Felix The Railway Cat

A few hours later, in the early hours of 30 January, Andrew once again rolled open his drawer and pulled out the brown cardboard packaging. Felix was sitting on the desk with him and she sniffed with interest at the unfamiliar smells carried on the package which had travelled through the mail.

‘Guess what, Felix?’ Andrew said to her brightly. ‘This is for you.’

Her head jerked upwards and she fixed him with those big green eyes. ‘For me?’ they seemed to say.

Andrew reached a hand inside the package and pulled out a tiny, pet-sized, yellow hi-vis vest – just like those worn by the human members of the team on the platforms of Huddersfield station, but this one was especially for Felix.

The fluffy cat bent her head to the luminous fabric and examined it quizzically. It had long been apparent to the team that Felix recognised their bright jackets – now, she was getting one of her very own.

Andrew had told no one that he’d ordered it. It was a surprise for them all and he’d kept it completely secret, even after the vest had arrived, as he wasn’t quite sure how Felix would react to it. She could be a diva, after all. She’d never worn any sort of clothing before and Angie Hunte had told him that, although Felix looked absolutely fabulous in her purple glittery collar and wore it quite happily once it was on, she could be a little madam when the team or the groomers tried to get it on or off her. He feared that the temperamental terror might well throw a strop when asked to model her new uniform, so Andrew wanted to introduce Felix to it privately to give her time to get used to it. He wasn’t sure quite how much convincing she might need to wear it.

But Felix seemed delighted with his gift as she gave it a thorough investigation, twitching her enormously long white whiskers. The jacket lay flat upon the desk, its two hi-vis stripes catching the office light from time to time, as she sniffed at it and prodded it with a curious paw. It wasn’t made specifically for cats, but pets in general; it had an adjustable Velcro strap so that dogs, cats and all sorts of creatures could wear it safely.

Ordering it had been Andrew’s idea alone. As he’d settled into Huddersfield station, over the passing months he’d come to realise just how much Felix was an essential part of the team. She was very much considered a member of the team and he knew from his own personal experiences with her what a very special contribution she made to the station. But even though she spent hours and hours of her life out on the platforms with her human colleagues – patrolling or sitting up at the customer-information desk – she wasn’t properly equipped for the job. How was it fair, when she did her duty so diligently, that she didn’t have her own uniform? If she truly was a member of staff – which she undoubtedly was – Andrew thought she deserved her own hi-vis vest, just like her colleagues. He had searched online and found one easily. With a click of a button, Felix’s hi-vis vest was on its way.

The cat finished her sensory exploration of the jacket and sat down on her hind legs, looking pleased as punch. Her right ear twitched backwards as she heard Andrew rustling a second package.

‘More?’ her fluffy face seemed to say. ‘For me?’

There was more. Much more. For the team at Huddersfield didn’t only wear yellow hi-vis vests as they went about their work: they wore company-issued name tags showing their job titles. These were official TransPennine Express ID badges that came direct from head office. In Andrew’s opinion, it was rather unfair that Felix had to work without one.

So, in secret, he had emailed headquarters at Bridgewater House in Manchester.

‘Can we have a name badge for Felix, please?’ he’d written, and waited with bated breath for their response.

Well, they’d thought he was nuts – absolutely nuts. But they agreed to make one anyway. Andrew had been delighted with it when it arrived. It was exactly like the formal badges he and Angie and the other team members wore, totally proper: a silver metal badge with a smooth white front and a safety pin on the back. Felix’s name was written in clear black letters in the middle of it, while the formal TransPennine Express logo was positioned artfully in the top-right corner. It looked even more splendid than Andrew had imagined.

‘All right, we’ll do it!’ HQ had emailed him. ‘What job title do you want on it?’

Now, forget ‘To be or not to be?’ – that was the question. From what Andrew had observed, Felix did way more customer-service work than actual mouse-catching – so should her badge reflect that massive contribution she made every day to the commuters and customers of Huddersfield?

But no – it didn’t seem quite right to give her the same job title as everyone else.