Alfie in the Snow

‘I said,’ Polly continued, ‘very calmly, I might add, that they’re in school together so they would probably have met at some point. And do you know what she said?’ They all shook their heads. Polly can be a bit scary when riled. ‘She said that she was still going to figure out a way to pull Connie out of school and send her to an all-girls’ one. The thing is that she is behaving madly, and I think she needs help but she won’t let us anywhere near her.’

‘Oh dear,’ Jonathan, the master of understatement, said.

‘I asked if she would sit down with Franceska and Aleksy to talk, and she basically threw me out of her house.’

‘She must have been so badly affected by the divorce.’ Claire shook her head.

‘Yes, and I’m out of ideas. I do want to help her, not just the kids, but she really isn’t behaving rationally.’

‘I feel sorry for her, but I have no idea what to do.’

‘Maybe you can try next time,’ Polly said. Then she smiled. ‘Though if you value your life I wouldn’t recommend it. She’s feistier than she looks.’

‘If only there was a way though, to get her to see sense.’ Claire chewed her lip, thoughtfully.

I felt my brain begin to tick over. Sylvie felt as if she was alone, and she wouldn’t let the women in, but if we showed her that she was welcome here, I mean if I showed her … I just had to figure out how.

‘Poor Aleksy, it’s just like Romeo and Juliet,’ Matt said, and they all lapsed into silence.

It was clear no one knew what to do and it seemed that yet again it was going to be down to me.

I left them to see Tiger. George was still out and I assumed he would be with her. There was no sign of either of them, so I took one of my lives in my paws and jumped through the cat flap. Thankfully the kitchen was empty, and I made my way through to the living room where I stopped. Tiger’s bed was in front of a fire, although it wasn’t a real fire, and Tiger was alone in it. There was no sign of her humans, but Tiger was curled up. She looked up and saw me.

‘Alfie,’ she said, her voice quiet.

‘Hey, is it safe to come in?’

‘Yes, they’ve gone shopping for a bit, come on in.’

I made my way over to her bed, and sat down next to her.

‘I thought George might be with you,’ I said.

‘No, isn’t he home?’

I flicked my tail. ‘No, and he’s normally home by now.’

‘Alfie, he seemed a bit angry when I saw him today. He was trying to hide it but he kept saying it was unfair that I wasn’t going to be here soon. I tried to calm him down by telling him I’d always be watching him but I’m not sure he was buying it. Anyway, I think he might have needed a bit of time to himself.’

‘I know and he’s old enough, but Tiger, and I’m not telling you this to worry you, but he’s been going out a lot more lately. At first I thought he was visiting Hana, which he does but not the whole time, so I’m not sure where he goes. I asked Rocky, Elvis and Nellie but they don’t know either. He’s not spending much time with them, it seems.’

‘And asking George won’t work, will it?’

‘No, he gets defensive when I even ask him if he’s hungry these days.’ My lovely sweet kitten was becoming surly, monosyllabic and he was actually behaving like a teenager, but of course cats don’t normally do that. But, I accepted that, with the Tiger situation, normality had gone out of the window.

‘Alfie, you’ll have to follow him, just to check you know that he’s safe.’

‘I’m normally the one who would suggest such a thing.’ I grinned. It was obvious. Why hadn’t I thought of this? Although with everything going on, maybe it wasn’t surprising.

‘But just make sure that he doesn’t see you. I’m not sure he’ll take kindly to being followed.’

‘And with all the mounting problems at the moment, having George angry with me is not one I want to add to the pile.’

‘Please make sure you come back and tell me what you discover. If I can I’ll come out, but if not I’ll be right here. Even if my family is here – they are both quite sad at the moment, so they might even let you come in.’

‘Right, Tiger, before I do anything more about the whole human situation I will make sure that I know George is OK and I’ll find out where he’s going.’

If George was acting like a teenager, I hoped he wasn’t doing what I’d heard a lot of teenagers did, and getting into trouble. We had quite enough of that right now, thank you very much.

I casually established that George was going to see Tiger, and I lay in wait for him. Unfortunately it was cold, and I shivered in the bush in Tiger’s front garden, where I had chosen to hide. I had followed many people before, but never George, and although I kept a close eye on him, I had to admit this did feel different. I felt as if I was betraying him in a way, although I knew, deep down, it was for his own good. I would let him have his freedom, just as long as I knew he was safe. I needed to ensure he was being careful and there was no danger.