Шейла Нортон: Oliver The Cat Who Saved Christmas

‘You’re one of the guests of honour,’ she said, tying a piece of red Christmas ribbon round my neck, over my collar.

I normally hated wearing fussy things like that, but I was too excited about the party to care.

And then, just as everyone was getting their coats on ready to leave … George turned up.

I’m sure I don’t have to tell you, do I, Charlie, how overjoyed I was! When I saw him come into the hallway I went a little bit crazy, walking round and round his legs, and rubbing my cheek against him madly to show him he still belonged to me. I know some cats treat their humans with disdain if they feel they’ve been neglected – walking away from them, twitching their tails – but I’ve never been able to hide my feelings like that. When George bent down and picked me up, I must have been the happiest cat in the world. I blinked so many kisses at him, I made my eyes hurt. Grace and Rose were shrieking with laughter at how loud I was purring.

‘I’m sorry I haven’t managed to get down here before now,’ he was saying. ‘I’ve been so busy in the new job. But I’ve brought all of you a few treats for Christmas, to make up for it – and another payment for Ollie’s board and lodging of course, for you and next door.’

He put some bags of exciting-looking gift-wrapped parcels down on the table, then turned and looked at us all again – the children with their coats zipped up, me in my silly bow, Sarah with containers of food ready to take with us.

‘Oh, I’m so sorry. You’re just going out.’

‘It’s fine, George. Stay and have a coffee or something. There’s no rush,’ Martin said, giving a warning look to the children, who were shuffling their paws impatiently.

‘Oh, Daddy, ’ little Rose said. ‘Everyone will be there before us.’

‘It’s just a village party,’ Sarah explained apologetically. ‘A last-minute thing, actually.’

‘Really? That’s nice. Whose party?’

‘You’ll never believe it.’ Sarah laughed. ‘It’s at the Big House. Julian Smythe has invited the whole village.’

‘ Never! ’

‘Yes!’ She glanced at Martin and then added, ‘Actually, George, why don’t you join us? Nicky and Daniel next door are coming too – they’ll be calling for us any minute now. We can tell you the whole story on the way there.’

‘Oh, no. I couldn’t. I haven’t been invited.’

‘Yes you have,’ Martin said. ‘You’re part of the village – everyone’s invited. We’re all taking food with us. Come on, mate, it’ll be great to have your company. Everyone’ll be really chuffed to see you.’

So, together with Nicky and Daniel, we all set off up the hill. George even carried me the whole way – not because I couldn’t walk, of course, but because I couldn’t bear for him to put me down, even for a minute. I knew he’d soon be going back to London again and it might be a long time before he came back.

I can’t tell you too much about the party, Charlie, except that the music was very noisy, all the children were very noisy, and lots of people seemed to be hugging each other and eating and drinking a lot. I’m afraid I put my paws over my ears and fell asleep on George’s lap, and when I eventually woke up, I’d been put on a chair in a quiet corner of the hall, with one of the children’s coats over me to keep me warm. I was happy to let George carry me home again.

I think it was quite late by the time the children had been tucked up in bed. This, by the way, was a longer process than usual, with strange rituals being carried out involving a glass of sherry and a mince pie being left on the fireplace, and stockings hung at the ends of both their beds, and a lot of giggling – none of which I could make any sense of. Then, after a last cup of coffee and chat with Sarah and Martin, George had to say goodbye to us all again. I went off to bed and tried not to cry. This time I felt a little more certain that he’d be back again.

When I woke up, it was quite obvious it was Christmas morning. The girls were shouting their heads off about the new toys they’d got, and next to my bed was a little red stocking full of cat treats, a catnip toy with jingly bells and feathers on, and a squeaky toy mouse.

‘It’s from George, Ollie,’ Grace said when she came into the kitchen and saw me poking my nose into it. ‘But we’ve bought you some presents too. They’re under the tree. Happy Christmas!’

Dear George. And there was I, thinking Father Christmas must have been real after all.

Just after breakfast, a big car stopped outside Nicky and Daniel’s house. I sat on Sarah’s windowsill and watched as a male, a female and two quite large human kittens got out of the car carrying a lot of bags between them, and went in through the front door.

Sarah had been watching too. ‘Nicky’s parents and brothers are here,’ she called out to Martin. ‘Oh, I do hope it’s all going to go smoothly for them.’

But of course, we had no idea whether it was going smoothly or roughly – not until much later, after everyone had opened more presents, eaten their Christmas dinner and pulled apart some really horrible things called crackers. They made a loud bang which sent me scuttling out to the kitchen and set the children off in fits of laughter. I really couldn’t see what the point of that was.

It seemed a long day. They watched a lady called Queen on television, who did nothing but sit in a chair and talk, so I didn’t know why it seemed so important, then they played games and ate chocolate, and later ate sandwiches and cake, and finally Grace and Rose looked like they were going to fall asleep where they sat, so they were packed off to bed.

I’d had my own dinner and was just thinking about going to settle down for the night, when there was a little light tap on the door, and Martin let in Nicky and Daniel, followed by their whole family. I immediately scarpered behind the sofa, anxious about the strange males.

‘Oh, is this the cat you were telling us about?’ one of the young males asked Nicky – and she laughed, and came to pick me up. She introduced me to everyone at the same time as introducing her family to Sarah and Martin.

‘Ollie’s our good luck cat,’ Daniel said, quite seriously. ‘All the good things that have happened recently – well, he seems to have been involved somehow.’

‘We must get to know him, then,’ the female said, giving me a little stroke. She seemed quite nice. I wondered what all the fuss had been about. ‘And you, of course,’ she added to Sarah and Martin. ‘We’ve heard so much about you both. I understand from my daughter that you’ve been extremely kind to them since they moved in.’

‘We’re enjoying their friendship, that’s all,’ Sarah said.

‘Well, I can’t thank you enough for offering to put us up overnight like this. But we’ve brought some presents for your little girls, and a couple of bottles of wine.’

‘You didn’t have to do that,’ Martin said. ‘Please, sit down, everyone, and I’ll get you all a drink. Have you had a good day together?’

‘Yes. Definitely!’ Nicky’s mum smiled. ‘We’re thrilled to hear Nicky and Daniel’s news, of course.’

Nicky was grinning like a Cheshire cat. Not that I’ve ever seen a Cheshire cat, Charlie, but apparently they grin, which is rather strange, as most cats can’t.

‘At first we were worried,’ her dad said. ‘I mean, they’re so young, and, well, they haven’t had a very good start, which was partly our fault.’

‘No it wasn’t, Dad,’ Nicky said, but he held up a paw and went on: