CONTENTS
Cover
About the Book
Title Page
Permissions
Dedication
FOREWORD
CAT STORIES
Leonie’s Pet Cat
by Jacqueline Wilson
Catwings
by Ursula K. Le Guin
The Daydreamer
by Ian McEwan
Ice Lolly
by Jean Ure
The Theater Cat
by Noel Streatfeild
Through the Looking-Glass
by Lewis Carroll
Gobbolino the Witch’s Cat
by Ursula Moray Williams
The Cat That Walked by Himself
by Rudyard Kipling
Orlando’s Invisible Pyjamas
by Kathleen Hale
Soffrona and Her Cat Muff
by Mary Martha Sherwood
Varjak Paw
by S. F. Said
The Diary of a Killer Cat
by Anne Fine
PETS’ CORNER
Tuffy – Anne Fine
Our Dogs – Philip Pullman
Pekingese – Rumer Godden
Mimi’s Day – Adèle Geras
Pets I Have Had – Enid Blyton
My Pets – Michael Morpurgo
Dog Memory – Malorie Blackman
My Animal Friends – Dick King-Smith
Cats – Joan Aiken
Shanti – Francesca Simon
My Pets – Jean Ure
DOG STORIES
The Incredible Journey
by Sheila Burnford
Osbert
by Noel Streatfeild
A Dog So Small
by Philippa Pearce
The Accidental Tourist
by Anne Tyler
Love That Dog
by Sharon Creech
The Hundred and One Dalmatians
by Dodie Smith
by Richmal Crompton
Born to Run
by Michael Morpurgo
David Copperfield
by Charles Dickens
Shadow, the Sheep-Dog
by Enid Blyton
The Knife of Never Letting Go
by Patrick Ness
Because of Winn-Dixie
by Kate DiCamillo
The Werepuppy
by Jacqueline Wilson
About the Author
Also by Jacqueline Wilson
Copyright
About the Book
This special anthology features the very best stories about cats and dogs from the world of children’s literature, chosen by bestselling author and Battersea Dogs & Cats Home Ambassador, Jacqueline Wilson.
Alongside a brand-new story by Jacqueline herself, this beautiful collection includes extracts from treasured classics such as The Hundred and One Dalmatians and The Incredible Journey, modern favourites like The Knife of Never Letting Go and The Killer Cat, and specially written pieces from today’s best-loved children’s writers, including Michael Morpurgo, Malorie Blackman, Philip Pullman and lots more.
From the elegant cat who loves the ballet and the little witch’s kitten who doesn’t want to be bad, to the poodle who needs a haircut and the most famous spotty dogs of all, this is a book to treasure, share and return to for ever.
PERMISSIONS
CATWINGS
From CATWINGS by Ursula K. Le Guin.
Scholastic Inc./Orchard Books. Copyright © 1988
by Ursula K. Le Guin. Reprinted by permission.
THE DAYDREAMER
By Ian McEwan, published by Vintage. Reprinted by
permission of the Random House Group Limited.
ICE LOLLY
Reprinted by permission of HarperCollins
Publishers Ltd, © Jean Ure, 2010
THE THEATER CAT
By Noel Streatfeild. Text © Noel Streatfeild, 1951.
Reprinted by permission of A. M. Heath & Co. Ltd.
GOBBOLINO THE WITCH’S CAT
First published 1942 by George G. Harrap & Co. Limited.
This edition first published 2001 by Kingfisher,
an imprint of Macmillan Children’s Books, a division
of Macmillan Publishers Limited. Text copyright
© Ursula Moray Williams 1942.
ORLANDO’S INVISIBLE PYJAMAS
By Kathleen Hale (Warne, 1947).
Copyright © Kathleen Hale, 1947.
VARJAK PAW
By S. F. Said, published by David Fickling Books.
Reprinted by permission of the Random House Group Limited.
THE DIARY OF A KILLER CAT
By Anne Fine (Puffin, 1994). Text © Anne Fine, 1994.
PEKINGESE
From THE BUTTERFLY LIONS. Reproduced with
permission of Curtis Brown Group Ltd, London
on behalf of Rumer Godden Literary Trust.
Copyright © Rumer Godden 1977
PETS I HAVE HAD
From THE STORY OF MY LIFE by Enid Blyton.
Permission granted by Hodder & Stoughton Ltd
(Enid Blyton Estate), 338 Euston Road, London, NW1 3BH.
MY ANIMAL FRIENDS
By Dick King-Smith. First published by Walker,
2013. Reprinted by permission of A P Watt at
United Agents on behalf of Foxbusters Ltd.
CATS
Joan Aiken’s introduction to GOBBOLINO
THE WITCH’S CAT by Ursula Moray Williams.
By Joan Aiken, text © Joan Aiken. Reprinted by
permission of A. M. Heath & Co. Ltd.
THE INCREDIBLE JOURNEY
By Sheila Burnford, published by Random House.
Reprinted by permission of the Random House Group Limited.
OSBERT
By Noel Streatfeild. Text © Noel Streatfeild, 1950.
Reprinted by permission of A. M. Heath & Co. Ltd.
A DOG SO SMALL
By Philippa Pearce (Viking, 1962, Puffin, 1964).
Text © Philippa Pearce, 1962, 1964.
THE ACCIDENTAL TOURIST
By Anne Tyler, published by Vintage. Reprinted by
permission of the Random House Group Limited.
LOVE THAT DOG
© Sharon Creech, 2003, LOVE THAT DOG,
Bloomsbury Publishing Plc.
THE HUNDRED AND ONE DALMATIANS
By Dodie Smith. Text copyright © 1956
The Estate of Dodie Smith. Published by Egmont
UK Ltd and used with permission.
JUST WILLIAM
First published in 1922. This selection first published 1991
by Macmillan Children’s Books. This edition published 2010
by Macmillan Children’s Books, a division of Macmillan
Publishers Limited. All stories copyright © Richmal C. Ashbee. This selection copyright © 2005 Richmal C. Ashbee.
BORN TO RUN
Reprinted by permission of HarperCollins
Publishers Ltd, © Michael Morpurgo, 2007
SHADOW, THE SHEEP DOG
By Enid Blyton. Permission granted by
Hodder & Stoughton Ltd (Enid Blyton Estate),
338 Euston Road, London, NW1 3BH.
THE KNIFE OF NEVER LETTING GO
Copyright © 2008 Patrick Ness. Extract from
THE KNIFE OF NEVER LETTING GO by
Patrick Ness. Reproduced by permission of
Walker Books Ltd, London SE11 5HJ,
www.walker.co.uk. Illustration not from original publication.
BECAUSE OF WINN-DIXIE
Copyright © 2000 Kate DiCamillo. Extract from
BECAUSE OF WINN-DIXIE by Kate DiCamillo.
Reproduced by permission of Walke
r Books Ltd,
London SE11 5HJ, www.walker.co.uk.
Illustration not from original publication.
THE WEREPUPPY
By Jacqueline Wilson (Puffin, 1993).
Text © Jacqueline Wilson, 1991.
For Natalie
FOREWORD
Do you have a cat or a dog? When I was a little girl, I desperately wanted a pet, but we lived in a council flat and there was a strict rule that we weren’t allowed to have animals. I suppose we might have been allowed to have a goldfish, but they’re not the most responsive pets in the world. I wanted a furry little animal I could cuddle.
I made a big fuss of my best friend’s cat and begged to take my godmother’s dog for a walk, but it wasn’t quite the same as having my own pet. I started collecting little china ornaments of cats and dogs, who went for walks up and down my bedroom windowsill. Then my mum gave me a toy Pekinese dog for a special summer holiday present. He was life-size and very realistic-looking. I adored him on sight and called him Vip – short for Very Important Person. He slept in my arms at night and I carried him everywhere during the day. Not to school, of course – I didn’t want to be teased. But Vip came to the shops with me and out to play with special friends. He even attended birthday parties – and got fed lots of extra sausages on sticks!
I vowed that as soon as I was grown up I’d have a real dog and a real cat – but it’s actually taken me a long time to achieve my ambition. I’ve lived in small flats where it wouldn’t be fair to keep a pet, and then I’ve travelled a great deal, without anyone at home to look after a little animal. But now I’m much more of a home-bird, and at long last I’ve got the right sort of house for pets.
I decided to start with cats, as they’re more independent than dogs and don’t mind too much if you have to go out to give a talk or do a book-signing. I started to research all the different breeds of cat and considered having a pedigree kitten. But then I thought about all the unwanted little cats in rescue centres – small Tracy Beaker type cats, desperate to find a loving home.
I went to the wonderful Battersea Dogs and Cats Home and wandered around their spacious cat cabins, looking for someone really special. There were cats of all sizes and colours and types, so I was totally spoiled for choice. I went from one to another, liking them all, wondering how I was ever going to choose. And then, right at the end, I saw a small grey and white kitten – and I fell instantly in love.
My boy Jacob is four now, and the sweetest, most affectionate cat ever. I’ve given him a little sister, Lily, also from Battersea. She came to us as a very bedraggled kitten, who’d been abandoned and had been very ill. She still has a few problems but you’d never know it – she’s the most lively, funny little girl who dashes around everywhere. She totally adores Jacob and cuddles up close to him at night. He’s very protective of her. When she first started going outdoors, he trotted along beside her, watching her every step – and when she suddenly darted up a tree and got stuck, he followed her and demonstrated how to climb down in a tactful and brotherly manner.
In a little while I think it will be time to get a dog at last – a small one who doesn’t mind cats. I’ll go to Battersea and see who I can find, and then my family will be complete.
CAT STORIES
LEONIE’S PET CAT
by Jacqueline Wilson
I had great fun writing Leonie’s Pet Cat. I thought it would be a very short story, just a few pages, but it got longer and longer. It’s more like a tiny novel now. I rather like Leonie. I might write some more about her one day.
If you’ve read my book Clean Break, you’ll recognize one of the other characters in the story – a certain Jenna Williams. She’s a children’s author like me. She looks rather like me too (apart from her earrings), and now she has a kitten called Lulu who bears more than a passing resemblance to my little Lily.
LEONIE’S PET CAT
It’s so awful being the new girl at school.
‘Don’t worry, Leonie, I’m sure you’ll make heaps of friends,’ said Mum.
I had heaps of friends at my old school. I didn’t have to try to make friends. They were just there – Maddy and Kas and Janie. We’d been playing together ever since we crayoned cards and finger-painted in Form One. But that was in the old days, when I lived with Dad as well as Mum. We had a proper house, with a bedroom for me (blue, with a rainbow painted on one wall) and a bedroom for my little brother Jumbo (yellow, with lions and tigers and elephants paraded on a frieze).
Now I hardly ever get to see Dad. I see all too much of Jumbo because we have to share this titchy little bedroom (beige, because we haven’t got the time or the money to decorate just yet). Jumbo drives me crackers because he messes about with all my things. He tries to draw with my felt tips and nearly always breaks them. He pulls all my Jenna Williams stories off their special shelf and scrumples the pages. He only likes Thomas the Tank Engine books. He natters all the time, talking to his irritating imaginary friend Harry. He even keeps me awake at night, wheezing and snuffling because of his asthma.
Mum worried about Jumbo making friends. He’s always been an odd little boy, very small and skinny, with big sticky-out ears and a high-pitched voice. I think the boys in the infants at our new school do pick on him a bit, but Jumbo doesn’t care. He plays in the Wendy House with all the girls and they make a big fuss of him and invite him to their pretend tea parties. They even lay an extra cup and plate for nonexistent Harry.
I can’t seem to make any kind of friend, girls or boys. My new teacher, Miss Horsefield, told Keira Summers to be my friend and look after me the first day. Keira was all nicey-nicey to me in front of Miss Horsefield, and lent me her spare pen and showed me the way they do dates and margins in this class – but when I followed her out into the playground at lunch time, she hissed, ‘Push off, new girl,’ and ran away to play with her own friends.
That’s the trouble. Everyone in our class has got friends already. They’re all in little groups and gangs, and none of them seem to want me. There’s one girl I really like – Julie. She’s got lovely long fair hair and she wears five friendship bracelets on one wrist, and every now and then if she sees me looking she smiles at me.
‘Well, smile back and make friends with her,’ said Mum.
Mum doesn’t understand. It’s so difficult. You can’t just march up to someone, grin like a lunatic, and say, ‘Will you be my friend?’ And even if Julie wanted to be my friend, she’s already got all these other friends – horrid Keira and Rosie and Emily and Harpreet and Anya. They always play together and whisper stuff and write things down in a special book. I’ve tried edging up close to see exactly what they’re doing, but they always go into a huddle, turning their backs on me.
But then one day Julie looked up and saw me, and she smiled again. ‘Hi, Leonie,’ she said.
‘Hi, Julie,’ I said. My mouth was so dry my voice came out in a squeak.
I hesitated, fidgeting from one foot to the other. The other girls all stared at me.
‘Look, buzz off, Leonie, we’re having a private meeting of our club,’ said Keira.
I swallowed. ‘Can’t I be in your club?’
The girls all looked at each other. Keira wrinkled her nose. ‘Our club’s full up,’ she said.
But Julie gave her a little push. ‘Oh, don’t be a meanie, Keira. Let’s have Leonie in the club too,’ she said.
‘No!’ said Keira.
‘Yes!’ said Julie. ‘I vote Leonie gets to be a member. Hands up everyone who agrees!’
Rosie put her hand up. Then Anya and Harpreet. Emily’s hand hovered, halfway up. Keira glared at her and she put it down again.
‘There – Emily and I say no,’ said Keira.
‘But us four say yes, so we win,’ said Julie. ‘Welcome to the Pet Girls Club, Leonie!’
‘Thank you!’ I said.
‘We have special badges and we swap photos of our pets and write about them in our book,’ said Julie. ‘I’ve got a Jack Russell
terrier called Bobo. He’s terribly naughty but I love him to bits.’
‘I’ve just got a budgie called Joey, but he’s very clever and can go up and down his ladder for titbits,’ said Rosie.
‘I’ve got a baby rabbit called Woffles. She’s got floppy ears. She’s so cute,’ said Harpreet.
‘I’ve got a hamster called Twitchy,’ said Anya, twitching her own nose.
‘I’ve got two cats called Salt and Pepper,’ said Emily. ‘They’re tortoiseshell.’
‘I’ve got a Labrador called Dustbin because he eats all sorts of rubbish,’ said Keira. She looked at me, her eyes narrowed. ‘You have got a pet, haven’t you, Leonie? Otherwise you can’t be in our club, whether you want to or not.’
I hesitated a fraction too long.
‘There, she hasn’t got a pet!’ Keira crowed. ‘So you’ve got to buzz off now, Leonie Loser New Girl.’
‘Shut up, Keira!’ said Julie. She looked at me. ‘Haven’t you really got any pets, Leonie? It can be any kind of animal or bird. Maybe even a goldfish . . .’
‘Goldfish don’t count!’ said Keira. She made stupid ‘o’s with her mouth, imitating a goldfish. ‘They don’t have any personality whatsoever and you can’t cuddle them.’
‘You can’t really cuddle budgies, but my Joey’s got heaps of personality,’ said Rosie indignantly.
My heart was going thump thump thump underneath my new school sweatshirt. I didn’t have a pet, not even a goldfish – not so much as a titchy tadpole. I wanted a pet desperately. I particularly loved cats, with their soft slinky bodies and delicate ears. But I was never able to have one. First of all my dad said he was allergic to cats. Then he left us and we had to move to the flat, and we might have been able to have a cat then, only of course Jumbo is allergic to practically everything and Mum said she wouldn’t risk it.
‘Go on, Leonie, get lost,’ said Keira triumphantly.
‘I’ve got a cat,’ I blurted.
‘No, you haven’t!’
‘Yes I have so,’ I said, but I knew I sounded doubtful.
‘I bet you mean you’ve got a toy cat,’ said Keira.
My face felt very hot. I hoped I wasn’t blushing. I had been thinking of my white furry cat nightdress-case.
Julie was looking sad. ‘Toys don’t really count, Leonie,’ she said gently.