Felix The Railway Cat

They must have heard about the Examiner article, Andrew thought. ‘I didn’t realise you would have heard about this,’ he said in confusion, slightly unsure as to why the communications department for the whole of TransPennine Express was getting involved with such a local piece of PR.

He heard a laugh down the telephone. ‘I think you should check Facebook,’ said the caller.

Andrew drew his keyboard towards him and tapped out a few commands. Up came the familiar blue branding of the social-media site. As Andrew entered his log-in details, he still felt puzzled. Surely this wasn’t big enough for head office’s involvement?

Then he saw it. On the menu at the side of the page, listing the top trending news items, he spotted a familiar fluffy black face. ‘Huddersfield, UK/Cat gets promoted to senior pest controller’ read the associated link. It was right at the top of the list: the number-one trending item on Facebook! Reeling in amazement, Andrew clicked on the link. A second page opened up – with an awful lot of links to an awful lot of news outlets.

Felix was famous.

And the media wanted more. The phone kept ringing … and ringing … and ringing. The Daily Mail wanted a quote; they would be sending a photographer. National newspaper after national newspaper dialled the Huddersfield station number – and soon the broadcast media jumped on the bandwagon too. It all felt a little out of control, but Andrew hadn’t been put in the position of team leader for nothing. He hoped, if the station and TPE could respond to this quickly enough, that it would be a real opportunity for Felix. If he could give the media what they needed, then he felt that he could work with them – rather than everyone being swept away in this unexpected maelstrom of media attention.

Although this sort of thing was completely out of his comfort zone, he stepped up to the plate to address the avalanche of incoming reporters, all desperate for information on the now nationally famous station cat. Assisting him in dealing with the media were Chris Bamford on the gateline and Andy Croughan, the man who had been so closely involved in bringing Felix to the station in the first place – and who had just been appointed as Huddersfield station manager following Will’s departure in January.

They were just in time. Even as the trio started giving interviews and quotes to a sea of reporters on the phone, things started snowballing online. The Mashable article was shared nearly 3,000 times; Felix went up to 4,000 fans on Facebook … then 10,000 … then 20,000. Mark Allan watched the rising numbers with astonishment – and learned to turn his email notifications off pretty damn quick! After the Daily Mail article was published, it was shared nearly 30,000 times – which brought even more likes to the Facebook page. It was totally unbelievable; none of them had ever seen anything like it.

And then Andrew got a call from ITV. National TV. Gulp.

Although Andrew and the others were nervous about the media attention, the cat at the centre of it all seemed unperturbed. As one of her colleagues told Buzzfeed, ‘Well, the fame hasn’t quite gone to her head. As with most cats, they already think the world revolves around them.’

As the station started filling up with cameramen and photographers and journalists jumping off the train from London (via Wakefield Westgate), many team members found themselves doing peculiar limbo movements in order to stay out of shot. They might work with a suddenly famous station cat, but that didn’t mean they wanted to become famous themselves. But for Chris and Andrew, who had agreed to do the ITV interview together, there was no choice but to appear in front of the cameras.

‘Let’s split it between us,’ Chris had said to his colleague, as they nervously waited for the camera crew to turn up. ‘If we do that, we’ve got each other’s backs.’

But even with that reassurance, Andrew still felt apprehensive as he went to collect Felix for her big moment in front of the TV cameras. Although Chris and Andrew would be the ones doing the speaking, they didn’t kid themselves: it was Felix everybody was here to see.

She was hanging about the office, not up to much; totally unaware of her impending media stardom.

‘The ITV people are here, Felix,’ Andrew told her shakily. He knew she couldn’t understand the words, but he was speaking to calm himself as much as her. He opened his drawer and pulled out the hi-vis vest with Felix’s name badge pinned on it. All the media wanted Felix to be wearing her uniform in shot – she just looked so cute in it. ‘Time to get dressed.’

Felix stood patiently as he pulled on the little jacket and made sure she looked smart; but then, how could Felix the railway cat ever look anything but beautiful? As though picking up on Andrew’s tension, however, there was a bit of uncertainty in her eyes as he fastened it around her and then picked her up to carry her outside to face the cameras.