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‘Well, I thought, how about we mobilise a bit more of an army, you know, like how Vic and Heather do with the neighbourhood watch when they need to patrol the area?’

‘Yes, I think I see’. I began to feel a fizz in my fur. ‘I think I get it. So we get all these guys involved too?’

‘If we all patrol the hall then if Barbara does come in tonight we can charge at her, or scatter, or something, so she can’t get us all. Even if we can’t get the humans there, we should be able to put her off,’ Salmon explained. ‘Strength in numbers, and all that.’

‘I think it’s a good idea. Who’s in?’ I asked.

‘We all are, Alfie,’ Nellie said.

‘Even me,’ Snowball agreed. ‘Harold should be OK without me for one night.’

‘Do you think we should try to get Dustbin involved?’ I asked.

‘Let’s try with just us for now, and George of course,’ Snowball said. ‘There’s no way he’ll be left out.’

‘OK, we’ll give it a go. But, the thing is, Barbara made a show of giving Polly’s keys back yesterday, so she won’t be able to get in,’ I said, thinking.

‘Hang on. Did Tomasz ever find his keys?’ Salmon asked.

‘No, no, she must still have them. But they have a new padlock on the door,’ I pointed out. Jonathan had refused to pay for cameras or security so instead he put a big padlock on the front door which only Claire, Ralph, and Tomasz (who promised to wear it round his neck so he couldn’t lose it) had a key to.

‘She must have some plan on how to get in, I just don’t know what,’ I said. It was so frustrating.

‘God, it sounds as if she’s clever,’ Rocky said.

‘Not as clever as us.’ I sat up straight. ‘We are going to get her.’ We all put our paws in together, to show we were a team, united in our goal.

‘Salmon, you are a genius,’ I said. Credit where credit is due, I say.

‘But, Alfie, if you hadn’t come up with the plan in the first place I’d never have thought of it,’ he replied, magnanimously.

‘OK, OK, we get it, you’re both clever. Now we need to make sure we all know what we’re doing, because we need to get this done before any more trouble ensues,’ Snowball finished.

It seemed we were wrong about one thing. Last night, we were sure that Barbara wouldn’t have done anything, but it turned out that when Claire went to the hall, the curtains – the ones for coming across the stage – had been slashed. I heard about this when we were at home, after I’d filled George in on the latest part of our plan. Claire was telling Sylvie.

‘Is it bad?’ Sylvie asked.

‘I don’t know, but it looks bad. Tomasz and Frankie met us there, and Tomasz said that if we took the curtains down they could maybe be sewn up.’

‘Where have they been cut?’

‘Quite near the bottom.’

‘I have to see them, but I’m thinking I could use a different piece of material and sew it across, so it looks as if it is supposed to have a panel,’ Sylvie suggested.

‘That might work. Do you fancy a walk down there later?’ Claire asked. ‘I’ll get Frankie to meet us there too.’

‘Yes, let me feed my little one and we can take him in the pram. I just don’t know who would do this?’ Sylvie sounded confounded. I wished I could just tell them.

‘Me either. Jonathan and I locked up last night when we found the animals there, and it was fine then. Barbara gave us Polly’s keys back and came home with us, and the padlock was definitely on.’

‘Did you check the back door?’ Sylvie asked.

‘Oh God, no, because it’s always locked. I’ll check with Barbara if she did. Oh goodness, I hate to think how much damage is being done. If someone is intent on ruining the show it’ll devastate us and the shelter. Think about Aleksy and Connie and all they’ve put into this. Not to mentioneveryone else.’

‘Meow,’ I said. I wouldn’t let it happen.

I was beginning to think that Barbara was a sort of criminal mastermind. She used big shoes to throw everyone off the scent, then she made a show of locking up and showing she was trustworthy, but she must have made sure the back door was unlocked. Then she went back last night, despite us all trying and failing to scare her off. I had no idea if tonight would be the end of it, but I sincerely hoped so. I wasn’t sure how many more late nights I would be able to cope with.

The rehearsal went on later than usual. All the acts were now running through the show so it took quite a long time, especially as there were a fair few mistakes. Pickles was over excited and he snorted loudly the whole way through the song, which annoyed the children, but Polly explained that he couldn’t help it. It seemed Pickles wasn’t in any trouble after last night, by the way. He caused all the trouble and didn’t get any of the consequences. The story of my life.

Also, Sylvie was right about the back door, as it was unbolted when they went down to look at the curtains. Still, it didn’t occur to them to blame Barbara. To me it was obvious, but maybe that was because I knew.