The Lucky One

Chapter 10

Shreeya's POV

In my arms I cradle the month old ginger kitten. She sleeps peacefully in my arms like a baby does in it's mothers arms. Another kitten runs against my legs and meows loudly, demanding attention. He's a black and white one, well, to be more precise, he's black with white fur around his green eyes and little white boots. The ginger one wakes and mews softly. The third kitten sleeps on its bed. It does not even seemed to have noticed me or its companions in the least. She is a fluffy black, like her brother, but has no patches of white anywhere. I can't even believe that they're all siblings! What with one being ginger and timid, another loud and boisterous and the last being oblivious to all. The mother lies in a corner of the room, sleeping, like the fluffy black one. She, herself, is a plain black too. Her partner stalks around the kitchen, waiting for the daily meals, his ginger fur gleaming in the sun. His white socks padding around the tiled floor. I wish I could take the whole family, well minus the third kitten and the parents. I look into the adjacent 'cell'. It's quite clever how they transformed a prison into an animal shelter, adding small kitchens to each, a couple cat beds and toys and a litter box. In the cell over is a single mum protecting a pure bred, chocolate brown Burmese and a cream coloured other one. She is Burmese and looks identical to one of her kittens.

"How many can I take?" I ask Harry.

"A couple at most." He mumbles and attempts to pick up the black and white kitten. "Ow!" He pulls back his hand when the kitten scratches him. "Just not this one!" A volunteer for the animal shelter walks over to me.

"Isn't she sweet!" She rubs the kittens belly. "We nickname all the animals here, this ones Rosemary, though most call her Rose or Mary!"

"What a pretty name." I utter. "Rosemary."

"How many are you looking to adopt?" The lady strokes up common chat with me.

"Well I was going to get Rosemary and that black and white one-"

"Ted." She interrupts.

"I was going to get Rosemary and Ted but Dad," that sounded weird, I'd never called him dad before! "But dad doesn't like Ted."

"What a pity! Ted's a great kitten if you get to know him! What do you think of Lola over there?" She gestures towards the oblivious kitten.

"Eh." I mumble. Dad walks over so I start talking to him instead. "Can I get Rosemary?"

"Who?"

"Rosemary, the kitten!"

"Of course!"

"Can I look at other kittens in other cells?"

"Sure, any one in mind?"

"Yup!" I point to the one next to us. Dad talks to some volunteers and Rosemary gets put in a cage. We then go into the next cell. I approach the three cautiously and reach down. The mother picks up the pure bred kitten with her mouth and stalks off, abandoning the little cream coloured kitten who gives a small, sad mew. I touch my hand to her head and she rubs against it. I see her blue eyes shining with hopefulness, that's an unusual colour for a cat eyes but I like it. It makes her even more special.

"That's Hazel." A volunteer says. I pick her up and I can't feel her back legs.

"Where are her back legs?" I ask, my breaths becoming faster and my heartbeat increases. What happened to this poor little kitten?

"She was born that way and can't walk yet, because of it. Though she probably wouldn't be able to walk if she did have her back legs! Her sister over there can't walk yet." A lady with a name tag on tells me. Her name's Susan. "So, do you want her?"

"I really do." I answer immediately. She gets caged, like Rosemary, and we go exploring for one more kitten, this time, searching for a boy. Me and Dad walk past the cells, waiting until one catches our eye. The volunteer with us keeps pointing out ones with interesting stories but we don't take much interest in them. She also keeps on changing the subject to One Direction, the band Harry's in.

"We'll just look for ourselves." Dad dismisses the crazed fan.

"Dad-" I stop after the first word and freeze.

"It's fine, I'm your DAD now and if you didn't call me that them if think that you hated me or something!" I breathe out slowly.

"Dad, how about we ask for frisky ones and then they can direct us to them." I sigh in boredom of watching a bunch of cats sleep and sleep and sleep. It must be boring for them too. Susan comes over and directs us to a cell with leaping kittens. the first one to reach us is a black one who leaps up at Dad's legs. He picks him up and the kitten is very enthusiastic about us.

"We want him." Dad hands the kitten to Susan who puts the little guy in another cage and rests it with Hazel and Rosemary.

"He's called Daniel." She says and she passes him Dan and Hazel while I get Rosemary.

"Thanks for the kittens!" I say gratefully.

"No, thank you for giving them homes!" Susan waves goodbye to us. I sigh. What an exciting day!