Рейчел Уэллс - Alfie The Holiday Cat

Franceska and Polly went inside to make some drinks and they came out with tea and biscuits, juice for the children and they even brought our water bowl out in case we needed a drink. I did, as I lapped some water; it was very thirsty work all this making friends. It was nearly teatime and I was hungry as well. I hoped we wouldn’t have to wait too long for our food.

Andrea went to get Chanel but said she would be right back. Which reminded me that I needed to make sure that George had a drink, it was so hot. I went, expecting to find him under the hedge on Chanel-watch, but he was nowhere to be seen. Feeling panicked again, I circled the garden, checking all the places he might be, but he seemed to have disappeared completely. I couldn’t believe I had let him go missing again. What kind of parent was I? I ran to find Gilbert.

‘What’s wrong?’ Gilbert said.

‘It’s George, he’s not here,’ I said.

‘I’ll check the house, shall I?’ Gilbert suggested.

‘You can but I’m pretty sure he’s not in there.’

‘Well, where would he have gone?’ As I started to fret, an earth-shattering shriek interrupted me. We ran back to the front lawn to find Andrea had returned, ashen-faced.

‘What’s wrong?’ Claire asked.

‘It’s Chanel, she’s nowhere to be seen and she never leaves home without me.’

I glanced at Gilbert. It suddenly made sense. I had suggested to George that he would never see Chanel again and now look what had happened. He had obviously gone off with her, although somehow I couldn’t see them running away together. More like Chanel running away from him. Oh no, just what had George done?

It was chaos as it always is when humans try to solve a problem. Andrea was hysterical, the girls looked frightened and everyone was talking at once.

Jonathan called order. ‘Look, let’s organise a search. Firstly, you are sure she’s not at your house or in the garden?’ he sensibly asked Andrea.

‘I’m certain, I checked everywhere. Chanel doesn’t leave the garden without me. Oh, what if she’s been stolen?’ Her eyes widened.

It would be a brave person who stole that cat, I thought, but of course I stayed quiet.

‘Meow,’ I said. Had no one noticed that George wasn’t here?

‘Oh goodness, Alfie, where’s George?’ Claire asked.

‘Meow.’ I had no idea, although I was pretty sure if we found Chanel we’d find him.

‘Aleksy, Tommy, can you check the house, so at least if they’re not inside we can rule it out,’ Tomasz said. The boys ran off.

‘Right, Claire, Franceska and Andrea, you guys should look together.’ Jonathan started organising everyone. ‘Matt and I will search, and Tomasz, perhaps you, Aleksy and Tommy can form the third search party.’

‘Shall I stay with the kids?’ Polly asked.

‘Is that OK?’ Claire said.

‘Fine and if either of them come here I’ll phone you.’

‘Andrea, where do you suggest we look?’

‘I honestly don’t know, she doesn’t go out without me.’ She was visibly shaking with distress; she obviously loved that cat very much, which made me soften towards her a bit.

‘How about we go to one end of the village and start there. Jon and Matt go to the other, and Tomasz take the boys to search the beach?’ Franceska suggested, sensibly.

‘OK, good plan.’

‘Meow?’ I said.

‘Alfie, if you come with us you might get lost too,’ Claire said. ‘I’d rather you stayed here.’ She had no chance.

Aleksy and Tommy returned and confirmed that the cats weren’t in the house, so everyone split into their groups, ready to search. Gilbert was with me and I knew as soon as they left we’d go off ourselves, we would be a group. We couldn’t just leave it to the humans, of course.

We set off a little while after the humans, which I thought was the best bet, so they didn’t notice us. The village was quieter, it being early evening, and we soon reached the entrance to the beach, where I stopped, breathless and still fretting.

‘Hello,’ a tabby cat approached me.

‘Hi,’ I replied, still catching my breath.

‘I’m Lily,’ she said. ‘I just moved here.’

‘Well that’s all very nice but we’re in the middle of an emergency,’ Gilbert cut in, sounding gruff.

‘Oh dear. What kind of emergency?’ she asked. ‘Is it to do with fish?’

‘No, I’ve lost my kitten,’ I said. ‘He’s small and ginger and I think he might have been with, or at least chasing, a Persian cat.’ My words rushed out in a jumble.

‘Oh yes I saw them. I tried to stop them for a chat but they just ran past me. Bit rude I thought.’ She tipped her head to one side. ‘I mean, I was only trying to be friendly, it’s not easy being the new cat, I can tell you.’

‘Where, where did they go?’ I asked, trying not to sound irritated.

‘They headed onto the beach. The Persian was running ahead, and the kitten, cute isn’t he? Well anyway he was trying to chase her but he was quite far behind. Little legs I suppose.’

I looked at Gilbert. ‘You go to the beach, I’ll go and round up the humans,’ I said.

‘Can I come?’ Lily asked. Gilbert raised his whiskers but didn’t reply as he took off and she followed him anyway.

Everyone was outside our house, I guess they’d run up and down the road and drawn a blank.

‘Meow!’ I shouted. Then I ran around in circles a few times.

‘I think Alfie wants us to follow him,’ Aleksy said.

‘Don’t be absurd, he’s just a cat,’ Andrea said.

‘No, Alfie isn’t just a cat, not at all,’ Tommy replied. ‘Come on, guys, let’s follow Alfie. He knows what he’s doing.’

I got to the beach first where we found George, Gilbert and Lily, and there were two things I immediately noticed. The stretch we were on was devoid of people and the water was quite high. Not being a fan of water, I ventured onto the sand tentatively.

‘George?’ I asked.

‘It’s Chanel, she’s over there,’ George said, vaguely waving a paw.

‘Where?’ I couldn’t see her anywhere.

‘She’s in the water,’ Lily said. ‘I mean, a cat in water, who’d have thought it? Although of course technically she’s in a boat on the water but still—’

‘Shush,’ Gilbert said. ‘George, explain.’

‘She’s in that boat, Dad, look.’ I followed George’s eyes and he was right. Chanel was looking out of the side of a boat, looking terrified as it floated on the water, and it was moving further and further away from the shore.

‘Oh no, she’s at sea,’ I said. ‘What do we do? How do we make the humans see her?’ I asked.

‘Hold on, they’re coming,’ Gilbert said, calmly. ‘They’ll see her. And I think I can hear her.’ We all listened and yes, there was a sound of a cat crying being carried through the air.

‘What happened?’ I asked.

‘Well, you said I might never see her again so I went to tell her and she kept hiding from me, so I realised that she wanted to play hide and seek, and anyway, I am guessing that she was hiding in that boat when I followed her but it was already floating away. She’s very good at hiding.’

I tried not to let my exasperation show.

‘I don’t think she was playing hide and seek,’ Lily said.

‘Who are you?’ George asked as if he’d just noticed her.

‘Lily, nice to meet you.’

‘Guys, listen, we need to focus,’ Gilbert said. ‘What are we going to do about Chanel?’

‘I’ll go and get her,’ George said.

‘Don’t you dare, you’ll end up drowned, or worse,’ I said. ‘No, George, I forbid it. The humans will get her.’

At last they all ran towards us, Andrea trying to take her shoes off as she ran like a mad woman. They all lined up beside us and looked towards the water.