Baby I'm Longing For- First Draft

New Life

As June meandered into July, it was fair to say that the Jellicle Junkyard experienced a bit of a baby boom and in typical dominant Tom cat style, Munkustrap found himself simultaneously becoming both a father and a grandfather, as his daughters Victoria, Electra and Etcetera and son Mistoffelees's mate, Hortenseya, all had their kittens within a few weeks of each other. The Infirmary was heaving and poor old Jennyanydots and Jellylorum were run ragged. It was a good job they had a new trainee assistant to help them. Lucitana had expressed a keen interest in midwifery and was an absolute godsend to the duo, but even so, the Infirmary was a hive of activity, complemented by the chorus of mewling newborn fluffballs, and, because he was a temporary resident of said Infirmary whilst he recovered from his injury, Munkustrap was there to witness them all.

Victoria and her mate Plato's single kitten was the first to arrive. Snowy white, like her mother and bearing a strong resemblance to a powerpuff, she was named Serran.

The following week saw the arrival of first Electra and, a few hours later, her twin, Etcetera's brood. Electra gave birth to twin girls Niobe and Nephele. No one could decide whether they looked like her or her mate Pouncival (Or was it his identical twin Carbucketty? I forget now!) as they were a complete mish mash of both. Etcetera surprised everyone by giving birth to a whopping six kittens! (Although it was a large litter for a Jellicle cat, she had yet to surpass the record held by Fat AndrImelda who had reportedly given birth to sixteen!) Their names, if you're interested, were: Natoya, Eledin, Erebus, Elgin, Elfin and Eden (Etcetera's kittens not AndrImelda's!)

It was almost a week later and Munkustrap had been put on creche duty, while Jennyanydots, Jellylorum and Lucitana were busy with new mother Hortenseya. She had given birth that morning to a healthy baby boy, who they named Quaxo Junior owing to his powerful resemblance to his father Mistoffelees.

The kittens in the creche were playing one of their favourite games. It was a variant of What's The Time Mister Wolf, except that no one asked what the time was, because no one could tell it. The object of the game was simple. To creep up on an unsuspecting, snoozing Silver Bengcoon and either run away screaming if he woke up, quite often snarling like a disturbed lion, or jump on him en masse! On this occasion, with a cry of,

"Let's get him!" they pounced. All twelve of them! Munkustrap, now fed up with constantly having to drag himself up, decided on a new tactic. Pretend to be asleep, hope they'd get bored and then leave him in peace. No such luck. One kitten started savaging his ears, another decided to go up against his tail in a tug of war competition, a third used his whiskers for swatting practice, tweaking several of them out in the process and six others discovered that his back made an excellent trampoline. A careless foot in the eye was the final straw and, with a,

"Raaaar!" he suddenly grabbed the offending miscreant and pretended to maul him to death, taking great care to keep his claws retracted. He wished the kittens would have the same courtesy! He winced as the little needles raked across his cheek. In fact, his whole body was now covered in minute little annoying scratches that were itchy rather than painful.

"Mercy!" the kitten cried between fits of giggles, as the Munkustrap relentlessly tickled him to within an inch of his life. This was quickly followed by shouts as every kitten wanted a go.

"Tickle me! Tickle me!"

"No tickle me!"

"No me first!"

"No me first!"

"No me!"

"No me!" A scene of chaos descended as they all started squabbling amongst themselves.