The Killer Cat's Birthday Bash

6: Not long now

I DIDN’T FORGET to invite Misty.

‘Yo, dude!’ she yowled. ‘A party! Excellent! That rocks.’

Then I remembered Muff and Puff. ‘Why bother to call it a party?’ they asked me when I told them. ‘Isn’t that what we do all the time? Stay out all night and make a noise?’

‘You’re not invited,’ I reminded Pudge the terrier. ‘No dogs at this party.’

‘Oh, boo woofing hoo,’ he jeered.

‘Will there be games?’ asked Fluffball.

‘Only the usual,’ I said. ‘Hide in the Hay Bale. Shred the Straw. Cry Mouse! Oh, and we’ll probably have races round the rafters.’

Together we strolled along to the barn. Up in the hay loft, Georgie was ignoring the spiders’ grumbling as he scooped up their cobwebs and draped them around the rafters in attractive festoons. ‘I’m going for a natural, no-frills look,’ he explained to us. ‘Folksy. Naive. And I am tending to stick with the earth tones.’

‘Do you mean brown?’ asked Fluffball.

Georgie gave her a stern look. ‘Come on!’ he scolded. ‘Look around. We’ve a style rainbow here. Khaki and chestnut; oatmeal; toast, mushroom and rust; biscuit; bran and tobacco leaf; coffee and fawn–’

We left him reeling off his precious shades of muddy brown and went to look at the food.

Snowball was standing proudly in front of a hay bale spread with delicious goodies. ‘Most of it comes from KeenKost,’ he explained. ‘Today is their clear-out day. And I have laid my paws on some excellent pâté only a day past its date stamp.’

I peered into one of the tubs. ‘Well, whisk my whiskers! Is this double cream?’

‘Nothing’s too good for the birthday boy!’

I peered over the edge. Below, the horses were shifting from hoof to hoof.

‘Getting excited, guys and gals?’ I asked them. ‘Well, it’s not long now!’