Felix The Railway Cat

31. Felix Is Famous

Andrew McClements was walking into the station concourse for his shift when he noticed a couple of the gateline team nudging each other as they looked at him.

‘Andrew,’ they called out. ‘That picture of Felix is gathering some steam online.’

Yeah, Andrew thought sarcastically, of course it is. He knew the Facebook page had got a few more likes since the profile picture had been changed; a couple of days afterwards, Felix had been up to 1,266 fans, which Andrew assumed must be what the team were referring to. He supposed it was pretty special – it had taken Felix seven months to reach 1,000 likes, so to get a quarter of that in just a few days was great. The ever-loyal Huddersfield Examiner had run a piece on Felix’s promotion (‘Felix the Huddersfield station cat gets a purr-motion’ read the headline) and even the online website Mashable had run a story on it: ‘I’m famous!’ posted Felix jokily on Facebook as she shared the link. But whether all that counted as ‘gathering steam’, Andrew doubted.

He headed into the team leaders’ office and sat down, his mind running over all the tasks ahead of him that day. Working at the station was a relentless job in many ways: the services ran day in, day out, twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week. No wonder Felix took so many catnaps.

Just then, his work phone rang. ‘Hello?’ he answered.

‘Andrew McClements?’

‘That’s right.’

‘I’m ringing from head office at Bridgewater House. I work in the communications department,’ said the caller. ‘I’ll cut straight to the point: what’s going on with that cat of yours?’

They must have heard about the Examiner article, Andrew thought. ‘I didn’t realise you would have heard about this,’ he said in confusion, slightly unsure as to why the communications department for the whole of TransPennine Express was getting involved with such a local piece of PR.

He heard a laugh down the telephone. ‘I think you should check Facebook,’ said the caller.

Andrew drew his keyboard towards him and tapped out a few commands. Up came the familiar blue branding of the social-media site. As Andrew entered his log-in details, he still felt puzzled. Surely this wasn’t big enough for head office’s involvement?

Then he saw it. On the menu at the side of the page, listing the top trending news items, he spotted a familiar fluffy black face. ‘Huddersfield, UK/Cat gets promoted to senior pest controller’ read the associated link. It was right at the top of the list: the number-one trending item on Facebook! Reeling in amazement, Andrew clicked on the link. A second page opened up – with an awful lot of links to an awful lot of news outlets.

Felix was famous.

And the media wanted more. The phone kept ringing … and ringing … and ringing. The Daily Mail wanted a quote; they would be sending a photographer. National newspaper after national newspaper dialled the Huddersfield station number – and soon the broadcast media jumped on the bandwagon too. It all felt a little out of control, but Andrew hadn’t been put in the position of team leader for nothing. He hoped, if the station and TPE could respond to this quickly enough, that it would be a real opportunity for Felix. If he could give the media what they needed, then he felt that he could work with them – rather than everyone being swept away in this unexpected maelstrom of media attention.

Although this sort of thing was completely out of his comfort zone, he stepped up to the plate to address the avalanche of incoming reporters, all desperate for information on the now nationally famous station cat. Assisting him in dealing with the media were Chris Bamford on the gateline and Andy Croughan, the man who had been so closely involved in bringing Felix to the station in the first place – and who had just been appointed as Huddersfield station manager following Will’s departure in January.

They were just in time. Even as the trio started giving interviews and quotes to a sea of reporters on the phone, things started snowballing online. The Mashable article was shared nearly 3,000 times; Felix went up to 4,000 fans on Facebook … then 10,000 … then 20,000. Mark Allan watched the rising numbers with astonishment – and learned to turn his email notifications off pretty damn quick! After the Daily Mail article was published, it was shared nearly 30,000 times – which brought even more likes to the Facebook page. It was totally unbelievable; none of them had ever seen anything like it.

And then Andrew got a call from ITV. National TV. Gulp.

Although Andrew and the others were nervous about the media attention, the cat at the centre of it all seemed unperturbed. As one of her colleagues told Buzzfeed, ‘Well, the fame hasn’t quite gone to her head. As with most cats, they already think the world revolves around them.’

As the station started filling up with cameramen and photographers and journalists jumping off the train from London (via Wakefield Westgate), many team members found themselves doing peculiar limbo movements in order to stay out of shot. They might work with a suddenly famous station cat, but that didn’t mean they wanted to become famous themselves. But for Chris and Andrew, who had agreed to do the ITV interview together, there was no choice but to appear in front of the cameras.

‘Let’s split it between us,’ Chris had said to his colleague, as they nervously waited for the camera crew to turn up. ‘If we do that, we’ve got each other’s backs.’

But even with that reassurance, Andrew still felt apprehensive as he went to collect Felix for her big moment in front of the TV cameras. Although Chris and Andrew would be the ones doing the speaking, they didn’t kid themselves: it was Felix everybody was here to see.

She was hanging about the office, not up to much; totally unaware of her impending media stardom.

‘The ITV people are here, Felix,’ Andrew told her shakily. He knew she couldn’t understand the words, but he was speaking to calm himself as much as her. He opened his drawer and pulled out the hi-vis vest with Felix’s name badge pinned on it. All the media wanted Felix to be wearing her uniform in shot – she just looked so cute in it. ‘Time to get dressed.’

Felix stood patiently as he pulled on the little jacket and made sure she looked smart; but then, how could Felix the railway cat ever look anything but beautiful? As though picking up on Andrew’s tension, however, there was a bit of uncertainty in her eyes as he fastened it around her and then picked her up to carry her outside to face the cameras.

Not everyone could pick up Felix; Mrs Grumpy wouldn’t countenance such an intrusion on her personal space from any Tom, Dick or Harry. But Andrew had been watching the master, Dave Chin, at work, and one day he’d decided to try it, since he and Felix were buddies by then. He’d followed Dave’s tips – ‘Be confident, be quick’ – and she’d turned out to be very comfortable sitting in his arms. That was why it was Andrew who carried her out to meet her admirers. The ITV people had asked him to hold her steady in his arms while he simultaneously spoke to the camera.

What a request! As if he didn’t have enough to worry about. How did that saying go? ‘Never work with animals or children.’ Felix was famously Miss Independent; Andrew knew that she would stay in his arms only if she wanted to. He could imagine the drama if she leapt out of his hold and scarpered. The young team leader only hoped that the theatrical diva he knew was inside her would rise to the occasion today – and bask in the limelight as she always had.

‘Come on, then, Felix,’ he said. ‘Let’s do this.’

Felix blinked back at him. She was facing forwards in his arms – all the better for the cameras to capture those enormous emerald eyes of hers – and her white-tipped toes dangled down. Andrew gave her a big firm stroke on her fluffy black head. Did she have any idea what was coming?

Together, they stepped out of the back office and onto Platform 1. There were cameras everywhere. Felix looked with interest at them, and Andrew could tell she was a bit unsure, but they both drew strength from being together. He kept talking to her and stroking her, and she gradually relaxed in his arms as Andrew and Chris answered the questions posed to them.

And, once she’d relaxed, Felix was able to enjoy the centre-stage position she had always relished since her very first day at the station. She was a very comfortable cat nestled in Andrew’s arms in the hi-vis vest, and even the clicking of the photographers’ cameras – for there were people taking pictures as well as filming – did not bother her: used both to the noise of the trains and the smartphones of strangers, she didn’t even flinch.

After the interview section of the filming was over, both photographers and cameramen wanted to capture some footage of Felix running free on the platform. Like a singer mid-set during a stadium show, Felix disappeared back inside at this juncture with her official dresser, Andrew, in order to take off her jacket. Despite what her growing number of Facebook fans might like to think, Felix didn’t actually wear her hi-vis when she was running about; the team always took it off before they let her loose.

Once she was attired solely in her birthday suit and her glitzy purple collar, Andrew, like a bodyguard extraordinaire, escorted her back outside to the little lobby between the customer-information point and the lost-property office. Here, he set her down on the floor.

Felix sniffed the air cautiously. The crowd that had congregated on Platform 1 had swelled even further since she and Andrew had popped back into the office, as the customers too wanted to see the famous railway cat in action. There was now a massive crowd of people gathered in a circle surrounding the doorway, and so many cameras and phones on display that it was as if a mini electronics store had suddenly been set up slap bang in the middle of Huddersfield station.

Felix paused in the doorway, as though making her public wait, upping their anticipation. Only once she was ready did Andrew take in his hand one of the Dreamies treats he’d brought out with him, and throw it far from the doorway, out onto the platform.

Years of training for this moment stood Felix in good stead. She knew what to do when someone threw a treat for her – oh yes she did. Out she bounded from the lobby with impressive athletic grace, darting after the treat, and as the station cat confidently cantered along the platform, the air was filled with the click-click-clicking sound of the cameras. It was like a celebrity arriving on the red carpet – which, of course, she was.

Once on her walkabout, Felix gave the cameras what they were waiting for. She walked this way; she walked that way; she sat on command; she wagged her tail – then she drew out from her bag of tricks the one star turn that had them all gasping in acclaim: Felix stood up on her hind legs and caught a treat between her two front paws. Felix had always had showbiz in her spirit and she certainly gave the reporters something to write home about.

Naturally enough, her brilliant performance led to more and more admirers – and more and more media interest. She had 30,000 Facebook fans; 40,000; 50,000 … People couldn’t keep up. It went on for weeks, the station team tripping over the BBC and the Telegraph as they tried to keep the station running smoothly. It was surreal and it led to a couple of really mad weeks for all at Huddersfield station.

Andrew thought the live radio interviews were the worst. At least ITV had been a pre-record, so if he made a mistake the crew could stop filming and he could start over again. But he found himself sitting in his office, listening down the line to BBC Radio 5 Live and hearing, ‘And we’re now joined by Andrew from TransPennine Express who’s going to tell us all about Felix the cat,’ and then suddenly he was live on national radio.

In between the filming and the photos and the live radio interviews, the media continued to call up, asking for quotations, so he and Felix and Chris were giving soundbites, both visual and audio, to the assorted press. Felix had never done so many photo shoots in her life. Just as the traditional media interest started to die down, the internet media caught up: another wave of Felix-focused stories from The LAD Bible and others followed.

And amid all this liking and sharing and tweeting and reporting, something incredible happened.

Felix’s fame went global. And she didn’t just hop across to France on a booze cruise – she went properly international: jet-setting-superstar global.

The first Felix’s family knew of it was when some of her Facebook fans started posting foreign media clippings of her on her page, saying that that was how they had discovered her. Following the coverage of her well-deserved promotion in the UK press, she hit the headlines in Taiwan, the Netherlands, Hong Kong and many other places. Andrew was bowled over when he learned that the ITV footage featuring Felix, Chris and him had been re-used by an American broadcaster – Felix the railway cat was on Good Morning America! Australia joined the party, as well as Japan and China. Felix was a bona fide international icon, with fans in France, Germany, Italy, Canada, Brazil, Mexico, Argentina, Lithuania, Estonia … The list went on and on – and then on!

The staff at Huddersfield had always known she was special, but this was something else. Angie Hunte thought it was absolutely super. ‘To me, she’s always been famous,’ she said proudly. ‘But, you know, it doesn’t matter how global she goes, she’s still my kitten, my baby.’

It was Dave Chin who summed it up in a nutshell: ‘She’s just a little star.’

And her new, worldwide fans seemed to agree with him. With all this happening in February, Felix was soon the flattered recipient of many Valentine’s Day cards. Perhaps it was just as well that the stray black cat, her ‘boyfriend’, had not been seen on the station for a while, for he might not have been able to control his jealousy at this flood of not-so-secret admirers. But the love-themed billets-doux were only the start of Felix’s fan mail. As the year drew on the team found their mail bags becoming full of post for Felix.

Angie couldn’t believe it when all this stuff started arriving. Felix had letters from Canada, America, France … Her fans were sending her all sorts. Somebody even sent some catnip from Ireland.

Parcel after parcel after parcel was brought to the station mailbox by the local Huddersfield postman. They were simply addressed to: ‘Felix, the Huddersfield station cat’. The global superstar was sent gourmet suppers and laser toys, cat bowls with her name on them and heart-shaped dishes, posh turquoise collars printed with pink cupcakes – and even a supersized cat-treats tin from America. She was mailed a bumper pack of goodies from her favourite food brand ‘Felix’, as well as sardines from John West. She was even contacted by the famous Battersea Dogs & Cats Home, who gave her a special branded bowl.

That was the one that got Angie. ‘Wow’ was all she could say as she stood in the office, reading the message from the celebrated rescue centre.

Other cats ‘wrote’ to her to inform her of their vermin-catching capabilities, as though Felix was a pest-controlling cat idol in the feline world; one resented the ‘intervention by human’ that had decreased his tally to only three mice and one sparrow. Many told her how much they admired her work at Huddersfield, and she was showered with congratulations on her promotion. Letters were signed by humans and cats, dogs and rabbits, the ‘x’ of affectionate kisses often accompanied by the sketch of a pawprint too. Lots of children took the time to draw her colourful pictures, while others sent her postcards from their holidays.

Perhaps the most special letters, however, came from other station cats. It seemed there was a collegiate feeling among the members of this railway kitty club. Felix received correspondence from Batman and Metro-Miez, German station cats from Cuxhaven near Hamburg who sent her ‘signed’ pictures, as well as from Jojo, the Southend Victoria station cat. Jojo, another black-and-white moggy, kindly sent Felix some treats and told the Huddersfield cat how she had the British Transport Police, who cared for Jojo down in Essex, wrapped around her piebald paws. Felix knew that feeling well …

So many gifts and offerings arrived that Felix’s filing-cabinet drawer in the team leaders’ office became absolutely chocka. There was far too much for one cat to consume in one lifetime; too much even for those with nine lives. As the Royal Family did before her, Queen Felix found that it was best to donate some of the thoughtful offerings to local cat rescue centres, where other cats less fortunate than she would be able to benefit from her fans’ incredible generosity.

That didn’t mean she wasn’t grateful. Felix had been well brought up by her family and the station team made sure to photograph her with the myriad gifts upon receipt, so that she could post special ‘thank you’ messages on Facebook and people would know that their presents and letters had reached her safely. Felix looked by turns happy, curious, hungry and bored in the assorted snaps.

For that Facebook page, Mark’s creativity was showing no bounds as he catered to the legion of fans following Felix. With tens of thousands of admirers posting and interacting with the railway cat online it became a major job keeping up with all the correspondence – and that was before he thought about new ideas for posts. Nonetheless, Mark was absolutely in his element. He’d hoped that the page would become a creative outlet for him; he’d never expected this. Felix really had changed his life.

Andrew got more involved with the page, working alongside Mark and filming amusing videos of Felix playing on the night shift to entertain her fans. The cat watched in fascination one evening as he edited a movie of her onscreen in the office.

‘What are you thinking?’ Andrew asked her, genuinely wondering. Felix’s green eyes never left the screen as the TV version of herself bounded and jumped and ran on the monitor. The flesh-and-blood Felix was obsessed with it. Andrew couldn’t decipher her enigmatic expression, but as she sat beside him in the office she became transfixed by her own moving image.

Of course, she wasn’t the only one. With demand so high for the Facebook page, there was an enormous appetite for new footage of Felix. Mark was so diligent about updating the page that he even logged in on holiday, replying to fans and adding images from the stockpile he had created.

‘Are you checking that Felix page again?’ asked his wife in dry amusement. ‘There are three people in this marriage: me, you and Felix!’

Mark’s affection for Felix was by now immense. ‘I didn’t expect that I’d become attached to a cat,’ he said in wonder. ‘But I have.’

As the Facebook friend numbers soared, Mark, Andrew and the others grew more advanced with their media-making, adding soundtracks to videos and editing Felix’s funny little actions in time to the music. Her early promise jiggling along the platforms on jazz nights had flourished, making her a proper dancing queen at last. One of Mark’s favourite mini-films was when he added the Chariots of Fire theme to a slow-motion recording of Felix chasing pigeons on the platform. It went down really well.

The pigeons now became characters who teased her online (as they did in Felix’s real life), always just out of reach of her hunting claws, with ‘Percy Pigeon’ getting a starring role in the Facebook posts as her nemesis. And Luther, Felix’s brother, was also introduced to her fans: Mark sketched the contrast between Felix’s busy, exciting life on the railway and her sibling’s apparently tranquil domestic routine with an owner.

Fact can be stranger than fiction, though, for Luther had recently had an adventure of his own. He’d disappeared for five weeks but come back safely; his family thought he must have got locked in a barn. However, there must have been some sand in there, because when he came back to them the short-haired black-and-white cat had sand between his toes. The running joke was that he’d been away on his holidays.

Felix herself was the lead joke on April Fools’ Day for the Huddersfield Examiner. The town was shocked to read the headline: ‘Devastation as Felix the Huddersfield Station Cat is poached to move to Leeds Station’. It caused outcry. Facebook user Gavin Hudson even commented: ‘This is bigger transfer news than Messi and Ronaldo swapping teams!’

The relief was plain on everybody’s faces when it was revealed to be a harmless prank. No one could imagine Huddersfield without her.

‘She’s part of the fixtures and fittings here,’ her colleague Michael Ryan said affectionately.

Except, you know, way more glamorous …

And it was glamour a go-go as Felix turned five on 17 May 2016. She received birthday messages from across the globe – and a very special gift indeed.

For Felix the famous Facebooker now had more than 60,000 Facebook fans. In time, that number would grow to far more than that. No wonder she looked so pleased with herself these days: the spitting image of the cat who got the cream (and the salmon and the prawns).

But there were some at the station who were not as pleased as Felix. While many of her colleagues thought her international fame was cool, others considered it a load of nonsense. They couldn’t believe the world had reacted in this way to her. To them – so they said – this social-media ‘icon’ was just a lazy cat who sat in the station and got in everyone’s way.

Team leader Geoff was one of those who thought her popularity very strange indeed. He still shouted at her to get out of the office whenever he saw her appear. It was just a cat at the end of the day; why were people so interested?

Her many thousands of adoring Facebook fans could tell him that.