by Rachel Wells
‘I’ve learnt to share an awful lot lately; with Pickles and now seeing Oliver in Tiger mum’s house … I really don’t want to be selfish about it, and it makes perfect sense. Harold needs a cat. I would suggest giving him Pickles but then I thought that Henry and Martha might not like it, so we need to get him a cat of his own.’
‘OK, it’s not a bad idea, but how on earth do we put it into practice? It’s not as if we just happen to have a spare cat laying around.’ I grinned.
‘I know, on Sunday the adults said they are going to discuss what the options are for Harold, we will have to listen and then you’ll have to show them that the answer is a cat. It’s simple really.’
For him maybe, just how the hell was I going to do that? I needed yet another plan. Honestly my skills were being put to the test lately.
Chapter Twenty-Four
Family day is one of my favourite days ever because I get nearly everyone I love under one roof. And when it’s at Franceska and Tomasz’s restaurant, I get to see Dustbin which is a big bonus. I could do with some of his wisdom, now I had been charged somehow with getting Harold a cat. And George, my lovely George, assumed that I would be able to do it. Sometimes children seemed to think parents could do anything, and although that was flattering, it was also a lot of pressure.
However, I couldn’t let him down, not after everything we had been through lately. But I had no idea how I was going to do it yet. Harold was finally due out of hospital the following week. Talk had turned to the fact that Sylvie, now pregnant, needed Marcus around more than ever, but Harold wouldn’t entertain moving in with them – he wanted to be in his own home. The doctors said he would be able to live alone, as long as he had help, which of course he did but George had already said he didn’t want him to be alone late at night or in the morning, when we wouldn’t be there for him.
‘George, I get that you don’t want Harold to be lonely and I will do all I can to put your plan into action,’ I said. ‘But I can’t make any promises.’
‘I know you’ll do it,’ George said, leaving me no choice.
We set off and more excitedly, because Hana was joining us, although Connie was carrying her, and Pickles was also with us, although he was on a lead so there was no way he could get into trouble. Even so, he kept splashing into puddles, left by last night’s rain, which made Polly a little annoyed, Matt seemed to find it funny. Until he got soaked of course.
We all arrived at the restaurant, and everyone greeted each other with hugs and kisses, as coats were taken off, scarfs and gloves discarded. The children ran to Tommy, begging him to play a game with them and Pickles and George. Tommy said he would set up a little course for them. Aleksy and Connie immediately sneaked off together, so George, Hana and I headed to the back of the restaurant to find Dustbin.
‘I don’t know if I want to go outside, it’s cold,’ Hana said.
‘Just for a bit and I promise if you want to come back in, I’ll come with you,’ George coaxed.
‘OK, I do want to see Dustbin after all.’
We made our way out and found Dustbin cleaning his paws in the yard.
‘Ah hello, friends.’ He came and greeted us. ‘It’s been far too long.’
‘I know, there has been so much going on, we’ll fill you in, where’s Ally?’ I asked.
‘Oh she’ll be along later, she just went for a walk. I was waiting for you guys, but sometimes Ally gets a bit stir crazy in the yard and needs to get out – not sure why it’s a mighty fine yard.’ We all looked around the yard, it was spacious but a bit gloomy and there were a lot of big bins out here. I could see why you might want to spend a bit of time away from it.
‘I’m going to get Harold a cat,’ George announced and then we filled Dustbin in on our plans.
‘I think it’s a grand idea,’ Dustbin said when he finished. ‘But short of kidnapping a cat for him, I’m not sure how to do it.’
‘And we don’t have the first idea how to kidnap a cat, not that we would ever do that of course,’ I pointed out.
‘Yes, that wouldn’t be right, I mean I want Harold to have the company as well, I think it’s a very good idea, but not if we have to steal a cat,’ Hana added.
We all gave it some thought.
‘I know, I’ve got it,’ I said and I really did. ‘What if there was away to lead a homeless cat to Harold’s.’ It was a brilliant idea, if I did say so myself.
‘But how will we find this homeless cat?’ Hana asked.
‘Dustbin can ask about, and Ally too. You never know there might be a cat around who would be glad of a warm home.’ It did make sense. To me anyway.
‘We can certainly ask around,’ Dustbin said, ‘but I don’t know … I mean most of the outside cats we know like it that way. Anyway, if we do hear of anyone I’ll let you know.’ He sounded uncertain and my confidence took a slight knock. Ally arrived and I relayed my plan to her.
‘I’m not sure how easy it will be, but we can try,’ she said, sounding a little more upbeat than Dustbin. I would take that. ‘But, Alfie, you might need to have another idea as well,’ she suggested gently. OK, so as usual I needed a backup plan.
Hana went inside shortly afterwards, as it was too cold for her, and George went with her. I guessed they would join in with the children. I took a few moments to have a deeper chat with Dustbin and Ally about George’s fixation with loneliness.
‘I understand it, I do. I remember feeling lonely even when I wasn’t alone, after Snowball …’ Snowball was my first love, when she and her family moved away it was devastating. ‘Then after Tiger, but I did have family and friends around me, so I have to acknowledge that. Harold does too, although he does live alone and I can see why that would worry George.’
‘I think, Alfie, George really saw his hospital visits as his job, and now he knows that is coming to an end, he’s turning his efforts elsewhere. First Harold and then, well, like you he’ll want to make sure no one is ever lonely again.’
‘So all this is my fault really?’
‘I’m afraid so. You brought up a fine young tom, and now he wants to do good in the world. We can’t complain about that can we?’
‘And you know he has a point. I heard people talking about how hard it is to be on their own, and look at your families in the restaurant, they’re all happy. It would be wonderful if there was more of that in the world,’ Ally said. ‘Even Dustbin and I found each other, before that I was a loner.’
‘You’re right, and although we might not be able to fix the loneliness problems of the world we can try to do our bit, right?’
‘Right, Alfie.’
I had to do my bit. In our world of Edgar Road, the immediate issue was Harold. What if he got ill in the night? I just hoped if we did get him a cat, it would be almost as smart as us. One of the reasons a dog would be absolutely no good.
Everyone was sat around the table and the hum of easy chatter filled the restaurant. The children had their own table, although Aleksy and Connie complained that they were grown-up enough to be able to sit with the adults. They weren’t quite though, and as Claire pointed out, they were needed to keep the younger ones in check.
‘It’s good news that your dad is coming home this week,’ Franceska said.
‘I know, and you guys have been amazing,’ Marcus replied. ‘Claire and I are drawing up a roster to make sure he’s taken care of at home the way he was in hospital. I don’t know how I’ll ever thank you all.’
‘Pah, that’s what friends are for. Whenever we can help we can,’ Tomasz said, although he was very busy so I wasn’t sure how much time he would have.
‘We’re worried about him being alone though,’ Sylvie said. ‘I need Marcus with me, especially as the pregnancy isn’t that easy.’
‘I cannot believe we have another baby coming,’ Polly said, she ignored the idea of the difficult pregnancy.
‘But my moods are all over the place,’ Sylvie said. ‘And I’m worried I might, you know, not cope as well as I should,
’ she added carefully.
‘Sylvie, I had postnatal depression with Henry,’ Polly said.
‘I didn’t know that,’ Sylvie said. I did, it was when I first met Polly, Matt and Henry, before Martha was in the picture. In fact I may have even diagnosed her postnatal depression myself.
‘Yes, it was tough but once I knew what it was, I got help and was fine, so with us around you, you won’t fall into any holes. We won’t let you.’
‘Thanks, guys, but still Harold is resolute he won’t move in with us, so we still have the problem of what to do about him.’
‘He’ll probably be fine,’ Jonathan said, uncertainly.
‘Yeah,’ Matt added. ‘The doctors said he’s OK to go home and they know he lives alone.’
‘I know but it doesn’t stop us worrying,’ Marcus replied. I glanced over at George, he glanced over at Hana, and I called them in close.
‘It’s a long shot but I’ve got an idea. If we all jump up on the table, they might get that we’re trying to tell them something,’ I suggested. A genius idea if I did say so myself.
‘But they hate us being on the table, we always get in trouble,’ Hana said.
‘Exactly.’ George grinned. ‘Dad’s right, if we do that they will know we’re telling them something.’
‘Right, let’s do it,’ I said. The three of us jumped onto laps and then onto the table.
‘What on earth are you doing? Get down this minute,’ Claire said. I saw Polly try not to laugh at her tone. Polly often said Claire missed her vocation and should have been a school teacher.
‘Yowl,’ I shouted.
‘Yowl,’ Hana added.
‘Yowl,’ George finished.
The adults glanced between us.
‘Anyone would think they were trying to tell us something,’ Jonathan said. I raised my whiskers, of course we were; humans could be a little slow on the uptake but you would think that after all the years of my teaching, they might have got it by now.
‘Maybe they are saying that we should get Harold a cat?’ Tomasz suggested.
‘Meow,’ I said and nuzzled Tomasz to reward him. He was the cleverest right now.
‘Meow,’ George reiterated.
‘Meow,’ Hana thirded. The adults all studied us hard. But I think we had managed to convey the message.
‘That’s it, if Harold had a cat, he wouldn’t be quite on his own, and if the cat is anything like these three, they’ll take good care of him,’ Matt said.
‘What a great idea and Dad will love it. As long as George isn’t jealous, I mean those two are like best friends.’
‘Meow,’ George said, to show he didn’t mind at all. He then went to Marcus and jumped into his arms to reiterate the point.
‘These cats are so clever,’ Jonathan said. ‘But it is a great idea, if Harold has a cat then at least we know he’s got company when we’re not there.’
‘It’s a genius idea,’ Claire said.
‘After all, everyone needs a cat,’ Franceska finished rubbing my ears.
‘Woof.’ We all turned to see poor Pickles trying to climb up a chair leg but he couldn’t. I’d almost forgotten about him in my delight that my plan was working, so I hopped down and went to join him.
‘Am I ever going to be a cat, Alfie?’ he asked.
‘We’ll see,’ I replied. Which is what adults said when they really meant no.
As the adults discussed the cat they were going to get for Harold, I went to eat. Claire was going to take charge but she liked that, and they said they would of course get an older cat, because the last thing Harold or any of us needed was a kitten. And they had to remember Harold’s age but then of course any cat that came to live with him would be part of our family so they would never be alone anyway. I went to tell Dustbin the good news, and I was feeling so proud of us all as I did so. We’d proved to be a formidable team yet again.
Chapter Twenty-Five
It was a year to the day since we lost Tiger, I knew this because Oliver told us the Barkers had been preparing for it. In fact they were going to wait to get Oliver until the year anniversary, as it seemed right, but in the end they had gone to find him a bit earlier.
Because he told us about this day, we decided to make it Tiger day. We’d had a memorial, after Tiger passed away, which I knew nothing about but we learnt to say goodbye to her, and now we were going to honour the year without her by telling her how much we missed her and loved her still. All our friends were meeting at the recreation ground.
George even asked Hana if she would come and she’d agreed. She might not like the cold, or even the outside that much but she was a good cat and a good friend to George. The only problem we had was Pickles.
‘Why can’t I come?’ he had whined as we prepared to leave.
‘You know why,’ George retorted. ‘You can’t be out without a human. We’ve had enough trouble already, what with nearly being run over, and caught at the hospital, don’t you think?’
‘It’s not fair. No matter how hard I work at being a cat I am still a dog.’
‘Life isn’t fair, my lad,’ I said kindly, shooting George a warning look. ‘But we will tell you all about it as soon as we get home.’
He turned his back on us in a sulk. Poor Pickles, it was hard for him but after all he was still only a puppy. We loved him, but there was nothing any of us could do about the ‘dogness’ of him.
We called for Hana and set off to the meeting place. I was heartened to see that everyone was there already. Dustbin and Ally had even come from the yard, which was touching. Elvis, Nellie and Rocky, my three closest Edgar Road friends, were there, even Salmon had turned up with Oliver – what a wonderful group it was.
‘Right,’ Elvis said, taking control. ‘Let’s share our favourite Tiger story, or memory, in order to honour her today,’ he said, seriously.
‘I’ll go first,’ I said. ‘Everyone knows how much I loved Tiger and how close we were. When we first met though she really didn’t like exercise, and I used to make her come for long walks with me, she would complain all the way but then she ended up liking exercise even more than I did.’ It was a simple memory but I had others which instead of sharing I wanted to keep in my heart.
‘She was my Tiger mum,’ George said. ‘And I am just proud to have had her in my life and I hope that she’s proud of me now.’
‘Oh George, she would be beyond proud of you,’ I said, through my emotions. ‘Everyone is beyond proud of you.’
‘Oh good.’ He raised his tail, and I felt that he had come such a long way lately.
We all stood solemnly as Rocky recounted how Tiger was a great bird chaser in her time, Nellie talked about the ‘girl’ chats they shared and how now she was surrounded by boys she missed that the most, Elvis said she could be really feisty when pushed, which she could be, and Salmon said how she never quite liked him and called him a ‘busybody’ – which to be fair he was. Oliver stayed quiet as did Ally, but Dustbin finished the chat.
‘I knew Tiger more through Alfie and then George than first-hand, although I did have the pleasure of meeting her a few times. But what struck me is that she embodied what being a cat was. Yes she was feisty but only really when she was protecting those she loved, she was loyal, she was fun, she was loving and kind, and she had a big heart. Tiger was an example to all of us and by following that example she will always live on through all of us.’
It was a sombre moment as we let those words sink in. Dustbin might be feral but he was incredibly wise. I felt choked, and I nuzzled Dustbin in gratitude for such a wonderful summing up of Tiger …
‘Woof woof, woof woof,’ a voice interrupted us bounding into our group. All the cats sprang back apart from Dustbin, George, Hana and I. They made quite a racket.
‘Shush, it’s alright,’ I told them. ‘It’s only Pickles.’
‘How on earth did you get out?’ George asked as Pickles wagged his tail at us.
‘I am more cat than you thought,’ h
e replied.
Nellie, Rocky, Oliver and Elvis started moving closer, examining him curiously.
‘Claire was in the front garden, talking to someone and so I escaped and then I ran really fast.’ Pickles sounded so proud, and George gave him a paw. ‘And I knew you came here, because I’ve been walked past it when you were here before, so I am actually a very clever cat too.’
‘High five! Good one, Pickles,’ George said, although I really didn’t think he should encourage him.
‘How many times have we told you not to go out on your own?’ I despaired.
‘But it’s too much fun,’ he argued.
‘Oh my goodness, what is going on? Bad puppy.’ Claire ran up, breathless. She clutched her stomach as if she’d been winded. We all tried to look busy. Nellie started playing with some leaves, Rocky moved to the nearest tree, Dustbin and Ally took a step back and Oliver along with Salmon hid in a bush. ‘Do you always meet here?’ Claire asked. Although we met here regularly, we were away from the road so the humans didn’t know about our patch.
‘Meow,’ I said. It didn’t hurt her to know, after all we weren’t doing anything wrong.
‘Right, you come with me.’ She picked up a wriggling Pickles and walked off. ‘See you at home,’ she said to George and me. At least this time she couldn’t blame me for Pickles’ behaviour. I was as bemused as she was, after our back gate had been turned into a fortress. George and I could squeeze under it but poor chubby Pickles …
We dispersed soon after, bizarrely a human turning up seemed to unsettle my friends more than the fact that Pickles had. They didn’t like outsiders knowing about our special place. I reassured them that Claire would be too angry with Pickles to give it too much thought and we all said our goodbyes.
‘We ought to go home, George,’ I said. ‘Pickles might need us.’
‘Yeah, he’s in big trouble. Right, Hana, we’ll drop you off, and thank you for coming.’
‘You know I’d do anything for you,’ Hana replied and we all blinked at each other.
