Alfie The Holiday Cat. Alfie In The Snow. A Friend Called Alfie

‘I’m Lily,’ she said. ‘I just moved here.’

‘Well that’s all very nice but we’re in the middle of an emergency,’ Gilbert cut in, sounding gruff.

‘Oh dear. What kind of emergency?’ she asked. ‘Is it to do with fish?’

‘No, I’ve lost my kitten,’ I said. ‘He’s small and ginger and I think he might have been with, or at least chasing, a Persian cat.’ My words rushed out in a jumble.

‘Oh yes I saw them. I tried to stop them for a chat but they just ran past me. Bit rude I thought.’ She tipped her head to one side. ‘I mean, I was only trying to be friendly, it’s not easy being the new cat, I can tell you.’

‘Where, where did they go?’ I asked, trying not to sound irritated.

‘They headed onto the beach. The Persian was running ahead, and the kitten, cute isn’t he? Well anyway he was trying to chase her but he was quite far behind. Little legs I suppose.’

I looked at Gilbert.‘You go to the beach, I’ll go and round up the humans,’ I said.

‘Can I come?’ Lily asked. Gilbert raised his whiskers but didn’t reply as he took off and she followed him anyway.

Everyone was outside our house, I guess they’d run up and down the road and drawn a blank.

‘Meow!’ I shouted. Then I ran around in circles a few times.

‘I think Alfie wants us to follow him,’ Aleksy said.

‘Don’t be absurd, he’s just a cat,’ Andrea said.

‘No, Alfie isn’t just a cat, not at all,’ Tommy replied. ‘Come on, guys, let’s follow Alfie. He knows what he’s doing.’

I got to the beach first where we found George, Gilbert and Lily, and there were two things I immediately noticed. The stretch we were on was devoid of people and the water was quite high. Not being a fan of water, I ventured onto the sand tentatively.

‘George?’ I asked.

‘It’s Chanel, she’s over there,’ George said, vaguely waving a paw.

‘Where?’ I couldn’t see her anywhere.

‘She’s in the water,’ Lily said. ‘I mean, a cat in water, who’d have thought it? Although of course technically she’s in a boat on the water but still—’

‘Shush,’ Gilbert said. ‘George, explain.’

‘She’s in that boat, Dad, look.’ I followed George’s eyes and he was right. Chanel was looking out of the side of a boat, looking terrified as it floated on the water, and it was moving further and further away from the shore.

‘Oh no, she’s at sea,’ I said. ‘What do we do? How do we make the humans see her?’ I asked.

‘Hold on, they’re coming,’ Gilbert said, calmly. ‘They’ll see her. And I think I can hear her.’ We all listened and yes, there was a sound of a cat crying being carried through the air.

‘What happened?’ I asked.

‘Well, you said I might never see her again so I went to tell her and she kept hiding from me, so I realised that she wanted to play hide and seek, and anyway, I am guessing that she was hiding in that boat when I followed her but it was already floating away. She’s very good at hiding.’

I tried not to let my exasperation show.

‘I don’t think she was playing hide and seek,’ Lily said.

‘Who are you?’ George asked as if he’d just noticed her.

‘Lily, nice to meet you.’

‘Guys, listen, we need to focus,’ Gilbert said. ‘What are we going to do about Chanel?’

‘I’ll go and get her,’ George said.

‘Don’t you dare, you’ll end up drowned, or worse,’ I said. ‘No, George, I forbid it. The humans will get her.’

At last they all ran towards us, Andrea trying to take her shoes off as she ran like a mad woman. They all lined up beside us and looked towards the water.

‘Why are we staring at the water?’ Andrea said, putting her hand up to shield herself from the burning evening sun.

‘Oh, look, there’s your cat, in that boat there,’ Aleksy shouted. They all looked and finally saw what we wanted them to see.

‘Oh no, oh no!’ Andrea started to breathe funny. ‘What are we going to do, my baby is floating away.’

‘When’s the tide coming back?’ Tomasz asked.

‘Not for hours. She can’t stay out there until then.’ Andrea was hysterical, Franceska took hold of her as if she might faint.

‘Do you have a boat?’ Matt asked.

‘No, of course I don’t,’ Andrea snapped.

‘Look, there’s a paddleboard there, we could go and get her on that,’ Aleksy said, spotting a board on the shore.

‘You can’t go without an instructor, or a life jacket,’ Tomasz pointed out.

‘But someone needs to rescue her, please, please I’m begging you,’ Andrea said. I noticed she didn’t suggest going herself.

‘Oh goodness, I’ll go,’ Jonathan said. We all stared at him. ‘How hard can it be?’ he asked. Claire looked a little horrified. ‘It’s just standing, isn’t it?’

‘It’s quite hard, actually,’ Tommy said. But Jonathan wasn’t listening. He was already approaching the board.

‘Are you sure about this?’ Claire asked, sounding terrified.

‘Sure,’ Jonathan lied. ‘I’ve got to get that cat, and no one else is offering to go.’ He took his shoes off, grabbing the board and the paddle and taking them into the water. I wasn’t sure if I could look. I had a bad feeling about this.

‘I have to rescue my love,’ George said suddenly, and before I could do anything he had run up to Jonathan and leapt onto the paddleboard.

‘My goodness, your kitten’s on the paddleboard!’ Lily exclaimed.

‘Oh no,’ I said to Gilbert, my panic was building. ‘I have to go after him!’

‘No, Alfie, stay here, he’ll be alright, Jonathan will take care of him,’ Gilbert said, giving me a reassuring nuzzle.

But who would take care of Jonathan, I wanted to ask.

‘Oh blimey, George, you’ve made this even harder,’ Jonathan shouted. Jonathan was in the water attempting to get on the board while George was staring out to where Chanel’s boat was. We were all watching from the shore, closer to the water than I liked but I had to be as near to my boy as Icould be. Of course George wasn’t making it harder for Jonathan to get on the board, and I remembered how good he was on it when he went off with Tommy, so I tried to stay calm. Especially as the silly kitten seemed to like water.

‘Are you sure he knows how to paddleboard?’ Andrea asked. No one replied. No one needed to. It soon became clear Jonathan had no idea, as he tried to get on the board, and kept slipping off. He finally managed to get on but then fell straight off the other side, almost taking George with him. Luckily my kitten had really good balance. I felt my fur shaking with fear for both of them, but I tried to stay calm, in case I was needed. Not that I had any idea what I could do.

‘Can I help him, Dad?’ Aleksy asked after a while.

‘Sure, you better help him get on, Aleksy,’ Tomasz said, patting his shoulder. ‘But don’t go too deep.’ It was lucky Tomasz said that, because Andrea was on the sand, sobbing in a heap, Franceska trying to comfort her and, well, we might have been here all night if Aleksy hadn’t gone.

He waded out to where Jonathan was, luckily the water was only waist-deep. He held onto the board and the paddle while Jonathan sat down. Aleksy tried to take George but George wouldn’t cooperate.

‘George, come to me,’ Aleksy said, putting his hand out to grab him.

‘Meow!’ George swiped a paw at him. My goodness, he had never done that before.

‘Ow, George scratched me!’ Aleksy exclaimed as he held his hand away from George.

‘For goodness’ sake,’ Jonathan said. ‘If this isn’t bad enough.’

‘Right, Jonathan, just sit on it like you are doing and paddle either side to steer. Don’t try to stand up,’ Aleksy directed, rubbing his hand.

‘No, no chance of that.’ Jonathan looked mildly terrified as he started paddling off. The board was very wobbly and not exactly going in a straight line. I wanted to close my eyes again but, knowing George was on there, I couldn’t quite tear them away. It seemed to take him a very long time to move at all, but he kept trying. By this time Aleksy had returned to shore, soaking wet, and when we all examined his hand, it was only a tiny scratch.

‘He really wanted to go with Jonathan,’ Aleksy said. You don’t know the half of it, I thought.

I couldn’t help but notice that Jonathan and George were already soaked as they made their way, in a very long-winded manner, to the boat where Chanel was. After what felt like hours, they pulled up beside the boat. Jonathan had the paddle in one hand and was reached out to hold the boat with the other. Chanel looked at George and recoiled slightly. I couldn’t hear what they were saying, but I could imagine that Jonathan was saying those words that Claire said ‘not in front of the children’ to him about.

‘Get onto the board, Chanel!’ Andrea was screaming. I wanted to scream too, I wanted George back safe and sound and I could see that if Chanel didn’t get onto the board soon the whole thing would capsize. Although I wasn’t worried about Jonathan — he could swim — I was terrified for George who I wasn’t sure could. Finally, after Andrea had screamed herself hoarse, Chanel climbed out of the boat and somehow Jonathan managed to grab her without falling off. Everyone on the shore cheered loudly.

‘Go Jonathan!’ Tommy shouted and Jonathan started to paddle.

After going round in circles a few times, Jonathan managed to get the board and the cats near enough to the shore for the boys to go and help.

‘Hooray!’ Tommy shouted as he and Aleksy ran to greet the paddleboard. Aleksy held it tight while Tommy grabbed George and Jonathan disembarked, the latter clutching a terrified Chanel.

‘Thank you so much!’ Andrea grabbed Chanel from Jonathan’s arms and tearfully cuddled the cat. I had never seen Chanel look anything but disdainful but now she seemed shocked and shaken up. I almost felt sorry for her. Andrea wasn’t letting her go although she was wet and dishevelled. ‘Thank you so much again, but I ought to rush off, sorry to leave you like this but she’s traumatised, and with a pedigree such as Chanel’s I can’t take any chances. I think I ought to call the vet.’

‘Do you think we should have George checked over?’ Claire said.

‘No, he’s just a bit wet, he’s fine,’ Jonathan said. ‘I, on the other hand, am soaked and also a little bit unsettled from that little jaunt. I need a towel and a beer.’

‘What on earth was she doing in that boat?’ Franceska asked.

Yes exactly, I thought, glaring at George. Hide and seek, my tail.

‘You said you thought it would be a piece of cake,’ Tomasz pointed out, laughing at bedraggled Jonathan.

‘Yeah, you did, mate.’ Matt patted his shoulder.

‘OK, so maybe it’s not as easy as it looks,’ Jonathan conceded. ‘But now can I go and get dried off?’

‘So …’ I started. After being towel-dried in the utility room, Gilbert, George and I were alone. Well we weren’t, because Lily had followed us home for some reason. ‘Tell me why you thought it was alright to risk your life, George.’

‘OK, so it’s like this.’ George grinned. I could see he was mustering all his charm. ‘It was my fault that Chanel was in the boat, so I owed it to her to help rescue her. I’m good at paddleboarding after all, and did you see Jonathan, he was hopeless, he needed me.’

I wasn’t sure if I had the energy to argue. George’s logic was, well, George’s logic.

‘You were very good,’ Lily said. ‘I have to say I’m very impressed.’

‘Sorry, I don’t mean to be rude, but just who are you, Lily, and why are you here?’ Gilbert asked.

‘I live a few doors down. We’ve just moved into the village, well a while ago, but I’ve only recently been allowed out. It was awful being cooped up inside all this time, but anyway, I wanted to make friends as soon as I got out, and look, now I have!’ Lily grinned.

She was an attractive cat, I thought, and perhaps would be company for Gilbert when we weren’t here; after all she seemed quite determined and not even Gilbert seemed to be able to put her off.

‘Welcome to Lynstow,’ I said, trying not to sound short; I still had things to sort out with George. ‘But, George, why did you scratch Aleksy? He’s your friend.’

‘Ah, yes I will say sorry to him, but he tried to grab me and I needed to go to save Chanel. Now she is bound to love me,’ he said.

‘Oh boy,’ Gilbert said. ‘You’ve got it bad. Real bad.’

‘I don’t really understand,’ Lily said.

‘It’s a long story, and, honestly, you don’t need to worry,’ I replied. I wasn’t sure how we were going to sort this one out. But as it was nearly teatime, I had other fish to fry.

We gathered on the lawn to watch the sunset. Polly and Matt had gone to the village and brought back fish and chips for everyone, including George, Gilbert and I. We were all sitting on picnic blankets, enjoying our meal.

After Gilbert had assured her she could visit again, Lily had reluctantly gone home. He seemed to find her irritating but then he’d been the same with me when we first met. I kind of liked the idea that he would have another cat friend when we were back in London — after all, it wasn’t going to be Chanel, was it?

Andrea had phoned to say thank you, that Chanel was alright but needed to rest. As did we all after our ordeal, I thought, sneaking a look at George. Not that you would know it looking at him— he was nibbling happily on a piece of fish. But as I thought back over the day, I was glad that it ended happily. Chanel floating off out to sea had brought us all together, yet again, and my lad, who yes had probably caused it in the first place, had proven to me how brave and good he was. Toby had shown how amazingly forgiving he could be and what a lovely boy he was. As I watched him feeding George his chips, I couldn’t help but think how similar those two really were. We were lucky to have them both.

‘I can’t believe that George went out to sea with you,’ Claire mused.

‘I think he’s sorry for scratching me, he gave me lots of cuddles and it’s not so bad.’

‘He’s a crazy cat, but you know who he reminds me of?’ Matt said.

‘Jonathan?’ Polly asked.

‘No, Alfie. It’s the sort of mad thing Alfie would do after all. They really are like two peas in a pod.’

‘My goodness they are. We now have two cats who seem far too human at times, or maybe three, after what Gilbert did to Liam,’ Franceska said.

‘Well how lucky are we then?’ Claire finished.

I looked at my boy, he looked at me, and I raised my whiskers, blinking at him. He blinked back. We really were two peas in a pod, if that meant what I think it did. My boy, a chip off the old block. And despite the fact that he had worried me, I wouldn’t have it any other way.

‘So,’ Tomasz said. He was holding a bottle of beer, munching his food and looking at the sky. The sun was almost burnt orange as we watched it slowly disappear, as if it was sinking into the sea. It was one of the most breathtaking sights I had ever seen. ‘Do you still want to leave here, this house, and go home?’

‘No way!’ Toby said. ‘Please can we always come on holiday to Seabreeze Cottage?’

‘Yes, I have to get better than Aleksy at paddleboarding,’ Tommy agreed.

‘At least you are both better than Jonathan,’ Claire said, laughing but giving him an affectionate kiss on the cheek.

‘Well maybe next time I’ll get some lessons. I can’t quite see how it can be so difficult when it looks so easy.’ Jonathan scratched his head. ‘I mean, it’s just standing.’

‘I find it easy,’ George whispered to me. I nuzzled him, my infuriating, but wonderful boy.

‘It’s my best ever place in the whole world,’ Summer said.

‘Mine too,’ Martha agreed. ‘Well apart from the other places which are my best ever,’ she added.

‘And we have so many friends here, don’t we?’ Henry asked. ‘Even the girls are our friends now.’

‘We certainly do, love,’ Polly said.

‘I propose a toast,’ Claire said, raising her glass. Everyone raised their glasses, or beakers in the case of the children. ‘To Great Aunt Claire and to Seabreeze Cottage. We are going to have many years of happy holidays here, I just know it.’

‘Meow!’ I agreed. We certainly would.

Chapter Twenty-Two

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Andrea invited us to her house for a farewell tea. We all went except for Gilbert, who cried off. He had accepted our families but he wasn’t interested in the neighbours, and I didn’t want to push him. I also had a sneaking suspicion he was going to see Lily. He pretended he wasn’t interested in making friends, but I wasn’t sure I believed him. I think he had a bit of a soft spot for her after all.

While George was sad to be leaving, he was very excited about tonight. It was his last chance to spend time with Chanel, and he was determined to make an impression. I dreaded to think what that might involve. However, I was going to be there and I wasn’t going to take my eye off him, so there would be no repeat of the other day.

We all made our way next door. The children were excited, the adults far more relaxed and even I felt jubilant. The cottage was coming on a treat and the adults had decided that as they’d forgiven Andrea it was only fair they forgave Liam too, so he was back working and he was doing an amazing job now he wasn’t trying to burn the place down.

Both the children’s and adults’ floor, as well as the en suite and main bathroom, were now complete. The builders had started work on the small living room which the adults thought would be a ‘snug’ for them, a sort of cosy TV room with a wood-burner and two nice sofas in, it would be a child-free space apparently although I doubted it would be cat-free. The main living room would be done after we left and would open onto the lawn and serve as a big family room. There would be a large TV in there, cleverly hidden in a cupboard, along with a DVD player and another fire. I wasn’t keen on the idea of fires at first, what with Andrea’s aborted plan, but then I realised they would be lovely and welcoming and cosy. The kitchen was also being refurbished after we’d left. They were going to knock through from the small dining room at the front, which we never used, to make a huge kitchen/diner, which would fit us all comfortably when we were here together. Seabreeze Cottage was soon going to finish its transformation into our family second home, a home big enough for my family — which was all of us.

‘Welcome,’ Andrea said. She was wearing her trademark posh-looking dress and heels, but the girls were wearing shorts and Tshirts. Summer and Martha ran up to them and begged them to play hairdressers. The boys shuffled around, until Andrea led them to a game called swing ball and let Aleksy organise a tournament.

There was a long table, which had flowers on it and looked very nice, set with plates and glasses, which the adults all sat at. For once, Andrea put Chanel down and as she sat in the shade by the house, George approached. I followed him. I needed to make sure this didn’t end badly.

‘When are you going?’ Chanel asked. She flicked her tail angrily.

‘Are you going to miss me?’ George asked, raising his whiskers.

‘Not at all. Look, I nearly ended up having to live at sea because of you.’

‘Hey that’s not fair,’ I cut in. ‘My kitten saved you.’

‘After he followed me relentlessly and in the end after I kept asking him to leave me alone, and he wouldn’t, I ran off. I hid on a boat to get away from him, and then I fell asleep and woke up in the middle of the water, so yes he may have helped save me but he also helped put me there in the first place.’

‘But I was just playing with you.’ George looked so innocent, and sweet.

‘Chanel, George is young, and well yes he’s much younger than you, but can’t you see he just likes you?’ I tried.

‘I really do,’ George added.

‘Look, I’m sorry but I’m pretty much a house cat. I like my beautiful house, my beautiful owner and the children, I don’t like anyone else.’ She really was one mean cat.

‘Don’t you get lonely, and don’t you want to play with us?’ George asked.

‘I certainly don’t get lonely and I am not interested in playing with anyone,’ she huffed.

‘OK, fine, I get it, you don’t want to be friends with us,’ I cut in. ‘But perhaps you could learn to be civil. After all, if our humans can all get on then the least we can do is to try too. And we will be here a lot after all, so we may as well get along.’

‘OK, but now I shall go and sit on Andrea’s lap. Oh, and thanks for saving me, but in future I would appreciate it if you didn’t stalk me.’ She glared at George.

‘Has anyone ever told you what lovely eyes you have?’

Chanel hopped onto the safety of Andrea’s lap so I led George to the table. He headed off to see the children who were seated at their own table so I went to curl up at Claire’s feet. I could hear the conversation from there and I could also keep an eye on George who was licking ice cream off Summer’s spoon. I pretended not to seethat one.

‘So, when will you be back?’ Andrea asked.

‘I’m coming down in a few weeks to supervise the last of the decorating but I think I’ll probably come on my own as it will be a lot of work,’ Polly said.

‘So, I’ll be left looking after the kids,’ Matt said.

‘You’ll have plenty of help,’ Franceska said.

‘Yes and the cottage really is spectacular thanks to Polly, it’s really been a working holiday for you, hasn’t it?’ Claire said.

‘I’ve loved every minute and it’s for all of us. Andrea, I’m not sorry that you didn’t get our cottage but I am sorry that you still have problems with where to live.’

‘Thank you, Polly. I mean, I really don’t know what I’m going to do. My husband is saying the house has to go on the market, my solicitor is trying to sort it out, but I’m a bit lost for what we can do, and I also don’t really want to accept the settlement he’s offered but again, I’vebeen in such a mess I just can’t think straight.’

‘But this house is enormous,’ Tomasz said.

‘It is and I was wondering.’ Polly sipped her wine. ‘I know you can’t stay in the house as it is, but have you thought about turning it into apartments which you can either sell or rent out? I mean, you could do it easily, although it might take time, and your husband will probably like theidea because you’d make money.’

Andrea looked at her, as if seeing her for the first time.‘I’m not sure,’ she said, but she looked as if she was thinking about it.

‘That way you get the ground-floor apartment — it’ll be big enough for you and the girls — and you have two others. I know it’ll be a come-down but you get to stay in the village and it won’t be financially crippling. I guess if you present it to your husband as a business deal he won’t be able to argue. Or if you get your lawyer to argue the financial sense of it at least.’

‘Would it be easy to convert?’

‘You’d be surprised at how easily, listen, let me look, maybe later, but think about it.’

‘It’s a great idea, Pol,’ Jonathan said.

‘Maybe it might work … Polly, please do have a look, I’m not sure how it would work, but I’m open to anything. I’m desperate still.’

‘Of course, I’m sure we can sort something out,’ Polly replied.

‘Well thank you, I really don’t deserve friends like you,’ Andrea said.

‘Maybe not, but you need friends like us,’ Claire finished.

It was dark when we left Andrea’s but George and I went straight to the sand room to find Gilbert. Summer was rapidly drawing to a close. The evenings were coming in more quickly and colder, as were the early mornings. It was still nice here, but as September dawned we could feel that summer was saying its final farewells, as were we. It was nearly time for us to go.

‘Are you ready?’ Gilbert asked.

‘Yes, we are.’ We followed him out of the house.

We sat on the top of one of the sand dunes watching the moon.

‘I’ll miss you two, and the humans,’ Gilbert said.

‘We’ll be back before you know it, but this has been a wonderful summer.’

‘The best summer ever,’ George said. I hated to point out that it was really his first proper summer too.

‘Are you sure you’ll be OK here alone, I mean without us?’ I asked.

‘Of course. The builders are still going to be around, and that lovely lady Shelley is going to look in on me. And that tabby Lily, well she’s alright as far as girl cats go.’

I looked at him with suspicion.‘Wow, Gilbert, you’ve gone from not needing any friends or family to having a lot,’ I teased.

‘It’s your fault, Alfie. You made me get used to it. And also by the sounds of it your families will be here a lot, so I guess we’ll see loads of each other.’

‘You don’t fancy London then?’ I was being fanciful I knew but I quite liked having Gilbert as part of our gang.

‘Nah, I’m a country and beach cat. I like this.’ We all looked at the moon and agreed with him, after all what was not to like. ‘And who will look after the scary sheep and watch Liam?’ He sounded emotional, and I felt how far we had come from the gruff cat who hadn’t even wanted to tell me his name.

I loved it here, I thought, as I breathed in the sea air. I loved how the sun twinkled on the water during the day, and the moon lit up the whole sea at night. It was so beautiful, like a light show. It had been a very eventful summer, but then what did I expect? After all, my life was eventful. But we had come through it again, stronger than ever, my kitten, my families and me. And we had added to it with Gilbert.

‘We’ll be back before you know it,’ I said. I missed Edgar Road, I missed my friends and Tiger but I would look forward to coming back, very much.

‘I can’t wait to come back,’ George said. He stared at the moon as if hypnotised by it.

‘And in the meantime, I promise I’ll look after Seabreeze Cottage for you, no actually for us.’

‘For us,’ I replied and I couldn’t have felt prouder.

Epilogue [Ęŕđňčíęŕ: i_026.jpg]

I was champing at the bit to get out of the cat carrier, as was George who kept standing on my paws.

‘Stay still,’ I hissed.

‘But I want to get in the house,’ George replied and I couldn’t argue with that. We felt the carrier being put down on the lawn, and the door opened, George almost trampling me to get out, and I followed him.

‘Wow, snow!’ he said to me. There was a very thin blanket of snow covering the lawn. It looked so pretty and not deep enough to make us sink into it. We both stood and looked at the house. Seabreeze Cottage was sprinkled with white and on the front door was a huge holly wreath which covered almost the entire space. The others ran on ahead and we followed them.

Jonathan unlocked the door and Claire, holding Toby and Summer’s hands, headed in. She flicked on a light and as Jonathan walked in behind her, we followed. I stood aside to let George go first. I was eager to explore but I was also the parent after all. Tinsel decorated the hallway, and in the doorway was a huge bunch of mistletoe. Jonathan grabbed Claire and kissed her under it. It was a bit sloppy.

We both ran into the kitchen, which had been extended and totally re-done; with wooden surfaces, and floors, it was a proper family kitchen. After quickly admiring it, we ran through to the sand room where Gilbert was in his new cat bed, as if he’d known when we would arrive.

‘Alfie, George, hello,’ he said. ‘I heard Shelley saying you were coming today so I’ve been waiting for ages.’

‘Gilbert!’ George nuzzled him and I followed suit.

There were snowy footprints and little piles of snow all over the sand room, which Jonathan had already re-christened the snow room.

‘How are you?’ I asked. ‘It feels like ages since we last saw you.’

‘I’m alright, it’s been quite cold here, but then that’s winter for you. Not sure you’ll be so keen to go to the beach during the day either, it’s not only cold but full of dogs, not to mention snow! I’ve had to find other places to hang out.’

‘And is Lily still around?’ I asked.

‘Yes.’ I was sure that if cats could blush, Gilbert would have done. ‘We’re going to see her tomorrow, she’s looking forward to seeing you again.’ He was mumbling a bit. Well this was a turn-up!

‘So, she’s still OK for a girl cat?’ George said, raising his whiskers. Honestly, nothing got past my lad, he had a good memory at least.

‘She’s not too bad,’ Gilbert said, casually.

‘And it’s nice having friends, isn’t it?’ I pushed.

‘Well, Alfie, I blame you for that. I was happy with my own company before I met you guys and now it seems I like being around people, and cats.’

I nuzzled him, I had taught him well.

We had come to the cottage for Christmas. We’d been back once since the summer, and that was for a holiday the humans called half-term. Claire, Polly and Franceska had come down with all the children and us, and the men had joined us at the weekend. It had been a great week away, and it had been then, with the cottage looking so beautiful,that they had come up with a plan for us all to spend Christmas here. Our first Christmas together.

‘Claire,’ I heard Jonathan say from the kitchen. We walked in.

‘Yes, darling.’

‘There’s an enormous Christmas tree in the living room. Do you know anything about that?’ he asked.

‘Yes, I asked Colin to arrange it and Andrea decorated it. Quick, kids, let’s go and see.’ We all went through. The tree was bigger than any I’d ever seen and it was decorated beautifully. Claire reached down and turned some lights on, it sparkled and was truly magical. The living room was fully decorated with sprigs of holly, and garlands, and fairy lights hung everywhere. Andrea had clearly wanted to make it lovely for us and I felt warm towards her. The fire had been lit too. It was such a beautiful scene, I couldn’t have been happier to be here.

When we’d seen Andrea at half-term she had been very sweet and fun too, as had her children. It was as if they had all had personality transplants. She’d said she realised she was better off without her husband and her and the girls were doing really well. She’d also said she might start dating again, I just hoped not with Liam. But it was true what everyone said: before the divorce she had been nice, as had the girls, they had just been horrible when they were unhappy. I understood, I’d seen it before.

‘Wow,’ Toby said. ‘It’s the best tree I’ve ever seen.’

‘Can I climb it, Dad?’ George asked, out of earshot.

‘Absolutely not,’ I replied.

‘But will Santa know to find us here?’ Summer asked, sounding anxious.

‘Yes, we’ve given him full instructions and when everyone else arrives I expect there will be lots of presents going under this tree,’ Jonathan said, picking his daughter up.

‘But Henry and me asked for the same robot this year, what if Santa only has one?’ Toby chewed his lip. He had come such a long way, he was far more secure and confident, but there would always be something that made me, and George, want to protect this little boy. The vulnerable edge that could never be fully eradicated, no matter how much we loved him, but we would never stop trying.

‘Oh, Santa can always get more than one, Tobe,’ Claire said. ‘Don’t you worry.’

I saw Jonathan look at her and she nodded, he smiled. I had learnt that Santa was really Claire and Jonathan but I wasn’t telling. George and the kids still believed in him and that was all that mattered.

While we were getting reacquainted with the festive cottage, Polly, Matt and the children arrived, Franceska and Tomasz, Aleksy and Tommy following soon after.

We were all together, just as it should be.

‘So, our first fish and chips of the holiday,’ Matt said as he and Jonathan returned from the chip shop with bags full of dinner. For all of us. George, Gilbert and I licked our lips and waited by our food bowls. We weren’t disappointed.

The children dug in, as did the adults. The women had wine and the men beer. It felt as if there was a celebration going on, and I guess there was: our first night back at our holiday home.

‘I have some news,’ Tomasz said, suddenly.

‘Oh no, nothing bad,’ Claire shot, looking worried.

‘No, no, all good.’ He looked around the table. Then he took Franceska’s hand. ‘We went off to the town when we came here for the weekend, and we saw a restaurant.’

‘A restaurant? Here?’ Polly asked.

‘Well, you know our three in London are doing well now, and I thought why not try one down here? We all love it, we spend time here and it will give me an excuse to spend more time here! So we are opening in the new year. What do you think?’

‘Yay, Dad, that’s amazing,’ Aleksy said.

‘Can we live here all the time?’ Tommy asked.

‘No, not quite, boys, but we can spend time here, and Polly, we were wondering if you’d design it?’

‘I would love to.’

‘You know, when I thought we might lose this place, when the restaurant flooded and then there was all that business with Andrea, it hit us how much it means to us. I get it, Claire, how much you love it here and now we do too,’ Franceska said, and they all drank a toast.

‘Shall we go to the beach?’ Gilbert said when the adults were putting the children to bed. George was with us, because although he still slept with Toby he had started going to bed a little later. He was growing up, my boy. And although we were both sad not to be seeing Tiger on Christmas Day this year, we’d had a little family get-together before we left. It had been lovely; although it had been a cold day we had gone to the park, played with very cold leaves, and spent quality time together — that was what Jonathan often said, and I think it meant good times with those you loved. But Tiger understood that we needed to be with our families the way she had to be with hers so it was alright. George and I still loved her very much, she knew that, and that was all that mattered.

‘It’s freezing,’ I replied. I thought of the fire Jonathan was lighting in the snug and how I would very much like to be in front of it.

‘Please, Dad, just for a bit, it’s a tradition.’ George had still got a crush on Chanel but in half-term week he had become a little more in love with the beach than her, and I encouraged that. When the dogs weren’t around, of course.

‘OK,’ I said. ‘But not too long. I don’t want us to get too cold.’

We went out the back and round to the front of the house. I imagined our families all snuggled up by the fire in the living room. This was a second home for us all.

We jumped on the wall. I struggled slightly, my leg was always a bit stiffer in the cold, but Gilbert helped me and thankfully George didn’t notice. The sand was cold, icy and with a thin layer of snow under paw as we made our way to the top of the sand dune. The spiky grass glistened white in the moonlight, and as I sat down my bottom immediately felt cold.

‘It’s my favourite moon!’ George squealed excitedly at the crescent-shaped moon that faced us. I liked it too, it reminded me of one of Summer’s story books which pictured a man sitting on a crescent moon. Replace him with a cat and it would be perfect.

‘Well I am so glad to see you and I can’t wait for this Christmas,’ Gilbert said. ‘I mean,’ he looked a bit embarrassed, his enthusiasm still confused him sometimes, ‘what you’ve told me about the food and stuff.’ Poor Gilbert had never had Christmas dinner before, so we were all excited for him. He would be overjoyed when he tried turkey, I just knew he would.

‘This is going to be the best Christmas ever!’ George exclaimed. I tickled him with my whiskers.

‘You said that last year,’ I pointed out, smiling indulgently.

‘Yes, Dad and it was. This is what I have learnt about life.’ He sounded so serious that Gilbert and I turned to face him. ‘And I have mainly learnt it from you, and that is that every year will be the best Christmas ever if we are lucky, because that’s how life works when you have people, and cats, in it that you love. It just gets better and better and better.’

I thought my heart would burst with joy, but it didn’t, because it seemed, like life, it had the capacity to get better and better too.

5. ALFIE IN THE SNOW

Chapter One

I was lying on the sofa, in my favourite spot, the winter sun shining down on me through the window, when my kitten, George, leapt on me. Argh, he wasn’t such a little kitten any more; I was winded and a bit squashed.

‘George,’ I said, trying to squirm out from under his weight. ‘You have to stop doing that, you’re flattening me.’

‘Sorry, Dad,’ he replied, with his charming grin and his head tilted to one side. As usual, I melted. My boy was just too adorable, even if he was getting too heavy to jump on me. I couldn’t have been prouder of what a fine young tom he was growing into. ‘But I have news.’ He sat next to me and licked his paws. George did like to draw out any announcements. He was a fairly dramatic kitten. Unlike myself, of course.

‘Go on, George, tell me the news,’ I coaxed, thinking it would be about a funny-shaped cloud he had seen this morning, or a similar Georgeism.

‘There’s a big van parked outside so new people are moving in next door.’ He looked very pleased with himself, as well he might. I pricked up my ears. New people! On Edgar Road! Well, was there anything better for a doorstep cat like myself? Only a van full of pilchards could beat that.

My name is Alfie, and I’m a doorstep cat. Which basically means I have different families and homes I visit. I do live in one main house, here with my kitten George, in Edgar Road. Our humans are Claire and Jonathan and their children, Toby and Summer. But there is another family on this road we spend time with, Polly and Matt and their children Henry and Martha, and yet another family, who live a few streets away, Franceska, Tomasz and their children Aleksy and Tommy. Phew, it’s a lot of families and friends to keep track of. I met them when I moved to Edgar Road after an arduous journey, having been homeless after my old owner, Margaret, died, but that does feel like another lifetime. They say cats have nine lives, well I reckon I’ve used a few of those up to get to where I am today, although I still have plenty left.

I do credit myself with bringing all my families together and now they love each other the way I love them all. We even have a holiday home together, Seabreeze Cottage, which is in Devon, and we spend time there when we can. But London is our main home, on Edgar Road, where we spend most of our days. There’s always something going on here. Never a dull moment. Or if there is, it doesn’t last.

Up until now we were experiencing quite a quiet time. Winter was upon us, the nights were drawing in and the air had started biting. I was becoming a bit of a fair-weather cat, preferring not to spend too much time out in the cold and rain. However, my kitten, George, loved being out in all weathers. That’s youth for you. Just don’t seem to feel the cold. But I did take my constitutional every morning and evening, and I would brave the cold to seek out my friends, the neighbourhood cats and my cat girlfriend Tiger. But now it was cold and darker in the evenings, I preferred to stay in the warm as much as was possible.

But not now. This removal van I had to see. It was still exciting to see new people. Once a doorstep cat, always a doorstep cat, after all. So George and I bounded out to see what we could discover.

We made our way next door. I knew the house well– not too long ago my first girlfriend, the one before Tiger, Snowball, lived there. She was my first love and it wasn’t the easiest of starts but after many attempts to woo her she came round to my way of thinking eventually. Don’t get the wrong idea, I’m not exactly a cat lothario, I’veonly been in love twice, once with Snowball and now with Tiger, who is a mum to George. And George is adopted; he’s not my natural kitten but he, Tiger and I are a family.

Because I’ve learnt through the years that family comes in all shapes and sizes and no one is the same. But as long as you have love then you have family.

‘Look, Dad,’ George said, his eyes as wide as saucers. We stopped on the pavement and looked at the large van. The back door to the van was open and men were unloading boxes. I gestured for George to follow me and we snuck into the back garden where I knew we would find big patio doors to look through. My first thought whenever I saw new people was, were they in the market for a part-time cat? My second was that I sincerely hoped they didn’t have a dog.

We peered through the glass door, making sure not to be too visible in case we upset anyone (or dog). I could see activity. In the kitchen a woman, perhaps a similar age to Claire who, I believe, was in her forties but didn’t like to talk about it, was unpacking. Near her was a younger girl; she was tall and slim, perhaps a teenager? She was attached to a device, a phone. Aleksy had one and didn’t tear his eyes away from it for a minute if he could help it. His mum despaired. Tommy, who was younger than Aleksy, had one too but he was more interested in sports, so he was a whole different kettle of fish. Yum.

Suddenly, my excitement increased as I spotted what looked like a cat bed.

‘Oh George, I think a cat lives here,’ I said. Which of course meant the owners probably wouldn’t want another two cats but this cat could maybe be our new friend, which was even better. You could never have too many friends. We craned our necks a bit further and I spotted a tail. Quite an interestingly patterned tail. As the cat turned to face us, we both gasped. This cat’s fur had white, black and light brown markings, a pretty tail, pointed black and brown ears and exotic features. It was fairly small and sleek and I had never seen a cat quite like it, definitely unusual. I guessedshe was female as she looked far too pretty to be a male, and she was a good few years younger than me but perhaps a similar age to George.

‘Wow, she looks lovely,’ George said. I raised my whiskers. I didn’t want him getting a crush on her just yet, not until we knew her character. George had developed quite a thing for a cat when we’d spent our first summer in Devon. Chanel was the meanest cat I’d ever met, but George had been smitten and he’d pined for her all summer. His crush had also led to the near drowning of her, him and Jonathan, but thankfully they’d all survived. I wasn’t sure I was ready to cope with that again, just yet.

‘Perhaps we’ll wait until we meet her, eh George,’ I said. ‘You can’t keep falling in love with just looks you know, personality matters.’

‘Oh don’t worry, Dad, I’m not planning on falling in love with her. After Chanel I’m pretty much off girls for good.’

If only I could believe that.

We watched for a while longer, but there wasn’t much to see. Boxes being unpacked. The girl putting her phone down and petting the cat. They seemed serious and perhaps a bit sad too; being quite an intuitive cat I picked that up. We weren’t spotted and, after a while, George got bored and begged me to take him to the park. I reluctantly tore myself away, I was curious and I wanted to know more. They say curiosity killed the cat but not this one, no, curiosity is my middle name. Although not literally.

George went to play with Summer and Toby upstairs after the children had their tea. It was like having three children in the family. Toby and George had a special bond; Toby was adopted, like George in a way, and they both slept in the same bad every night, and had done since Toby came to live with us when George was tiny. Summer was younger, bossier and a‘madam’, according to Claire, but she could pretty much do no wrong in my eyes. I loved all the children and part of my job was taking care of them.

I padded into the kitchen to see if there was any sign of dinner. Claire was cooking, and Jonathan had just got home from work. He was sitting at the kitchen table with a beer. My food bowl was still empty.

‘Oh Jon, can you feed the cats?’ Claire asked. ‘I think Alfie’s after some food.’

‘Meow.’ I was.

‘Sure, I’ll give them some leftover roast chicken,’ he replied as I licked my lips.

‘You really do spoil them,’ Claire said, almost chastising him but not quite. Thank goodness he did, otherwise we had to settle for food that came out of pouches. There was nothing wrong with it, but it wasn’t quite the same. For a cat I did have a pretty sophisticated palate and a love of fine dining.

I started eating, knowing George would be down later, but I was hungry. As I lapped my food, I listened to the easy conversation between Claire and Jonathan.

‘I was talking to Frankie and Polly about Christmas earlier,’ she started.

‘Already?’ Jonathan pretended to be not the biggest fan of Christmas, but deep down he loved it, especially with the children. We all loved it, and I pricked my ears as it sounded like news.

‘Jon, it’s less than two months away and you know how quickly it’ll come round. Anyway, we were saying that perhaps this year we can spend the day together, here.’

‘We were saying?’ Jonathan raised an eyebrow.

‘OK, I was. I was thinking about Devon, but then Matt has to work between Christmas and New Year, so they literally only have two days off and Frankie said it would be very nice to have Christmas in London.’

When Tomasz and Franceska had first arrived from Poland they had very little, but they worked hard, especially Tomasz and now he owns four restaurants. Not on his own– he has partners and Franceska works with him now the children are older. They are doing very well and I am incredibly proud of them. They also introduced me to sardines which remain, to this day, my second favourite fish.

‘I haven’t even spoken to work about time off yet, but I’m happy for Christmas in London.’

‘And Frankie said they would do all the side dishes, I’ll do the turkey and Polly will make the pudding.’

‘You mean she’ll buy it,’ Jonathan replied.

‘Well yes, we know Polly’s not much of a cook, but at least it’ll be from Waitrose.’

I licked my lips. Christmas dinner was one of my favourite meals. I even liked some vegetables, which Claire said was very unusual for a cat. I think cats, in my experience, like a far wider variety of food than anyone gives them credit for.

‘And it’ll be nice to be together,’ Claire said wistfully. Her parents went to Spain every year for Christmas now, where her brother lived, and Jonathan wasn’t close to his family, so our friends were our family. It wasn’t a bad family at all.

‘The excitement levels of Summer and Toby will be cranked up this year.’

‘Oh, Summer is already talking about what she wants. Although I ought to warn you, she wants a baby.’

‘A doll?’

‘No, for us to have another baby.’

Jonathan choked on his beer, his face turning a funny colour.‘What did you say?’

‘I said that we had a lovely family already and, as Santa knew that, he’d probably not be able to send us a baby, and she then said perhaps a talking doll would do instead.’

‘Thank God for that.’ Jonathan started to return to a normal-ish colour. ‘It’s not just beyond Santa’s remit, it’s way beyond mine,’ he said.

‘Don’t worry darling, our family is perfect and I don’t want to change a thing,’ Claire said, going over to kiss him. Warmth flooded me as I let the feeling of happiness wash over me. Then I went to tell George it was time to wash his paws in time for dinner.

A parent’s work was never done.

Later that night, when George was tucked up with Toby and Summer was fast asleep, I set out to see my girlfriend Tiger. She lives just down the road and we usually met up most evenings, weather permitting– she’s even more of a fair-weather cat than I am – to watch the moon and chat about our day. We would also bring up any worries we had about George. We were parents first, which is what had prompted our friendship to develop into something more.

I sat on her back doorstep and meowed, which normally means she comes out. But she didn’t. I pushed the cat flap with my nose then waited but nothing. I couldn’t go in, her humans weren’t too keen on other cats in their house, although they tolerated George but not me. I guessed she had probably fallen asleep. Tiger wasn’t always the most active of cats.

I was about to give up and head home but I couldn’t resist going for one last look at our neighbours. As before, I found myself peering through the back doors, the house was fairly dark. But sitting at the table in the kitchen was the woman, in front of her was a glass of wine, and on her lap was the cat. The cat had her back to me, so no one noticed as I watched. The woman picked the glass up slowly and took a drink, before carefully placing it back on the table, and pushing her hair out of her eyes. I saw her head fall as she stroked the cat, and I saw what I thought were tears glistening in the darkness. Even from outside it was as if I could feel her sadness, her pain. I went home wondering what her story was, their story, and why she was upset. But I knew that somehow and at some point I would get to the bottom of it.

That was the kind of cat I was.

Chapter Two

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‘I fell asleep,’ Tiger said the next morning when George and I called on her. I hadn’t even opened my mouth.

‘I thought so.’

‘It was quite cold and I snuggled up with my human on the sofa, and the warmth from the fire, you know.’

‘Tiger, it’s OK, you don’t need to explain.’ Normally she didn’t offer explanations, but I didn’t say that.

‘Mum, Dad, can we go for a walk to the park?’ George asked. He had boundless energy this morning. I wished I did, but I was feeling the cold. I had an old injury which I had suffered when I first moved to Edgar Road. It was a long story involving saving Claire from a horrible relationship, and eventually bringing all of my families together, but it did leave me with a slightly bad leg which seemed to get worse and stiffen up in the cold or the rain. I mainly got on with things, I was pretty used to it by now. However, at the start of every winter I would be reminded of it.

‘Of course we can, George,’ Tiger said, nuzzling him. ‘It’s not raining, and hopefully it’ll stay dry.’

We set off and, as George hopped in front of us, I told Tiger about the new people.

‘So this cat is very pretty, is she?’ Tiger narrowed her eyes.

‘She’s unusual-looking but nearer George’s age than mine,’ I replied. Tiger did have a jealous streak, so I needed to tread carefully when talking about other cats.

‘What does George think?’ She immediately switched from sounding jealous to maternal.

‘He told me that after Chanel he’s sworn off girls for life.’ I grinned.

‘Good, because no one is good enough for my boy.’ I couldn’t have agreed more.

The park was pleasantly empty. We trailed around after George who bounded from one activity to the next. He stared for ages at his reflection in the small lake– I urged caution because when I was younger I’d done the same and nearly drowned. Then we made piles of leaves which were browning and a little soggy, but still quite fun to play with nonetheless. There were no butterflies to chase at this time of the year but George did manage to climb one ofthe smaller trees. By the time we headed back for lunch I was hungry, Tiger said she was tired – I swear she was getting lazier by the second – and George was still full of energy. He would only come home when I promised he would be allowed out later to the other end of Edgar Road, on his own.

It had been a hard decision to let George out alone, and I know that human parents had the same dilemma as Franceska had been through it with Aleksy and Tommy. Aleksy was a teenager now and wanted more freedom, a bit like George, but at the same time we, as parents, knew there were dangers out there. Letting go was possibly one of the hardest parenting lessons we had to face.

When George first went out alone, although he promised he wouldn’t go far, I was a bag of nerves until he came home. When he did come home I almost smothered the poor lad but I had never felt relief like it. Well, apart from the time he was catnapped and I found him, or the time he ran off after Chanel and we found him…But this was different, it was the first time he had gone out with permission.

Now he went out alone a fair bit, but never at night and never for too long. I tried to make him tell me where he was going as well, although to be fair he didn’t always seem to know. Sometimes he said he was going to the park, sometimes to see if any of the other cats were around. So far I had resisted the urge to follow him, but only just. Instead I would pace up and down or watch out of an upstairs window for his return. And thankfully he always camehome and never stayed out too long. Otherwise the worry would probably have turned my fur even greyer than it already was.

So, this afternoon I thought I would catch up on some of my personal cat business. I enjoyed time alone to have a thorough grooming session– after all, when you’re a parent you always seem to be having to rush your ablutions, and then I would enjoy some thinking time. It’s hard to think when you’ve got youngsters always wanting your attention. So, as much as I worried about George, now he was more independent I was beginning to enjoy some ‘me time’ as well. I settled on Claire and Jonathan’s bed – Jonathan didn’t like me being on there, Claire didn’t mind – because it was incredibly comfortable and one of my favourite places to muse.

The front door opened, and the rush of voices and children interrupted my thinking time. I stretched, yawned and then headed downstairs where to my joy I found my families all together in the kitchen. George was hopping among them.

‘Oh hi, Alfie,’ Tommy said, coming over to pet me. I saw a number of fat pumpkins on the kitchen table. Ah, of course, it was the weird thing that humans celebrated called Halloween.

‘I want to carve my pumpkin all on my own,’ Summer said. Claire looked terrified and I agreed. The idea of Summer with a knife was not good.

‘Sum, let me help you and Martha,’ Tommy suggested kindly. ‘It’ll be better than letting the adults take over.’ She considered his offer and agreed.

‘And Aleksy, maybe you can help Toby and Henry?’ Franceska suggested.

‘Do I have to?’ Aleksy answered, sounding surly which wasn’t like him, although it was lately. ‘I’m too old for all this.’

‘Yes you do,’ Franceska snapped and she, Polly and Claire exchanged glances.

‘We’d be very grateful if you would,’ Polly said, trying to calm the situation.

‘Fine.’ Aleksy made it sound as if it was anything but.

Claire made drinks for the grown-ups as the children sat at the table in the kitchen and began carving their pumpkins.

‘Hey,’ Henry said. ‘Let’s have a competition to see which one is the scariest.’ They all seemed to like this idea, although I knew from experience the only one who would end up liking it was the child who won.

‘What costumes are everyone wearing this year?’ Franceska asked. ‘I miss my boys dressing up.’

‘We’re too old to dress up,’ both Tommy and Aleksy said at the same time.

‘Summer wants to be a witch, and Toby is insisting on being a superhero,’ Claire said.

‘And I’m going to be a superhero too,’ Henry said. Toby and Henry were quite close and often copied each other.

‘I’m going to be a cat,’ Martha announced.

This news surprised me; after all, there were two cats here.

‘Oh, you can be Summer’s cat,’ Franceska said.

‘And George,’ Summer piped up.

‘Sum wants me to dye George black,’ Claire explained.

My whiskers twitched and George looked terrified. Imagine, my lovely kitten being dyed black!

‘Don’t worry George, it won’t happen. But I had to promise to make you a little witch’s hat to compensate.’

‘So, Summer, Martha and George will all share a broomstick,’ Henry explained. I wasn’t sure about George and a broomstick but we’d have to see.

‘Where are we getting a broomstick from?’ Claire asked, worriedly. ‘I’ve only got a kitchen broom.’

‘We need a proper broomstick,’ Summer shouted.

‘Don’t worry, I’ve ordered one from the internet,’ Polly said. Halloween was a lot of work, it seemed.

George was on the kitchen table and I could barely watch as he dodged the knives, seemingly unaware of the danger he faced. I heard him make a funny sound, which worried me.

‘Ahh,’ Toby cried. ‘George spat pumpkin over me.’ We all looked and Toby had a splat of pumpkin on his face. George glanced over to me as if to say, ‘I didn’t know it wouldn’t taste good.’ I raised my whiskers again. My curious son would never learn, it seemed, as he tried to lick Toby’s face.

The rest of the carving passed without incident. As the four children proudly presented their finished pumpkins, it was up to the adults to choose a winner. As Aleksy and Tommy had done most of the work it didn’t seem fair but then the older boys didn’t seem to mind as Aleksy wandered off to do something on his phone and Tommy went to the fridge to find a snack.

‘It’s a draw,’ Polly announced diplomatically.

‘Absolutely,’ Claire agreed, ‘they are all far too good.’

Thankfully the children all seemed to accept this. Summer and Toby’s pumpkins were placed on the front doorstep, with a lit candle in each – I warned George to stay away – so that Jonathan would be able to admire them when he got home.

As everyone said their goodbyes, Henry and Martha proudly clutching their pumpkins to their chests, they arranged to go‘trick or treating’ the following day after school.

‘I can’t wait to go trick or treating,’ George said to me when we were alone.

‘Well, you know Claire said you had to wear a hat,’ I pointed out.

‘Yeah, I’m not pleased about that but at least they’re not going to dye me black,’ he replied. And I had to agree.

‘Oh, and George, no more eating the pumpkin.’

‘No Dad, it tasted really weird.’

Chapter Three

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Even I had to admit to being excited. George had been unbearable today; he was so keen to go trick or treating, that from the morning he was badgering me about the time. It was a very long day until I bundled him off to find Tiger, telling him how much she would love to hear about the pumpkin carving and the evening ahead. It did buy me a little bit of peace and quiet and I would apologise to Tiger later.

What I was most excited about was the fact that when trick or treating we would definitely go to the new next-door neighbour’s house and hopefully meet them. Despite not having a costume or being given a specific role I would join them, as the other parents did.

While the children got ready upstairs, I groomed myself in the living room. I was sad that Aleksy, Tommy and Franceska wouldn’t be joining us, but the boys refused point blank to go on the basis that they were too old. Growing up was hard, but it was definitely difficult for parents, I knew that with George. They became more independent, needed you less, wanted you less even, which could be hurtful. It was something that I was having to learn to accept and Franceska and I were in a similar situation on this one.

The children emerged giddy with excitement. Toby was in a Spiderman costume and Summer was dressed in a black cape with a tall pointed black hat and a false nose. She looked a bit scary in a very cute way. George, being carried by Summer, had a little black hat on and he looked adorable. I was sure he would earn the kids extra sweets this year. Claire picked up the broomstick, and we all headed out to meet Polly, Martha and Henry.

All assembled, they decided to start at the end of the street. I was slightly disappointed by this. Edgar Road is a long road and it meant I would have quite a wait before we reached next door.

We approached the first house. Summer, Martha and George were all at the door, trying to balance on the broomstick, when it tipped and George fell off.

‘Yowl.’ He landed on his tail.

‘Martha, that was your fault!’ Summer stormed.

‘No, it was yours,’ Martha bit back, and Martha never got cross. Polly picked George up and petted him, Claire picked the broomstick up and as the girls glared at each other with their arms crossed, a kindly woman answered the door, and thrust sweets at them. They soon forgot to argue and were happy to get back on the broomstick. However, Toby took George from Polly and offered to carry him, which seemed the safest bet.

We crossed the street to a house opposite which was a real mess. The garden was overgrown, the house had peeling paint, and it looked sad, if it was possible for a house to look so. I saw Polly and Claire exchange a glance.

‘Maybe we should give this one a miss?’ Claire suggested, but the kids were already half way up the path. We all followed, reluctantly. There was a light on in the front room and Toby knocked on the door, George still in his arms. The children all stood expectantly on the front doorstep, discussing what sweets they might expect. A man came to the window. He was old, moving slowly. He looked out at us, then, to our surprise, he raised his fist at us, shouted, ‘Get lost’, and pulled the curtains closed.

‘Why doesn’t he want to see us?’ Martha asked, her eyes full of confusion.

‘Maybe he forgot to buy sweets. Come on, we’ve got lots of houses to visit,’ Claire chivvied them up. As we made our way back down the path I glanced back at the house. I didn’t understand why he didn’t want to see us either.

Finally, with weary legs– me – and full bags of sweets and chocolate – the children – we reached the house next door to us. I could barely contain my excitement as I waited with everyone on the doorstep. The woman who opened the door didn’t look sad, not like the crying woman I’d seen last night. She had short-ish blonde hair which fell over her face, and was tall and slim. She looked composed, smiling, her head tilted to one side questioningly as she stood in front of us.

‘Trick or treat,’ the children chanted.

‘Oh my goodness, Connie, come here,’ the woman shouted and the teenager I’d seen joined her at the front door.

‘Hi, I’m Claire and this is Polly.’ Claire beamed as the children held their bags out hopefully. ‘I live next door, Polly is down the road. We would have come round properly to introduce ourselves, but with it being Halloween …’

‘Hi.’ Polly held out her hand and the woman took it.

‘I’m Sylvie, and this is Connie. Lovely to meet you.’ The woman paused for a moment, then she said, ‘I’m sure I’ve got some chocolate inside, why don’t you come in for a moment?’ The children didn’t need to be asked twice, but Polly swiped George out of Toby’s arms and put him next to me on the doorstep.

‘Oh, who are these two?’ Sylvie asked.

‘Our cats,’ Polly and Claire said in unison. They both laughed. ‘You guys wait here,’ they said as they followed the children inside and the door was closed on us.

‘Oh well, Dad, I guess when they come out we’ll hear all about it.’

‘Yes.’ But I was impatient. I wanted to know about the new family, and the cat. And was there a man? Because we’d only seen Sylvie and the teenager. So many questions.

We waited patiently by the front gate and it wasn’t long before Polly and Claire and the children emerged. They were laughing and Sylvie was smiling.

‘Oh how sweet, your cats waited for you.’

‘They enjoy trick or treating,’ Polly said.

‘It’s funny, so different for us. My Hana is a house cat, she’s never been outside – but that was normal in Japan.’

‘Hana is such a pretty cat,’ Claire said, and I agreed from what I had seen.

‘She’s a Mikeneko, which is Japanese of course. Cat with a coat of three colours. The English name would be a tortoiseshell.’

‘But Hannah is an English name?’ Polly asked.

‘It’s actually H-a-n-a, it’s Japanese for flower.’

‘That’s lovely, a sweet name for a sweet cat,’ Claire said.

Bingo, I already had more information at my paw tips than I thought I would. A house cat, and what was Japan? A coat of three colours. Oh, this was most interesting.

‘Right, well we’ll see you soon. I’ll text and we’ll have that dinner,’ Polly said as she gave a wave. I was delighted, it seemed the women were already the best of friends. But how we were going to befriend a house cat?

Later, when the children were upstairs having managed to sneak a number of their sweets up there, despite being told not to, and Polly and Claire were sitting on the sofa with a glass of wine, I learnt more about Sylvie.

They both seemed to like her so far. She was English, but she and her daughter had moved back from Japan which was a place quite far away, by the sound of it. They had lived there with her husband, who had left her for another woman and they were now getting divorced and she was very upset about it. Already things were beginning to make sense. Claire had been divorced when I first moved in with her, before she met Jonathan of course, so they had that in common. Anyway, it was difficult because not only had Sylvie split up with her husband but she’d also had to move away from the country that had been her home for many years. Her daughter, Connie, who turned out to be the same age as Aleksy – fourteen – was also upset about leaving her school, her friends and her dad. I guess that explained the late-night wine drinking in the kitchen and crying. Claire had done that a lot too.

As I listened to them talk about how they would make Sylvie feel really welcome and how they would also introduce Connie to Aleksy who would be at the same school in the same year, I began to feel excited. New friends. Now I just had to figure out how to get their cat, Hana, to come out so we could meet her. Either that or we’d have to find a way to go in. It was just a minor hiccup; after all, I’m a pretty resourceful cat, if I do say so myself.

I heard a clatter of footsteps on the stairs and Toby burst in with Henry at his heels.

‘George has been sick on my bed!’ he cried.

‘He ate lots of our chocolate, by accident,’ Henry explained.

‘Great, right, well I better go up and clear up. And you guys, I already told you no more sweets,’ Claire shouted.

‘I feel a bit sick too, Mummy,’ Toby said. We all did what I call a parenting eye roll, and rushed upstairs to sort it out. I would be having stern words with my kitten later.

‘So, I missed the trick or treating,’ Jonathan said, not exactly sounding disappointed.

‘Yes, funny how you had to work late tonight,’ Claire bit back.

‘I did, honestly. Anyway, the kids had a good time?’

‘Yes, I took photos.’ Claire handed him her phone. ‘But there was one house which was a bit of a nightmare, at the end of the street, overgrown, peeling paint. There was a light on but when we rang the bell, an old man glared at us then drew the curtains. Who would do that to a bunch of kids?’

‘Oh, I know. That’s the guy who Vic and Heather Goodwin were moaning to me about. Apparently they have been trying to talk to him about tidying the place up, even offered to do the garden for him, but he told them to go away. Although I’m not sure he was that polite. They said he’s a bit ofan ogre and they think he might be dangerous. All bulging eyes and shifty behaviour, according to them.’

‘Great, so I took our kids to a nutter’s house?’

‘Oh I wouldn’t worry, you know how the Goodwins exaggerate. He’s probably just a grumpy old man who doesn’t like people. I understand, after all I’ll probably be one one day.’

He was right, he definitely would.

Chapter Four

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After breakfast, as the children all went to school, George and I headed out to see the other neighbourhood cats. Sometimes I felt as if I was far too busy, so many people– and cats – to see that it was hard to fit it all in. I was hoping to see Tiger as well, as I made my way to near the end of the road, where we often convened on a patch of grass we called our recreation space. It was quite isolated from the main road, and there were hedges to play in – George still loved a bit of hide and seek – and even a couple of trees. Best of all, our friends knew to go there.

I had made many cat friends since being on Edgar Road. We had new ones coming in, and had lost one or two of our members, but the core group remained the same: Elvis, who was pretty much an old man now, Rocky and Nellie, but there was no sign of Tiger.

‘Alright, Alfie, George,’ Rocky said.

‘What’s going on?’ I asked.

‘Nothing much, you?’

‘We’ve got a new cat next door,’ I said, too excited to keep the news to myself. ‘But she doesn’t go out, or she didn’t in her old home, so we haven’t been able to meet her yet.’

‘Claire and Polly said they lived in another country,’ George said. ‘What’s that then?’

Nellie, Rocky, Elvis and I all looked at each other. We were cats, after all, and not experts in geography.

‘It’s very far away,’ Elvis said, finally as if he knew. ‘We live in London, and other people live in other places which are countries.’ None of us, including him, knew if that was true.

‘Like Devon?’ George asked.

‘Exactly,’ I said quickly. After all, it didn’t really matter, did it?

‘So Japan, which is where they come from, is another country,’ George said. ‘And there, cats don’t go out, apparently,’ he added. I was surprised and pleased that he’d paid so much attention. He went off to hide under a hedge.

‘You can pretend to look for him today, Nellie,’ I said. She was like an aunt to George and also had more patience than I did. After all, George always hid in the same place and it did get a bit tiresome pretending that we didn’t know where he was.

‘OK.’ She grinned.

‘Has anyone seen Tiger today?’ I asked.

‘Nope. She’s been a bit elusive lately if you ask me,’ Rocky said.

‘I said the same to her but she said she just didn’t like the cold any more. Though I thought she might be here this morning.’

‘Nah, not so far. Although it’s still early.’

We settled down to our activities, gossiping, watching George play and watching the world go by, and before long Tiger appeared. I was relieved to see her, and I’m not sure why I was worrying. It was just something I always did. I am a worrier by nature. And when, like now, life was coasting along very well, I tended to worry more.

‘Hey,’ I said, greeting her excitedly.

‘Calm down Alfie, you’re acting like you haven’t seen me for ages.’

‘Well, you weren’t out last night.’

‘No, sorry, I fell asleep after dinner again, and when I woke up, I thought it was probably too late. Honestly, I am not a fan of winter,’ she declared, examining her paw.

‘I love winter, I hope it snows,’ George said excitedly. He’d had his first experience of snow the previous year and he was a big fan. I was not; it was cold, wet and you sank into it, a bit like sand actually, which I also wasn’t too fond of.

‘Yes, well, George, you might not say the same when you get older,’ Tiger said, but indulgently. ‘Right, come on and we can go and climb a tree if you’re good.’

They set off together to the nearest tree. All was normal as I watched George jump about with Tiger, then Nellie went to join them and they started a game of tag. Rocky, Elvis and I watched and caught up on more local gossip.

‘Salmon tried to tell us about your neighbours as well,’ Rocky said.

‘Of course, his owners will have gone around already, won’t they?’ I replied. Salmon was a pain and used to be my arch nemesis, but we were civil now. He lived across the street from me with the Goodwins who were the self-appointed neighbourhood watch coordinators on Edgar Road. Translation: they were incredibly nosy busybodies who annoyed most of us. But Jonathan had to admit that, with them around, Edgar Road was a low crime street. No one got away with anything. ‘What did he say?’

‘Oh, he was doing his usual, acting as if he knew more than he did, being cagey, but we’re used to it now. He didn’t even mention the fact they’d lived in another country, so my guess is that your humans found out more than his.’

‘Well that makes me happy,’ I said. I was still curious though. Our chat was interrupted by a commotion and we rushed to see George perched precariously on a high branch. My heart sped up.

‘Oh my goodness, George,’ I said.

‘Get down at once,’ Tiger was shouting.

‘He’s ever so high,’ Rocky exclaimed.

‘And that branch don’t look too secure,’ Elvis yowled.

‘Oh no, poor boy, what’s going to happen?’ Nellie asked. We all started panicking, running around in circles and yelping. As we came to a halt I noticed that George had started his descent. My heart was in my paws as I watched him climb down. I had discovered my fear of heights a long time ago, whilst being stuck up a tree. Not only that, but I’d had to endure the humiliation of being rescued by the fire brigade. It was all for love, but that was another story. Trees had not been one of my favourite things ever since.

‘What were you all shouting about?’ George asked innocently as he reached the ground.

‘Oh thank goodness,’ Nellie said, sitting down and looking exhausted.

‘George, you were so high, too high,’ Tiger chastised.

‘No I wasn’t. Look, I got down, didn’t I? Sometimes you adults panic about the most ridiculous things.’

Unfortunately no one could argue with that.

Tiger and I decided we’d had enough excitement for one day so we took George home. He was reluctant, having had so much fun. But while we were on our way I saw the next-door neighbour, Sylvie, and her daughter, Connie, in the street. I couldn’t resist making myself known to her.

‘Oh Connie, here are the next-door cats again.’

‘They’re cute,’ Connie said, bending down and petting us.

‘We’ll meet them properly later as we’re going over.’ Sylvie smiled in the way that people did when they weren’t really very happy. A fake smile, or putting on a brave face as I thought of it. We all did it, us adults.

‘Great,’ Connie said but I noticed how her shoulders sagged and she dragged her feet. Her voice definitely lacked enthusiasm.

‘Come on, if we get your school uniform sorted quickly then I’ll buy you some more exciting clothes.’ Sylvie was trying hard.

‘Fine,’ Connie said as they walked off.

‘I think those two need a lot of cheering up,’ I said. Tiger nodded her agreement.

‘Well, they’ve come to the right street,’ George finished.

They really had.

My slumber was disturbed by one of my favourite noises: my families. From my place on Claire and Jonathan’s bed, I heard the loud cheery greetings. I stretched and rushed downstairs where George was, as usual, centre of attention. I meowed loudly to make myself heard and Aleksy and Tommy came over and took turns fussing me. I nestled into them enjoying the warmth.

Our house, which wasn’t quiet at the best of times, became louder, more crowded, and heaps of fun. Claire and Jonathan’s was the biggest house which was why we all convened at ours, but Tomasz and Franceska came in loaded with food from the restaurant, Polly and Matt always had wine and beer with them, and the adults – which included me – would all go to the kitchen to prepare food and drinks while the children, with George in tow, went into the living room. The older children would set up games for the younger ones. I had noticed that lately Aleksy hovered a bit before joining the kids; he thought himself too grown-up and I had been warned what that meant. He was a new creature now, something called a teenager.

I had heard about teenagers, notably from Tiger whose humans didn’t have one but knew one who visited, and I’d had first-hand experience of one when I was in love with Snowball and she lived with a teenage boy who spoke monosyllabically and never smiled. Well, my Aleksy, who I had known for years, since I first moved to Edgar Road and before he even started school, was now one. He had had his thirteenth birthday last year, and everyone had made a big deal about him becoming a teenager, but I didn’t know why because as far as I could see there was nothing to celebrate. It seemed that turning fourteen hadn’t improved things at all.

It was about losing my sweet best friend– although he was always still lovely to me, I didn’t know if the real him would ever come back. Teenagers were not an exact science though, apparently, but this one, hovering in the hallway, looking at the phone clasped in his hand, ignoring everyone around him, had definitely become one of them.

Eventually he went into the living room.

‘Aleksy, help me make a den,’ Tommy said.

‘I’m busy,’ Aleksy mumbled and sat on the sofa doing something with his phone. Toby looked disappointed.

‘But Aleksy, you make the best dens,’ Henry complained.

‘Please,’ Summer asked, looking at him with her big blue eyes.

‘OK, but just for a minute,’ he sighed, as he started gathering the sofa cushions.

I went to the kitchen where Polly had just finished telling Franceska about Sylvie.

‘She’ll be here in a minute, but remember, guys, it’s been hard for her,’ Polly reminded them.

‘Hey, I lived in Singapore, remember,’ Jonathan said. ‘And I wasn’t exactly thrilled when I moved back here, so I’ll be able to properly sympathise.’

‘God, he’s right,’ Claire said. ‘I hadn’t thought of it before, but at least you and her can talk about expat life if needed.’

‘And also how, if you hadn’t left that sunny, fun-filled life, you’d never have met Claire, or had the kids,’ Matt joshed.

‘Hey, he is so lucky he got fired from his job in Singapore,’ Claire said.

‘Meow,’ I shouted.

‘Of course, you’d never have met Alfie either,’ Tomasz said and thankfully everyone seemed to agree what a terrible thing that would have been.

Throughout dinner, Sylvie and Connie were quiet. The younger children had been fed earlier, Tommy insisting on eating with them, and they were in the living room watching a DVD while the adults, Aleksy and Connie ate. Claire, Polly and Franceska talked about the local area, schools, and the men were polite, but no one wanted to ask too many questions. Aleksy and Connie sat next to each other but they weren’t exactly chatting either. It was fine but it did feel a bit awkward, rather than the usual conversation and bickering and teasing. I paced around the table, wondering what I could do to bring this evening to life, and then I had an idea. I knew I’d be in trouble, but I jumped on the table.

‘Alfie, get down!’ Claire screeched. Aleksy burst out laughing and then Connie looked at him and did the same.

‘Bloomin’ cat,’ Jonathan huffed, lifting me off the table and trying not to laugh.

‘He is such a naughty cat sometimes,’ Claire huffed.

‘But so cute.’ Tomasz grinned.

‘You two will be going to the same school when Connie starts on Monday,’ Claire said, the ice having been broken.

‘Really? What year?’ Aleksy asked.

‘Year Nine,’ Connie mumbled, but then she looked up. ‘I haven’t been to school in England before,’ she said. ‘So I don’t know much about it.’

‘I’m in the same year. Hey, listen, I can meet you and walk there with you if you want, I mean on your first day.’

‘Would you?’ She looked relieved, as did her mum.

‘Sure, I mean I know nearly everyone in our year and school’s OK, so I can help you meet people.’ Aleksy blushed; this was the most I had heard him say in ages.

‘That’s great, thank you Aleksy,’ Sylvie said. The teenagers looked as if they had said too much and glanced back at their plates.

Things got easier after that. Sylvie seemed to relax as she and Jonathan chatted about Asia; they both had been to lots of the same countries although Jonathan admitted never having been to Japan. At one point Polly went to check on the children, then Aleksy asked to be excused and Connie and he left, both grabbing their phones from the kitchen counter on their way out. I spent a while listening to the adults, satisfied that although it wasn’t quite there yet, Sylvie would make a nice addition to the group. I could still feel her sadness and she was guarded but when she smiled, or laughed, I could see that she was lovely.

I followed Aleksy to where he and Connie sat on the stairs.

‘I’m actually really nervous about school,’ Connie admitted. I looked at her properly for the first time. She had shoulder-length dark hair, big eyes and pale skin. She was almost as tall as Aleksy and slim, although she wore baggy trousers and a hooded sweatshirt, which was pretty much what Aleksy wore too. They both had trainers on their feet as well. It was, I believed, the teenage uniform.

‘I guess it might be different to your school in Japan. Do you speak Japanese?’ Aleksy asked. Connie said some words which neither of us understood.

‘Yes, I do.’ She smiled. She was pretty when she smiled. ‘But now that we’re here I’m not sure how useful it will be. I didn’t want to come home,’ she admitted.

‘You know, I lived in Poland when I was born,’ he said.

‘Do you remember it?’

‘No, but we do visit. And I speak a bit of Polish.’ He said some words again which I didn’t quite understand, although I recognised it a bit as I’d heard Franceska and Tomasz speaking Polish over the years. ‘But I think of here as home now.’

‘I still think of Japan as home. I miss it,’ she said, sounding sad.

I was surprised at how open she was; it seemed that perhaps teenagers only knew how to speak to each other.

‘It’ll be alright. Hey, is that the iPhone 7?’ he asked, looking at her phone.

‘Yes, it’s the same as yours,’ she replied and they both grinned.

Family evening came to an end soon after that. Tired children were either taken home or upstairs to bed, George was tucked in with Toby, Aleksy and Tommy bounded off, still full of energy, with their parents, and Connie and Sylvie went next door. Once everyone was settled I went to see if Tiger was out, but it was raining so I was pretty sure that she wouldn’t be. I was right: there was no sign of her. As the raindrops dampened my fur, I thought about going home, snuggling into my warm bed but, before I did, I couldn’t resist sneaking next door.

I saw Sylvie sitting at the kitchen table, this time with lights on, Hana the cat on her lap again, and in front of her was a computer. She was talking to someone and I knew from experience that she was probably talking to a friend through the screen– I was quite technologically savvy for a cat. I was pleased to see she was smiling and I hoped that being with us had cheered her up a bit. The rain started coming down much heavier and, in danger of turning into a drowned rat, I went back next door to the warm, dry home that was always there towelcome me.

Chapter Five

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I was thinking about how to get to meet Hana now the weekend was over. Connie had started school and Sylvie told Claire she had some job interviews, and now I had spent a bit of time with both Connie and Sylvie I really, really wanted to meet this exotic cat. Not only was I keen to let her know that she had friends around if she wanted them, but I also was interested to get her opinion on how her family was coping.

Connie had told Aleksy that they’d had Hana since she was a kitten and she had never been outside, she’d always been a house cat which was customary in the Tokyo suburb where they lived. I could understand that in some places cats didn’t go outside and I also knew it suited some of them, but I couldn’t imagine being a house cat. Although, after some of the trouble we had got into in the past, it probably wasn’t a bad idea. And in George’s case it would make life much easier for me…No, being a house cat, on reflection, sounded terrible and I needed to rescue Hana from this life of incarceration now she was in England.

These were my thoughts as I hung around outside Tiger’s house – George had gone off for a stroll with Nellie – when I saw her owners come out with her in a cat carrier. I narrowed my eyes and wondered where she was going. Her owners were older than any of mine and didn’t go out very often. But they got into a car, a taxi, and drove off. Tigerhadn’t been looking so she didn’t see me. I forgot all about Hana and fretted about Tiger, where was she going? What was she doing? Was everything OK? I calmed myself down as I went to find the others. Her owners didn’t have luggage with them so they couldn’t be going away. Perhaps they were taking her to visit a friend. I found Elvis and Rocky at the recreation ground, grateful that I could take comfort in their routine.

‘The lad and Nellie have gone to the other end of the street,’ Rocky said.

‘Yeah, and Nellie never says no to him,’ Elvis added.

‘No one says no to George,’ I pointed out. ‘But I wanted to ask you, I just saw Tiger going out, does anyone know where she’s gone?’ I asked. I doubted they did but, before they could answer, Salmon loomed over us. He had a habit of doing that, almost appearing from thin air.

‘Are you wondering about Tiger?’ he asked. He sounded his usual smug self. But I wanted information, so I needed to play along.

‘I was, I saw her go out with her owners, I had no idea what she was up to,’ I said, trying to sound nonchalant.

‘Well, my owners went to see hers this morning, important neighbourhood watch business. Apparently they are taking her to the vet.’

‘The VET??!’ I immediately panicked.

‘Calm down Alfie,’ Salmon said, almost sounding kind. ‘It’s just a check-up. Tiger probably didn’t even know she was going but they said they’d locked the cat flap so she couldn’t go out this morning.’

‘Thank you Salmon, it’s really kind of you to let me know.’ I wasn’t used to him being so helpful.

‘That’s alright.’ He tried to sound cool again. ‘No fur off my nose.’

‘Hey, I was just thinking about Hana, the cat who’s moved in next door to me,’ I said, thinking I owed him.

‘Oh yes, have you met her?’ he asked. He couldn’t hide his interest now.

‘No, but her owners came to our house last night. She doesn’t go out, ever. She’s a house cat. Something common in her country of Japan apparently.’

‘Well I never,’ Rocky said. ‘A house cat?’

‘Yes, she’s never been out, ever,’ I said, enjoying having the authority on something.

‘That’s a shame,’ Elvis said. ‘It means we’ll never meet her.’

‘Oh we will,’ I said.

‘What do you mean?’ Salmon narrowed his eyes at me.

‘I don’t exactly know, but I will figure something out.’

‘I can’t stand around here all day chatting, things to do, people to see.’ Salmon grinned before stalking off.

‘Gosh, he’s almost going soft in his old age,’ Rocky said as we watched him swinging his tail behind him.

I didn’t tell George about Tiger. Salmon had said it was just a check-up but I wanted to talk to Tiger and get some reassurance before involving George. He was surprised as I actively encouraged him to go out on his own after lunch, but he was quick to take advantage as he rushed off with my blessing.

I sat by Tiger’s back step and it wasn’t long before she appeared.

‘Thank goodness,’ I said, nuzzling her. ‘I was worried about you.’

‘I know I’m sorry, they sprang the vet on me. This morning I went to go out and I bashed my head against the cat flap, which hurt.’ She paused to rub her head with her paw. ‘They closed it without telling me, and they shoved me, well not shoved, but put me in the carrier and off we went.’

‘You poor thing.’ No cat I knew was a fan of the vet, they had a habit of poking around where it wasn’t their business. Well, actually it was their business but it was still very personal and intrusive. ‘What did the vet say?’ I took a long, hard look at Tiger; she seemed fine to me.

‘Oh nothing really, it was just a check-up. They poked and prodded and ran some tests but I’m right as rain. You know how my humans fuss. I heard them say that at my age we needed to check more often. I mean the indignity!’

‘God, I hope it doesn’t occur to my family. I’ll have to make sure I always appear in the best of health in front of them.’

‘Good plan, Alfie. Although the vet was nice, she was very kind, but still. Where’s George?’

‘Off playing somewhere. To be honest, I wanted him to go off so I could talk to you. You know, in case anything was wrong. Hopefully he’ll be back soon.’

‘Oh Alfie, what will we do with you? Come on, I’ll come with you, let’s go find our boy.’

We set off, the wind in our fur, the cold air whipping around our legs as we set off. We walked in companionable silence and I couldn’t help but think how lucky I was to have so many cats around me that I’d known for years, and that I cared so deeply about, and that cared about me. It made me return my thoughts to Hana, I really had to figure out a way to see her and make sure that she wasn’t too lonely. Loneliness was theworst thing and although it had been so long since I had experienced it, I had never forgotten.

George and I walked Tiger home and then went back to our place, where we bumped into Aleksy who was with Connie.

‘Hey guys,’ Aleksy said, petting us.

‘Meow?’ Aleksy didn’t normally come to our house on his own.

‘I just walked Connie home, but I better go, Mum will worry if I don’t get back soon. Not to mention that we have a mountain of homework, right Con?’ he grinned. I was startled, Aleksy hadn’t been this chatty for quite a while, or looked so animated. He wasn’t even staring at a screen. Was being a teenager over now? I certainly hoped so. I wanted my sweet Aleksy back.

‘Yes, and it’s only my first day,’ Connie giggled. I stared at them both, raising my whiskers. It looked as if they had become friends already which made me very happy. So, as I took George home for tea, all seemed right once again.

Chapter Six

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‘So, I got a job,’ Sylvie said as she arrived at our house a few nights later, a bottle in her hands. ‘I know you might be busy, but I wondered if you fancied a drink to celebrate with me?’ She shrugged. She looked so attractive, with her eyes, which were a bit like Connie’s, sparkling.

‘What, already? The job, I mean.’ Claire said.

‘It’s nothing fancy but I got it through a friend of my sister’s, so total nepotism. But, you know, I haven’t worked for years, I’ve been an expat wife, so I was lucky to get anything, I think.’

‘Congratulations, come in, of course we can celebrate. The kids are in bed, Jon’s at the gym, so you’ve picked the perfect time.’ Claire ushered her in and I followed. Claire led her to the kitchen, pulling some glasses out of the cupboard and opening the bottle which was fizzy.

‘I really hope you don’t mind.’ Sylvie chewed her lip nervously. ‘I don’t normally go anywhere without arranging it …’

‘Don’t be silly. Honestly, I would rather you felt like you could pop round whenever you want, if we’re busy I’ll say, and you won’t take offence. That’s how it is with us, you know Polly and Frankie,’ Claire said.

‘That’s so kind, I can’t believe how lucky I was moving in next door to you!’ Sylvie said.

‘I moved to London years ago without knowing anyone so I understand how daunting it is. And, Sylvie, I moved here after my first marriage broke down in a horrible way. I made a friend from work, Tasha, she basically saved me from loneliness,’ Claire explained.

‘I’ve been away so long that I’ve pretty much lost touch with my friends from the UK. My sister lives in Bristol with her husband, but I gave my life up for my ex-husband, basically. Moving back here, well, it made me realise how much my life was tied up with his and that’s so sad. Thank goodness I got Connie out of it.’

‘What happened, exactly?’ Claire asked, putting two full glasses in front of them.

‘Total clich?…Um, that’s nice,’ Sylvie replied, taking a sip of her drink. ‘My husband met a younger woman through work, and I now know they were having an affair, but then he declared himself in love with her and asked for a divorce.’

‘Wow, that’s awful. Is she Japanese?’

‘No, actually American, beautiful of course and young. Only in her twenties.’

‘Oh God, that’s so horrible. I am so sorry Sylvie.’ Claire’s eyes glistened with concern.

‘I’m sorry.’ Sylvie wiped a tear away. ‘I’m not good at celebrating yet. I felt as if my life was over, does that make sense? I’d devoted it to him. I gave up my career to follow his, I brought up his daughter for him, I didn’t really have anything but my family. Looking back that wasvery stupid of me but …’

‘Hey, no one knows what’s going to happen. He’s, well, I won’t say what he is, but I am so sorry.’

‘Then he gave me the option of staying to watch him with his new woman, so he could see Connie, and I just couldn’t. I was too humiliated, so I moved Connie back here, but I know she misses her dad and I feel so guilty about pulling her away. But Japan was about my marriage, I couldn’t stay there without it. There was nothing there for me but humiliation and I had to get away.’

‘You did what you had to do, honey,’ Claire said. ‘Look, don’t for one minute ever think it’s easy. I moved here after splitting from my ex-husband, as I said, but I only moved within this country, not from a million miles away. You must miss your friends.’

‘I do, and I Skype them, but it’s not the same. Anyway, sorry I’m being so maudlin – but I have to admit worrying about Connie settling in here is giving me sleepless nights.’ She lifted her glass.

‘And that’s understandable. But, cheers to your job – oh, what is it?’ Claire laughed. ‘I almost forgot to ask.’

‘It’s in a clothes shop, a gorgeous boutique in Clapham. Lovely clothes actually, quite expensive, but I did work in fashion in my old life, and I have a bit of a passion for it. I know I’m just a shop girl but it’s not too far away and it’ll just give us a bit of income.’

‘Well, I think it’s great. I’ll come and have a look but of course don’t tell Jonathan if it’s really expensive.’

‘Promise I won’t. Anyway, my sister’s friend, Jessica, she said if it works out, she’ll let me help with buying and display down the line, and so it will be quite fun. It’ll get me out of the house while Connie’s at school and it’s a good, positive move, I think.’

‘It’ll just do you good to have routine.’

‘Yes, I need to feel that I have a purpose. For so long now I’ve just been a wife and a mother.’

‘You’re never just a mother. But I do understand. I used to work long hours but I’ve been part-time since Summer and Toby, but to be honest I don’t miss it as much as I thought I would.’

‘I can’t pretend I don’t miss my old life although I wasn’t exactly a modern woman. I organised the house, my husband’s social life, took care of Connie and spent a lot of time with friends. But now being home…well, it’s different and the older Connie gets the less she’ll need me. I think it was the whole expat thing. I didn’t work, most of us wives didn’t. I made sure that Philip, my ex, that his life ran like clockwork. If he was home I cooked for him, made sure his laundry was done, packed for his business trips, arranged holidays, basically ensured his life was relaxing, and I kept most of the stress away from him. I dealt with any problems with Connie, he got the fun bits, but he had a pressured job so I thought it was important and in return I got to lunch with my friends, travel, buy pretty much what I wanted, and for so long I thought it was enough for me, I thought it was enough for us.’

‘But it wasn’t?’

‘Not for him. And of course I worry about Connie. He’s still her father and she loves him.’

‘Oh God.’ Claire and I both shuddered. ‘I couldn’t cope with that, poor Connie.’

‘Anyway, time to rebuild. I might have been married for sixteen years but it’s time for me to look to the future. And to ensure that my little girl, who isn’t so little, isn’t too badly damaged by all this.’ She spoke with purpose.

‘Did Connie get on OK at school?’

‘She seemed happy enough. It’s very difficult because she’s used to her very nice international school. I think it’s a bit different from a comprehensive in London. I did think about trying to make my ex pay for private school but the fees are eye-watering, even for him, so I decided to trythis first. If she’s unhappy, though, I would find the money somehow, or I would make him pay. I should make him pay.’

‘Hey, we’re not going to talk about him, remember. Positive. Aleksy will make sure Connie’s OK at school, you have a job, your ex is a…a word I shouldn’t use and, one day soon, you’ll see there’s a future.’

‘Gosh, Claire, I’ll say it again: we were so lucky to move next door to you.’

‘Meow!’ I said.

‘And Alfie of course.’ Claire winked.

‘Oh for goodness sake, Claire, give it a rest,’ Jonathan said later as they were in bed.

‘What?’ she asked. ‘I just asked if you knew anyone.’

One of my skills is matchmaking. I bring people together, both romantically and in friendship, and Claire has learnt from me. She is an enthusiastic student.

‘The last time I set one of your friends up with mine she ended up moving to Dubai.’ He was talking about Claire’s best friend Tasha, who was also a very good friend of mine. We both still miss her.

‘OK, yes, but I just thought it might help Sylvie get settled if she had a bit of a social life.’

‘I agree, but she’s probably not ready for a man yet, she’s been through a huge upheaval, Claire, and I think the best thing is for us to offer friendship. Honestly, not every woman needs a man.’ Jonathan shook his head. ‘I can’t believe I actually said that. I almost sound like a feminist.’

I grinned, Jonathan wasn’t exactly a ‘new man’. He said he tried it but he liked being lazy and looked after. I had to agree with him. I respected women, as did Jonathan, but I didn’t mind if they liked taking care of me. Although I took care of everyone, so I might have been a ‘new cat’ after all.

‘Hell will freeze over before you’re a feminist. But, OK. For now,’ Claire said. I did agree with Jonathan, Sylvie didn’t seem ready for a new relationship at all. But friendship was good.

I fell asleep thinking about that. How Sylvie went from happy to sad in an instant, the way Claire had when she first moved here. I understood, I really did, she wanted to move on with her life, but it was never that easy. I had been there myself. I had lost people I loved, lots of them, and I’d been through my fair share of heartache, so when I saw Sylvie, I understood how she was feeling as if I could see right into her heart.

Chapter Seven

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It seemed like ages before I actually got a chance to see Hana properly. I cased the house, looking for a way to break in, because it was clear that Hana wasn’t going to be coming out. When my old girlfriend, Snowball, lived in the house they didn’t have a cat flap, but if the family were all out, they would leave a window open in the kitchen for her to come and go as she pleased. Otherwise she would wait at the glass doors to be let out and in. It worked well for her, although I preferred the freedom of a cat flap and I also found that having to climb on windowsills could be a bit tiresome. As Hana was a house cat, there was not only no cat flap but also, as it was cold, no windows appeared to be open. It was frustrating me, and the more I found I couldn’t get in, the more I wanted to.

This morning, George had refused to go out as it was raining hard, and he suddenly decided to develop an aversion, so I decided I would take the opportunity of knowing he was safe at home and go and see if I could find a way in. The rain seemed to cling to my fur as I made my way round the back of the house, but there I struck gold, or maybe silver, as one of the kitchen windows was slightly open. Unfortunately it was a small, narrow, high-up one, but I was determined. I jumped onto the windowsill– so far so good – and then I made an attempt to jump for the window. My first one failed; it was higher than it looked. I rebalanced myself and tried again. This time I managed to hook my paws over the open window and, with great effort, pulled myself up. It was only open a bit and I soon found the gap was narrower than it looked. I began to squeeze my way through it and soon realised that perhaps I had misjudged. I was about half way through, but my bottom was a bit stuck as I wiggled and squirmed and regretted eating quite so much breakfast.

‘Yowl,’ I cried out in frustration as my body moved only a tiny bit at a time; at this rate I’d be here all day.

‘What are you doing?’ a voice said. I looked down and saw Hana on the floor, looking quizzically at me.

‘Oh hi, I’m Alfie, your next-door neighbour, and I’ve been wanting to come and welcome you to Edgar Road. But it hasn’t been easy as you don’t go out by all accounts, and so I thought I would have to come in. And that’s what I am trying to do.’ It wasn’t the introduction I had envisaged.

Hana hopped onto the kitchen counter. She was even prettier close up, with sweet light green eyes. I had never seen a cat quite like her and I also really would have liked her and George to become friends. She would make a great companion for him; he didn’t have anyone his own age in Edgar Road.

‘That’s nice, I haven’t met another cat before,’ she said, looking at me with interest.

‘What, really? Never?’ I couldn’t believe it as I gave my bottom another wiggle.

‘No, well I must have done when I was born, not that I remember, but then I came to live with my family, in Japan, and I didn’t get to go out, and no cat ever came to visit me like you’re trying to do.’ She was sweet and warm, if a little bit confused. ‘I always had lots of humans to playwith though, so that was nice,’ she added.

‘We have many friends on this street. Honestly, if you did go out you might like it,’ I said. Huffing a bit as I tried to squeeze myself to a smaller size.

‘I don’t know if I’d even be allowed. Anyway, it’s very nice to meet you.’

‘How did you get here?’ I asked. I felt myself easing forward a bit, I was making progress, thankfully.

‘I was in a carrier and we went on an aeroplane. Connie, my human, she said it was like a giant bird that flew in the sky. I had to go into a special place but slept mostly and then suddenly – well, it wasn’t sudden, it was a very long time – we were here and then I had to have a check-up with a vet before I was reunited with my family.’

‘It sounds exhausting.’ I wondered if I would ever get to go on the giant bird, but it was doubtful. When we went on holiday it was always to our house in Devon and we went in the car.

‘It was a very long time and I did feel a bit strange for a few days, but then that might be because we moved so far. The man of my family, he didn’t want them to bring me but Connie refused to leave Japan without me, which I am thankful for, as I love her very much. I miss my home, but I thinkI would miss Connie more.’

I was going to reply when, with a final squeeze, I found myself almost sliding through the window. In my surprise I ended up falling, landing on my tail, in the kitchen sink.

‘Ow,’ I said, trying to regain my composure and thankful that the sink was empty. ‘Oh well, at least I’m in.’ Always look on the bright side, that’s my motto.

‘Um, yes but I’m not sure how you’re going to get out again.’ I turned my head to where Hana was looking and saw that not only had I managed to get through the window but I’d somehow knocked it closed. Not that I would have had the energy to get back out that way again in any case, but still it did leave me with something of a problem.

I would like to say that this hadn’t happened to me before but that wouldn’t be true. I had been known to get trapped in places on occasion – especially cupboards. But I couldn’t worry about that right now, I was here, in front of Hana, and I wanted to make a new friend.

‘Why don’t you give me a tour of the house?’ I asked, thinking I would come up with a plan to get out later. After all, I was a cat who was known for being very good at plans.

By lunchtime, I was beginning to panic. Although spending time with Hana had been pleasant and we had managed to cover quite a lot of ground. Not only had I toured her entire house, but I’d explained all about Edgar Road. I told her about George, who I thought would make an excellent playmate for her, and she told me all about Japan, specifically her house in Japan, and the strange language they spoke, the raw fish she ate, and how happy her family had been. Since coming to London they had all been very sad – which I knew of course. But Connie was trying hard to get used to it, as she didn’t want her mum to worry, and vice versa. Hana was the confidante of both her humans the way I was with all of mine. She listened to Connie before she went to sleep and then had late-night chats with Sylvie. It kept her very busy.

‘What about the husband/father?’

‘Oh yes, you see I thought he was lovely,’ Hana said as we stood in Connie’s bedroom. It was painted a bright yellow, and she had put big pictures of pop stars on the wall. There were lots of photos of her and other girls on a pin-board – they were her friends in Japan, Hana said, which wasone of the reasons she was upset; she missed them. I understood all about that. ‘But then one day he said to Sylvie that he was in love with someone else, and that he wanted a divorce. Sylvie was so devastated, she still is, and I don’t think she’s coping as well as it seems.’

‘It’s very sad,’ I said. Then I turned my attention back to the problem at hand. ‘But you know, if I don’t go soon, George might start worrying about me.’

‘I feel terrible, you came around to make me feel welcome and now you’re stuck.’

‘Oh no, I’m still glad I met you, I just wish you could come out, and then you could meet the others, our cat friends.’ That would be my next plan. As soon as I came up with one to get myself out of her house, I would come up with a way of getting Hana out of the house too.

We both looked around for any sign of being able to leave, but it was hopeless. There were no windows open, or anything that I could use to get outside. As I was beginning to despair we heard a sound, like a key in the door.

‘That’s the front door,’ Hana said and we both bounded towards it. The door opened and I saw my chance. Without hesitation I ran as fast as I could through Connie’s legs and outside. It was only when I was on the front path that I stopped, turned around and saw that Connie and Aleksy were both looking at me with bemusement.

‘How did Alfie get in here?’ Connie asked. ‘Hana, are you OK?’ I took offence at that, what did she mean? What did she think I had done to her?

Hana mewed, softly. I hadn’t even stopped to say goodbye to her but I raised my whiskers and she raised hers back.

‘I’m sure he was just being friendly and, after all, Alfie is one clever cat, he would have found a way,’ Aleksy replied, and I bounded off to get home to George, as they closed the front door. Not feeling that clever – after all, it had taken hours to get out.

When I told George all about my adventures next door, he went into a sulk because I hadn’t taken him with me. When I reminded him of his refusal to go out because of the rain, he still took umbrage. I promised him the next time I would take him with me but of course I wasn’t sure how there would be a next time. After the hazard of getting in and out, it just might not happen. I wasn’t ready to cope with that again.

It was only much later, when I was alone, about to take a short nap, that I thought about it all again and realised I hadn’t stopped to wonder what on earth Aleksy and Connie were doing at her house in the middle of the day. Weren’t they both supposed to be at school?

Chapter Eight

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Word about my visit to Hana got around quickly. I was surprised. I had thought that if Connie told her mum she would have had to explain not being at school, but that only goes to show how wrong I was. It turned out Connie had gone home at lunchtime because she’d forgotten one of her text books. She obviously hadn’t mentioned Aleksy, because when Claire was telling Jonathan, in front of me, his name didn’t crop up.

‘Did Sylvie mind about our mad cat being in her house?’ Jonathan asked. I waved my tail, I wasn’t mad.

‘She was a bit surprised at first but when I explained that Alfie always liked to make friends with other cats she didn’t seem too upset. She said she always worried about Hana being bored, she wasn’t alone very often in Japan.’

‘Maybe we can persuade her to put a cat flap in so Alfie can visit more often,’ Jonathan laughed.

‘Yelp!’ I jumped onto his lap; that was a very good idea.

‘Alfie, I think Jon was joking,’ Claire giggled. ‘Anyway, I invited her to lunch on Sunday at the restaurant. I checked with Frankie and she didn’t mind.’

‘Great. Hopefully she’ll start to settle in a bit more.’

I was excited at the news. Not that Sylvie and Connie were joining us, although that was nice, but mainly about the fact that we were having lunch at the restaurant. It would give George and I a chance to catch up with Dustbin, the restaurant cat who was a very, very good friend. He lived outside and was a bit feral, but he liked it that way, and he might have been rough around the edges but he had a heart of gold. I hadn’t seen him for a bit, probably because life in Edgar Road was keeping me busy, so we were due a visit.

In the meantime I had to find Tiger. She was still being a bit elusive of late, and I did want to see her. I missed her. George had seen more of her than I had, but that was because he went into her house. I wouldn’t go because if I got caught by her owners they threw me out. They didn’t mind George quite as much, but nor were they laying out the red carpet to welcome him either. He assured me she was fine but I still wanted to see for myself.

I went to Tiger’s house and nudged the cat flap. As I waited on the doorstep I was anxious, but Tiger appeared after a short time.

‘Hi stranger,’ I said.

‘Don’t start,’ she replied, giving me a quick nuzzle. ‘I’ve had my family all keeping me in, it was to do with the vet. I thought I was fine but it turned out I had some kind of infection, and I had to take some medicine, which is why I haven’t been out. It’s all gone now and I’m allowed out again.’

‘But George said you were staying in because of the weather.’

‘I didn’t want him to worry, or you. I was only allowed dry biscuits to eat for days, can you imagine?’

‘No, frankly I can’t. But you say you’re all better?’

‘Yes. The tablets, which my family thought they were being very clever in hiding in small bits of chicken – which I ate because it was the only respite from the biscuits – have all gone, and that means I am back to normal.’ She grinned.

‘Oh thank goodness.’

‘You know, Alfie, you worry too much. Tell me, what’s been going on in the world while I’ve been stuck in.’

‘Walk with me and I will do.’ I grinned. It hit me how much I’d missed her. I was a softy after all.

As we took a stroll, I told her about Hana and being stuck in the house.

‘It’s a shame, you know, she’d make a perfect companion for George,’ I said, not for the first time.

‘Stop trying to matchmake, Alfie,’ she replied. ‘George will make his own friends.’

‘I know, I was just saying, they aren’t that far apart in age and she’s lived a very sheltered life.’

‘That sounds like an understatement,’ Tiger pointed out. One of the many things I loved about her was the fact that she paid such good attention to everything I told her.

‘Yes, right, so I thought her sweetness would be great for George. Anyway, I don’t see it happening, she doesn’t go out and there isn’t an easy way for us to get in …’

‘Don’t tell me you’re going to give up that easily.’ We both stopped and I looked at her. She knew me so well.

‘Of course not,’ I replied, with a grin.

When I got home, feeling lighter than I had for a while, probably because of seeing with my own eyes that Tiger was fine, Claire was at the kitchen table with Polly and Sylvie. After establishing that George was outside, playing in the small back garden, I joined them, sitting myself on Polly’s lap and enjoying the sensation as she ran her fingers lightly through my fur.

‘So, the job is good?’ Polly asked. She had a big bag with her, which meant she had been working herself. She was an interior designer and although she tried to work part-time she could sometimes find herself very busy. Luckily, Claire was always able to help out with the kids if necessary, that was how we all did things on Edgar Road.

‘Yes, it’s strange though. I haven’t had a “job” since we moved overseas.’

‘That’s a long time to be out of the workplace,’ Polly said.

‘It is. And, you know, getting out of the house is good, the hours aren’t too long so I can be there for Connie…Not that she seems to want me to be.’ Her brow wrinkled.

‘Is everything OK?’ Polly asked.

‘If you ask Connie, it is. She says she likes school, she’s getting good grades already, she even has a sleepover with a couple of friends on Friday, so it seems she’s settled in pretty well. But, well, she’s very quiet and when I try to talk to her she gives me one-word answers, then makesany excuse she can to be in her bedroom with her phone or iPad.’

‘I think, from what Frankie says about Aleksy, that that is being a teenager,’ Claire laughed.

‘I hope so. I know it sounds strange but it’s like she’s gone from being this chatty little girl who loved to tell me about her day, who seemed to love me, to someone who acts as if I am torturing her by asking her if she’s alright and can barely stand the sight of me. I’m worried that she’s just putting a brave face on everything.’

‘Does she speak to your ex?’ Polly asked, gently.

‘Yes, he Skypes, or FaceTimes her a couple of times a week, and she’s pretty surly with him, but of course he doesn’t have to deal with her moods on a daily basis.’

‘Listen, I honestly think it’s just the big upheaval, but hey, you said she’s doing well at school?’ Claire said. Sylvie nodded. ‘She’s not got an eating disorder or a drug problem?’

‘Oh God, I hope not. No, she still seems to eat like a horse and she isn’t losing weight. I’m pretty sure she’s not on drugs,’ Sylvie replied with a slight grin.

‘Right, as far as I can tell that means you’re winning parenting her. I said the same to Frankie about Aleksy. He’s the sweetest kid, always has been, sensitive, caring, but he has started acting as if he’s a bit too cool for all of us, especially his parents.’

‘Meow!’ I shouted.

‘OK, apart from Alfie then.’ The three of them laughed.

‘Actually, even Alfie at times,’ Polly whispered but I heard and narrowed my eyes at her.

‘I need to stop worrying so much,’ Sylvie said.

‘Yes. My dad, he was a social worker and pretty good with children and teens, he told me that he got through me and my brother’s teenage hormonal phase by not pushing us too much. He said he gave us space and one day we started being pleasant again,’ Claire explained.

‘Oh God, I was a nightmare,’ Polly said. ‘I drank, smoked and was boy crazy, but then I started modelling when I was fifteen so I guess that explained it a bit.’

‘Was modelling a bit wild?’ Sylvie asked.

‘Yes, it was, but after a while I rebelled against the bad behaviour.’

‘Oh God, you know also, we didn’t have all the pressure of social media when we were growing up,’ Claire pointed out.

‘I know, I didn’t want Connie to have any, but she said that she didn’t want to be the only girl at school without Snapachat or whatever, so I had to give in. I can’t make her feel different, that’s the worst when you’re a teenager.’

‘Trust her – as much as you can anyway. She seems pretty good to me,’ Polly said, giving Sylvie’s hand a pat.

‘Meow,’ I said again. Polly was pretty good as well, all my women were.

‘I will do my best to give her space, but I can’t help worrying.’ Sylvie’s brow was furrowed.

‘None of us can, really,’ Polly agreed.

‘Meow,’ I thirded. That was what us parents did best: worry.

Chapter Nine

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‘The cats are coming?’ Sylvie asked as we all set out to lunch on Sunday.

‘Yowl,’ I replied. Of course we were.

‘You’ll soon learn that our cats go pretty much everywhere with us,’ Claire explained, as if it was perfectly normal. Over time, I have learnt that it’s not. Dogs, they go to many places with humans, cats not so much. But for George and I things were different. And we liked it that way.

‘It makes me feel sorry for Hana,’ Connie said. She wasn’t being surly at all today, she had a big smile on her face. She really was very pretty, a bit like her cat; they matched. ‘You know, at home on her own so much of the time.’

‘Meow,’ I said. Good, it seemed the seed had been planted.

‘Yes, but darling, Hana doesn’t go out, I’m not sure she’d cope very well.’ Sylvie sounded worried.

‘I know, but seeing the freedom Alfie and George have, well it got me thinking. I really am worried that she’s lonely here.’

‘Ah, well maybe we’ll get her a treat later, some fish maybe, just in case.’ Sylvie gave Connie’s shoulder a squeeze. That wasn’t what I had in mind.

George and I kept up with the humans, although at one point Toby picked George up and carried him for a while. No one thought to offer me a lift. But Franceska and Tomasz didn’t live far away, so it wasn’t so bad. I was used to the journey, it was one of my regular routes.

The family used to live in the flat above the restaurant, which was nice but small, so when Tomasz became more successful and the boys got bigger they bought the house next door. They still had the flat, but a couple of the members of staff lived there. Thankfully they’d knocked down the back wall so the yard to the restaurant and the house was adjoining, which meant when George and I stayed with them – which we did if Claire and Jonathan and the children went away without us – I could see Dustbin whenever I wanted.

‘Hello, welcome,’ Tomasz said, standing at the door, and scooping me up as he ushered everyone in. They had a rule that the place was always closed on Sundays, to make sure everyone could have a day off, so when we had family day here we had the place to ourselves. As hugs and kisses were exchanged, Toby and Henry went to find the boys, Martha and Summer took their dolls over to the table which had been set for the children, whilst the adults all chatted and sorted out drinks. Connie stood, looking slightly awkward, but as soon as Aleksy spotted her he bounded over. I was offended that hedidn’t even say hello to me.

‘Let’s go and find Dustbin,’ I said to George, affronted, and we made our way through the kitchen – where we normally weren’t allowed – to the backyard.

‘I heard you were coming,’ Dustbin said as he greeted us affectionately.

‘Hi, how are you?’ I asked, pleased to see my very good friend.

‘Yeah, not bad. Got a few mice yesterday, the blighters keep coming back for more, it’s like they never learn.’ He gave his head a small shake.

I shuddered, I hated all talk of hunting. In fact for a cat I was a pretty poor hunter. I had done it out of necessity, when I was homeless, in order to survive, but I didn’t like it and since becoming so pampered I had lost my knack. George showed an interest in it, disappointingly, but more for the thrill of the chase than anything. I tried to discourage it but it was his instinct, so I had to accept that.

‘Dustbin, can we go and find some mice?’ George asked, looking hopeful.

‘Maybe later, lad. They’ve all scarpered for now.’ He gave me a ‘look’ and I thanked him silently.

‘Anyway, they’ll be bringing us some lunch soon,’ I said. When we visited it was the only time we ever ate outside because Dustbin didn’t like to come inside. Which reminded me to tell him about Hana.

‘Well, I never heard such a thing. A cat who doesn’t go out? I wouldn’t like that.’

‘But if you didn’t know any different you might,’ George said, sagely. He was a chip off the old block.

‘True, George, true. And what suits some cats doesn’t suit others, eh Alfie?’ I nodded my agreement. ‘Anyway, Alfie, you might want to know this: Franceska was on the phone out here last night, talking to one of your ladies no doubt, and she said she was worried about Aleksy.’

‘Oh no, what about?’ My fur stood on end. I couldn’t bear it if anything was wrong with my Aleksy.

‘He’s acting all secretive apparently, home late from school, spending all his time in his bedroom on his phone, only coming out for meals – and you know how close he and Tommy were. Well, apparently he basically ignores his little brother, these days.’

‘Oh,’ I said, a bit relieved. ‘I know what this is, the women were talking about it the other day: hormones. All teenagers get it, it’s like an illness I think, you know, makes you not a very nice person for a while, but they all said it passes eventually.’

‘That’s good to know. Poor Franceska’s very upset, she misses how close she and Aleksy used to be.’ It was the same conversation that Polly and Claire had with Sylvie.

‘Thanks Dustbin, and I will keep an eye on things, but our new next-door neighbour, Connie, is suffering from it too. Thank goodness us cats don’t get it,’ I said, raising my whiskers at George.

‘Oh no, we are just lovely and fun and sweet all the time,’ George said as he pounced on a mouse which seemed to appear from thin air.

‘Good catch,’ Dustbin said, proudly. I shook my tail. I bet the mouse didn’t think George was sweet.

We dined on sardines and as always it was delicious. We had a very pleasant time with Dustbin before we left him to go back to our families. In truth I was cold, chilled to my bones actually, and George was tired. Dustbin didn’t seem to get either cold or tired, he was a super-cat. As we said a reluctant goodbye to him, I said I’d see him soon. I would put visiting more often on my to-do list.

Back inside, I began to warm up as I let the human chatter wash over my fur. A good meal had been eaten, dishes were piled up, but Franceska and Tomasz refused to let anyone clear up, saying they would do it when everyone had gone home. The children were playing in one part of the restaurant; Tommy had set up an elaborate obstacle course and the younger children were enjoying it, along with George who quickly joined in, easily shedding his tiredness, it seemed. Aleksy and Connie were watching them, but set apart from the others. Both had phones in their hands. They were talking though, laughing, and they seemed happy. The adults were enjoying drinks, and talk turned to Christmas.

‘I have so much to do,’ Franceska was saying. ‘Not only for the boys but for work too.’

‘I know, but I love Christmas.’ Claire sounded dreamy.

‘It costs a fortune,’ Jonathan huffed.

‘Bah humbug,’ Matt teased.

‘It’s going to be nice this year, all together,’ Tomasz said, then the table fell silent.

‘Are you staying in London for Christmas?’ Claire asked Sylvie.

‘Yes, I think so. My sister has invited us to go away with them, but well, Connie and I aren’t used to being here yet, so I think staying might be best. I just don’t …’ Her voice cracked and I went to rub her legs. ‘I haven’t really thought about it,’ she said. Then she tried to smile.

‘You must come to us,’ Claire suggested.

‘Only if you want to, of course,’ Jonathan quickly added.

‘We’re all having lunch together, it’ll be loads of fun,’ Polly said.

‘Well, I hate to impose.’ Sylvie sounded uncertain.

‘Why would you be imposing? The more the merrier I say,’ Matt said.

‘And you can bring something,’ Franceska added. ‘Claire and Jonathan will do the turkey, we will bring potatoes and vegetables, Polly brings pudding.’

‘That doesn’t really leave much,’ Claire pointed out.

‘I’ll bring champagne,’ Sylvie said. ‘How about that?’

‘Well we never say no to champagne,’ Polly laughed. She was right, they didn’t. They didn’t say no to wine either, to be frank.

‘Great, that’s settled,’ Tomasz said. ‘We’ll have a proper traditional Christmas.’

‘An Edgar Road family Christmas,’ Jonathan added.

‘Let’s drink to that,’ Claire said and I licked my lips. I was thinking already about turkey and all the lovely leftovers that George and I would be treated to. I really did love Christmas, it’s my favourite time of the year.

Chapter Ten

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Never one to give up, I had found a way of introducing George to Hana. We both stood at her patio door and we had a conversation through the glass. We had to shout and sometimes words got a bit lost, but it was better than nothing. And Hana said she looked forward to our visits– well, I think that’s what she said, we couldn’t be sure. We’d started going round to see her most days. Remembering how Connie was worried she was lonely and bored, we took it upon ourselves to make sure she wasn’t.

‘Why don’t you try to come out?’ George asked.

‘I don’t know how, or if I’ll like it,’ Hana said. ‘And after watching Alfie get stuck in the window …’

The only window in the house that was ever open– and not always – was the one I had squeezed through. I wasn’t sure Hana, having never gone out, would be up to it. After all, it had nearly defeated me, a far more experienced cat.

‘Maybe one day I can come in and see you?’ George said but Hana obviously didn’t hear. Instead, she squinted at him.

‘What does “comtinbeya” mean?’

I sat back a bit and let them continue the conversation. I was right, George and Hana seemed to have hit it off, even in this unorthodox way. As I listened I marvelled at Hana’s nature. She was always sunny it seemed, she never complained, although to my thinking she had a lot to complain about. Her family were unhappy still. Although Sylvie put a brave face on when she visited my humans, she was still crying most nights and not coping as well as she was pretending to. Sylvie would let her tears drop onto Hana’s fur and Hana would try to comfort her, but she didn’t know what to do. And Connie was still being quiet and solitary. She barely spent time with her mum, despite Sylvie trying very hard. She spent most of her time in her room, on her phone, and Hana didn’t know what was going on there either. George told her Aleksy was the same and we all hoped it was just this illness known as ‘teenage hormones’, and that it would soon pass.

But although it seemed that Hana had a lot on her plate, she never complained, not even that she was stuck in the house alone for most of the day, and I thought we could all take a lesson from her.

‘It is nice that you come and see me,’ she said, or shouted, as we got ready to go home for lunch. ‘It does brighten up the day.’

‘One day you will come out with me,’ George said, confidently.

‘I don’t know about that.’ Her eyes widened. ‘But maybe one day you can come in. If they ever leave the bigger window open …’ We all glanced at the closed windows.

We bid her farewell, she put her paw up on the door, and George and I matched it on our side, before we set off back next door.

‘You know, if I was ever going to fall for a girl again I would probably fall for Hana,’ George said, sweetly.

‘And if you hadn’t sworn off them forever then I would probably give you my blessing,’ I replied with a grin.

I did have one resolution though. I’d heard it said that no one should be alone on Christmas Day, it was something I’d learnt throughout life and I didn’t want that for Hana either. If her family was spending the day with us, then she would too. I just had to figure out how.

After lunch I put my thoughts of Hana aside as I had to go and find Tiger. I had ignored it for the past few days, but I had growing niggling doubts about her. I had barely seen her since she’d told me she was fully recovered from her illness. Even George was complaining that he hadn’t been able to find her. The other Edgar Road cats had also noticed that she was acting out of character. Not only was she barely around, but when she was she was quiet and not her normal feisty self. She hadn’t even bothered to be rude to Salmon the other day. I had a bad feeling, and was pretty sure something wasn’t quite right. I could feel it in my fur.

So, without drawing George’s attention to it, I needed to go and sort it out once and for all. I was quite a perceptive cat and my intuition said that all was not well, and for once I refused to be fobbed off. If Tiger wasn’t wanting to spend time with me any more then she had to tell me. But she couldn’t do that to George; he thought she was his mum and that was a relationship that you didn’t get to walk away from. Or you shouldn’t get to walk away from anyway. I went from worried to angry and back to worried again. I really did need to get to the bottom of this.

George had gone out, saying he had things to do. He really didn’t but I went along with it. However, I was grateful, as I wanted to confront Tiger on her own. I wasn’t going to let her wriggle her way out of this one.

I bashed on the cat flap and waited. It seemed to take a long time, so I bashed again. Eventually she appeared and as she came through the small door my first reaction was shock. She looked thinner than the last time I saw her.

Tiger had been a bit chunky when we first met; she liked her food and she was lazy but I had introduced her to the joy of exercise and she’d slimmed down, but even so the cat in front of me looked as if she was mainly skin and bones. I wondered how long it had been since I last saw her, maybe a week. How did she get to be like this in a week?

‘Tiger,’ I said simply. I found my voice choking. I missed her, my boy missed her. We were a family.

‘I’m sorry I’ve been avoiding you, Alfie,’ she said. ‘But you know, I’m not exactly looking my best,’ she tried to joke, but it fell flat between us.

‘What’s going on? I need to know, not just for me but for George too. He misses you and he’s only young. And you look terrible.’

‘Thank you.’

‘You know what I mean,’ I corrected.

‘I don’t know how to tell you.’ Her voice became sad. ‘I’ve been avoiding you, both of you.’

‘What, have you met someone else?’ I asked. It would explain the weight loss. Claire said she always lost weight when she first fell in love. Tiger narrowed her eyes at me.

‘God, you are ridiculous sometimes, Alfie. No, I haven’t met anyone else,’ she snapped.

‘Then what?’ My heart was beating right out of my body and my legs had turned to jelly. I sat down.

‘I lied to you. When I went to the vet I wasn’t just having a check-up, I wasn’t feeling too good. I’ve been feeling tired for ages, and I’ve been struggling to eat, and they ran loads of tests. I did have some tablets, like I told you, and I did feel a bit better for a while, but there’s bad news, Alfie.’

‘No,’ I said, but then I reasoned that she could get more tablets. It might just take longer than she first thought. Poor Tiger, all that dried food though.

‘I, I thought if I carried on as normal it might just resolve itself but it isn’t going to. I’m tired all the time, I can barely get to the end of the garden let alone the street. Alfie, my family were talking and I don’t have long left.’

‘What do you mean?’ I felt a chill in my fur. My heart sunk into my paws.

‘I’m dying, Alfie. I’m so, so, sorry but I’m not going to be here much longer.’

‘No, that’s not possible.’ I couldn’t even comprehend what she was saying.

‘Alfie, it’s true, I’m not going to get better and I don’t have long left.’ I blinked. She sounded so matter of fact about it.

‘I can’t, I can’t …’ Words failed me.

‘Oh Alfie, I’ve been trying to come to terms with it, you know, but it’s so hard. I don’t want to leave you, I certainly don’t want to leave George. I love life but it’s quickly slipping out of me and there’s nothing we can do. I have to accept it and unfortunately that means you do too.’

‘Surely there must be something someone can do. The vet, another vet? I could make a plan—’

‘We’ve exhausted everything. My family are sad which is heartbreaking. They are old and they’ve had me since I was a kitten, they say they’re going to be lost without me.’

‘I’m going to be lost without you,’ I said, selfishly.

‘I know. But you know, you have great families, you have great friends, and you have George.’

I shuddered as the thought hit me square between the eyes.

‘How are we going to tell George?’

‘I don’t know.’ I saw Tiger falter then. She had been so strong when she spoke, composed, but not any more.

‘We’ll tell him together,’ I said. ‘But not today, not yet, I need to let it sink in too. It doesn’t feel real.’

‘No, I understand, it’s taken me a while and I still wake up and forget.’ We both looked up at the grey sky. A lone bird flew overhead, the wind whistled, the clouds threatened to unleash some rain. And next to me was Tiger, my love, my best friend, the cat who, next to George, meant most to me in the world and I was losing her. I knew as I looked at her, trying to remember every stripe in her fur, every speck of colour in her eyes, that I would have to say goodbye, and I felt as if part of me was dying too.

I have had more than my fair share of goodbyes in my life. When I was younger and lived with Margaret I had to say goodbye to Agnes, my sister cat, who was much older than me and died. That was hard, but then Margaret died, which was even worse as it rendered me homeless. I had to say goodbye to Snowball, although she didn’t die, but I knew I would never see her again. I had to say goodbye to Tasha and her son Elijah when they moved to Dubai, although I did expect to see them again sometime. I have said goodbye, in my words and heart, many, many times and, you know what, as I looked at Tiger and committed every inch of her to my memory, I realised that it didn’t get any easier. Saying goodbye never got any easier.

Chapter Eleven

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It was hard to tear myself away from Tiger, but she needed to rest. While I was with her, she was still my Tiger, she was still here. I knew the minute I was alone, thinking about losing her, I would fall apart. And we still had the problem of George to contend with. My poor boy. My heart was breaking for me but, more than that, it was breaking for him. His first taste of loss was going to be one of the worst, and I wished with all that I was that I could protect him from it. But I couldn’t. I couldn’t protect either of us from this one.

I’d discovered a lot since becoming a parent but this was another level. I knew that not only could I not protect him from Tiger dying, I couldn’t stop the devastation he was going to feel. There was a terrible feeling of hopelessness, there was literally not a thing I could do. For a cat who believed there was a solution to all problems, knowing that there was nothing any of us could do to stop this was horrific. It was the worst feeling ever.

I wanted to wallow, of course I did. I wanted to lie in my bed and cry, and yelp and brood and feel sorry for myself but I couldn’t. Until we told George, which we hoped to do the following day, I had to put a brave face on. I licked my whiskers, and prepared to act as if everything was alright, when in fact at the moment it was exactly the opposite.

George came home just after me.

‘Where were you?’ I asked, hoping my voice sounded normal.

‘I went to see Rocky and he and I chased around a bit then I went to see Hana, who was very pleased to see me in fact,’ he said proudly.

‘I bet she was. Did you have a nice time?’

‘Yes. Dad, your voice sounds funny.’

‘I might have a bit of a furball,’ I said, hoping he would believe me. He nodded and seemed to accept it.

‘Anyway, I want to tell you that there is trouble next door,’ George said.

My ears pricked up. Trouble? Not more, not today. All my energy was going into trying to stay calm, to not fall apart, I had nothing left for trouble.

‘Hana said that Sylvie and Connie had a big row last night. It seems that Connie has been seeing a boy, whatever that means, and Sylvie said she was too young and it had to stop.’

‘Do you mean she’s got a boyfriend?’ I asked. I had learnt a lot about the complexities of human relationships in my time. We cats had relationships but we were far more sensible about it. Though not always, I admitted, thinking of George’s first crush. There was nothing sensible about that.

‘I think so. Hana said that Sylvie was so angry and Connie said she hated her mum, before storming off. Apparently Sylvie took her phone away from her.’

‘Gosh,’ I said, thinking of Aleksy. ‘To a teenager that’s like chopping off one of their limbs.’

‘Well, she couldn’t see what was on the phone as it was locked and Connie refused to unlock it for her. She even threatened to call her dad.’

‘Who, Sylvie or Connie?’

‘Sylvie. Then Connie shouted that her dad didn’t care about her, so to go ahead and she stormed upstairs and slammed her bedroom door, so even Hana couldn’t go and see if she was alright.’

‘Well I’m sure they’ll sort it out, parents often row with their teenagers,’ I said, thoughts of Tiger weighing heavily on me. ‘But if they need help we’re here,’ I added, as brightly as I could.

‘That’s exactly what I said, Dad.’

I tried not to think about Tiger, and how much losing her was going to affect us all, but as I looked at my lovely boy, it was, in fact, all I could think about.

George was playing with Summer and Toby when Franceska called round. She was on her own and Claire let her in, giving her a warm hug. I rubbed her legs, Franceska was one of my favourite people. She was so calm and loving normally but today she didn’t look it.

‘You don’t mind me dropping in?’ she asked, chewing her lip anxiously.

‘Don’t be ridiculous, Frankie, you’re family. Anyway, what’s up? You look worried.’

‘I am stressed. Tomasz is off early today so he’s with the boys, and I had to get out. My Aleksy, my lovely, sweet, sensitive boy, has turned into a monster and I don’t know what to do with him.’

‘OK, first wine, then tell me everything.’ Claire poured out two very large glasses and they sat at the kitchen table. I was just wondering if there was something in the air – just as everything seemed tranquil in my life a bulldozer came and disturbed it, all of it. I was trying to focus on what Frankie was saying and I was worried, of course I was, but my head was so full of thoughts of Tiger, I was struggling to follow.

‘He just doesn’t talk to me any more. I’ve said it so many times but now we’ve had a big row. I asked him about school, he didn’t look at me and said, “Fine”, and I got angry, shouted at him that I was his mum not a stranger and he needed to talk to me. I said I cook and clean and buyhis clothes and he shows me no respect. Even Tomasz intervened and told me to calm down which is why I am here. I think he threw me out!’ She started laughing and then she started crying. Claire leant over to give her a hug.

‘Frankie, you never get angry,’ she said, which was for the most part true.

‘I know, but you know he’s so infuriating. I know everyone says it’s just a phase and he’ll grow out of it, but I miss my boy.’

‘I know, I’m dreading it when mine grow up, I can see how hard it is. Aleksy is changing and it’s confusing. He probably has temporarily forgotten how to speak to adults. He’s discovering girls and trying to find his place, being a teenager, trying to fit in, can be really hard too.’

‘I know and I am pushing it, which is wrong. Tommy is still so much fun, I guess that just makes me miss Aleksy more. And also then I worry Tommy is going to be like him soon and I can’t have two of them ignoring me in my own home.’

‘You have to try to give him space, and Sylvie is going through the same.’

‘Yes, but with Connie I understand it more. She’s had to leave her home country, her friends and her dad and start again, right at the wrong age, but Aleksy, well nothing has changed for him, or nothing major.’

‘I know, I feel so bad for Connie but then I also feel bad for Sylvie because she’s struggling too.’

‘Oh goodness, I am such a foolish.’ Franceska’s English was perfect but sometimes, when she got stressed, she got her words a bit muddled. ‘I have Tomasz, who is amazing, I have the restaurants, which are all great, and I have Tommy. And one day I will get my Aleksy back. I should be counting my blessings, not moaning.’

‘That’s not what I meant but when you put it like that,’ Claire laughed. ‘You know Aleksy is so handsome and clever, and he’s kind, he’ll find his way back to you.’

‘Oh Claire, how do you always know to say the right thing?’

‘Meow.’ I had taught her well.

Franceska helped Claire get the children ready for bed and was about to leave when Jonathan came home.

‘Hey ladies,’ he said kissing Claire and giving Franceska a hug. ‘How are we?’

‘Good, and about to leave,’ Franceska replied. ‘You know, before Tomasz sends out a search party. Thank you again, Claire,’ she said, as she kissed her cheek, then she petted me before going.

‘What was she thanking you for?’ Jonathan asked.

‘Oh, she’s worried about Aleksy. You know, the terrible teenager.’

‘Yeah, Tomasz mentioned it. If you ask me he’s discovered girls.’

‘I did think that. Do you think he’s got a girlfriend? He’s only fourteen after all.’

‘Fourteen, going on twenty. They start young these days.’

‘You won’t be saying that about Summer,’ Claire pointed out.

‘No, I’m locking her in the house until she’s thirty,’ Jonathan said, and I wasn’t sure if he was actually joking or not.

But, later, when I was in bed, I got to thinking. Yes, I was consumed with thoughts of my beloved Tiger and how on earth I would cope with losing her, but I couldn’t help thoughts about Aleksy and then Connie popping into my head. And I knew that as soon as I’d visited Tiger in the morning I needed to make a trip. I would go and see Dustbin. Because, if anyone knew what was going on, it would be him and if he didn’t he would help me find out. And perhaps it would distract me from what was happening with Tiger, although at the moment it didn’t feel as if anything would.

Chapter Twelve

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‘Tiger, we have to tell him,’ I said, as I sat on her doorstep.

‘OK, but not today. I have been feeling sick, and I really do need to sleep. Can you make an excuse for me, and I promise I’ll tell him tomorrow.’

She looked so sad and I didn’t know whose pain was whose any more, I could feel mine and hers, mixed up together. I know I was feeling sorry for myself, and devastated at the idea of losing her, but suddenly I stopped being selfish and focused on how awful it was going to be for her. She was the one that was ill. I hadn’teven thought about how much she was hurting, but now it was all I could think about. I needed to be kinder, less selfish. It wasn’t easy.

‘Of course, you need to rest, Tiger, and you will not tell George tomorrow.We will tell him tomorrow. I’ll meet you here after breakfast. And I love you.’

‘I love you too, Alfie, and I’m sorry …’

‘You have nothing to be sorry for. You just think of yourself for now and I will worry about everything else. After all, it’s what I’m good at.’

We both managed a small smile before we parted. So, I just needed a plan to keep George away and, of course, taking him with me to see Dustbin would be perfect. It was not too far, as I have already said, but it was far enough away to keep him from Edgar Road for a few hours. Hopefully by the time we got back the children would be home from school and things would be too hectic for him to think of going out again. It was the only plan I had right now.

I found George in the back garden, about to go into the house.

‘Have you been to see Hana?’ I asked.

‘Yes, but Sylvie is home today so we couldn’t chat. I was going to see Tiger mum.’

My heart felt as if it was being stabbed.

‘Good idea, but I have to go and see Dustbin. Do you fancy coming with me first?’ I asked, trying to act nonchalant.

‘Oh yes, I’d love to see Dustbin. After all, I can see Tiger mum any time I want.’

Oh God, just as I thought my heart couldn’t break any more.

George chatted away as we walked and I think he failed to notice how quiet I was. It felt as if I spoke I wouldn’t be able to hide the truth and it was important, for George I believed, that Tiger and I both told him together. That was parenting after all. So I tried to mew in the right places and I tried to concentrate on his cheerful chatter. I couldn’t help but think of Edgar Road without Tiger and that didn’t seem right. Not right at all.

‘Dad, we’re here, you were miles away,’ George said, as we weaved through the back way to the restaurant yard.

‘Sorry, son,’ I said. I really did need to pull myself together, not only for the next few hours but after…No, I wasn’t ready to think about after.

Dustbin was giving himself a wash when we found him.

‘Oh, this is a nice surprise,’ he said. As usual he seemed genuinely happy to see us.

George went straight for the bins to see if he could sniff out any mice and, instead of telling him off, I let him, so I could talk to Dustbin.

‘I thought I’d ask you if you knew what was happening with Aleksy?’ I asked. ‘Franceska was at ours yesterday and she was upset.’

‘Oh, interesting. You know, I heard her and Tomasz talking last night as they checked the restaurant last thing. He told her that she was being silly, that Aleksy might be a bit secretive and glued to his phone but he wasn’t drinking, smoking or taking drugs.’

‘God forbid,’ I said. ‘He isn’t, is he?’ None of that had occurred to me.

‘Nah, Alfie, you see, Aleksy sneaks down here when he thinks his parents don’t notice. From what I can gather, he seems to have got himself a girlfriend.’

‘Oh, is that all?’ I felt relieved. A girlfriend, that was a nice thing, not something to worry about.

‘Yeah and he was saying he wanted to tell his mum and dad but his girlfriend doesn’t want him to. It seems I’ve become a bit of an eavesdropper since meeting you.’ He laughed, as did I. Dustbin used to keep himself to himself until he met me. He did try to keep me at paw’s length when we first met but I wasn’t having that and now we were the best of friends and he knew everything that went on.

‘Sorry, well actually I’m not sorry. The more we learn about our humans the easier it is to solve their problems,’ I pointed out.

‘Right you are. Anyway, from what I could hear of his conversation, his girlfriend obviously told him not to tell his parents and he said he was finding it hard to lie to them, but the girl must have said something else because then he said, OK, he would leave it a bit longer until she was ready.’

‘Let me get this straight. The reason he’s being secretive is that his girlfriend can’t tell her parents so she’s asked him to keep quiet?’ It seemed to make sense.

‘Yes, and I gather that her mum thinks she is too young for a boyfriend.’

‘You really did listen, didn’t you?’ I raised my whiskers, impressed.

‘Oh yes, and I know who the girl is, by the way.’ He grinned. I hadn’t thought to ask that question, where was my mind? My eyes nearly popped out of my head. Who was she?

‘So do I,’ George piped up. I hadn’t noticed him but he was behind us, having heard it all.

‘Who?’ I asked. And how did George know?

‘Connie,’ they both said at the same time.

It seemed George, clever George, had worked it out by listening to me and also to Hana. Hana had said she knew the boy went to school with Connie and also he’d been to the house, which must have been Aleksy. Dustbin had heard Aleksy call her by her name. Perhaps all the trauma with Tiger had taken me slightly off my game, but it hadn’t even occurred to me. I guess no one could blame me though. I suddenly felt like crying. Aleksy and Connie were beginning their relationship and mine was ending. Oh dear, I was back to being selfish.

‘Well, I think it’s great,’ I managed. ‘Aleksy is a good boy, Sylvie should be pleased that her daughter has met a lad like him and not one of those horrible ones that hang around the park sometimes with their trousers half way down their bums.’

‘Oh Dad, you do sound old sometimes,’ George teased. ‘It’s just fashion.’

‘I do not,’ I replied. ‘And fashion isn’t always right.’

‘Actually, you do a bit,’ Dustbin agreed. ‘Reading between the lines, it seems that Sylvie is a bit overprotective of Connie, not only with everything that has been going on but also because her life in Japan was very sheltered.’ Dustbin was a pretty perceptive cat.

‘It was,’ George added. ‘Her school only had girls in it, and she didn’t really have any friends that were boys, let alone boyfriends. Hana told me that.’

‘Is Hana the cat who never goes out?’ Dustbin asked.

‘Yes, and she’s my new friend,’ George replied. ‘And we talk through the glass door. It’s a bit strange but we’re making it work.’ He sounded so grown-up, I was proud.

‘Anyway, so her mum doesn’t know about Aleksy?’ I checked.

‘No, and Connie wants to keep it that way for a while, because she is worried that she’ll go mad and stop her from seeing him,’ Dustbin continued. ‘But that’s all I know.’

‘It’s a lot,’ I said. ‘And I wish he’d tell Franceska and Tomasz. They won’t be angry with him, in fact they would probably be able to help.’

‘But you can’t make him tell them,’ Dustbin pointed out.

‘Well, actually I probably can,’ I said, and we all laughed.

Although my feelings about Tiger weighed heavily on me, I was relieved to find out the only thing wrong with my boy Aleksy was that he had his first ever girlfriend. I found it quite moving; he was growing up. They all were, and that included George. As much as you wanted to protect them all, you couldn’t protect them from everything – I was learning that the hard way. The problem was my children were too.

‘So, what are you going to do, Alfie?’ Dustbin asked.

‘I’ll think of something,’ I said. ‘But in the meantime, do you think someone might be out soon with leftovers?’ I felt a bit hungry after all this emotional activity.

‘I’ll stand at the door and they’ll think I am too cute to resist,’ George said, and he did just that. It didn’t take long before one of the staff came out with a bowl of food for each of us; it never failed to work.

I was aware that some people would wonder how I could think of my stomach at a time like this but I knew that I needed to keep my strength up. Whatever happened the next few days, weeks, or however long I had my precious Tiger, I would need it all, and with the humans adding in their issues to my already complex emotional mix, I knew I needed to make sure that I was in peak physical condition. Even if my feelings were broken and they would never ever recover, I would have to get through this. Too many people relied on me: George, my human kids, the adults, and now we had Sylvie, Connie and Hana to take care of.

As I ate I realised I was needed by many, and most of all, Tiger needed me. I would somehow have to reassure her that it was going to be alright, that she shouldn’t be scared, that she mustn’t fret about leaving us behind because George and I would somehow cope. I knew that she needed to be at peace and the only way for her to do that was for me to ensure she didn’t worry. I had no idea how to do that, but I knew it was right at the top of my prioritylist. I still didn’t know how I was going to be able to say goodbye to her but I needed her to think that I would be fine, and most importantly that George would too.

‘Are you alright?’ Dustbin asked. ‘You don’t quite seem yourself.’ I looked at him, his kind eyes, his scruffy fur, and I wanted to tell him everything, but then I looked at George sitting beside him, gazing hopefully up at me, and I knew I would keep it to myself for now.

‘I’m fine, just thinking about all the work we have to do to fix our humans,’ I lied.

‘Oh well, you know I’ll help you with anything you need. I’ll keep my ears open with Aleksy anyway and if there’s anything urgent I’ll come to you,’ Dustbin said, reassuringly.

‘And you don’t have to worry about me, Dad,’ George said.

‘No, son, I know,’ I lied, for the second time that day.

Chapter Thirteen

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‘Summer, you are in big trouble,’ Claire said as we got home to find Toby, Summer, Jonathan and Claire all in the living room. We had hung out with Dustbin until it began to get dark and then I said we better go straight home so that they didn’t worry. George accepted it all with his usual good grace and I felt guilty, but at least he had one last night before he knew the horrible truth. George and I both watched from the doorway of the living room.

‘Why?’ Summer asked, crossing her arms defiantly. Claire sounded cross, Jonathan was scratching his head and Toby seemed a bit nervous, but then he didn’t like conflict and I can’t say I blamed him. Claire had tried to protect him from it when he first came to live with us but she and Jonathan then realised that he needed to understand some arguing was normal and it would be best for him to learn to cope with it. It was a work in progress.

‘Sum,’ Jonathan said. ‘You cannot go around trying to kiss boys against their will.’ Ah, that was what she’d done.

‘I didn’t. I only did it with one boy. Zack.’

‘That doesn’t make it better,’ Claire said. ‘You know he shut himself in the toilet and refused to come out, even for lunch. It took your teacher ages to calm him down and he’s still terrified of you.’

I glanced at George. We knew Summer well; when she wanted something she didn’t let anything stand in her way.

‘He’s a big baby,’ Summer continued. She wasn’t going to back down.

‘He is a bit,’ Toby supported her. ‘I mean, he just had to tell Summer to get off him and be stern with her, and I’m sure she would have stopped.’

‘Yes I would.’ No, she wouldn’t.

‘The point is that you shouldn’t have done it in the first place. You have been told to leave Zack alone before, Summer, and your teacher is really cross. And I have to phone up Zack’s mum and apologise to her, which is just embarrassing.’ Claire was pacing up and down, she was agitated. Jonathan seemed more amused, actually.

‘He must really not like you,’ Jonathan said finally.

‘Not helpful, Jon, a bit of support please.’ Claire said that a lot. Jonathan sighed.

‘OK. Firstly, Summer, you will apologise to Zack tomorrow in front of your teacher. Then you will apologise to your teacher for disrupting her lesson by her having to get this kid out of the toilet. And you will not go around trying to make boys kiss you. In fact, you shouldn’t be kissing boys at your age anyway, what has got into you?’ Jonathan used his best parental voice. Summer was six, but she was going on sixteen, Claire often said.

‘Hormones,’ she said. ‘I just can’t help it.’

‘Where the he— I mean, where on earth did you get that from?’ Jonathan asked, totally aghast.

‘Mum and Polly say it about Aleksy.’

‘Aleksy is a teenager and you’re not,’ Claire pointed out. ‘So really that doesn’t wash with us, young lady. You’ll do as Daddy said, and then you will stop trying to kiss Zack once and for all.’

‘Well, I was going to stop anyway,’ she said.

‘Why?’ Toby asked.

‘I need a man not a boy,’ Summer said.

‘Right, go to your room now,’ Claire shouted, and Summer stamped her foot but scurried off. As soon as she did both Claire and Jonathan burst out laughing.

‘Oh my goodness, hormones? I mean, really, I have to watch what I say in front of her from now on.’

‘She’s needs a man not a boy. Hey, Toby, you better warn Henry. Or even Tommy!’ Jonathan had tears running down his cheeks he was laughing so much.

‘So it’s OK?’ Poor Toby’s voice was full of confusion.

‘Yes, I mean, no she is still in trouble, but I’m sorry Tobe, your sister is quite bonkers.’ Claire hugged him.

‘She’s funny though, everyone at school thinks she is.’ Toby looked thoughtful. ‘Apart from Zack, that is.’

‘Yes, and thank goodness she’s got an older brother like you to help keep her out of trouble.’ Claire gave him another hug.

‘Should I go and check she’s alright?’ he asked, sounding very serious.

‘Good idea, but don’t tell her we were laughing, it’ll only make her worse,’ Jonathan said.

‘Right, got it, come on George,’ he said and George and Toby trotted upstairs.

It took ages before Claire and Jonathan stopped laughing and I was cheered up too. Laughter was a tonic, they all said that, and I really did believe it. For a few minutes anyway it helped.

Claire calmed down enough to give Summer a bit of a chat as she was tucking her into bed.

‘Darling, I know your intentions were innocent but you really shouldn’t kiss boys, Daddy was right.’

‘I’ll stop, but you know it is just so funny when they scream and run away.’

‘One day, which will come far too soon for me and Daddy, they won’t scream and run away, and then you’ll be stuck with them.’

‘Is that what happened with you and Daddy?’ Summer asked.

‘Something like that,’ Claire replied and kissed her daughter.

I nose-kissed George goodnight as he settled in with Toby. I checked on Summer who was sleeping, her breathing so sweet, and I remembered when she was a baby, which didn’t seem so long ago, and I would watch her sleep a lot. It was sort of hypnotic watching her, and I also felt that I was protecting her somehow.

I padded back downstairs where Claire and Jonathan were snuggled up together on the sofa, watching something on TV, and giggling together. They were happy. I then went out, quietly, to Polly and Matt’s house. I let myself in through the cat flap, which they’d had put in years ago just for me. I didn’t spend as much time there as I used to any more, because of George, but I did go and see them when I could. I made my way upstairs, and checked on Martha who was sleeping, and sounded a bit like Summer, then Henry who had kicked the covers off but was also fast asleep, clutching a toy spaceman.

‘Hello, Alfie,’ Polly said as she emerged from the bathroom, wrapped in a towel. She had come out of the bath, I guessed – each to their own. I hated water but humans seemed to like it. Matt shouted up asking if she wanted a cup of tea and when she put her pyjamas on I followed her downstairsto where he was waiting with tea and biscuits laid out on a tray.

‘Fancy watching Game of Thrones?’ he asked, giving me a fuss. ‘Nice to see you, Alfie.’

‘Perfect,’ she said and gave him a kiss. They went into the living room, and sat together on the sofa. I spent a bit of time on Polly’s lap, enjoying her affection. Just as I was beginning to feel sleepy, I decided to leave.

‘Meow,’ I said, quietly, and bid them goodnight.

I had an urgent need to check on everyone I loved, but it wasn’t possible to go back to Franceska’s house. It was too late now to go so far from home, but knowing Dustbin was keeping an eye on things was reassuring. I was glad my Edgar Road families were all happy, and peaceful. How I wished I could be.

I went to see if there was any movement from Tiger’s house before I returned home. There wasn’t. The house was shrouded in darkness and I knew her family normally went to bed early, so I wasn’t surprised. I quickly popped to the back of Sylvie’s house and saw that Connie was at the kitchen table, with her computer in front of her, and it looked as if Sylvie was helping her with her homework while Hana sat next to the computer. They looked more harmonious and I wondered how Sylvie would react when she found out about Aleksy. But that was a worry for another day.

I went home and curled into my bed and thought about Tiger. I replayed certain scenes with her in my head. How she was protective of me since we first met on Edgar Road. How she was always the more aggressive of the two of us and had got me out of trouble a few times. She was unafraid, she seemed so fearless. How she teased me about my vanity and conceit but still liked me for it. How she’d been jealous of me and Snowball, and I’d felt our friendship was really under threat, but she had been so mature about it and we had worked through. How she was the one who helped me when I was broken-hearted after Snowball left and how quickly she took to helping me parent George and never complained. She didn’t complain about much. And when I told her I loved her, which was a long time coming, she was so happy, but she also would never have pushed me into it. She was the best friend a cat could ever have, and as I finally let myself fall apart, when no one could see me, I realised I had no idea how I was going to cope with her loss. For an ideas cat, I literally had no idea how I would carry on without her.

Chapter Fourteen

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George’s head moved from me to Tiger, and back again. He blinked and then he looked at us both again.

‘I don’t understand,’ he said. The poor kitten really didn’t.

‘I’m not well, George,’ Tiger said. ‘I can’t get better. It happens sometimes and soon, but I don’t know how soon, I won’t be here any more.’

‘But where are you going? On holiday?’ It was George’s first experience of loss, and goodness, what I wouldn’t have given to protect him from it.

‘No, although it might seem a bit like that. I’m going far away so you can’t physically see me but I will always be watching you.’

‘Well that makes no sense at all,’ George said. ‘If you’re so far away how can you watch me?’

‘Well I’m kind of going to be in the sky, so I will be able to see you but you won’t be able to see me.’ I’m not sure Tiger was actually doing a good job of this. She was confusing the poor lad even more. Not that I was sure I could do any better, but I thought I’d have a go.

‘What Tiger means, George, is that sometimes people, or cats in this case, have to leave this earth, but they will be in your hearts forever, so they never properly leave you.’

He blinked at us both again.

‘So you won’t be here, in this house, on this road?’

‘No.’

‘And I will never see you again?’

‘No.’

‘But we don’t know exactly when I will never see you again?’ George asked. He seemed composed but I was still unsure what he was comprehending, after all it was huge.

‘No, we don’t know for sure,’ I said. ‘But we have been led to believe that it’s not going to be long.’

‘Before Christmas?’ George asked. I hadn’t thought about that, I hadn’t thought about this being close to Christmas. Would this be Tiger’s last ever Christmas, would she even make it to Christmas? It was unbearable.

‘I honestly don’t know, George, but I won’t be able to come out much, so you’ll have to come and see me. I’m pretty sure my family will be alright with that but come even if they aren’t, because I want to see you.’

‘I want to see you too, Tiger mum, and I promise that I’ll come in, whether they shout or not. But please, try to be here for Christmas. I don’t want to have Christmas without you.’

‘And nor do I, love,’ Tiger said and I could see she was about to cry, in a cat way of course.

George seemed to accept this and I was relieved. He was behaving with a maturity I didn’t always credit him with.

‘Do you mind if I go now? I need to think,’ he said.

‘Of course, but come and see me later?’ Tiger asked, giving him a nuzzle.

‘I will, Tiger mum.’

As George went off, we decided that I ought to go and fill the other neighbourhood cats in on the situation. Tiger didn’t think that she would be able to make it. Not only was she feeling weak but she was also distraught about George.

‘I’m not sure he understood,’ she said, clearly worried, on top of the fact she was also exhausted. Whatever this illness was, it had changed her almost beyond all recognition already, she was a shrunken version of herself and she was struggling. I knew she was in pain too, but she refused tocomplain about that.

‘No, but we’ll help him, and you know he needs time to let the news sink in.’ I knew I had needed time and I wasn’t sure it had still fully sunk in with me.

‘You promise you’ll take care of him, when I’m gone.’

‘You know I will,’ I said. ‘But let’s not speak of that.’

I didn’t know why but I was suddenly filled with optimism that this would all sort itself out. She said that the vet told her family she wouldn’t get better but that didn’t mean she wouldn’t. Vets weren’t always right. I had heard Claire say the same about doctors. What if they’d got it wrong, what if Tiger was just bad now but would recover? She wasn’t that old, not even in cat terms, and by rights she should have years left in her. And I knew that due to her laziness she hadn’t even used up half of her nine lives. No, I narrowed my eyes, there was no way that Tiger could die.

‘But you have to promise me something,’ I said, suddenly energised.

‘What?’

‘That you’ll try to fight this illness. For me, and for our boy.’

‘I will, Alfie.’ But I could hear the hopelessness in her voice. She didn’t think she could, but luckily I had enough belief for all of us.

I left her to rest as I went to see the other cats. Rocky, Elvis and Nellie were joined by Tinkerbell, a cat who was a boy, but had a girl’s name. He didn’t often hang out with us, he was normally too busy looking for food, but he did at times, and was a very pleasant cat, one I was happy to call a friend.

‘Have you seen George?’ I asked.

‘Yes, he ran past here a while back, going at some speed I should say,’ Nellie said.

‘When I asked him where he was going, he shouted back that he had to be somewhere important. Well, I don’t know about you, but I don’t see anywhere important at that end of the street.’ Rocky sounded confused.

‘And it’s not like the boy not to stop and pass the time of day,’ Elvis said.

‘Maybe he heard about somewhere to get food.’ Tinkerbell narrowed his eyes, as if he was thinking about following him, but then he sat down. ‘Not to worry, I’ve just had two lunches.’

I filled them in on Tiger’s situation. Nellie immediately started yowling. Elvis and Rocky seemed very quiet.

‘I knew there was something amiss. I mean, we’ve barely seen her and normally she’s always with you or the lad,’ Rocky said, eventually, his voice full of emotion.

‘I don’t know, the place won’t be the same without her,’ Elvis said.

‘She’s not gone yet. She might recover,’ I said.

‘In my experience, when the vet says your days are numbered, they are generally right,’ Tinkerbell said. ‘And, Alfie, I’m not trying to be mean but, you know, sometimes it’s better to try to accept it, especially as you’ve got George to think about.’

‘I know but I just don’t want to lose her,’ I said, lying down on the soft grass, feeling like I never wanted to get up again.

‘Hey, we’ll be here for you, and the lad, and Tiger of course. How about tomorrow morning we go to her garden, show her our support?’ Rocky said.

‘That’s a good idea,’ Nellie agreed. She had come over to nuzzle me, we were all united in grief.

‘As long as I’ve had my breakfast of course,’ Tinkerbell said, and I managed a grin. Sometimes when the world seemed to be changing, falling apart, breaking hearts, having someone act as if everything was normal was a comfort.

‘Do you think I should go and look for George?’ I asked. Now I had stopped feeling sorry for myself I was worried about him again.

‘I’d leave him for a bit, give him some space. We’ll all keep an eye out for him.’

‘I am so lucky to have such great friends,’ I said, before going home so I could crawl into my bed and wallow.

George returned just in time for tea. I could tell he wasn’t feeling very good, his eyes were downcast and he didn’t have his usual bounce about him. He ate a bit, but not as much as normal, and I knew I would have to get him alone so I could have a chat with him. I took my chance as Claire took the children upstairs to get them bathed and ready for bed.

‘Come outside with me for a moment,’ I said, and George followed me through the cat flap.

‘Will she really die, Dad?’ he asked.

‘You know, son, I keep saying to myself that it’s all a big mistake but that is what the vet said, and she’s not feeling well at all. So, as much as we don’t want to, I think we have to face facts. You must have noticed how thin she is.’

‘I did today, but she’s my Tiger mum, and I don’t know what I’d do without her. What happens when she’s not here?’

‘I don’t know, son.’ I felt my eyes glistening with tears and cats don’t cry. ‘I know we will miss her, our hearts will hurt and we won’t feel good at all, but together we’ll get through it. I know you are young and you shouldn’t have to say goodbye to someone you love, not at your age, but I can’t stop it, I can’t protect you from it.’

‘I’m scared, Dad.’ He looked at me with his big, innocent eyes.

‘So am I,’ I admitted and I moved in as close to him as I could while we both yowled about what we were about to lose.

Chapter Fifteen

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I could tell that Christmas was creeping closer, because there was an excitement in the air that wasn’t there before. It was only a few weeks into November but Claire always started making lists early. Polly also started talking about ordering things from the internet to get ahead of the game. Jonathan, of course, moaned about money and Matt, who loved Christmas, talked about how he was going todecorate the house, for the kids, and how Jonathan should do the same. Jonathan didn’t share his enthusiasm and wasn’t keen, saying the houses looked tacky when they were all done up. He could be so miserable but I knew, deep down, he loved Christmas.

Tomasz and Frankie were gearing up for the restaurants’ pre-Christmas rush. For most of December they spread themselves very thinly, as Christmas menus started to be served, office parties booked, and with a few restaurants to run, they were kept busy.

But the most important event, according to the adults, more important than the letters to Santa and the arguments about when to decorate the house, was the nativity play. This play was only taking place in the younger children’s school, but it was a big deal. Claire and Polly were chatting excitedly about it when they got a letter saying that the school was holding auditions and the children were all enthusiastic about their potential parts.

‘Right, kids, what are you going to do for your audition?’ Claire asked as she, Jonathan, Toby and Summer were in the living room after tea. George and I were also in attendance.

‘I’m going to sing,’ Summer announced before launching into a rendition of ‘Jingle Bells’. It wasn’t great, more shouting than singing, but Jonathan and Claire clapped enthusiastically as she finished. Parents were a little biased. I knew this as I could be too, but not when it came to that sort of noise.

‘Great, Summer. And Toby?’ Jonathan asked.

Toby cleared his throat, then got down on all fours.‘Hee-haw,’ he said.

‘Right, is that it?’ Jonathan had his hands ready to applaud but then he scratched his head.

‘I want to be the donkey,’ Toby explained.

‘Oh, in that case, it was excellent,’ Claire announced and they all clapped loudly, before getting the kids to do it over again. I raised my whiskers; in my opinion, once was more than enough.

‘You are going to kill these auditions,’ Jonathan said, enthusiastically.

‘Jon, it’s the school nativity not the West End,’ Claire pointed out but she looked pretty excited about it too.

Despite being heartbroken about Tiger, I decided to focus on the Aleksy situation. I needed Franceska, who was worried about him, to know the truth, because I knew she would be relieved. Aleksy wasn’t ill, he wasn’t miserable, there was nothing wrong with him, apart from first love. And I knew that if Franceska saw that she would be reassured. And, anyway, it was not good for them to sneak around together. I had learnt that the best way to deal with things was to be open about them.

I had a foolproof plan. I went to see Dustbin, and chatted it through with him. We knew that Aleksy usually walked Connie home from school– I’d seen him – and I also knew from Franceska that she was letting him have a bit more freedom as long as he was home for his tea. So, all I needed to do was to get Franceska to our street so she could see them together. Simple. Although, from past experience, I knew that getting humans to do as I told them wasn’t always easy. It could be quite exhausting, in fact.

I waited until Franceska and Tomasz came out of the restaurant and were about to head inside the house. Then I started behaving oddly. I yowled, meowed, yelped, hopped around in circles and almost cried myself hoarse. I scratched at Franceska’s trousers, careful not to hurt her, and just as I almost felt as I was going to pass out, they seemed to get it. I tried not to catch Dustbin’s eyes, he was rolling around with laughter behind a dumpster.

‘I think he wants us to do something,’ Tomasz said, scratching his head.

‘MEOW!’ Yes.

‘I go with him, you stay home because the boys will be back any minute,’ Franceska said, glancing at her watch.

Tomasz nodded.‘But call me, to let me know everything is OK.’

‘MEOW,’ I shouted again. Finally. Although I was exhausted, I set off round the side of the yard to the main road. I managed to get Franceska to follow me, although she seemed very confused as she did so.

‘Is something wrong?’ she asked. I tried to tell her it wasn’t but I don’t think she understood. I managed to dodge a chubby dog who tried to leap at me, luckily his owner pulled his lead back. He snarled at me as I grinned back at him. Dogs were no match for me, even when I was tired and emotional. We made it to our street without further incident, but of course I am a cat and I wasn’t sure about the timing. Had they come home? Were they on their way? I had no idea. I led Franceska to Connie’s front door, hoping that somehow this was going to work.

‘Is something wrong with Sylvie?’ Franceska asked, looking at me with concern. ‘But why didn’t you get Claire or Polly?’

‘Yowl.’ Honestly, did she understand nothing? She shrugged at me and then she rang the doorbell. There was no answer. I wondered how I would come up with a plan B, because let’s face it, this one had really taken it out of me. We stood on the doorstep, poor Franceska looking totally bemused, and me so tired I thought I might pass out. Instead I sat down.

‘Alfie, what on earth is going on?’ she asked. I put my head in my paws. She turned to leave, and then she stopped. ‘Oh my,’ she said. I looked up. Bingo. Walking towards us, holding hands, were Aleksy and Connie.

‘Aleksy and Connie?’ she asked.

‘You’re welcome,’ I thought as I lay down and tried to get my breath back, relief flooding my poor, tired body.

They both stopped short as soon as they spotted Franceska, and they untangled their hands, as if we hadn’t already noticed. I wondered whether those suffering from ‘teenagerness’ temporarily lost a few brain cells as I’d always thought of Aleksy as being quite clever.

‘Hi Mum,’ Aleksy said, trying to sound casual. ‘I was just walking Connie home from school because …’

‘He’s borrowing a book from me for English,’ Connie quickly added, sounding as if butter wouldn’t melt but looking embarrassed, and a little awkward.

‘Is that what they call it these days?’ Franceska arched an eyebrow.

‘What?’ Aleksy asked.

‘It’s fine, I was hoping to see your mum, but she’s not here.’

‘No, she’ll be home in about an hour,’ Connie said, still red-faced.

‘No problem. Right, Aleksy, go and get your book and then you can walk home with me,’ Franceska said.

‘Sure, Mum,’ Aleksy said.

When they went inside, Franceska bent down and gave me a tickle. Then she lifted me up for a cuddle.

‘Is that what you wanted me to know?’ she asked.

‘Meow,’ I said, quietly.

‘Oh Alfie, you are such a good, clever cat. I can’t believe my Aleksy has a girlfriend. Oh, I am so not ready for him to grow up, but at least it’s nothing bad, thank you.’ She kissed my fur and put me back down.

Chapter Sixteen

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Claire was having one of her‘girls’ nights’, although why they called it that I had no idea, they were hardly girls after all. Polly and Franceska were coming round and Sylvie would be joining them; they were so determined to make her feel welcome that they included her now. I was so proud of my women, their friendship had been built over a number of years but they never excluded people and I believed that I might have had a paw in that.

Polly and Franceska arrived first, both brimming with excitement.

‘Quick, tell Claire what you told me,’ Polly said, shoving Franceska into the kitchen.

‘What?’ Claire looked bemused.

‘My Aleksy, he told me. OK, he didn’t exactly volunteer the information, but when I caught him, he came clean. I mean, Alfie led me there, so because of Alfie I know everything now.’

‘You’re making no sense,’ Claire said. ‘Take a deep breath.’

‘I found him at Connie’s house and reluctantly he told me he liked her.’

‘Oh wow, you mean Aleksy has a crush?’ Claire grinned. ‘Now this calls for wine.’ I didn’t like to say anything but really these women would use any excuse for wine. If I was like that with catnip, I would never get anything done.

‘No, it’s not a crush, it seems that she likes him too. He has a girlfriend.’

‘Aleksy’s first love,’ Polly sighed. ‘Gosh, I remember my first boyfriend, Peter Spencer. I was twelve, he was in the year above and we held hands every lunchtime until he dumped me for an older girl. I was devastated.’

‘Oh God, I was much older than that, at least fifteen,’ Claire said. ‘Unfortunately I ended up marrying him.’

I raised my whiskers, this was news to me.

‘Really, he was your first husband?’

‘Yes, but we broke up for about two years, got back together at nineteen, and well, the rest is part of my pitiful history.’

‘Not sure these stories are helping,’ Franceska pointed out. ‘But I was a late starter. I didn’t have a boyfriend until I was seventeen. And no, it wasn’t Tomasz.’

‘That is so sweet,’ Claire said.

‘Ah, young love.’ Polly looked dreamy. Probably because we were all way past that.

‘And is Sylvie alright with all of this?’ Claire asked.

Franceska shrugged.

‘I don’t know, Connie hasn’t told her yet. Because apparently she’s so overprotective, that Connie is scared to tell her – which explains all the secretive behaviour – but of course I told Aleksy that she needed to tell her mum, as it was wrong to keep things from her, especially now I know.’

‘Did he know you were seeing Sylvie tonight?’ Polly asked.

‘Yes, and I said I wouldn’t lie to her, so he is going to speak to Connie about it.’ Franceska now looked worried. ‘It’s not fair that she doesn’t know and we all do. Aleksy wasn’t happy when I said that but us mums need to stick together. And then I made Tomasz give him “the talk”.’

‘You mean he hasn’t already?’ Claire asked.

‘Yes, we did do that, or Tomasz did, years ago, but he was so awkward that he kept swearing in Polish, and after he blustered through it Aleksy said they already did it in school. But this time I made Tomasz give him a talk about respecting women and not rushing into anything.’ I was slightly disappointed I hadn’t been there for that one.

Claire’s phone beeped with a text.

‘Sylvie’s on her way.’

‘That’s good, isn’t it?’ Franceska said.

‘Hopefully.’ Claire didn’t sound so sure.

Our nice relaxed girls’ night had taken a bit of a stressful turn, however I had to have faith. Sylvie was a lovely woman, sensible, and she fitted right in on Edgar Road, so what could go wrong?

I cowered under the kitchen table next to Polly’s legs. I felt as if she might like to dive under it with me. Franceska looked as if she was ready to cry and Claire’s eyes were as big as saucers. Basically, Sylvie hadn’t taken the news well. And that might be one of my biggest understatements.

I had gone with Claire to open the front door when Sylvie pushed past us both with barely a glance. I had to practically run after her, and when she got to the kitchen, she really lost it.

‘My daughter has just informed me that she’s got a boyfriend. And it’s your son.’ She glared at Franceska, who looked surprised and then a little afraid.

‘Well yes, we just found out—’ Polly started.

‘And you are all sitting here as if the most normal thing in the world is that my fourteen year old, who has never really been around boys much in her whole life, now after only a short time in London thinks it’s OK to have a boyfriend.’ Her eyes were on stalks. She was clearly distressed, and slightly unhinged.

‘Hey, it kind of is normal,’ Polly pointed out, then flinched because Sylvie’s eyes were blazing with anger.

‘Not for my daughter. She’s a good girl. She works hard, she gets straight As, she doesn’t care about boys and make-up and clothes. Well, she didn’t until your son corrupted her.’

‘God, Aleksy couldn’t corrupt Donald Trump,’ Polly tried to point out. I had to admire her insistence on not backing down; both Claire and Franceska seemed to have become mute.

‘Not the point,’ Sylvie shouted. But I thought it was the point.

‘Meow,’ I said, trying to convey that Aleksy was a lovely boy and any parent should be pleased it was him spending time with Connie.

But she ignored me; she was angry and started pacing up and down the kitchen.‘We’ve had a huge upheaval and I knew it was a mistake letting her go to the local school. She begged me, said it would be a way for her to make friends who lived nearby, but somehow I am going to have to get the money for her to go to an all-girls’ school. Maybe if I tell her dad what she’s been up to he’ll cough up.’ She was muttering now as if she was talking to herself. She was definitely unhinged.

‘Sylvie, Connie seems like a sensible girl and Aleksy is one of the sweetest, most sensitive boys I’ve ever met,’ Claire said, her voice gentle. She tried to offer her a glass of wine, but Sylvie ignored it. ‘You know, it’s very innocent between them, just a bit of hand-holding, and if Summer had to have a boyfriend, which I know is a terrible thing for us mums to get our heads round, I would like it to be someone like Aleksy.’

Franceska looked at her gratefully.

‘I brought him up properly, to respect women, he won’t do anything bad, he doesn’t do anything bad. Oh, and by the way, Aleksy is a straight-A student too.’ It was the first time since Sylvie had lost her temper that Franceska had spoken.

‘That is not the point. The point is, Connie is too young for a boyfriend, no matter what. If her father was here, he would go mad.’ I could feel Sylvie’s frustration vibrating in her voice. ‘I forbid them to see each other.’ Her voice was angry, but also I could hear sadness in it. Because she was suddenly having to parent her daughter alone and she clearly didn’t know how to do so.

‘Sylvie, I say this out of friendship,’ Polly started. ‘Doing that will just make them want to see each other more, and they go to the same school.’

‘I do not need any of you telling me how to raise my daughter,’ she almost spat the words. ‘I’ll tell Connie that she has to come straight home from school, and if she sees Aleksy in school I can’t control that but I can forbid her to see him otherwise. And I’ll take her phone, so she can’t contact him. Yes, Polly, she might be mad at me initially but in the long run she’ll thank me. She is too young and too naive to be exposed to boys like Aleksy.’

‘How dare you!’ Franceska now stood up. I jumped onto Polly’s lap. ‘Boys like Aleksy? My son is a good boy. They are both fourteen, it’s normal, there is nothing wrong with it. I will not tell you how to bring up your daughter but I will not have you speaking bad about my son.’ I could feel Franceska’s anger.

‘I’ll say what I want, and you women, well you can keep your friendship, you obviously don’t care about me or my daughter. And I wish I’d never met you or moved to Edgar Road.’

Leaving all three women gaping, Sylvie stormed out of the house.

‘Well, that went well,’ Polly said, but no one laughed.

‘I really didn’t see that coming.’ Claire finished the rest of her wine quickly.

‘Oh no, poor Aleksy,’ Franceska said as she burst into tears. Claire and Polly tried to reassure her that it would be fine, and I tried to think but I had no idea what to do next. They all seemed to think that Sylvie would calm down and they would be able to sort things out. I felt they were being a little optimistic, but of course I couldn’t say that.

Then I had an idea. I left my women, reluctantly as I didn’t like to leave when they were still upset, and I headed next door. I wondered if I would be able to see how it was playing out. At least if I knew what was going on, I might begin to get an idea of how to fix things. Because I knew Aleksy was good, as was Connie, but I also could see how scaredSylvie was, probably because of what she’d been through. I could see both sides, although of course Sylvie was wrong. Connie was lucky to have someone like Aleksy in her life, but I couldn’t tell Sylvie that, and even if I could have she wasn’t going to listen.

I made my way to the back garden and when I peered through the darkness into the lit kitchen my worst fears were confirmed.

I couldn’t hear what was being said, but the muffled sound of raised voices came through the door. Sylvie was running her hands through her hair, Connie was shouting; her face was red and I could see tears beginning to fall from her eyes. Hana was cowering, and my heart went out to her. Us cats always got caught up in the crossfire but, because of Hana’s sheltered life, she probably had no idea what to do. I watched, slightly mesmerised as Connie, crying properly now, handed her phone over to her mum who was pointing at her. Connie turned on her heels and stormed out of the room. Sylvie sat down at the kitchen table, put her head in her hands and sobbed.

So much unhappiness, I thought, when it could have been a happy time. Aleksy would have been good for Connie, he would have helped her adjust to life here. I knew that, because I knew him. But Sylvie didn’t and I had no idea how I would fix this one.

Chapter Seventeen

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I woke up feeling weary, as if I hadn’t slept. The last few days had been trying and it was taking its toll. Claire, Polly and Franceska were all still very upset about Sylvie, and although Jonathan said that it would all blow over – that seemed to be his solution to most things – I wasn’t so sure. They were lucky I wasn’t like him.

Although Claire and Polly had discussed it yesterday and tried to come up with a plan, they both felt that, although Sylvie was clearly having a difficult time, they had to be loyal to Franceska. They agreed that they could try to broker peace, but they needed Franceska to know they were her friends first and foremost, and also, she was right and Sylvie, according to Polly, was insane.

I felt exactly the same. They discussed trying to reason with Sylvie and, while I wasn’t sure that would work, I was pleased they were trying. However, they argued about who would go and see her and in the end they rolled a dice from one of the kids’ board games. Polly lost. Claire, from her position of not having to go near Sylvie, was happy to offer advice, but Polly wasn’t thrilled.

Of course I was worried about Tiger as well, and seeing her was becoming increasingly difficult. With a lot of effort we were still managing, and every time I saw her face I was filled with happiness that she was still with us. I was also concerned about George. I tried to have numerous conversations with him about Tiger but he kept changing the subject or saying he was fine. He was brushing me off, which of course made me fret about him more, but I didn’t know what to do. I couldn’t make him talk to me.

Instead, I told George about the situation with Sylvie before he went to visit Hana. I schooled him on the importance of information gathering so we could help them. And George, bless him, was a very good student. When he came back he reported that Hana was very upset. Connie wasn’t talking to her mum, but when she spent time with her in her bedroom, she confided in Hana. She cried a lot and talked about how unhappy she was, how she missed her dad and her home and how Aleksy had made it more bearable. She did say, however, that luckily Aleksy was being supportive and theywere spending time together at school, which they accepted for now. They were sensible kids, I was right. It was a friendship first and foremost, I could see that, but if only Sylvie could see it too. If only there was a way to make her see it.