A Friend Called Alfie

‘Do I have to go?’ Jonathan asked as he took off his tie and jacket and tried to sit down on the sofa. Claire tried to stop him from sitting down and she didn’t look best pleased.

‘Jonathan, I know you’re tired, but we haven’t spent any time together this week, and I’ve been looking forward to this,’ Claire snapped. ‘Besides, Polly is coming to babysit for us, and it would be embarrassing to tell her that date night is off because my husband doesn’t want to spend time with me.’ I felt bad for her; Claire was wearing a lovely dress, she had spent quite a lot of time on her hair, and was wearing make-up. She’d been so excited as she tucked the children up in bed, and then gone to get ready. I went over to Jonathan and gave his leg a gentle scratch.

‘Ow!’ he shouted, glaring at me. ‘You’re ganging up on me now!’ I did feel a bit guilty, but he needed to make an effort with his wife. I wanted to tell him I understood tiredness, after all, I’d fallen asleep when I should have been looking after Pickles. But of course, I couldn’t.

‘I made so much effort,’ Claire added.

‘Sorry, darling,’ he said as the penny dropped. I did stand on his foot a couple of times to help him. ‘You look gorgeous,’ he finally said as he wrapped his arms around her. ‘I’ll get changed very quickly, and we will go and have a lovely dinner,’ he promised.

‘Thank you. I know you’re tired, love, but what with the house and visiting Harold, the kids, I feel as if I haven’t spent any time with you and I also could really do with getting out of the house.’

‘I know and I’m sorry. I guess our lives are so different now with you doing all the house stuff, I don’t think enough about your day …’

‘And I don’t always appreciate how hard you’re working either. Let’s make a pact to work at us, as much as I work on the family, and you work in the office,’ Claire said, nuzzling into her husband.

‘I love you.’ He kissed her. ‘Right give me five minutes to freshen up, and then we’ll have the best dinner ever.’ He grinned.

‘Alfie, thanks for your support.’ Claire picked me up and cuddled me as Jonathan went to get changed. It seemed I was forgiven now, too.

Polly rushed in and immediately gave me a squeeze. It would be nice to spend a bit of time with her, just the two of us, which was rare. When Claire and Jonathan left, Polly and me snuggled up on the sofa together, and settled down for the evening.

When Polly’s phone rang, interrupting our peace, I jumped up.

‘Hey, Matt,’ Polly said. I climbed on Polly’s lap and tried to listen.

‘I just spoke to Marcus, Harold had a relapse, he’s not reacting to the drugs as they hoped, and so he’s quite poorly. Marcus is with him tonight, and Sylvie will phone you with any news, but he sounded pretty devastated.’

‘Oh no, I thought he was on the mend. Please tell me that he’s not critical. Should I get Claire and Jon home?’

‘No, honey, he’s not critical, but he’s not too good either. I just wanted to let you know. And I told Marcus we’d go to the hospital tomorrow if that’s OK?’

‘Of course, and if he calls again find out if we can take anything with us.’

After Polly hung up, she stroked me, and I wondered how I would break the news to George. He was asleep with Toby, so I thought I would wait until the morning and tell him then. I didn’t know how George would react, and I wasn’t sure it was fair for me to sugar-coat the news, so I had to find a gentle way of telling him the truth without scaring him.

The following day, I was awake early, fretting about how I would tell George that Harold was still poorly. I kept reassuring myself that he was going to be fine. I just hoped he was.

‘Morning, Dad.’ George joined me in the kitchen.

‘Oh hi, son, did you sleep well?’ I asked.

‘Yes, thanks, you’re up early.’

‘I know, George, listen I heard Polly talking to Matt last night, and it turns out that Harold might be in hospital a bit longer than we thought. He’s alright, not serious, apparently, but he needs to get his medicine right before he can come home, so it might be a while.’

‘But I haven’t seen him for ages, Dad, and he’s my friend.’ George stamped his paw in anger.

‘I am so sorry, George, but at least we’re getting to hear all about what is happening. And Marcus is going to see him again this morning, and Polly and Matt will be there later, Sylvie will be going at some point so I am sure we will hear all about it.’

‘But I want to see him.’

As everyone got ready for the day, the doorbell went. I followed Claire to the door, Marcus was stood on the doorstep.

‘Hi, Marcus, so sorry to hear that Harold’s still not too good,’ Claire said.

‘It was pretty scary, but he’s in good hands and out of danger. They just need to adjust his medication, I honestly think he’ll be fine, but I’m going to see him now, before work. I’ve got special dispensation because of the scare last night. Anyway, I just wondered if you would be able to pop in sometime today with clean pyjamas for him, I know you’ve got a key and Sylvie’s working.’

‘It’s absolutely fine, I’ll go as soon as visiting hours start if that’s OK?’

‘Yes please, I’m so grateful. I better go now.’ Marcus gave Claire a quick hug and turned to go. I turned to speak to George, but he had already followed Marcus out the front door. I thought about getting out of the cat flap and going to follow him, but then I realised that he probably needed some time alone to cool off. It was hard being a parent. Before I could give the situation more thought, the door went again, Polly piled in with the children, followed by a bouncy Pickles.

‘I just saw George, he looked as if he was going somewhere in a hurry,’ Polly said, but before I could dwell on her words, Pickles bundled into me.

‘Oi, be careful,’ I said. ‘You’ll soon squash me as flat as a pancake.’ Pickles was growing at an alarming rate it seemed, in width anyway.

‘Oh and Claire, I know our puppy is greedy, but the vet said he’s weighing a bit much for his age so he’s on a diet and we need to make sure he gets more exercise.’

‘Got it, I’ll make sure there’s no food left out. No cat food or human food,’ she said, shooting me a look. Great, if Pickles was on a diet, did that mean I was too? ‘I’m going to see Harold later, taking him some bits and pieces, so I’ll call and let you know how he is.’

‘Thanks, Claire. See you later, kids.’ With a flourish, Polly was gone.

As Claire got the children ready to go to school, she turned to us.

‘Right, Pickles, I’m going to take you with us, you need the exercise,’ she said, clipping his lead on. ‘Coming, Alfie?’ I tilted my head to suggest I would. George and I often did the school run with her, we loved seeing where the children went, and the school wasn’t too far away.

‘Meow.’ Don’t mind if I do.

We walked together, the children taking turns with Pickles’ lead, apart from when we crossed roads, because Claire took charge of everyone, she clearly wasn’t taking any chances after the other day, not that she ever did. Toby picked me up and carried me across the roads. I didn’t want to point out that I was capable and I could cross roads unaided in front of Pickles, so I let Toby carry me. When we got to the school gates, the children rushed in, greeting the teacher who was the playground monitor for the day, and then waving behind to us.

‘Right then, home time,’ Claire said. As she started to walk us home, Pickles managed to wrap his lead around my paws, causing me to fall over.

‘Oh, Pickles,’ Claire said, untangling us and then picking me up. Luckily I wasn’t in too much pain from the accident, but I gave Pickles a little bit of a wide berth for the rest of the walk. When we got home, there was still no sign of George. I let Pickles follow me around the house, he said he needed to watch me to learn about being a better cat. I didn’t even have the energy with everything that was going on to point out for what felt like the millionth time that he was a puppy. So I went about my usual cat business with him as my little shadow. I went to lie on my favourite blanket and I looked out of the window. But no matter how hard he tried, Pickles couldn’t get up onto the windowsill, and I didn’t have the heart to watch him try for too long. So I hopped off my perch so that we could take a walk around the garden. Perhaps I needed to make my cat activities more dog-friendly, or Pickles friendly anyway. There was still no sign of George, but I couldn’t risk leaving the house to go and look for him. I hoped Claire would take Pickles for a walk to give me some space, but she had to go and get things for Harold, so once again I was left in charge. I know I was an adult, but I was also a cat, and the responsibility being piled on me was vast. However, I was flattered because clearly everyone felt that I could handle it and they were almost right.

‘Right,’ I said. ‘Time to practise napping,’ I said, as I led Pickles to curl up on the sofa with me. it had been a tiresome morning, and I needed some peace. Thankfully Pickles started snoring the moment he lay his head down, and I was ready to rest myself. I had to think about Harold, and what he might be going through – we all knew how much he hated hospital by now. I thought about George and the fact that he was frustrated by not being able to see Harold. I had to think about all my families, and I said a little prayer for everyone before I lay my head down and fell asleep – the little pug snoring next to me.