3: RUSSELL

 

   One day Salem and Roxanne went for a walk in the woods on the south side of Catsville. These woods are known as the Wild Woods, because they are rather dark and fearsome, with thick bushes growing amongst the trees, and very narrow and twisty-turny paths.

   But Salem and Roxanne walked almost nose to tail, and felt quite brave, and every now and then took little excursions away from the path, to look under bushes, and sniff at strange little holes in the dead leaves carpeting the ground. From time to time, when they found patches of grass amongst the bushes, they also played pussy games, hiding in the grass in turns to pounce on one another.

   They were taking one of their excursions, to look at a particularly interesting patch of long grass, when they heard a faint whimpering sound. They both stopped, and stared in the direction of the sound, with their whiskers quivering.

   ‘That sounds like a dog,’ Salem whispered. He was not very fond of dogs. ‘We'd better get out of here.’

   ‘I think it's a poor little animal in pain,’ whispered Roxanne, who had a very kind heart. She began to creep forward into the long grass on her stomach, moving slowly and very carefully, with her whiskers twitching, just in case she ran into a problem.

   Salem watched the tip of her tail vanish into the grass and felt rather ashamed of himself. He began to creep into the grass as well, keeping himself well tensed up, in case danger loomed.

   Roxanne paused, and wrinkled her nose. She could smell an animal smell, a very strong animal smell, coming from a thick tuft directly ahead of her. The whimpering had now stopped, and the grass was as still as a grave.

   She inched forward again, very slowly and carefully, and found herself face to face with a strange little reddish-coloured animal with a long pointed nose. The little animal had curled itself up in its bushy red tail, and looked very frightened. It tried to growl at her, but its growl was almost too faint to hear.

   ‘Who are you?’ Roxanne asked, pulling back a little way in case the little red animal had something catching.

   ‘I'm Russell, and I'm lost, and my mum has been hurt.’ The animal began to whimper again. ‘I went out to find some worms for her, but I couldn't find any, and I don't know how to find her again.’

   Salem crept up, looking stern. ‘You're a fox.’ Foxes were banned from Catsville, but sometimes they raided dustbins. The Catsville police always dealt with them very severely, and sometimes even killed them.

   ‘It's not my fault’, whimpered the fox cub. ‘Mum was run over, and she came here to hide because she was frightened. She can't walk any more, and I'm afraid she's going to die.’

   Roxanne began to sniff around in the grass, keeping her nose very close to the ground. She knew the smell of worms, though she had never tried eating one. But a good cat will do many strange things in a crisis.

   Then she began to scrabble busily with her front paws, and a moment later she was holding a big fat, juicy worm in her mouth. She put it down in front of the fox cub's nose. ‘Is this the kind you like?

   The cub's nose began to twitch hungrily.

   ‘You better eat it quickly.’ Roxanne put her paw on the worm, to stop it wriggling off into the grass.

   The fox cub took a bite, and then another bite, and the worm was gone. He licked his lips, and then his eyes filled with tears again. ‘What about my mum?’

   Roxanne looked at Salem. He shook his head.

   ‘Please.’ She used a purr she kept for special occasions.

   A moment later they were both exploring the grass. In a couple of minutes they had quite a collection of worms. Roxanne found a large leaf and rolled them all up tightly, tied it with a grass blade, and gave it to Salem to carry.

   Then she began to sniff the ground carefully again. The fox cub, who was now feeling very much brighter, joined in, and soon they were sniffing their way out of the long grass towards a fierce looking patch of brambles. He paused for a moment, and made signs to the two cats to wait.

   ‘Mum's in there’, he whispered, pointing with his nose. ‘I'd better warn her I've brought strangers, or she might be fierce.’

   Salem and Roxanne sat close together, for protection. The fox cub padded forward to the edge of the brambles, and began to bark little cub barks.

   After a moment Salem and Roxanne heard a faint answering bark from somewhere deep in the brambles. The fox cub began to sniff the grass, and then vanished into a kind of small tunnel between the thorny branches, holding a worm in his mouth. He was gone for quite a long time, and Salem and Roxanne grew quite concerned. But then he reappeared, looking very serious.

   ‘She's very badly hurt.’ His big brown eyes filled with tears. ‘She says you can come in, because you've brought worms. But she doesn't want you very close. She says the Catsville cats are very cruel and nasty animals.’

   Salem and Roxanne followed him down the tunnel. They crawled into a small kind of cave, and found a very weak vixen lying on her side, with one of her back legs covered with blood. Salem pushed his leaf of worms at her, and Russell tugged it to where she could reach it with her mouth.

   The vixen ate for a moment, and then stopped. Russell pushed the rest of the worms closer, and she ate again. Then she closed her eyes and lay panting.

   ‘We must bring you some help.’ Roxanne spoke very gently.

   The vixen opened her eyes. ‘You can't help me. You're cats.’

   ‘We could ask at the hospital.’

   ‘No. They'd just call the cat police.’

   ‘But you'll die if you stay here.’

   ‘I'll die if they come after me.’

   Roxanne was a very determined cat, and now she was determined to help. ‘No they won't. Salem will stay here to guard your tunnel.’

   Salem opened his mouth to answer, but she lifted her paw. ‘She's a sick animal. We must help her.’

Salem was not very happy to find himself guarding a wounded fox, but he was now deeply in love with Roxanne, so he made himself comfortable at the tunnel entrance, and settled down to catnap.

   Russell stayed with his mother, and Roxanne went off to find a doctor. The cats on duty at the Catsville hospital were good kind cats, but they eyed her very doubtfully as she explained why she had come.

   ‘We're supposed to tell the police about foxes,’ miaowed a pretty little black and white cat nurse with a fluffy tail.

   ‘Foxes attack cats,’ muttered a tabby doctor cat.

   ‘This is a hospital for cats, not a dratted zoo,’ grumbled a fierce looking ginger cat.

   Roxanne felt very sad. She looked around the large group of hospital cats that had now gathered.

   ‘Won't anyone help me at all?’

   The cats were all silent. Then a young black cat with a white bib and white paws stepped forward. He had just completed his medical training and believed firmly in animals helping each other.

   ‘I'll come,’he said.

   ‘So will I,’ said a male nurse cat. ‘And me,’ said a student nurse cat.

   Roxanne smiled gratefully and the three cats set off, with Roxanne leading the way, the doctor cat following with a black bag strapped to his fur, and the two nurse cats nose to tail supporting a stretcher slung between special harnesses on their backs.

They found quite a crowd of cats waiting for them in the Wild Wood. Salem was crouched in the tunnel entrance, looking fierce, whilst two police cats were facing him, holding guns. Some more police cats were holding back the crowd, whilst a cameracat from Cat-TV was busily filming.

   Roxanne pushed her way forward. One of the police cats on crowd control tried to stop her, but she pushed him to one side.

   ‘We've come to save a life,’ she miaowed angrily.

   The police cat was a big bossy animal, and used to having his way. He laid back his ears, glaring at her, and reached out to grab her tail as she passed.

   Roxanne stopped. ‘Touch me, and I'll scratch your eyes out,’ she hissed fiercely. The police cat stepped back uncertainly, found himself looking straight into the lens of the Cat-TV camera, and stalked off.

   Roxanne walked straight past the two police cats with guns.

   ‘Stop!’ One of the police cats swung his gun to point it at her. ‘Don't move an inch, or I'll shoot.’

   Roxanne sniffed. ‘You won't keep your job very long if you shoot a kind girl cat on television.’ She beckoned to the three hospital cats. ‘We're going in to save this poor fox, and you can go back to your police station.’

   The police cat lowered his gun uncertainly, and the Cat-TV cameracat focussed on Roxanne.

   ‘Go on, shoo.’ She made a small hiss, and the police cat began to retreat.

   Roxanne led the hospital cat team along the tunnel in the brambles, with one nurse cat dragging one end of the stretcher, and the other nurse cat pushing the other end.

   Russell's mother was still lying where she had left her, and Russell had begun trying to wash the blood from her leg. She began to growl weakly as the cats looked at her, but then closed her eyes as if she could do no more.

   The cat doctor pushed Russell gently to one side, and began to busy himself with his black bag, while the two nurse cats began discussing how best to take their stretcher out again.

   Russell watched them uncertainly. ‘What will they do with mum?’, he asked Roxanne.

   ‘We'll take her to hospital.’

   ‘And what will I do?’

   Roxanne thought for a moment. Russell presented a problem. He could hardly stay in a cats' home, and he looked much too young to be on his own.

   The cat doctor smiled. He had finished bandaging up the vixen's broken leg, and was sitting washing his paws. ‘You're going to look after your mother, young man.’

   Roxanne led the way back down the tunnel. She paused as she reached the open air, because she was not quite sure how to get the vixen safely past the police cats. But the two with guns had now put them away, and were looking quite friendly.

She also realised that a small group of waiting cats had bunched together in a sort of welcoming committee, and that most of the watching cats had begun purring. But she still made sure that both she and Salem stayed very close to the two cats carrying the stretcher.

   The welcoming cats came closer, and now all the waiting cats seemed to be purring, though she noticed one or two slink away quietly.

   ‘We want to congratulate you.’ A big black cat with a gold chain and a cats head medallion around his neck stepped forward, and Roxanne recognised him as the mayor of Catsville. She could also see her father and mother standing a little way behind the mayor, both holding their tails high with pride.

   ‘You've taught us all a lesson.’ The mayor paused to make sure that the Cat-TV cameracat had begun filming again. ‘We're not going to be cruel to any more foxes. We'll put all the dustbins down by a special fox hostel, and we're going to pay foxes to bury all our rubbish at the bottom of deep foxholes.’

   Roxanne began to purr herself. Then she remembered the stretcher.

   ‘Can Russell's mum stay in hospital until she is better?’

   The mayor blinked in a cat smile. ‘We'll put her in a special ward, and Russell can go out and find worms for her. We'll also keep the first den in our new fox hostel for her. It's going to be a tunnel, with little hollowed out dens on either side, and we hope she'll be very very comfortable.’

   All the waiting cats were now purring very loudly indeed, making a circle around the stretcher. The doctor cat and the two nurse cats purred as well as they cleared a way through the crowd, and Russell held his bushy red tail high as he followed, with Salem and Roxanne pacing behind him, the tips of their whiskers very nearly touching.

   Later, when they had tucked the vixen comfortably up in bed, and she had fallen fast asleep, Russell looked at up Roxanne. He tried to purr, but it came out as rather a scratchy little growl.

   Roxanne licked one of his ears, and he smiled happily, half way to sleep.

   ‘I never thought a cat could be so kind,’ he murmured. ‘Will you come and hunt worms with me again?’

   Salem began to make a face, but Roxanne frowned at him quickly.  She licked Russell's other ear gently. ‘Soon you'll be out hunting worms with your mum.’

   But Russell was already asleep, and snoring softly.