Alfie the Christmas Cat

Chapter Six

Snowball and I were enjoying a bit of alone time in her back garden. It was quite rare, because Harold was a very needy human. He was quite old and had suffered ill health in the past, so it was understandable, and also George would often be around, or one of our other friends. But today Harold was at his senior centre, playing chess or cards, and George was with Hana, so we took advantage of a bit of time and space for ourselves. We appreciated it more because it was so unusual, I guessed.

‘Isn’t life funny?’ Snowball asked as she played with a pile of leaves. Like me, she was quite a philosophical cat. I think becoming a parent to George had made me think about things more deeply, for sure.

‘I know. When you left and moved away I thought I’d never see you again. And yet, here you are and I see you every day.’

‘Exactly. And although I will always miss my family a bit, I have grown very fond of Harold – even his snoring doesn’t bother me anymore – and I adore George. It’s also nice to be back with my other cat friends.’

‘It is. We never stop missing those we love,’ I added. I was speaking from experience here.

‘I know.’ We were both silent. ‘Hey, let’s be more cheerful. Race you to the rec ground,’ she shouted as she bounded off.

I chased after her, and was pleased to see our other friends there as we approached, slightly out of breath from our run. Nellie was playing in a bush, Elvis was licking his paws and Rocky was lying in a very rare sunny spot. We cats of Edgar Road tried to catch up regularly but with winter and the frequent rain, we didn’t always see each other as much as we’d have liked. No one liked having damp fur.

‘Snowball, Alfie,’ they greeted us.

‘What’s going on?’ I asked as I caught my breath.

‘Nothing much, it’s been so cold lately I feel that I’ve barely been out,’ Rocky said.

‘But, I have news. There’s a new woman moved in to one of the flats at the end of the road. I think where your families used to live,’ Elvis said, stretching his legs out.

When I first moved to Edgar Road, Tomasz and Franceska lived in the upstairs flat of one of the houses and Polly and Matt lived in the downstairs. They had separate front doors but it was a house split in two.

‘Does she have a cat?’ Always my first question.

‘No, it’s just her on her own. I thought I might take an interest as she would possibly be a candidate for your lonely club,’ Elvis explained.

‘It’s the Sunday Lunch Club,’ Snowball corrected.

‘Well, anyway, she looks about the right age, although maybe a bit younger than your Harold, I would guess, and she’s definitely on her own.’ Goodness, Elvis had done his homework.

‘Has Salmon’s family met her yet?’ I asked. Salmon was the neighbourhood watch cat, he knew everything that was going on. As did his family. Heather and Vic Goodwin ruled Edgar Road in many ways. They wore matching jumpers and were the busybodies (Jonathan’s word) of the street. Salmon used to be our nemesis but we had all softened towards each other and found a way to be cordial nowadays.

‘Probably,’ Nellie said. ‘But I haven’t seen Salmon for a few days. If I do, I’ll see what I can find out, and you do the same,’ she suggested.

Salmon was useful for knowing all the comings and goings of Edgar Road – nothing seemed to escape his notice. We sometimes had to butter him up a bit to get the real gossip but I wasn’t averse to that.

We all spent some companionable time together, watching the world of Edgar Road go by. Snowball climbed a tree, Nellie chatting to her from the safety of the ground as she did so. Rocky closed his eyes and Elvis and I watched people go about their business. It was a pleasant time, but of course, it was soon time to leave. We had to before our fur froze. We spotted Sylvie pushing Theo in his pram up the road towards her house and I knew that was probably a sign that the humans would be returning from school, or work, or their chores, soon. Snowball and I took some privacy to say goodbye, because she wanted to make sure she was home to greet Harold when he got back, and then we took our leave.

When I first met Snowball I used to hate it when I wasn’t with her but then I was a very young cat in love. Now I’m grown up. I’ve lived through losing her, becoming a parent, falling for Tiger, losing Tiger, finding Snowball again … I’m far more realistic these days, steady and sensible in our relationship, because when I first met her it was all about the two of us – and the humans, of course – but now it’s about so many more people and cats, and we know that is part of our relationship. It’s funny how you change and evolve as you grow up.

I headed home and arrived to see George at the front door. He was waiting for the children to come home from school. They loved it when we greeted them on the doorstep for some reason. Today, Claire arrived with Pickles – Toby holding his lead, and Martha, Henry and Summer trailing him. It was one of Polly’s busy work days and Claire often picked the children up from school. She also dog sat Pickles a lot. In fairness, I had to dog sit quite a lot too. Dogs aren’t like cats; they hate to be on their own, and if left alone for too long Pickles managed to get up to all sorts. Only the other day Claire had to leave him here when she went to the supermarket and because George and I were out, he managed to chew one of Jonathan’s favourite loafers. Claire hid it at the back of the wardrobe, so I’m not sure Jonathan has noticed yet, but the rule now was that either a responsible adult or a responsible cat has to be with Pickles at all times.

‘George, can we play?’ Pickles asked as he was let off the lead once inside the house. The children, having made a fuss of us, had moved on to getting snacks.

‘OK, you hide.’ George loved playing hide and seek with Pickles, because he always won, which I don’t believe is in the spirit of the game, but there was no telling George that. I tried to suggest he let Pickles win sometimes but he refused, saying that Pickles needed to learn. It’s been over a year and he hasn’t got it yet so I’m not sure he ever will, but George is resolute. Hide and seek hasn’t always been a success – in fact, it has been quite treacherous in the past. Pickles once got stuck on the top bunk of Toby’s bed with no idea how to get down and he’s also been trapped in a cereal box, the cat flap, and once he even almost buried himself in the garden. But as long as he’s supervised when playing it’s normally OK.

Pickles went to hide behind the armchair (his favourite place), and George humoured him by looking everywhere else before he finally found him. George, when it was his turn, hid behind the living room curtain. I could barely watch as Pickles ran around the room trying to find him, and failed. George hid there nearly every time they played, but the poor dog just couldn’t get it. I never knew whether to laugh or cry. Instead, I gave up and went in search of adult company.

‘Hi Alfie,’ Claire said, picking me up and giving me a cuddle. ‘I’ve started making lists for Christmas. We both love Christmas don’t we?’ She set me down.

We do both love Christmas, the most wonderful time of the year. It’s a time for family, friends, happiness, and good food. I am partial to a bit of Christmas dinner, I cannot lie. I could feel Claire’s excitement, which was contagious. It wouldn’t be too long before the children were writing letters to Santa, the man who delivered presents, asking for whatever it was they would want this year. George and I were happy enough with the food but we always got a few cat toys and treats as well. But the fact we were all together as a family, the fact that we had each other, always struck me as the most important thing about Christmas. It was a time of year when I would definitely count my lucky stars – and there were a lot.

It was always welcome when we could start planning for Christmas. Normally it was December when the excitement really got going with trees, decorations, advent calendars, and events at school, but I was happy to get a bit of early Christmas spirit. What cat wouldn’t be?

Polly arrived after tea, taking her two reluctant children and an exhausted Pickles with her. I went to find George.

‘I heard that a new woman moved onto Edgar Road,’ I told him now we were alone. I didn’t want to mention it in front of Pickles, because I was going to suggest that George and I go and check her out and as Pickles absolutely couldn’t come with us, it didn’t seem fair to talk about it in front of him. Also, he had been known to follow us out and get us into trouble so possibly a good idea to avoid that.

But, I was suddenly nostalgic for the days when I visited Franceska and Polly’s flats, it seemed so long ago now. ‘Apparently she doesn’t have a cat, so maybe we should go and introduce ourselves?’ I was curious and, being a doorstep cat, I couldn’t help but be excited every time someone new moved onto the street. The first thing I would need to know was if they had a cat, and if they didn’t I would go and charm them. You never knew if they would have need of a cat or not. Most people did though.

‘Dad, it’s been a long day and I’m tired, but if you can wait I promise I’ll come with you in the morning, even before I go to see Hana.’

‘OK, it’s a deal.’ I tried to hide the disappointment I felt. But then George had pretty much always lived in this one house, and although he visited the others with me, he didn’t quite have the doorstep cat gene, so I tried to be understanding. And the morning would be fine because he was right, it had been a long day and we were all tired. But I was still feeling a little bit disappointed. I wasn’t known for my patience.

Later that evening, Claire and I were catching a few minutes’ peace and quiet and I was trying not to be too impatient, waiting for the following day. Jonathan was working late, the children were upstairs, ready but not in bed, and George was with them.

The doorbell went, startling me, and I ran to wait by it, because as far as I knew we weren’t expecting anyone. Claire opened it and Aleksy and Connie stood on the doorstep. I immediately jumped into Aleksy’s arms; it was just what I needed, another cuddle from someone who loved me. He also gave me a very nice head scratch.

‘Come in you two. Did I ask you to babysit?’ Claire asked, sounding confused. Aleksy and Connie were now old enough to babysit for Summer and Toby when Claire and Jonathan went out. They also did the same for Polly, and it was quite the money maker, according to Aleksy.

‘No,’ Aleksy said. ‘We wanted to talk to you about something.’

Claire led them into the kitchen, and I for one was eager to hear what they had to say.

‘So,’ Connie started. ‘We were wondering if we could ask your advice?’

‘Of course, on what?’ Claire’s eyes darted between the two of them.

‘So, you know how we were doing our school project on homelessness and we went to the local shelter? It gave us a real wake-up call about how bad the homeless situation in London is.’

‘It’s terrible, Aleksy, you’re right,’ Claire said.

‘And with Christmas coming up they need even more help,’ Connie said. ‘I mean now, even, as it’s winter. But Christmas makes having a home so much more important and not having one seem even more cruel. We wanted to get warm clothes, blankets, food, anything we could to help, you see.’

‘That’s so great of you. Homelessness is a huge problem in this country, not just in London.’ Claire looked concerned. It was hard enough being homeless as a cat, at least we have some survival skills, but imagine being a homeless human? I shuddered; it was a terrible thought.

‘But we can do something more to help as well, I think,’ Aleksy said. ‘We want to raise money.’

‘Like a big Christmas fundraiser to do something for the local shelter,’ Connie added.

‘That’s a wonderful idea. Where do I come in?’ Claire asked.

‘Meow.’ Where do I come in, I added.

‘Well out of all the adults you have the most time on your hands …’ Aleksy started. Claire narrowed her eyes. Oh boy. Because Claire didn’t technically have a job, a paying job, sometimes she felt undervalued. But she looked after two children, a house, two cats, a husband, Polly and Matt’s children part-time, and Pickles. She also shopped and made lunch for Harold some days, she coordinated most of the Sunday Lunch Club … She was incredibly busy and she worked very hard.

‘What Aleksy meant was that you used to work in marketing so we thought you might have the right expertise to help us.’ Connie managed to rescue things, phew. I noticed that she kicked Aleksy under the table. He turned a little bit red.

‘Yes, but Aleksy I don’t have much spare time, I’m so busy with the Sunday Lunch Club, the family, Pickles even, and we’ve got Christmas to organise … Anyway, of course I’ll help, it’s a great cause. What were you thinking?’

‘That’s the problem, we don’t have a good idea yet,’ Aleksy said. ‘We thought we could do a sponsored thing, maybe a sleep out, but then our parents wouldn’t like that.’

‘My mum would worry,’ Connie said.

‘Yes, she would,’ Claire agreed. Sylvie could be very overprotective.

‘Then we thought we could do something at school, but what?’ Aleksy added.

‘Yes, you see, we want to involve the community, really,’ Connie said. ‘But we don’t have many ideas that seem good enough.’

So, their big idea was that they needed a big idea, it seemed.

‘Meow,’ I said. They had come to the right place. Only I needed a bit of time to think about it. Although I had heard them talking about this the other day, with all that was going on, I’d forgotten, so now I needed to put my thinking cap on. Not literally. Not unless Doris knitted me one, anyway.

‘OK, why don’t you let me think about it for a bit, because I think it’d be great if you could do something,’ Claire offered.

‘The project at school was to raise awareness but we thought what if we do something that raises both awareness and money,’ Connie said.

‘I know, we really want to come up with something amazing,’ Aleksy said. I was so proud of these two, I purred at him to show him that.

‘Let’s brainstorm,’ Claire said, grabbing a pad and pen. She did love making lists.

‘Our first idea was doing something sponsored,’ Connie suggested.

‘But that’s not exactly exciting or different is it?’ Aleksy said. ‘I mean it’s not really very original.’

‘Meow.’ I didn’t exactly know what sponsored something was but it certainly didn’t sound as if it was quite good enough.

‘People do love a charity song,’ Claire said. ‘Remember Band Aid?’

We all shook our heads.

‘No of course not, before your time. But pop stars made this amazing song to raise money for famine in Africa. I’m sure there’ve been others, but that’s the one that springs to mind.’

‘Like the Children in Need songs,’ Aleksy said.

‘Yes, we could do a song.’ Claire nodded.

‘I actually can’t sing, or write music,’ Connie said. ‘I did learn the piano in Japan but I gave it up after coming here.’

‘No, I’m not exactly Beethoven either,’ Claire said.

‘And if we did a song, then how would we make it into a record and get people to buy it?’ Aleksy asked.

‘Yowl.’ I knew they weren’t quite on the right track. But it did get me thinking. Raising money for charity, the homeless, Christmas. There had to be something that would do all they wanted to do.

‘It’s impossible, we’ll never think of something that’s good enough,’ Aleksy said.

‘We will if we think about Christmas, how to raise money, and something we can all get involved in,’ Connie summed it up.

‘Of course we will,’ Claire reassured. ‘Look, let’s mull it over tonight and then get together after school tomorrow to see what we’ve come up with.’

‘Meow.’ That was fine, I had twenty-four hours to come up with the best idea ever.

While George and I paid our pre-bed visit to the garden I filled him in.