We were all eating lunch. Well all of us except Callum, he was at work, but Dad was home.

"I wish we had a cat," said someone. I don't remember who.

"I saw a sign outside the pet shop in town saying they are selling Abyssinian cats," said Imogen.

The next thing I knew we were going out the door to see the cats, and maybe buy one.

"Don't get your hopes up too high.We might not get a cat," said Dad. We could not help but be excited though.

All of us girls hopped into the van. Duncan was staying home. I think he was as excited as we were, but he had things to do.

All the way to the pet shop I could hardly sit still. I bounced around. I had never owned a cat. I had always wanted one though.

"I'm sorry we have sold all the Abyssinian cats," a lady told us as we entered the pet shop. My heart sank. It seemed we would not get to take a kitten home with us. "We do have a Himalayan-Persian  kitten," she added.

"We will see her then," Dad said. He had not driven all that way for nothing. My heart rose again.

The lady went over to a cage and brought out a cute little kitten. She had big brown eyes, a bit like an owl's. We all fell in love with her.

Everyone took it in turns to hold the cat. We all sighed over her nice soft fur and loud purr.

"Does she have a name?" we asked.

"Oh no! We leave that for the owners to do," The pet shop lady said.

It was soon decided that we would take the cat home.

The next job was to chose our cat a collar. It took a lot of thought, but in the end we bought her a nice purple one, the collar I had wanted the cat to have.

It was a long and exciting trip home. It was not long in distance, but for Dad it must have seemed like miles and miles.

The cat was scared stiff and tried to climb everywhere. Imogen got a lot of scratches from trying to hold her down.

At last our van turned into the driveway and we all hopped out with all the cat's stuff and the cat herself.

Our cat went straight to the job of exploring. I could not help but wonder if she was a little scared to be in a new place with a lot of strange people staring at her.

"She needs a name," Mum said. She went over to the computer and went to a cat name site.

After a lot of thought and shouts of no and yes we got ourselves down to two names, Poppy and Princess.

"Why don't we call her Princess Poppy?" Mum asked. We all agreed. I am glad we did not call her Pumpkin as that was one of the names we found.

"Poppy for short," Mum said.

Poppy did not seem to notice that she had just been given a name. She just continued looking around. I have to wonder how a cat can miss such an important event in their lives. I guess I didn't really notice when I was named either though.

"Let's not tell Callum. Imagine how surprised he will be to come home tonight and find we have a cat," Imogen said. We all giggled.

When Callum rang to say he was on his way home we all hoped he couldn't hear the big purrs coming from someone's lap.

Mum didn't tell Callum about Poppy. She just told him there was a surprise waiting at home. He had no idea what it was. He was very surprised when he saw her.

"A cat!" Callum said and picked Poppy up. I still could not believe she was really ours.

I love Poppy. We have had her for a few years now, but she is as cute as ever. Do you own a cat?