Кейт Мур - Felix The Railway Cat

Not everyone could pick up Felix; Mrs Grumpy wouldn’t countenance such an intrusion on her personal space from any Tom, Dick or Harry. But Andrew had been watching the master, Dave Chin, at work, and one day he’d decided to try it, since he and Felix were buddies by then. He’d followed Dave’s tips – ‘Be confident, be quick’ – and she’d turned out to be very comfortable sitting in his arms. That was why it was Andrew who carried her out to meet her admirers. The ITV people had asked him to hold her steady in his arms while he simultaneously spoke to the camera.

What a request! As if he didn’t have enough to worry about. How did that saying go? ‘Never work with animals or children.’ Felix was famously Miss Independent; Andrew knew that she would stay in his arms only if she wanted to. He could imagine the drama if she leapt out of his hold and scarpered. The young team leader only hoped that the theatrical diva he knew was inside her would rise to the occasion today – and bask in the limelight as she always had.

‘Come on, then, Felix,’ he said. ‘Let’s do this.’

Felix blinked back at him. She was facing forwards in his arms – all the better for the cameras to capture those enormous emerald eyes of hers – and her white-tipped toes dangled down. Andrew gave her a big firm stroke on her fluffy black head. Did she have any idea what was coming?

Together, they stepped out of the back office and onto Platform 1. There were cameras everywhere . Felix looked with interest at them, and Andrew could tell she was a bit unsure, but they both drew strength from being together. He kept talking to her and stroking her, and she gradually relaxed in his arms as Andrew and Chris answered the questions posed to them.

And, once she’d relaxed, Felix was able to enjoy the centre-stage position she had always relished since her very first day at the station. She was a very comfortable cat nestled in Andrew’s arms in the hi-vis vest, and even the clicking of the photographers’ cameras – for there were people taking pictures as well as filming – did not bother her: used both to the noise of the trains and the smartphones of strangers, she didn’t even flinch.

After the interview section of the filming was over, both photographers and cameramen wanted to capture some footage of Felix running free on the platform. Like a singer mid-set during a stadium show, Felix disappeared back inside at this juncture with her official dresser, Andrew, in order to take off her jacket. Despite what her growing number of Facebook fans might like to think, Felix didn’t actually wear her hi-vis when she was running about; the team always took it off before they let her loose.

Once she was attired solely in her birthday suit and her glitzy purple collar, Andrew, like a bodyguard extraordinaire, escorted her back outside to the little lobby between the customer-information point and the lost-property office. Here, he set her down on the floor.

Felix sniffed the air cautiously. The crowd that had congregated on Platform 1 had swelled even further since she and Andrew had popped back into the office, as the customers too wanted to see the famous railway cat in action. There was now a massive crowd of people gathered in a circle surrounding the doorway, and so many cameras and phones on display that it was as if a mini electronics store had suddenly been set up slap bang in the middle of Huddersfield station.

Felix paused in the doorway, as though making her public wait, upping their anticipation. Only once she was ready did Andrew take in his hand one of the Dreamies treats he’d brought out with him, and throw it far from the doorway, out onto the platform.

Years of training for this moment stood Felix in good stead. She knew what to do when someone threw a treat for her – oh yes she did. Out she bounded from the lobby with impressive athletic grace, darting after the treat, and as the station cat confidently cantered along the platform, the air was filled with the click-click-clicking sound of the cameras. It was like a celebrity arriving on the red carpet – which, of course, she was.

Once on her walkabout, Felix gave the cameras what they were waiting for. She walked this way; she walked that way; she sat on command; she wagged her tail – then she drew out from her bag of tricks the one star turn that had them all gasping in acclaim: Felix stood up on her hind legs and caught a treat between her two front paws. Felix had always had showbiz in her spirit and she certainly gave the reporters something to write home about.

Naturally enough, her brilliant performance led to more and more admirers – and more and more media interest. She had 30,000 Facebook fans; 40,000; 50,000 … People couldn’t keep up. It went on for weeks, the station team tripping over the BBC and the Telegraph as they tried to keep the station running smoothly. It was surreal and it led to a couple of really mad weeks for all at Huddersfield station.

Andrew thought the live radio interviews were the worst. At least ITV had been a pre-record, so if he made a mistake the crew could stop filming and he could start over again. But he found himself sitting in his office, listening down the line to BBC Radio 5 Live and hearing, ‘And we’re now joined by Andrew from TransPennine Express who’s going to tell us all about Felix the cat,’ and then suddenly he was live on national radio.

In between the filming and the photos and the live radio interviews, the media continued to call up, asking for quotations, so he and Felix and Chris were giving soundbites, both visual and audio, to the assorted press. Felix had never done so many photo shoots in her life. Just as the traditional media interest started to die down, the internet media caught up: another wave of Felix-focused stories from The LAD Bible and others followed.

And amid all this liking and sharing and tweeting and reporting, something incredible happened.

Felix’s fame went global. And she didn’t just hop across to France on a booze cruise – she went properly international: jet-setting-superstar global .

The first Felix’s family knew of it was when some of her Facebook fans started posting foreign media clippings of her on her page, saying that that was how they had discovered her. Following the coverage of her well-deserved promotion in the UK press, she hit the headlines in Taiwan, the Netherlands, Hong Kong and many other places. Andrew was bowled over when he learned that the ITV footage featuring Felix, Chris and him had been re-used by an American broadcaster – Felix the railway cat was on Good Morning America ! Australia joined the party, as well as Japan and China. Felix was a bona fide international icon, with fans in France, Germany, Italy, Canada, Brazil, Mexico, Argentina, Lithuania, Estonia … The list went on and on – and then on!

The staff at Huddersfield had always known she was special, but this was something else. Angie Hunte thought it was absolutely super. ‘To me, she’s always been famous,’ she said proudly. ‘But, you know, it doesn’t matter how global she goes, she’s still my kitten, my baby.’

It was Dave Chin who summed it up in a nutshell: ‘She’s just a little star.’

And her new, worldwide fans seemed to agree with him. With all this happening in February, Felix was soon the flattered recipient of many Valentine’s Day cards. Perhaps it was just as well that the stray black cat, her ‘boyfriend’, had not been seen on the station for a while, for he might not have been able to control his jealousy at this flood of not-so-secret admirers. But the love-themed billets-doux were only the start of Felix’s fan mail. As the year drew on the team found their mail bags becoming full of post for Felix.