‘Come on, puss, I’ve gotta go home.’
She stepped over me, and walked on. I ran after her, meowing. I belted past her, with my tail fluffed out, and again sat on the path in front of her. I lifted my paw and patted the hem of her coat, then got it between my teeth and pulled.
‘What ARE you doing?’ She laughed at me. ‘You funny cat.’
I did the loudest meow ever. It echoed over the common, and I trotted back towards the tree, stopped and turned to look at her. She frowned, and just then, magically, the baby boy gave that little grizzling cry.
Still with the dog tucked under her arm, she followed me under the tree. She saw the bag. She looked in.
‘Oh my God. Oh no, NO. A baby. Oh, you poor little MITE.’
I thought she would pick him up straight away, but instead, she tied the dog to a tree, and jumbled in her bag. She took out a mobile phone, tapped it and did a lot of talking.‘I’m Linda Evans, and I’m on the common by the footbridge over the river, and I’ve found an abandoned baby. He looks new-born, and he’s been dumped in a carrier bag. He needs medical attention, and so does the mother, whoever she is.’
Next, Linda eased the baby out of the bag. He was so small, smaller than me, and I was a cat.
‘Look what he’s wrapped in,’ she exclaimed, pulling at a thin purple scarf with threads of silver in it. She cuddled the baby close and wrapped her coat around him. ‘You poor dear little soul. Who’s done this to you?’ Tears ran down her cheeks, and the dog was whimpering. I went and sat beside it firmly, to calm it down, but its legs went on shivering.
Linda seemed to get into a panic as she watched the baby. She sat down on the grass with him on her lap.
‘Don’t die on me, darling. Come on.’ She rocked him and cuddled him, but he was still and floppy. Holding the phone again, she shouted, ‘Be quick. He’s not going to make it. Please. Please get here.’
She pulled out a scrap of torn paper from the folds of the scarf, and looked at it. Four words were scrawled on it in bright pink letters.
‘HIS NAME IS ROCKY,’ Linda said, showing me the words on the paper as if I could read. She pursed her lips. ‘That’s all,’ she said. ‘That’s all his mum left with him. Evil woman, whoever she is. Just give me five minutes with her. Doing that to a dear little defenceless baby.’
I ran back to her and added my purring and my love, and she didn’t push me away. A siren was screaming up the road on the other side of the river, a blue light flashing. I climbed up into the elderberry tree, to watch what happened. Oh, those humans were awesome. They pounded across the bridge, dressed in orange, a man and a woman, leaving the ambulance with its light flashing, its doors open. They took the baby boy and rushed him inside the ambulance, where they messed about with tubes and bottles, working on this tiny being called Rocky, whose life I had saved.
From my perch in the tree, I could see that his aura suddenly brightened, and he cried then, properly. The paramedic turned and gave a thumbs up, and Linda scooped up her dog and burst into tears.
‘Will you stay there, please? The police are on their way.’
The doors of the ambulance were closed and it raced off. I watched it go, remembering the baby’s bright blue eyes, remembering his soul energy.
I hung around, making friends with Linda as she waited there, crying, a screwed-up tissue in her hand. She seemed glad to have me with her. I worked my way up to her broad shoulder and draped myself over it.
‘You are a loving cat,’ she said, and looked into my eyes as I peeped round at her. She was a motherly person, like Harriet, I thought. Yes, Linda was a Labrador kind of human. We had a bond now. We’d both helped to save the life of an abandoned baby.
When the police arrived, I stayed on Linda’s shoulder while they talked, and they were interested in me.
‘So what’s the cat doing here?’ the policeman asked. ‘Is it your cat?’
‘No … but it led me to the baby. Just like a dog would have done.’
Me! Like a dog? I was miffed at that.
‘Perhaps the cat belongs to the mother. Has it got a collar?’
‘No.’ Linda burrowed her fingers in my ruff. ‘It’s a well-cared-for cat, that’s obvious.’
‘Have you ever seen it before?’
‘No. Never. But I don’t think it’s a stray, and it’s not feral.’
‘If it’s microchipped, it might lead us to the mother. Let me hold it.’ The policeman held out his arms and lifted me gently off Linda’s neck. I’d never had a cuddle with a policeman before so I touched noses with him and made a fuss, purring and rubbing and kissing his neck, and he wasenjoying it, I could tell. He was feeling my back to see if I’d got a microchip, whatever that was.
‘I think I can feel one. We should definitely hang on to this cat and get it scanned.’
He was holding me too tightly now. I knew what he was planning to do. I could feel the intention buzzing through his fingers. He was going to put me in one of those baskets. I had to act fast.