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‘You too,’ I replied, as we looked at each other. ‘So you’re new around here?’
‘Not really. I live a few roads away, but then I was exploring one day and came across this place, met Dustbin, and we just got talking.’
‘So do you have a family or do you live outside like Dustbin?’
‘I’m a street cat,’ Ally explained. ‘I’ve never lived with a family myself. Dustbin told me so much about you and I thought that you sound nice and I’ve met the family who lives here, so I am very happy to meet you.’
‘Good to meet you too,’ I said.
‘Right, Alfie, I’ve got things to do. I’ll leave you two to it. See you later, Dustbin.’
‘See you later, Ally,’ Dustbin said, not quite meeting her eyes.
‘Bye,’ I said as she swished her tail as she strutted away. ‘Well, well well,’ I teased when Dustbin and I were alone.
‘Stop it, Alfie, I mean I know you always told me how nice female company was, but I’m a loner cat as you know. Then I met Ally and well, I can’t explain it, I just like hanging out with her.’
‘That is so great, and there’s nothing wrong with it. You like spending time with me as well,’ I pointed out.
‘Yeah but it’s different with Ally, I can’t explain it, and I’m probably far too old to be feeling like this, but I look forward to spending all my time with her, and I never want to be apart from her. Even now I kind of miss her.’ He sounded so young and unsure as he explained this.
‘Sorry, Dustbin, but you’re in love, it’s clear to see.’ I did a little hop, I loved to see my friends happy.
‘Don’t know about that, but she’s alright,’ he replied gruffly. I could see through his facade, he was different, had a bit more of a spring in his step, and he definitely seemed happier.
‘Right, well then, why don’t you and I find a nice sunny spot to chill out in, and you can tell me all about alright Ally.’
‘She’s a very good mouser,’ he said, sounding impressed and then he continued to talk about her.
It was both wonderful and slightly weird to see Dustbin this way. Only because he had never been one for other cats or people. Although he had grown fond of George and me, it was more because I didn’t give him much choice in the matter. When we first met he wasn’t that keen on being friends really. So to see him talking about Ally with his eyes lighting up and his voice almost bashful, it was definitely unexpected. Of course, I was happy for him. I’d been in love twice after all, so although it hurt when it was over, it was wonderful while I had it. Claire always went on about some bloke who said ‘it was better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all,’ or something like that, and I totally agreed with that. Because love and loss go hand in hand, but they also both mean you are alive, your heart still beating. Listen to me; Dustbin had made me get all nostalgic and gooey. What was the world coming to?
‘If you ever need any advice about women, you know where to come,’ I offered as I stretched my paws out and got ready to leave. I needed to get back and make sure that Pickles and George were alright. Although part of me didn’t want to go there at all, terrified of what I might find.
‘Thanks, Alfie, but you know, it’ll be, you know, fine. I mean it’s nothing to worry about.’ He was still feigning nonchalance, but I saw how he really felt. We said our goodbyes, and I smiled all the way home.
The smile disappeared from my face as soon as I got through the cat flap. Claire was chasing Pickles. Arms outstretched she was running around after him but every time she got close he seemed to dodge her. Her face was getting redder and redder.
‘Pickles, drop, bad puppy,’ she said. George was sitting by idly licking his paws. What had he done? When Claire caught Pickles, she picked him up and took one of Jonathan’s favourite slippers – Italian and expensive – out of his mouth. Oh no, Jonathan would be furious.
‘Oh thank goodness you’re back, Alfie,’ Claire said. She looked a little frazzled. ‘These two have been running me ragged. Firstly, Pickles managed to get stuck under the sofa, and I have no idea how that happened, then he chewed a chair leg. All I did was visit Harold to take him his lunch and came back to find that George and Pickles were nowhere to be seen. I panicked and then found them in the garden, they’d got through the cat flap. Then finally he stole Jonathan’s favourite slipper, and he’s going to be so cross. How can a puppy be so much work? I’m going to collect the children. Please make sure that nothing happens when I’m gone.’ She barely took a breath before she left the house and stalked off.
‘Who wants to tell me what’s going on?’ I asked when alone with George and Pickles.
‘It was so much fun,’ Pickles said.
‘I was teaching him what I knew,’ George said. ‘Just like you said. So, I showed him the warm spot under the sofa, how was I supposed to know he wouldn’t be able to get out? And I can’t take responsibility for the chair leg, I did tell him that cats don’t chew things, but he’s not that quick to learn. He also licks everything which I think is weird.’
‘And the garden?’
‘I needed to go out, you know, for obvious reasons and he followed me through the cat flap. So you see, none of this is really my fault.’
The joys of parenting.
‘Right, listen up, both of you,’ I started in my sternest voice. ‘Pickles, George is right, we don’t chew things, so please can you try to keep your chewing to your toys.’ I walked over to his nice soft bed, full of toys that he could chew.
‘OK.’ he said, but as George said, he was young and I wasn’t sure if he understood or if I would have to tell him lots more times.
‘Secondly, if George goes out, then I don’t see why you can’t go with him as long as you both promise to stay in the garden.’
‘I promise I won’t let him leave the garden,’ George said.
‘Besides I need to learn to climb the tree,’ Pickles said,
‘Seriously?’ I turned to George, who tried not to smile. I swished my tail. George was definitely having a bit of fun with Pickles. Someday soon, Pickles would learn for himself that he can’t climb trees, I was pretty sure he couldn’t anyway.
‘So, on the whole, did I do good, Dad?’ George asked.
‘Not bad for your first day,’ I conceded, but I wasn’t entirely convinced. Claire clearly wasn’t anyway, but I needed to encourage George and Pickles’ relationship in whatever way I could.
‘And me, was I good?’ Pickles asked. I chose to pretend that I hadn’t heard. It was easier.
Thankfully before any more trouble could occur, the door opened, and Claire and the four children rushed in. They all headed for the kitchen and made a fuss of all of us, which was nice for George, before demanding snacks.
‘We’re going to put Pickles on the lead and take him to the park,’ Summer announced bossily. She was wearing her school uniform, her fair hair in a ponytail was bobbing behind her.
‘I’m so going to hold the lead,’ Henry said. He was the biggest of our younger children, very tall for his age, and he looked a little like his father with his light brown hair and nose sprinkled with freckles.
‘But I want to,’ Martha asked. Martha was usually the most laid-back of the children, apart from when it came to Pickles it seemed. She was such a pretty child with dark hair and big dark eyes. Polly, her mum, used to be a model and she often said that Martha took after her.
‘And me,’ Summer shouted.
‘But what about me?’ Toby said. Toby was the same age as Henry but was smaller. He had sandy blond hair and serious blue eyes. He was so gentle which with bossy Summer as a sister was a very good thing.
‘Listen.’ Claire had her best parenting voice on. ‘We will all take turns looking after Pickles. I will have to take him across the roads because I’m the grown-up, and the rest of the time you will have equal time holding the lead, I’ll use the stopwatch.’
None of them argued with that. If only Pickles and George were so easy to control.
I was tired by the time everyone had left for the park. I lay down on the sofa, and George joined me. We snuggled up together, which was lovely, and rare these days. George was usually too busy or pleaded to be too old for a cuddle with his old dad. He told me all about his day with Pickles.
‘He’s quite funny really, but then so naughty, and also a bit too easy to tease, so I’m sorry, but when I told him to stop chewing, he really didn’t listen. And he tried to eat my food, which he doesn’t even like. When I pointed out that you already told him it was cat food, he claimed he forgot. I think it might be harder than I first thought for him to be like me.’
‘Keep trying,’ I said, deciding not to tell him that I didn’t necessarily want Pickles to be like George, but to humour him for now. ‘And you’ll never guess what I found out today.’
‘What?’ George’s ears pricked up, he loved gossip.
‘Dustbin has got a girlfriend,’ I said.
‘No way! Oh my goodness, Dustbin who said love was soppy and he didn’t have time for all that, as he had too many mice to catch?’
‘Exactly. But I think he’s met a kindred spirit. Ally, from a nearby street actually, and she sees off the rodents with him.’
‘She sounds like the perfect match for him.’
I nodded, and purred, my boy was pretty perceptive. Now, if only he could teach Pickles that quality, we’d all be alright.
‘I like that Dustbin is happy. Can we visit him soon, and maybe I’ll get to meet Ally from the alley too.’
‘Of course, I’ll take you one day soon, when we don’t have to puppy-sit. I wonder if his relationship with Ally the same as yours and Hana’s.’ I was trying to dig, of course, I was.
‘I am getting to like Pickles a little bit. Especially watching him try to climb trees, it was so funny, he kept trying to grip his front claws, but they slid down, and he ended up on his bottom. The best thing was that he kept trying, which I suppose either shows great character or extreme stupidity, I’m not sure which.’ So he wasn’t giving me anything, as usual.
‘Let’s go for great character, it’s nicer,’ I replied, although I wasn’t sure that was the right answer either.
‘And then when Claire found us in the garden, she was a bit cross, so she took him inside, and he fell asleep straight away, you should have heard how loudly he snores. He sounds like a train.’
‘But you like him?’ I asked.
‘Yes, I like him. A bit anyway.’
This was progress. We snuggled up together, and both fell asleep.
Chapter Eight (#ulink_517113e7-b638-581d-9be2-b0bcac2a7776)
‘Oh for goodness’ sake, George, can you stop trying to trip me up,’ Claire snapped, as George followed her around, hanging around her legs too closely and hoping to get some scraps of food she was carrying. But Claire, preparing for the family get-together was stressed enough, without George adding to it.
‘George,’ I hissed. Trying to get him to come over. He bounded over to me.
‘What?’ he asked, looking at me innocently.
‘You know better than to annoy Claire when she’s stressed.’
‘But the food smells so good.’
‘And if we keep out of her way, we’ll get something nice, but for now, we need to let her get on with it.’
‘Claire, how much food do we really need?’ Jonathan asked, coming into the kitchen.
‘I don’t want anyone to go hungry,’ Claire replied.
‘You know it’s a good job I got a promotion; otherwise there’s no way we could afford all this,’ Jonathan moaned.
‘Oh shut up and go and get the drinks ready. Oh, and can you give the cats some food, to keep them out of my way.’
‘Meow!’I objected, I wasn’t in her way, it was all George. But I grinned at George, we were getting food, his annoying ways had worked in both our favour.
Family days were utterly precious, and my heart was full as the doorbell kept going, heralding the arrival of the people we loved.
Polly, Matt, the children and guest of honour Pickles arrived first. The children all crowded round Pickles, which I could tell annoyed George, although he had played with Summer and Toby that morning. Before I had much time to be fussed over by Matt, the door went again and in came, Tomasz, Franceska, Aleksy and Tommy. They made a huge fuss of George and me, which placated George. Tomasz picked Georgia up and cuddled him, Aleksy did the same to me. Franceska gave us both a stroke and Tommy took George out of Tomasz’s arms and ticked his head the way he loved. Before they even got past the hallway, the door went again. Sylvie and Connie came in, Connie make a beeline for Aleksy and Sylvie raising her eyebrows, but not objecting as they went off to the living room hand in hand.
‘Marcus has just gone to get Harold, so they’ll be here any minute. But I have to warn you, Harold said he didn’t sleep so well, so he’s a little moody today.’
‘Don’t worry, I’m sure George will cheer him up.’ George preened at that. He was the only one who could cheer Harold up after all, and I was so glad for anything that made him feel good about himself.
‘Watch what we taught Pickles,’ Henry said, to all of us. We watched. ‘Right, sit,’ Henry commanded. Pickles wagged his tail but didn’t sit. ‘SIT,’ Henry shouted. Pickles didn’t move,
‘You’re not doing it right, do it like this,’ Martha said. ‘Pickles, sit down,’ she commanded in her sweet voice, with a smile. Pickles barked.
‘I can do it,’ Toby said. ‘Pickles sit,’ he shouted. Pickles walked to the other side of the hall.
‘PICKLES, SIT RIGHT NOW!’ Summer shrieked. Pickles sat down, but then so did we all.
‘Well Summer wins the training prize I guess,’ Polly said.
‘No, she’s just the scariest,’ Claire said. ‘Summer, the secret to good puppy training is not to shout at him, he’s a baby, and you could scare him.’ She’d certainly scared me after all. Just as all hell threatened to break loose as Summer didn’t take criticism well, we were once again saved by the doorbell, and Marcus and Harold appeared. George, taking no chances, leapt into Harold’s arms, taking him by surprise.
‘Come in, and let’s get this party started,’ Claire said excitedly as everyone filed to different rooms in the house in a way which showed how used to being here everyone was. Like a proper family.
‘I’m happy to be here but to be honest, it’s getting colder than I like,’ Harold blustered. He loved to have something to complain about. It was September, and it wasn’t as hot as summer but it was hardly cold yet.
‘I can put the heating on for you,’ Claire offered, giving Harold a hug.
‘No, I can’t be doing with that central heating, it kills people,’ Harold said.
Really? Did it?
‘I don’t think it does, Dad,’ Marcus said, steering him to a chair. George was still attached to him. Those two, I thought, fondly.
‘Mark my words, in a few years’ time everyone will be talking about it. It’ll come out that it’s causing that global warming and the ozone layer and the lack of polar bears.’ George licked Harold’s face, he thought he was the cleverest man in the world.
I did sometimes wonder where Harold got his complaints from, and by the looks on the faces of my humans, they did too. Thankfully they all loved him very much.
I was in heaven as I moved from room to room to check on my loved ones. The women were in the kitchen, drinking wine, eating and chatting. The men were all in the living room, with drinks, plates of food and George who hadn’t left Harold’s side sitting together on the chair he was settled in. I had a suspicion they were sharing food, but I was too happy to tell him off. As long as he was having a good time, I would have to accept it. The children, along with Pickles, were upstairs joined by Tommy, who protested he was too old to hang out with the younger ones but actually secretly enjoyed making up games for them to play. What he’d done was to set up an obstacle course for Pickles on the upstairs landing. There was a toy horse jump, a tunnel that Summer used to love when she was little, a hoop which one of them had to hold for him to jump through and a stool for him to climb on and off. Pickles seemed very confused by this and kept getting it wrong.
‘No, Pickles, you don’t sit down in the tunnel,’ Summer who was the bossiest of all the children chided. Even her words didn’t work this time. The problem was that Polly had taught them that if they wanted Pickles to do something, they had to offer a treat as a reward, but they were giving him treats before he did anything. All the treats had gone, and Pickles was none the wiser in how to do an assault course.
‘I know,’ Tommy said. ‘I’ll go and get George, he can show Pickles how it’s done.’
I raised my whiskers, George, hopefully, would be pleased to be given such a role. I waited until Tommy came back upstairs, George wriggling in his arms. He didn’t seem that happy, actually.
‘Right, George, please can you show Pickles how to do an obstacle course,’ Tommy begged. George came to where I was and sat with his back to the children. Oh dear.
‘What’s wrong?’ I whispered.
‘They ignore me, and now they want me to show the dumb puppy how to do something so basic,’ he hissed back.
‘George, they love you, they pretty much ignored me too, but Pickles is new to them. Perhaps show them how fantastic you are and it might help Pickles too,’ I coaxed, gently.
‘I am fantastic, aren’t I?’
