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Somehow we all ended up back at Sylvie’s house; it seemed everyone wanted to check the kittens were alright. Franceska had driven them, with Sylvie in the car, and George had gone along with them. When they’d arrived home, Hana and the kittens had been moved from the manger to Hana’s soft cat bed.

‘Can we call the girl Holly?’ Summer asked,

‘Ah, yes that’s a lovely name for a girl kitten,’ Connie said. Um, I had to say I quite liked it.

‘Jesus,’ was suggested.

‘No, honestly, just no,’ Polly said.

‘How about Santa?’ Franceska suggested.

‘Oh, I really like that,’ Sylvie said and everyone agreed. ‘Santa and Holly and …’

George turned to face me and blinked. I understood immediately. I wasn’t sure how to convey it but I stepped on Jonathan’s foot.

‘Not again,’ Jonathan said.

‘Meow,’ I said, trying to paw his trousers. George then joined me. We took a leg each. Matt laughed but Jonathan was trying to shake us off.

‘What are they trying to tell you?’ Claire asked. Jonathan paused and looked at me. Finally I saw him seem to understand.

‘Oh, why don’t we call the last kitten Tiger? You know, after that cat that Alfie and George seemed very fond of – the Barkers’ cat who died,’ he suggested.

‘What a lovely idea,’ Marcus said. ‘Tiger is a great name for a kitten.’

‘But wasn’t she a girl?’ Claire said.

‘Yowl.’ It doesn’t matter, I replied.

‘It can be a boy’s name too,’ Aleksy said.

‘Mew,’ Hana said, quietly.

‘Meow,’ George added.

‘Purr,’ I finished.

Tiger was a very fitting name indeed, and a very fitting tribute. Jonathan was rewarded with a nuzzle.

‘My lad, a dad,’ I said to George as we snuck away slightly. ‘Who’d have thought it. I really can’t wait to see them properly.’ Emotion welled up inside me. My boy, my kitten, was a dad. I probably had to stop calling him my kitten now.

‘I know you probably want to stay,’ I said to George, ‘but I’m going to have a last breath of air, just for a minute.’ It was our Christmas tradition, to go and speak to Tiger on Christmas night. And despite everything that had happened, it was important for me to do so.

‘I’ll stay here,’ Snowball said, knowing instinctively, as she always did, that I needed to be alone, or alone with my boy.

‘I’ll come; just for a minute though,’ George said.

We sat outside and found the brightest star in the sky.

‘I’m a dad, Tiger mum,’ George said. ‘And we’ve named one of the kittens after you.’ I could barely keep my emotions in.

‘George, you will be an amazing dad,’ I said. I meant it.

‘Wow, it hasn’t sunk in yet, a dad. Three kittens, it means—’

‘It means you are going to be very busy. I just had you, and you kept me on my paws.’ I laughed, but was choked up at the same time.

‘Oh, Dad, you are the best dad ever.’

‘And now you are going to be too,’ I said.

‘And you are going to be the best granddad ever,’ George said.

‘Oh boy, I’m a granddad cat – a grandcat! Wow, I mean …’

‘You can help me and you will teach those kittens everything you know, like you did me,’ George said.

‘And we will love them so much, we really will.’ I already did. Those tiny bundles of fur who would no doubt keep both George and I on our paws for a good while to come. I nuzzled my boy. He nuzzled me back.

Just as I thought my heart was as full, as full and as big as it could ever be, it suddenly grew once again.

THE KITTENS FIRST CHRISTMAS

It’s the most wonderful time of year. It’s also the most exhausting. For a cat like me, it’s especially busy. Not only do I have to keep my eye on all my humans – hard work believe me, but I also have an ever-expanding cat family to take care of. My Grand kittens, Santa, Holly, and Tiger are about to turn one on Christmas day. So, not only is it their first Christmas, but it’s also their first birthday. That makes this Christmas even more special for us all.

It has not been an easy year for any of us, of course. I won’t mention the pandemic that has gripped us, after all, you’ve had to live it too, so I know you understand. But apart from that, George took to fatherhood like a cat to pilchards, Hana was the same with motherhood despite the many logistical issues. And if I thought one kitten was hard work, imagine what three was like.

Where Hana lived there was a human kitten; Theo, who was now a toddler, so it was a lot for her humans to suddenly take on three kittens as well. With my guidance, the humans came up with a kitten share idea, where they lived with us half the time, and next door at Hana’s the other half. Of course, that means it’s cat chaos in both houses most of the time. Hana spends time with us and the kittens. George is always over at her house when the kittens are and I am constantly running from house to house to check on them and everyone else. I have a lot of houses, families, and cats to check on. But then I am, at heart, still a doorstep cat after all.