Alfie The Holiday Cat

Chapter Fourteen

‘But why don’t you have a home?’ George persisted. He was giving Gilbert the full George third degree. I could see the normally gruff cat struggling. On the one paw he liked to act as if he didn’t need anyone but, on the other, he was a bit enamoured with George.

‘Life isn’t all fish and ice cream, you know,’ Gilbert said, softening.

‘It’s not?’ George looked upset. ‘I think my life is. Oh and Chanel. Oh and my dad, oh and the families too.’

‘Not for me. I had a family, when I was a little lad like you, but it wasn’t a happy house.’ He stretched his paws out. ‘I just realised one day that I would be better off not being there so I left.’

‘But why?’ It seemed George’s ‘why’ phase was never going to end.

‘The family were unhappy. The father would be quite mean, which upset the mother, and there were two children. One of the children would be in trouble a lot with the father. It wasn’t nice, and he then tormented me.’

‘That sounds horrible,’ I said. I could see it was hard for Gilbert to talk about and I didn’t want to scare him off as I tried to head George off and stop him asking too many questions. I nudged him a few times but he didn’t take the hint.

‘I was young and, no, it wasn’t bearable. It’s so sad the way some humans treat us animals. We don’t ask to be their pets yet they think they can treat us badly.’ His eyes darkened. ‘But anyway, I just got up one day and left home. I hid for a while, and I knew the family were looking for me. They put the posters up.’

‘Like the lamppost cats!’ George exclaimed excitedly. I explained to Gilbert that we’d had a spate of missing cats in our area and the pictures had gone up on lampposts at an alarming rate. ‘Yes. I couldn’t understand why they wanted me back when they were so horrible. Well OK, so only the dad and one of the kids was horrible, but they must have known what was going on. I was barely eating and I was terrified. Anyway, I hid for a while then I started making my way further from home. I managed to survive by hunting, after all this is the countryside, and to be honest I found I quite liked my own company. Over time I decided that I liked being so independent and I didn’t have any trouble finding food. So when I arrived here and found Seabreeze Cottage deserted, I decided that I would stay here for a while. That has turned out to be a long while because no one was ever here, until you, that is.’

‘Well I think that’s a great story and now we are here you will stay, won’t you?’ George asked, nuzzling Gilbert, who purred in response.

‘I only have one concern. What happens if your family finds me?’

‘Oh they’d love you. Look, our families love cats, the children love cats, they would let you stay. I only worry that they wouldn’t want you to be here on your own, and I’m not sure how we would explain to them that you like it here and don’t want to be looked after all the time.’

I could see how that might be a problem. They’d probably want to scoop Gilbert up and take him home with us, or worse, find him a home round here.

‘Then I better lie low. I’m glad the house is coming to life but I don’t want to move away from here.’

‘No, of course not.’

‘Well I don’t think that would happen,’ George interjected. ‘It’s clear that you live here, and there will be people coming and going from here a lot, so I think the humans will expect you to stay and, maybe, they just might make it easier by ensuring you have food.’

‘Do you really think so?’ Gilbert asked, uncertainly.

‘I do. You belong to Seabreeze Cottage and I think they’ll see that. You can be the cottage cat and when no one is here you can look after it for us.’

‘That’s so sensible, George,’ I said proudly. ‘I just hope that our families see it that way.’ George was so clever at times, and I hoped he got it from me.

‘Oh they will,’ George replied confidently.

‘Look, you’ve got some free time it seems, so do you want to come with me and I can show you round the area a bit? I know you’ve seen the beach but we’re near some very cool fields and it’s a lovely day for a bit of a romp in the countryside,’ Gilbert offered.

George looked at me hopefully. I didn’t need asking twice.

We made our way through the narrow streets behind the cottage. The ground was quite steep and I could see it would keep you fit living here. Even George huffed a bit. At the top we reached a big road which was busy and took quite a long time to cross. Gilbert then led us into a big green field, where the grass tickled our legs as we made our way through it. As I saw George skittishly jumping from blade of grass to blade of grass I realised this was the first field he’d been in.

‘It’s not like garden grass,’ he said, unsurely.

‘No, lad, it’s not. But it’s great when you get used to it,’ Gilbert replied, bounding off.

I had been on a few adventures in the countryside before but I had to say having Gilbert with us made it even more enjoyable. He was a very confident cat, he knew all the best places, where the best bushes for butterfly chasing were, where the animals to be avoided lived, where we could just stop and look at beautiful views and see for miles around. It was breathtaking and the sun chased us, warming our fur.

‘This is so much fun,’ George squealed with excitement. I told him that he wasn’t to try to come here on his own; I couldn’t stop being a father, even when we were having a good time.

We were all squeezed under a bush, taking a short break, when Gilbert suddenly sprang up.

‘What is it?’ I asked.

‘There’s a dog, I can sense it.’ We looked out at the field and saw a large black dog was running around. I started to panic; we had to get away.

‘Run,’ I said as I started to move.

‘Hold on, no need for that,’ Gilbert said. ‘It’s one of the farm dogs, he’s friendly with cats, don’t worry.’

I’d never heard of dog being friendly with cats but when he did approach us he wasn’t aggressive. He nodded his head, swished his tail in greeting and then turned back and ran off. My heart was beating fast, I really didn’t think he would be that indifferent. I had been chased by dogs before in London and I’d never encountered one I liked.

‘Only one problem,’ Gilbert said as my heart started slowing down to normal again.

‘What?’ George asked.

‘Well, the field we need to go through to get home … They’ve moved the sheep in, which explains the presence of the dog.’

‘What are sheep?’ George asked.

‘White fluffy things,’ I replied with my superior country knowledge. Gilbert laughed.

‘Well the thing is that these sheep are quite aggressive and they don’t like anyone being in their fields.’

We looked to where Gilbert was staring and he was right, there was a flock of angry-looking sheep in the middle of the field. I hadn’t imagined sheep were mean, they didn’t seem to do a lot, as far as I could tell. I had encountered a hostile cow and some very aggressive pigs before, but never sheep.

‘What do we do?’ I asked, worried for George more than anything.

‘We’ll run round the side of the field. They’ll probably try to chase us but if we stick to the perimeters we can outrun them. Alfie and George you go first, and I’ll bring up the rear so that George is sandwiched between us.’

‘I’m not scared of the sheeps,’ George said, with his usual bravado.

‘Well you should be, lad, if they butt you with their heads it can be very painful. Take it from one who knows. Right, when I say go, we go.’

I felt exhilarated and a little scared as I ran as fast as I was able, taking the route Gilbert suggested and made sure George was in front of me. I tried to focus on where I was headed but I couldn’t help but sneak a look at the sheep. I could see they had seen us. George was running, speedily, his legs moving quickly. The sheep were all moving towards us and at first it looked as if they were moving slowly but then their speed seemed to increase. As adrenaline flowed through my body I increased my speed and managed to outrun them to get to the edge of the field and safety, just after George.

I joined George at the hedge and ushered him under. We were safe! I looked and saw that Gilbert was a bit cornered though. As if he had sacrificed himself for us. I didn’t know what to do. I turned to George.

‘Make as much noise as you can,’ I said. The sheep wouldn’t fit under the hedge so my plan was that if we made enough of a racket they would be distracted, and therefore Gilbert could come to safety.

‘Yowl,’ I said as loudly as I could. George joined me. We yowled and yelped and meowed until our voices were hoarse. But as the sheep turned their attention to us, Gilbert made his escape.

We collapsed on a small patch of grass the other side of the field.

‘Oh, Dad, that was exciting,’ said George. I wished he had a little more of a honed sense of danger, to be honest.

‘It was scary,’ I chastised. ‘We could have become sheep food.’

‘Unlikely, they seem to like grass,’ Gilbert said. ‘They would have just knocked us around a bit but, you know, thank you for saving me, because it would have hurt if they’d got to me.’

‘Why don’t they like you?’ I asked.

‘It’s not personal, they just protect themselves. They’re like a family and they see us as intruders, I guess. Farm animals can be a hazard of living here, but I wouldn’t have it any other way.’

I totally understood that. We walked home slowly, trying to recover our breath. I was still feeling the terror of being in a dangerous situation. George seemed unfazed, he just saw everything as exciting, and Gilbert seemed normal, not at all wobbly like I was. I was just thankful that the walk home was all downhill.

We spent the rest of the afternoon in the backyard, while George went to see if he could spot Chanel.

‘Why on earth does he do that?’ Gilbert asked.

‘First crush,’ I replied.

‘No accounting for taste. Her or her owner.’

‘Talking of “that woman”, I really need to discover what she’s up to more than ever now. The kids are now getting involved and that’s not good. I know my adult humans can look after themselves but the children, the younger ones and especially Toby, can’t.’

‘Do you want me to do some surveillance and see if I can find anything out?’ Gilbert asked.

‘Would you?’ I could barely believe it. I had been trying to engage Gilbert for some time and now it looked as if he was finally, properly, onboard. I knew with him by my side we would foil any plan that Andrea and Liam came up with. Well hopefully.

‘You almost saved my life, it’s the least I can do,’ Gilbert replied. ‘And also, I quite like having you and the lad around. I might be self-sufficient but there’s nothing wrong with friends.’

Although he still sounded his usual gruff self, I felt touched. And after all, he couldn’t be any worse at surveillance than George, who was already fast asleep.

It was much later when I heard the commotion of everyone returning home. We were all inside, having a break from the sun, as I rushed to greet everyone. They came into the back, all taking turns to use the outdoor shower to get the sand off before putting all their towels and beach accessories into the sand room.

‘See, this works pretty well,’ Polly said, pleased.

‘It was a great idea, the shower especially,’ Claire added, giving Polly a squeeze.

‘And we can contain the mess with the sand room,’ Franceska said, smiling. ‘Well almost,’ she laughed as Summer tipped up a bucket which was still full of sand onto the floor.

‘We’re supposed to leave the sand at the beach,’ Toby laughed. It was a phrase that he had heard the adults say many times. I felt happy again; they had obviously all had a lovely time. As the children chattered and bickered over getting cleaned up, Claire took an armful of washing which she put in the machine, Franceska piled up the buckets and spades and Polly ushered the almost sand-free children inside. I realised that this was the perfect time to introduce Gilbert to everyone … but when I turned around he had disappeared.