except Vati. I searched Leroy’s eyes and saw the radiant soul beyond the angry boy. My cute little tail went up and I moved up over his school jumper to his face and touched noses. He giggled as my whiskers brushed his cheek, and I knew I had given him something beyondprice.
‘Stroke him this way,’ said Rick. ‘The way his fur grows. It’s comforting for him, and it keeps his fur smooth and glossy.’
‘I never knew that.’ For the first time Leroy stroked me the way I liked it, head to tail, firmly yet softly, quite differently from how he had ruffled and tweaked me before.
‘That’s brilliant,’ said Rick, and turned as the door opened. ‘Ah, here’s your mum.’
I felt Leroy tense defensively. The magic moment of bonding disappeared under a rolling cloud of worries. What had I done? Abandoned my plan to scratch and bite, and bonded with the boy who had hurt and frightened me. Was I crazy?
‘We’ll lend you a cat cage to take him home in,’ said Rick, and he gave Leroy a book with a kitten on the front. ‘Can you read, Leroy? This is a really good book … it tells you how to care for a kitten. Here, put Timba in the cage and you can take him home.’
What had I done? Well, I could still run away, I thought, at the first opportunity. Just wait till they open that door … I’ll be gone down the street, and this time NO ONE will catch me.
Chapter Five
SORRY ABOUT THIS