Рейчел Уэллс - Alfie And George

This plan was risky because I couldn’t do it with my cats alone. I had to get the humans involved and that wasn’t going to be easy. However, everyone agreed they knew their parts and what they had to do, so I felt as confident as I could.

‘Good luck, Alfie, we’re all supporting you, and we’ll be waiting to see you come home safely with the boy,’ Elvis said.

‘You’re such a brave cat,’ Nellie added.

I took a deep breath, and went to put the plan into action.

My first stop was home. I needed some humans with me and my preferred ones were Jonathan and Matt. They were physically fit and if I could get them to come with me then that would be half the battle won. Or quite a bit of it anyway. I still had quite a bit of work to do, as did Dustbin, who being such a tough cat was my chosen sidekick.

Once we got to the house I knew everything would happen very quickly, but first I had to get there and hope that I could get at least some of my humans there too.

I walked into the kitchen. It was funny how wrong it felt without George. He had only lived with us for a short time but the house needed him. I padded my way over to where Claire and Tash were feeding the children. Polly was pacing, as was Matt. Jonathan was on his phone.

‘Oh, Alfie, there you are,’ Claire said.‘I guess there’s still no news?’

‘Miaow.’ I took a breath.‘Miaow, miaow, miaow, miaow,’ I screeched as loudly as I could. Everyone stared at me. Right, so I’d got their attention. I ran around in circles, still yowling, then I ran towards the front door, the idea being that someone would follow me.

As I sat by the front door, listening to them all talking about me in the kitchen, I began to realise that might not happen.

‘Has he gone mad?’ Tash asked.

‘Blimey, who knew he could even make that noise,’ Jonathan said. OK, I told myself, trying to keep calm, this wasn’t going to be as easy as I thought.

I went back and repeated the routine, yowling, miaowing and making as much noise as I could, but they all just stared at me dumbfounded, and then Summer burst into tears. I was feeling frustrated as Claire comforted her, telling her not to worry, though she looked worried herself. I went to Jonathan. He was my only hope it seemed, and that was slim. Honestly, they say humans are clever, but really? These guys were not showing it very well. I tried to sit up and swipe at his leg, but he just looked at me.

‘What, Alfie?’ he asked.

‘YOWL!!’ I replied, but still he looked confused. I hated to do it, and hoped he would forgive me later, but I had no choice. I scratched him as forcefully as I could.

‘Ow! What on earth did you do that for?’

I took my chance as he looked at me angrily. ‘MEOW,’ I said, running towards the front door.

‘I think he wants you to follow him,’ Claire said at last.‘Do you think he knows something?’

As I sat by the front door, bashing it with my head to further illustrate my point, Matt, Jonathan and Polly finally appeared. At this rate I would have to knock myself out before they did what I needed them to do. As Jonathan opened the door I ran out, glad to see he followed me.

‘What is he doing?’ Polly asked as she stood at the door.

‘No idea, but Jon and I will follow him, you guys stay with the kids. I’ll call you if anything happens,’ Matt shouted as they started following me down the road. I took the route that I had memorised so carefully. I was tired but we had to hurry. If George was in that strange house then I wanted him out of there as quickly as possible.

I remembered the route perfectly, which was a huge relief, and as I reached the house, Mr B and Dustbin were waiting for me. I wasn’t sure what Matt and Jonathan would think but Mr B slipped into the shadows, leaving only Dustbin and me.

‘I think I saw your boy,’ Dustbin whispered. ‘There was a moment when the curtain went back and I can’t be sure but I think it might have been George.’

‘I hope it was.’ My heart sang at the idea.‘Are you ready?’ I asked, and Dustbin indicated he was.

Matt and Jonathan were standing by the high gate, trying and failing to open it. They banged on it loudly but to no avail.

‘What is this?’ Matt asked.

‘No idea, maybe Alfie really has gone mad? Mad cat’s disease or something,’ Jonathan said. I yowled at him — this was no time for jokes.‘OK, sorry. Right, Alfie. What is this place and who is that enormous cat?’

‘I can’t be sure but I think it might be Tomasz’s restaurant cat,’ Matt said, looking puzzled.

‘Nothing would surprise me with these guys,’ Jonathan said, as we led them to the fence. I miaowed a lot to get the chickens’ attention. They stared at me with their small beady eyes but stayed quiet, which I took to mean they were ready for us. I took a breath and then started scaling the fence. It wasn’t easy: the wire was slippery and it was high.

‘Blimey, what’s he doing?’ Matt asked. I noticed neither of them tried to help me.

‘Do you think, I mean, is it possible, that maybe George is in that house?’

‘I can’t see why else Alfie would do that. He doesn’t like heights remember.’

As I climbed with Dustbin by my side, encouraging me, I ignored the humans. At least they had figured out why we were here, so hopefully they would actually do something useful now. After what seemed like forever, I made it over the spikes and prepared to begin my descent. Going down looked so much scarier than coming up. I froze.

‘I think we should call the police,’ Jonathan said finally.

‘And say what?’ Matt replied.

‘That there might be a cat snatcher in that house,’ Jonathan said. I glanced back at him from the top of the fence and he pulled out his phone.

‘What evidence do we have though?’ Matt asked.

‘Well, they have our cat, or they will in a minute anyway. Look, Alfie’s about get in there.’

Out of the corner of my eye I could see Jonathan pull out his phone and start to dial, looking anxious.

‘They might not believe us,’ Matt said.‘Although yes, if you say our cat is in there it might work.’

‘Exactly. Unless you’ve got any better ideas? If there is a cat snatcher in there they might be nasty, so we can’t take them on.’

‘True, right, get the police,’ Matt said, still sounding uncertain.

‘It’s OK, Alfie,’ Dustbin said quietly. ‘Watch me, just go quickly, gripping where you can, and you’ll be on the ground in no time.

I was still terrified. Matt was right, I didn’t like heights — and what if Dustbin and I were heading into terrible danger? I was glad Jonathan was calling the police.

I gave myself a little pep talk and, as I saw Dustbin reach the bottom, I knew I could do it. I could do it for my boy. I landed a little roughly but I made it. Dustbin still looked scared of the chickens but he managed to jump out of the coop easily. I looked at the chickens.

‘I hope you understand this. I’m going to chase you, but I promise I won’t hurt you, I just need you to make a lot of noise,’ I told them.

‘Cluck, cluck, cluck,’ they replied, which I was pretty sure was hen-speak for ‘yes’.

I took a breath and started running after the chickens. They flew everywhere, and thankfully they must have understood me as they made a huge racket. Even though I was tired, I kept going, and the chickens made more and more noise. Probably a bit more than necessary, but then chickens could be quite dramatic. Feathers started flying. I hadn’t even done anything.

‘Blimey, why is he chasing chickens? He was scared of them when we were on holiday — didn’t want to go anywhere near them,’ Jonathan said. ‘Alfie, stop that, stop that now!’ he shouted, but of course I wasn’t going to stop for him.