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“What?”
“Puss.”
“You can’t work in school because you’re worried about Puss? But you know I’m doing everything I can to find her. She must be getting food from somewhere; otherwise she did come home.”
“Dad, Puss is at Grandmother’s old house.”
“How do you know?”
“I put her there. I’ve been looking after her there.”
“You -” Father looked very angry, but Yusuf was no longer afraid. Now that he’d told them his secret, he felt better. And father too calmed down. “We must take arrangements tomorrow,” he said.
“Puss has kittens – three of them.”
Before father could say anything, Tina rushed up to him and tugged at his arm. “Please, Dad, let’s go and see them, please.”
Mother went quietly to the kitchen to get some milk. In a short time all four of them were at Grandfather’s old house. Puss purred happily when she saw them. Both children and parents made a great fuss over Puss and her kittens.
Yusuf kept waiting for the scolding, but it did not come. On the way home, Father was quiet. It was only when they were back in the flat that he said: “Now we have four homes to took for.”
“Dad, can’t we keep just one of the kittens?”
“No, Tina, you know the rules. But we’ll go every day to feed them.”
Father kept his word. The nicest time very day was when the family visited Puss and kittens. Yusuf dreaded the time when homes would be found for them, but he knew it had to be soon. The kittens were growing up fast – already they were as beautiful as their mother – and the storeroom was too small for them.
The day father told them he had found homes for all the cats, Tina cried. Yusuf felt like crying too.
“Would you like to come along when I take Puss and the kittens to their new homes?”
“Tina can go. I don’t want to.”
On the Sunday when Puss and her kittens were taken away, Yusuf stayed out of the flat. He roamed around the housing estate, not wanting to know where Puss was going, not wanting to hear Tina crying. He felt sad to think that he might never again see his pet. Yet he was glad that people living in flats could not keep pets. This meant they could never have another: no animal could ever take Puss’s place.
Toward evening Yusuf thought he’d better go home. His parents would be worried if he stayed out too late. He went up to their floor in the lift and then walked along the passage to their flat. The others were at home. He could hear them talking as he reached the door. They turned toward him when he walked in. Nobody spoke, but Yusuf knew they were feeling sorry for him.
He walked to his room. He stood still in the doorway and stared. Then he gave a shout of joy.
“Puss! How lovely!”
There, on the wall, hung a framed life-size colored photograph of Push and her three fluffy kittens that his father had had taken. And, when he looked on the back, there were the four addresses of the cats’ new homes. He could go to visit them whenever he wanted, and in the meantime there was always the lovely, lovely picture to remind him of Puss and her kittens. He’d have it for always and always.
