Short Stories » The Kitten

The Kitten

Once there lived a brother and sister- Vasya and Katya. They had a cat. Once, in the spring season, the cat was lost. The children could not find it anywhere, though they looked for it everywhere.

One day, they heard many soft meows from the roof of the barn, while they were playing nearby. Vasya climbed onto the roof, and found to his great joy that their cat had given birth to four five lovely kittens. He screamed in delight, to Katya, “I’ve found her! It’s out cat..and she had five kittens..They look so sweet. Come here, quick!”

Katya and Vasya visited the roof of the barn everyday. They fed the mother cat very well so that she will have enough milk to feed her babies. The barn roof had become the home of the cats.

The five kittens grew very fast. Whey they were big enough to crawl, Vasya and Katya took one of them with them to their house. It was grey and had white paws. The children’s mother gave the other kittens away to her friends, but let Vasya and Katya keep the grey kitten.

One day, the children decided to take the kitten to the meadow in front of their house, to play with it. The tall grass was stirring in the wind and the kitten happily played with it. Then Vasya and Katya saw some strange-looking leaves and began to pick them, forgetting all about the kitten.

Suddenly, they heard some sounds. Someone was shouting, “Come back, come back!” They saw a hunter riding a horse, and his two dogs were running ahead in the direction of the kitten. The dogs were getting close, and the kitten, instead of running away, stiffened and crouched, ready to face the dogs. It looked so tiny in front of the big dogs.

Katya screamed, and Vasya ran to the kitten as fast as he could, and fell on the kitten just as the dogs were about to pounce on it. Luckily, the hunter galloped up at that same moment, and drove the dogs away.

The children took the kitten home and they decided to never bring it out with them to the meadow.

Adapted from a short story by Leo Tolstoy.