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Seabreeze cottage was our holiday home in Devon. We owned it with two of our other families but because of the pandemic and the rule of six – which us cats were exempt from – we had to take turns to use the cottage and this was our turn. It meant we were sad to leave friends behind, both human and animal. I was parted from my lady-friend, Snowball, but I was a grown up so I could cope. I would miss her but it was only a week. George however, was devastated about being parted from Hana and his kittens. The three kittens were still young and Claire said it would be too dangerous to have them by the sea. I agreed with her. Not only could those kittens get up to mischief anywhere but when I first came to Seabreeze with George, we suffered a near drowning, a close call being trampled by a herd of sheep and almost being set on fire.

However, he felt guilty about leaving the parenting duties to Hana. He even tried to hide to avoid coming here but Toby found him because he hid under his bed, which was a pretty obvious place. Hana assured him she would be fine with the kittens for a week, and Snowball was going to help, but still… young love. I understood, I had barely been parted from George since he came to live with me. But there was only one George, three kittens were certainly a paw full.

‘It’s only a week, George,’ I said. I was nothing if not a persistent cat.

‘Yowl,’ he replied, and put his head in his paws.

‘Pickles will miss us,’ I added, thinking out loud of back home. Poor Pickles would have loved the seaside but he was staying with his main family and would get to visit with them at some point.

‘One good thing is if that dog came, we wouldn’t be able to go anywhere,’ he huffed.

‘Or the kittens. And when you go home you can spend all the time in the world with them. I will as well.’ I had to admit I would also miss my grandkittens, they were hard work, but I loved them so much. George possibly agreed with me, but he was a sulker so we spent the rest of the journey in silence.

I was so relieved to get out of the car, although we were still in the carrier until Jonathan remembered to let us out. As the sweet smell of the sea air hit me, I felt happiness wrap itself around me. I loved feeling the wind in my whiskers. George softened too. This place had that affect on all of us. When Gilbert, the cat who lived at Seabreeze cottage even before we owned it, appeared we greeted him warmly, we were all happy to be here.

‘I feel guilty, that’s why I’ve been a bit miserable,’ George said finally. ‘Guilty that I’m here and my kittens are at home. Guilty that Hana has to do all the work for a week.’

‘Well son, that’s parenthood for you; you feel guilty all the time. Besides, Hana might have a holiday at some point and then you’ll have to look after them,’ I pointed out. I shuddered at the thought; I would have to too. Let’s just hope a holiday wasn’t too imminent for Hana in that case.

Gilbert was pleased to see us and it was good to see him, it had been a long time since we were last here.

‘How’s this lockdown business been for you?’ he asked.

‘Well, we had freedom but our humans didn’t, which was weird,’ I replied. ‘Having them home all the time could be annoying.’

‘I was lucky, it wasn’t much different for me. I had the cat flap and of course I got fed every day.’ Gilbert was a funny cat, he was feral when we first met him, camping out in Seabreeze Cottage, and fending for himself when it came to food, but by the time we left, Claire had organised for a local lady to pop round and feed him every day. So now he was pampered. A bit like us.

‘We’ve missed you,’ George said. ‘And I’ve become a dad, I have three kittens. Hard work, but of course I’m so grown up and very good at it. I have to admit that, although I didn’t want to come away, it’s great to see you and actually quite nice to have a change of scene,’ he said, raising his whiskers as if he just realised.

‘Well now, Mr grown up George, we will have to make the most of this break then and make sure we have some adventures so you can go home and tell your kittens all about it.’

‘Just not anything dangerous,’ I said. They both looked at me and laughed.

We settled in quickly, so that we could go out and explore. It was almost dark by the time we did. We were all desperate to go to the beach and feel that sea breeze in our fur, and the sand under paws. When we first encountered sand we weren’t keen, it tends to stick and get everywhere, but now I was quite fond of it despite that. We only went to the beach at night because otherwise we would encounter a number of over enthusiastic dogs who were generally not on their leads and they would try to chase us. We had learnt that the hard way. In the evening though, the beach was pretty deserted and safe.