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  ttons the Kitten

  Buttons the Kitten

  by Debbi Michiko Florence

  illustrated by Melanie Demmer

  Buttons the Kitten

  by Debbi Michiko Florence

  illustrated by Melanie Demmer

  The author wishes to thank Melissa Orth for sharing her stories about fostering kittens.

  My Furry Foster Family is published by Picture Window Books, a Capstone imprint 1710 Roe Crest Drive, North Mankato, Minnesota 56003

  www.capstonepub.com

  Copyright © 2020 by Picture Window Books.

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced in whole or in part, or stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without written permission of the publisher.

  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Names: Florence, Debbi Michiko, author.

  Title: Buttons the kitten / by Debbi Michiko Florence.

  Description: North Mankato, Minnesota : Capstone Press, [2020] | Series: My furry foster family | Audience: Age 5–7. | Audience: K to Grade 3.

  Identifiers: LCCN 2019004133| ISBN 9781515844747 (library binding) |

  ISBN 9781515845621 (paperback) | ISBN 9781515844785 (eBook PDF) Subjects: LCSH: Cats—Anecdotes—Juvenile literature. | Foster care of animals—Juvenile literature.

  Classification: LCC SF445.7 .F59 2020 | DDC 636.8—dc23

  LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019004133

  Designer: Lori Bye

  Photo Credits: Mari Bolte, 68; Melanie Demmer, 71; Roy Thomas, 70

  Printed in the United States of America.

  PA70

  Table of Contents

  CHAPTER 1

  New Furry Friends . . . . . . . . 9

  CHAPTER 2

  Too Shy to Play . . . . . . . . . . .19

  CHAPTER 3

  Blankets and Flashlights . . . 29

  CHAPTER 4

  The First Adoptions . . . . . . . 41

  CHAPTER 5

  The Last One . . . . . . . . . . . . .53

  Dad

  (Tim Takano)

  Mom

  (Cindy Takano)

  Me

  (Kaita Takano)

  Ollie

  Joss Lawrence,

  Happy Tails

  Rescue

  Hannah Miller,

  my best friend

  CHAPTER 1

  New Furry Friends

  Ollie played with a tennis ball in

  my room. He batted it across the

  floor with his paws, then he chased it. When the ball stopped rolling, he batted it again. He and the ball went back and forth, back and forth.

  “Ollie, stop it,” I said, laughing.

  “You’re making me dizzy!”

  My goofy mini dachshund wagged

  his tail.

  9

  I was sitting on my bed, trying to read a book about cats. My family

  was getting some foster kittens soon.

  I wanted to learn how to take care of them. I wanted to be ready.

  We adopted Ollie from Happy

  Tails Rescue last year. Afterward my parents and I decided to become an

  animal foster family.

  Sometimes animals need homes.

  Maybe a family has to move away

  and can’t take their pet with them.

  Maybe someone finds a homeless

  animal. Foster families take care of an animal until it finds a forever

  home.

  I love all animals. It makes me

  happy to help them!

  10

  I put down my book and snuggled

  with my old baby blanket. I used

  to be scared of things like the dark or thunder. My grandma made me

  the blanket to help me feel safe.

  It worked! I’m not scared of those

  things anymore, but I still love

  Grandma’s blanket.

  “Kaita! Lunchtime!” my dad called.

  Ollie stopped playing. He perked up his ears. He knew that word. Yip! Yip!

  Yip! He ran to the kitchen.

  When I got to the table, I cheered.

  We were having tomato soup and

  grilled cheese sandwiches. Yum! Ollie watched as Dad spooned soup into

  bowls. Ollie always followed Dad

  around in the kitchen. Dad had a

  habit of sneaking food to Ollie.

  I sat down, and Mom poured me a

  glass of milk. She and I pretended not to see Dad give Ollie a piece of cheese.

  When we were all seated, Ollie curled up under my chair.

  “Are you excited for the kittens?”

  Mom asked me.

  12

  “I am! How many are we getting?”

  I asked.

  “Five,” Dad said.

  Five little kittens! I was so excited!

  I could hardly sip my soup without

  dribbling. What would they look like and sound like? How big would they

  be? Would they have names already?

  Just as we finished eating, the

  doorbell rang. Yip! Yip! Yip! Ollie barked and started to run to the door.

  “Wait, Ollie,” I said. I picked him up and kissed his nose. “You will

  meet your new friends a little later.

  I promise.” I put him in my room,

  closed the door, and hurried to the living room.

  13

  Dad opened the front door. There

  was Joss, the lady from Happy Tails Rescue. She had a pet carrier slung over her shoulder. It looked like a big purse with netting across it.

  “Hello, Takano family!” Joss said

  as she walked in. “Kaita, are you

  ready to meet your new fosters?”

  “I sure am!” I said.

  Joss knelt down and opened up the

  bag. Out tumbled four tiny kittens.

  They mewed loudly and tripped

  over each other. So cute! One was all white. The other three were orange

  tiger-striped.

  I picked up the white kitten. She

  started purring.

  14

  “Wait, I thought there were five kittens,” I said.

  Joss peered in the bag. She smiled.

  “There are,” she said, lifting out the tiniest kitten.

  15

  I hardly got a good look at him before he flipped back inside the bag.

  Whoops! Joss reached in a second

  time. She held the kitten firmly with both hands. He was mostly white,

  with patches of orange.

  “This is Buttons,” Joss said. “He’s very shy.”

  The tiny guy wriggled, squirmed,

  and dropped back into the bag.

  “We named him Buttons because

  he is cute and tiny like a button,”

  Joss said. “You can name the rest of the litter. Please use names that start with the letter ‘B.’ We go through

  the letters of the alphabet with each foster litter.”

  16

  I smiled. It would be fun to name the kittens.

  “What happened to the mama?”

  I asked.

  “The owners of the mother cat

  don’t have room for the kittens,” Joss said. “So thank you for taking care of them. Kittens usually get adopted quickly. I don’t think you’ll have

  them for long.”

  I peeked in the bag at Buttons.

  He looked up at me with wide eyes.

  I was going to make sure he knew I />
  was his friend.

  17

  CHAPTER 2

  Too Shy to Play

  I was excited to name the kittens.

  I watched them play, and I watched

  them sleep. I drew pictures of them in my sketchbook.

  The white kitten was the only girl.

  She was also the bravest. She loved to climb high and then leap into the air, like she was flying. She always landed on her feet. I named her Birdy.

  19

  The three orange tiger-striped

  kittens looked a lot alike. Each one had something special, though.

  One kitten had four white paws,

  like he was wearing shoes. Since Joss asked me to pick “B” names, I called him Boots.

  Another kitten had a tiny spot of

  white on his head. It was shaped like a bean. I called him Bean.

  The third orange kitten was so friendly. He liked to follow us around the house, wherever we went. I called him Buddy.

  I tried to coax Buttons from his

  carrier, but he wouldn’t come out.

  When I reached in, he squirmed like a worm. He slipped out of my hands

  and ran back into the bag.

  “Let’s leave him be for now, Kaita,”

  Mom said. “Give him time to get used to us.”

  The other four kittens made

  themselves at home. The three orange ones climbed up Dad’s pant legs and made him laugh. They crawled all over him. So funny! Birdy climbed a pile of Mom’s books and leaped into the air.

  21

  We let Ollie meet the kittens after dinner. I got him out of my room

  and told him the rules.

  “No barking, Ollie,” I said. “You

  don’t want to scare the kitties. Please play nice.”

  Ollie licked my cheek. He wagged

  his tail. He was always such a good little boy.

  Mom set up a playpen. She put

  the kittens inside. They mewed and

  crawled all over each other—except

  one. Buttons hid in the carrier.

  As soon as I put Ollie on the

  floor, the kittens stopped playing.

  They watched Ollie, their whiskers

  twitching. It didn’t look like they were scared at all.

  22

  Ollie didn’t bark. He slowly walked up to the playpen and stuck out his nose. Birdy quickly batted it, and I gasped. Ollie just wagged his tail.

  “He’s being so sweet,” Mom said.

  “I knew he’d make a good foster

  brother,” I said proudly.

  Mom opened the playpen. The

  kittens tumbled out. Ollie stood still as all four piled on top of him. They used him like a climbing toy.

  I went to the pet carrier and

  peeked in. Buttons stared up at

  me. His whiskers twitched, then he

  scooted back and got as far away

  from me as he could. He tucked

  himself into the far corner.

  24

  “Oh, Buttons. It’s OK,” I said. “I’m nice. I really am.”

  I reached in and carefully picked

  him up. Once again he squirmed and

  wiggled. I tried to hold on, but he slipped from my hands. He zipped

  under the couch.

  “He’s just not ready to meet us

  yet,” Dad said.

  Mom showed the other kittens to

  the litter box in the laundry room.

  Dad fed them dinner in the kitchen.

  Ollie seemed very interested in the cat food. I wasn’t surprised, though.

  He eats just about everything!

  “Sorry, buddy,” Dad told Ollie.

  “I already snuck you some cheese

  tonight. Kitchen’s closed.”

  25

  Mom, Dad, Ollie, and I played all evening with the kittens—except Buttons. He stayed hidden. No

  matter how much we tried to coax

  him, he did not want to join in.

  I made a tower of pillows for Birdy to climb. She jumped from the top of the pile and landed on the carpet on all four feet. Ta-daa!

  Mom dragged a long piece of

  string along the ground for Buddy.

  She snapped it back and forth. Buddy got dizzy chasing it.

  Dad gave Bean and Boots a fuzzy

  toy mouse to share. The kittens took turns snatching it from one another.

  The kittens were little, but boy, were they fast!

  26

  At bedtime I picked up Boots, and Mom picked up Bean and Birdy.

  Buddy followed us to the laundry

  room, where the kittens would sleep.

  Mom and I tucked them in their nest of blankets.

  Dad got on his belly and gently

  pulled Buttons out from beneath the couch. Buttons fell right asleep with his littermates.

  “Good night, sweet kittens,” I

  said, closing the door. The next day I would try to show Buttons he had

  nothing to be afraid of.

  27

  CHAPTER 3

  Blankets and

  Flashlights

  The next morning I ran to the

  laundry room. I wanted to check on

  our new foster kittens.

  The door was open a tiny bit. I

  guessed I hadn’t shut it all the way the night before. I peeked into the room and—no kittens! Oh no! They

  had gotten out!

  29

  I checked the kitchen and dining room first. No kittens.

  I checked the living room next.

  Thankfully all the kittens were

  playing on the couch—all except

  Buttons.

  I went back to the laundry room

  to look for him. He wasn’t there.

  I looked in the carrier. He wasn’t

  there either.

  I looked all over the house, but

  I couldn’t find Buttons.

  Yip! Yip! Yip! Ollie stood in my bedroom and barked at my bed.

  “Did you find him, Ollie?” I asked.

  A furry tail flicked back and forth under my old baby blanket.

  30

  “No, Buttons,” I said, walking over to him. “That is my favorite blanket from when I was a baby. It’s very

  special. My grandma made it for me.”

  I lifted off the blanket. Buttons

  dashed out of the room.

  31

  “Sorry!” I called after him.

  “There are tons of other blankets in the house you can have!” I hid my

  blanket in my closet.

  “What are you sorry for?” Dad

  asked, walking into my room.

  “It’s nothing,” I said. “What’s up?”

  “I just talked with Joss,” Dad said.

  “She was happy to hear that the

  kittens got along with Ollie. That

  means people with cat-friendly dogs can adopt the kittens.”

  “Good,” I said.

  Dad looked me in the eye. “Kaita,

  is everything OK?” he asked.

  “Buttons found my special blanket

  from Grandma,” I said.

  32

  “Oh. Well Buttons is very shy,”

  Dad said. “Maybe the blanket will

  help him, like it used to help you

  when you got scared.”

  I shook my head. I did not want to

  share my blanket.

  Dad put his arm around my

  shoulder. “Joss told me that it will be hard to find Buttons a forever home if he doesn’t like people,” he said.

  “I know. I’ll find a way to help

  him,” I said.

  I went into the living room to

  look for Buttons. Three kittens were playing. Birdy pounced on Bean.

  Boots chased a scrap of paper. Buddy slept on Mom’s la
p while she read.

  33

  Buttons wasn’t behind the couch.

  He wasn’t in the kitchen.

  “Buttons?” I called. “Where are

  you?”

  I looked in one room, then the

  next, and the next. I finally found him in the laundry room. He was

  hiding under some clothes in the

  laundry basket. I lifted a shirt. Two big eyes peered up at me.

  “It’s OK, Buttons,” I said. “I just want to be your friend.”

  I got my sketchbook and sat on the

  floor across from him. I didn’t sit too close. I gave him his space. I started drawing pictures of all five foster kittens.

  34

  I was on my fifth drawing when I felt something on my foot. I looked up. There was Buttons! He was out of the basket, sniffing my toe. I stayed very still.

  Suddenly Dad laughed loudly in

  the other room. Buttons froze, his

  eyes wide. Seconds later he dived

  back into the laundry basket.

  “Buttons, that was just Dad

  laughing,” I said, crawling over to the basket. “Don’t be scared. You need to get used to sounds in a house. People make lots of different sounds. Please come out.”

  Buttons stayed put.

  35

  I tried to coax him out with a string.

  I waved a fuzzy toy mouse at him.

  He just dug deeper into the laundry basket. I brought him a cat treat and left it on the floor. He didn’t come out for that either.

  I looked around the room. I grabbed a flashlight and turned it on. I flashed the light in front of the basket.

  Buttons’ nose poked out.

  I moved the spot of light to the left and right. Buttons pushed his head

  up out of the clothes. He watched the light carefully.

  Whenever the light moved, Buttons’

  head moved. He watched and watched.

  His paws slowly inched up the edge of the basket until . . .

  36

  POUNCE!

  Buttons leaped right on the spot of light!

  I moved the light to the door and

  across the floor. I shined it near the sink and then to the laundry basket.

  Buttons chased the light wherever

  it went. His paws flew. His tail

  swished. I was so happy to see him

  so happy!

  I moved the light near me, and

  Buttons chased it. I moved it onto my lap, and Buttons climbed up. His fur tickled, so I giggled.

  At the sound Buttons froze.

  He stared at me.

  Then he ran back to the basket.

  38