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‘No, we talked about what to do, and we agreed to confront her, or rather for Vic and Heather to, I’m going to be at work. We don’t know if having her arrested would be good for the show – it’s pretty low to try to ruin a charity show and Vic said that maybe we should find out why she didit first.’

‘I wouldn’t have expected him to be so reasonable. I’m furious. I was nice to her and the other night she came with us to find the cats, but she must have been the one to shut them in there.’

‘I know, it’s a shame Salmon hadn’t got his camera collar on then. But the main thing is, it’s over. Vic and Heather said they will confront Barbara tomorrow morning and will call you so you can go along too. We’ll need to tell Aleksy and Connie, but let’s see what she has to say first.’

‘You’re being reasonable.’ Claire sounded surprised, which made sense given that Jonathan wasn’t known for being reasonable.

‘Matt said her husband died and she cried with Polly the other day so maybe we shouldn’t judge too harshly, but you know what a softie Matt is. Regardless, we won’t let her anywhere near the show, that is not in dispute.’

‘Oh Jonathan, I’m just so happy the show is saved.’

‘And my budget,’ Jonathan replied. ‘No more damage to worry about once we confront her. We should really thank Alfie, George, and their cat gang; it was them that sorted it. Again. And the cat collar camera thing was mad, but actually really useful,’ he added.

‘I’ll buy them pilchards tomorrow, after we’ve confronted Barbara,’ Claire said, and my tummy rumbled with anticipation. ‘But first, George, we need to bath you and try to get the red paint off.’

‘Meow.’ George was a little strange as he didn’t mind water and baths. Not very cat-like, if you ask me, but then I often said that it takes all sorts.

I rested in my basket as George got bathed, thankful it wasn’t me. I really disliked baths and when I had taken them in my past I had found them really quite unpleasant. But poor George needed it as he did look funny with a red tail and backside. I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry.

I was so tired but also feeling victorious when George emerged from the bath. He was pretty much his usual colour, although there was a bit of a pink tinge still on his tail.

‘It wasn’t easy to wash my tail,’ he explained. ‘Claire tried to be gentle but it wasn’t the most fun bath ever.’

‘Sorry, son, but thankfully a bit of red paint was the only casualty of the evening.’

‘What about Salmon’s camera collar though; whoever heard of such a thing?’

‘I hadn’t, but in this case it was lucky we had it. I thought Barbara would still be under those trees when we went back with the humans.’

‘Me too, I don’t know how she got out.’ George looked pensive. ‘I hope that they don’t get ideas and give us cameras, I like my privacy.’

‘I was thinking the same. But Salmon will probably like it. It’ll give him even more power on the street,’ I said.

‘How come?’ George asked.

‘Well, if he comes to see us and he’s wearing it, we’ll all have to be on our best behaviour,’ I pointed out.

‘Not to mention looking our best,’ George finished. I hadn’t even thought of that, but then I pride myself in looking my best at all times.

‘Anyway, I am going to go with Claire, and Vic and Heather, when they confront Barbara, are you coming?’

‘I’d love to, Dad, but I have to go and see Hana first thing – I promised I would – so I might not be back in time. To be honest, I’m just glad we exposed her and didn’t get hurt. Apart from my tail, of course.’

‘That was just a bit of paint, George.’

‘Yes, but I was the only one affected, so I think that makes me the hero of the night.’

I decided not to mention the fact that I had masterminded most of the plan, rallied the troops and it was actually Salmon and Snowball who got Barbara to trip over. I also didn’t mention that Salmon’s camera was possibly the actual hero of the night …

‘George, you are always my hero,’ I said instead, and nuzzled my boy.

I was so excited to go to confront Barbara, and waited patiently the following morning until Claire grabbed her coat and said it was time to go. We had Pickles so he went with her, and if Claire was surprised when I followed her out she didn’t show it.

It was quiet as we left our house, and I could see that another frost had settled in overnight. We went to collect Vic and Heather, and of course Salmon. After our eventful night I expected all the other cats would be having a bit of a lie-in this morning. They deserved it.

Salmon and I raised whiskers at each other and hung back from the humans.

‘Sorry, I didn’t know about the camera. They just said it was a new collar,’ he said.

‘Hey, no, don’t apologise. As much as I’d like to take the credit, it was actually Vic and Heather who basically won the day with that collar,’ I grinned.

‘Yes, but now they can watch my every move. I’m glad I had it on the one paw, but on the other, I think that when I do anything – just going about my normal business – I’m going to be so self-conscious.’