“HELP!

POLICE!

SOMEBODY!”

the girl kept crying

even after the crowd

had gathered.

Gus ignored her.

He ignored the crowd of mail carriers

and clerks and customers

from the Piggly Wiggly.

He ignored Joe

from Joe’s Gas and Grill

and the woman

who had pulled her car

over to the curb

to see what the commotion

was about.

The only one Gus paid attention to

was Patches,

lying flat

beneath his paw.

“Gus,” she said again,

in a voice almost as squeezed

as she was.

“You can’t do this!”

Though he could,

of course.

Nonetheless,

Gus listened.

He looked closely at Patches,

too.

She didn’t just look squeezed.

She looked scared.

Of me? he thought.

Could this dear little cat be afraid of me?

“I’m sorry,” he said,

so softly

that no one heard except

the cat beneath his paw.

“All I wanted . . .

the only thing

in all the world I wanted

was for you and your babies

to stay.”

And he lifted his great gray paw,

freeing Patches . . .

at last.

She stood

slowly.

First she gave her three-colored coat

a few licks

to put everything

back in place.

Then she looked into Gus’s brown eyes

with her golden ones

and said,

“These babies need me,

Gus,

and I need to go home.

So they must

go home

with me!”

Gus’s ears went so

f

l

a

t

a

n

d

l

i

m

p

that they touched

beneath his chin.

He didn’t argue,

though.

He just rose

slowly.

When he was full on his feet,

the crowd gasped.

Until then

no one but Patches had known

what was hidden

between the great dog’s paws.

But there they were,

three tiny, new kittens,

one black,

one orange tabby,

one calico,

curled into a furry pile!

Three kittens

for all the world to see!

“Oh!” the girl cried.

“Oh! Oh! Oh!

Kittens!

My Patches

had

kittens!”

And everyone

who had come

when the girl had called, “HELP!”—

all of them feeling

more courageous now

that the boy was there

to take charge

of the meanest dog in town—

opened the gate

and flowed into the yard.

They gathered close

to see

the perfect wonder

of babies.

Patches,

just to make sure everyone knew

the babies were,

indeed,

hers,

gave each a lick

with her rough, pink tongue.

And to show

not only that they were hers,

but how proud

she was,

she turned on the loudest

mother-motor purr

anyone had ever heard

from such a small cat.