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‘Alfie, how are you?’ Dustbin said. I filled them both in on our situation.

‘Wow, so you are all going to stay in the hall, and make a big fuss and stop her from doing any more damage to you and the play?’ Ally asked.

‘Well yes,’ I said.

‘But you really need the humans to find out it’s her?’ Dustbin said.

‘Yes, but we don’t know how. She obviously damages things at night when no one is around and how on earth would we get someone to the hall in the middle of the night?’

‘It would be impossible. So, maybe you’re right. Maybe you have to just keep interrupting her plans until the show opens?’ Ally suggested.

‘That’s what I thought, although it seems to be a bit of a job and of course we can’t all be there all the time, which is a worry. Also, we’re all tired, so I can’t expect everyone to come out night after night. What we want to do is figure out how the humans can catch her red handed but that is eluding me so far.’

‘Right, well, if there’s anything we can do to help, just let me know.’ Dustbin was trying to help but none of us really knew how to get Barbara caught.

‘We might get locked in again and I don’t think Claire or Jonathan will look for us unless we don’t turn up for breakfast,’ I said. ‘But they would check the hall, so I think that we’ll be OK’, I replied. Without Pickles there wouldn’t be the same panic. After the other night though, at least they would know to look for us there. We just had to hope that we could foil Barbara and get out in plenty of time for breakfast. I really did like my food first thing in the morning.

‘We’ll just carry on being your eyes and ears here, and if we do hear anything, we’ll come and find you,’ Dustbin said.

‘Perfect, so we all know what we’re doing. I hope we can stop the woman. We’ve had to fix the stage, re-build the shed, and re-do the stars. Sylvie also had to fix up the curtains and she’s got enough to do what with Theo and being Mary in the Nativity. I am so fed up with Barbara ruining our wonderful show.’

‘You’ll get her to stop, I just know it,’ Dustbin said reassuringly.

‘I hope tonight’s the night. My nerves won’t take much more of this,’ I pointed out.

Franceska came out just as I was about to leave so I fussed her. She looked tired as well.

‘Hey Alfie, I heard about you getting locked in. What are you up to?’

‘Meow,’ saving the show.

‘I have to go and do some sewing now. I am so worried that if someone ruins the show, not only will it be terrible for the shelter but it will devastate Aleksy and even Tommy now.’

‘Mew.’ I knew, which was why I was doing something about it.

George and I went to the hall when I knew the doors would be open and the work in full force. As well as making the sets, it had been decided to try to decorate the hall so it looked more Christmassy. At the moment, it was still just a hall, although I was pleased to see that Aleksy and Connie had a number of youngsters from school helping them, along with a new and improved Tommy.

‘Look at all the decorations we got for free,’ Tommy said proudly. Charlie was filming it all for social media. I still wasn’t quite sure exactly what social media was, but I was obviously going to be involved, as was my George. They had giant paper chains to hang around the top of the walls,and the grown-ups had to help with that, because of the ladders and something called health and safety. I tentatively put a paw on a rung of the ladder but I was too scared to venture up too far, not only because of my fear of heights, but also because it didn’t look safe. Sienna and one of her friends were spraying the windows with what looked like snow and making patterns. Tinsel was being hung around the light fittings, and all sorts of Christmas decorations were being placed around the room. It looked a little disorganised – Polly’s words – but it was beginning to look a lot like Christmas. Especially when Tommy found two small Santa hats, and put them on George and I. We were then filmed. George couldn’t see out of his, which was a bit big, and he bumped into me, sending me flying into Tomasz, who was about to go up the ladder. No damage was done but all the kids found itfunny as George yowled, and then ran around in circles until someone took pity on him and sorted his hat out.

In the background, Christmas carols were being played, and it was so lovely and cosy. I really was glad we had decided to do this show, for so many reasons. The main one was the shelter; I wanted those people to have a happy– or happier – Christmas. I wished it for the whole world, but then I’m only one cat and there’s only so much I can do. But looking around, it really had brought everyone together in a wonderful way. Everyone, that is, apart from our saboteur, Barbara.

Connie had managed to hang some Christmas lights around all the windows, so they decided to put them on and turn the main lights off. Wow. As the room lit up with dancing lights, it was really beautiful.

‘You guys have done an amazing job,’ Polly said, putting her arm around Connie.