Bric a Brac
Pumpkin's First Adventure
- by Lynda Keen
Once upon a time there was a cat called Pumpkin. He loved to purr and to be cuddled. Pumpkin was black and white and very softhearted. When he spoke, he had a velvety voice and he rolled his r's rrr ...
He owned a big house in Leyland. He took in three other cats into his home because they had nowhere else to go. He had some human lodgers too: five children and their Mum and Dad. The five children were called Julie, Hilda, Hilary, David and Stephen. Pumpkin loved them all but he knew that Hilda was special because the cat name for Heaven is Hilda's Lap or Hylda's Knee, from the Old English "Onhyldani".
Pumpkin had a great many adventures. His most curious adventure was his first one and that is the beginning of this book.
One evening, Pumpkin's humans asked him a favour. Some friends of theirs, Kev and Sandra, had found a mouse in their kitchen. Would Pumpkin catch it for them? Pumpkin had had a hard day and didn't really feel like going out again.
Bilbo will go he said.
So Sandra came and took Bilbo in Kev and Sandra's car. The noisy car engine frightened Bilbo. As soon as Sandra opened the car door, he leapt out and ran home as fast as he could
Sandra came back.
Bilbo ran away, she said. Please come and help us, Pumpkin.
Hilda said, there's a chauffeur-driven car for you. And you can have fishfingers for supper if you go.
Pumpkin considered. He knew the chauffeur-driven car was only Sandra driving Slack Alice, their old banger. But the idea of fishfingers appealed to him.
Magic, he said, let's go.
Kev and Sandra didn't live in a house; they lived in a flat. There was no cat or dog and Pumpkin wondered who owned the flat. He greeted Kev. They both seemed pleased to have him there.
Good old Pumpkin, they said, watch him leap into action. He'll soon get rid of the mouse.
Pumpkin settled down on the settee, now and then nuzzling Sandra's hand, and purring loudly. He had enjoyed the car ride and was now relaxing. Kev and Sandra were disappointed, for some reason he didn't understand.
Why isn't he hunting for the mouse? they cried. Come on, Pumpkin, you doombrain cat, get up!
Pumpkin sighed. He went and sniffed the skirting boards just to keep them happy. Then he settled down again, on the carpet this time.
Kev and Sandra waited. Pumpkin sat perfectly still on the carpet.
Kev and Sandra were not very pleased.
This is no use, they said. We'll take him home.
They took him home. He enjoyed the car ride again but wondered why they were taking him home just when he'd managed to get into conversation with the mouse and was halfway towards solving their problem.
Oh well, he thought, human beings are funny animals. I'll go back and see the mouse later. After supper he went out and met the mouse in Kev and Sandra's garden. The mouse was a fieldmouse and a bit of a country bumpkin. He wasn't very well-educated and didn't speak English at all.
Squeak, squeak, squeak, he said.
From this Pumpkin understood that the mouse had once lived in Kev and Sandra's flat when this was part of a nice roomy field. A Development Corporation had taken over and built flats and the mouse and his family had been evicted. They had nowhere to go and were squatting in an empty flat further up the block. They had no food; there was no food in the field now because it wasn't a field any more it was flats. But in Kev and Sandra's flat there was food so he had gone there to do his shopping.
The Development Corporation wouldn't let him have a flat. He didn't really want a flat anyway but a good clean field with decent food and water and a clear sky over their heads. His children were frightened of taps and walls and ceilings and of being indoors altogether.
Pumpkin went with the mouse to where his family was.
Come with me, he told them, I know the ideal place for you.
And he took them across Paradise Lane and into a beautiful field. There was a group of mice families already living there and they gladly gave the mouse and his family a home in the field.
The mouse family was safe here, Pumpkin knew. This group of mice had a Residents' Association Committee and they had negotiated with the Development Corporation not to pull down their homes to build flats.
Pumpkin left the happy and grateful mouse. He didn't feel like going home so he went for a walk.
Now, when cats go for a walk, nobody knows where they go or what they do. But just this once, we can see where Pumpkin walked and what he did.
