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She picked the bin bag up and before we knew what was happening, she started swinging it at us.

‘Yowl!’ I said as it caught my tail. I looked at George, telling him, with my eyes, to run. He didn’t need to be told twice.

We both turned to escape. The woman was chasing us, swinging the bag at us and shouting. We got to the kerb, where would we go now? She was gaining on us, looming over us. All I could see was a big shadow. I was terrified of what might happen if she caught us.

‘We have to try to cross the road,’ I managed to say, my breath shallow. We looked – there was a car not far away – and I hoped we could make it. We had no choice. ‘As fast as you can,’ I added.

‘I’ll get you for trespassing,’ the woman screeched and we both took off across the road. I let George go ahead, I was his father, so I had to protect him, but as George ran as fast as he could, I stayed pretty much on his tail. A horn beeped as the car swerved, narrowly avoiding us. I could hear the roar of the engine and the pitch of the beep in my ears as we kept going.

Finally, we made it to the safety of the pavement on the other side of the road. I stopped and looked back across. She was waving her fist angrily at us, but thankfully she didn’t attempt to follow as there were more cars around.

We both lay on the pavement, panting. I couldn’t get the sound of the car out of my head, or the sound of her shouting. George lay still for quite a while. It had been a very close call.

‘Not a cat fan then?’ George said, when he finally got his breath back.

‘Seems not. Home?’ I said, dejectedly. I was filled with disappointment. I was pretty annoyed about being chased with a bin bag, and almost being hit by a car, but I didn’t want to upset George anymore, so I thought I would play the incident down.

‘I think I’ll go and see Hana, if that’s OK?’ George said. ‘After being attacked by a mad woman, then almost getting run over, I need cheering up.’

‘’Course.’ I felt guilty, it was my fault that that had happened at all. I tried to keep George away from danger but I had unwittingly led him to it yet again. ‘And remember when we’re walking down the street to give that flat a wide berth,’ I added seriously.

‘So you don’t think it’s worth trying to win her round?’ George asked. I wasn’t sure if he was being sarcastic or not. I wasn’t taking any chances though.

‘George, when Harold was telling you to go away he never threatened you with the cat warden or a bin bag did he?’

‘No.’

‘Right, so let’s not try to win her round, we might not come out of it in one piece. It’s not worth the risk, son.’

I was a very persistent cat, but, I had enough people in my life not to need one like that. I wasn’t going to take any risks with that woman. Oh no, she was definitely off my Christmas card list. Not that I had one, of course.

Chapter Eight

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Iwas still fretting about our encounter when I got home, leaving George to go next door. I felt a bit unsettled still– one of those moods where you don’t exactly know what to do with yourself. Do you go visit friends who might cheer you up, do you spend the time pondering why it is you feel so fed up? Or do you take a nap? I stretched. I decided to take a nap. I had been up very early after all. A nap it was.

I was shaken from my nap some time later with an almighty thud. I opened my eyes to find Pickles had jumped into my basket and was almost squishing me. He was quite a weight, let me tell you.

‘Pickles, it’s lovely to see you but please get off,’ I asked, as nicely as I could. He shuffled a bit so he was no longer crushing me but we were both still squashed up. He licked me.

‘Claire’s going shopping and she said you were in charge of me.’

‘Oh I must have been sound asleep because I didn’t hear her leave, or you arrive,’ I said.

‘You were snoring,’ Pickles said.

‘I don’t snore,’ I replied.

‘Well it sounded like it. Anyway, where’s George?’

‘I think he’s with Hana.’

‘Boring. So you’ll have to play with me.’

‘Right.’ I tried not to sigh. ‘So what are we playing?’

‘Ball.’