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As George and Pickles and the children descended on the kitchen I watched my family with a mixture of love, pride and worry. We never stopped worrying about those we loved, that was for sure. As the children ate their tea with all the usual chatter and laughter, George and I sat in our basket in the kitchen, enjoying our family. Pickles lurked under the kitchen table, trying to pick up any scraps that were dropped, and Polly and Claire sipped glasses of wine. I wished I could press pause on our lives. Keep this snapshot for a bit longer, because it was truly lovely. And because sometimes life moved far too quickly.

George and the children were growing up fast, the adults trying to keep everything balanced– and I include myself in that by the way – and even Pickles wasn’t technically a baby anymore. At least we had baby Theo to keep us young, I guessed, but then we’d blink and he’d be a teenager. Oh listen to me, getting all maudlin. It was only because I was worried about Tommy, and once I started fretting I generally started worrying about everyone I loved.

That was the sort of cat I was.

I went out the front to take a bit of thinking time in the fresh, albeit damp and cold, air. I saw Aleksy and Connie standing at Connie’s front gate. I went to greet them.

‘Ah Alfie, I was just going home. I don’t want to give my parents any more grief,’ Aleksy said, petting me.

‘No, your brother’s doing quite enough,’ Connie added.

‘Meow.’ I’ve heard, I said.

‘At least we did get to the homeless shelter. Oh Alfie, it was so sad, so many people without homes,’ Aleksy said, still stroking my fur. I nuzzled. I had been homeless once, which seems like another life now, but, I understood.

‘Yes, we want to raise money for it. Not because of the school project but because Christmas is coming up and it’s tough enough being homeless at any time but imagine at Christmas,’ Connie added, sounding passionate.

‘Mew, mew, mew.’ I thought that sounded like a very good idea. Not that I had experience of raising money.

‘I knew you’d agree. Now we just have to think of an idea, because we don’t have one yet. But I better go. As I said, I don’t want Mum to worry about anything else.’ Aleksy bid me and Connie goodbye. He was a good kid, as was Connie. And they wanted an idea.

Well, they had come to the right cat.

Chapter Five

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It was another family day, an unscheduled one actually. Sylvie wanted to host a lunch, which she hadn’t done since Theo was born, to sort of officially welcome Theo into our extended family. As far as I was concerned we already had, but if it kept Sylvie happy … Hana told George that Sylvie felt as if she had received so much support from us all since Theo was born, she wanted to thank everyone, so a Japanese feast it was. And I wasn’t too upset about that because the Japanese were huge fans of fish, just like me.

Sylvie’s house, which used to be very minimalistic, was full of baby stuff now. By the way, for something so small, babies seemed to need a lot of stuff. Not like kittens, kittens were easy by comparison. We cats are so self-sufficient, it’s a shame that humans can’t learn from us; believe me, I have tried to teach them. Dogs can’t learn that much either by the way. Trust me, we tried with Pickles.

I was hoping I might get a bit more information about the Tommy situation. Having reviewed all I knew so far, I had a number of conclusions. Tommy was a teenager and he was misbehaving at school and home. I loved Tommy as I loved all my children, and therefore I could not allow that to happen. However, at this point in time I had no idea what to do. The problem was I could feel trouble brewing. I could feel it in my fur.

Hana, George and I stand poised by the front door of Hana’s house to greet the families. George and I snuck over early, entering through the cat flap, because we were so excited. Hana’s house used to be a quiet and immaculate place but hurricane Theo had changed things somewhat. Now, there was baby paraphernalia all over the place, and it was also pretty noisy. Theo was a beautiful baby but he had a strong set of lungs on him.

On the upside, it was also a happier home now. They had had challenges when they first moved in. Sylvie and Connie arrived from Japan after an upsetting time– divorce. Connie struggled to settle in England, and worried about her mum, but then Sylvie met Marcus, and now they’re a family, which baby Theo helped to complete.

Hana took a bit of time to get used to life in Edgar Road too. In Japan her life was very ordered but in Edgar Road, well, let’s just say order isn’t something that we do very well.