Golden Box Book Publishing Read to Help Animals | Page 10

They played in the water for a while when suddenly Bianca heard
Peanut’s rumbling bark. She looked up and saw an old woman
approaching the riverbank. Bianca learned a long time ago that
Peanut had the ability to spot bad people, so when he barked at
someone, Bianca knew that those people couldn’t be trusted.
Paddling in the water, she turned to Daniel, “Look, Daniel! I know that
woman. She’s mean, and nobody likes her. What is she doing?”
Daniel looked up, wiping the water from his eyes. He saw a woman
walking toward the water with a basket in her hand. As she got closer,
the children saw an orange-colored cat with white paws and chest
that was following the woman, crying and hissing. The cat was clearly
in distress. She tried to claw and bite the woman’s legs, and even
when the woman kicked her, she didn’t give up.
The cat’s loud cries made the hairs stand up on the children’s arms.
They didn’t understand what was happening, but they felt something
was very wrong. The woman ignored the cat, and when she reached
the edge of the river, she took a tiny, meowing kitten out of her basket
and threw it into the river as far from shore as she could. The kitten
flailed in the air, desperately crying, and then splashed into the water.
Bianca and Daniel watched in horror. The woman grabbed another
kitten and threw it into the river.
The woman laughed cruelly as she threw the third and fourth kitten
into the water. The scene sent chills down the children’s spines.