Rachel Wells - A Friend Called Alfie

‘And me, was I good?’ Pickles asked. I chose to pretend that I hadn’t heard. It was easier.

Thankfully before any more trouble could occur, the door opened, and Claire and the four children rushed in. They all headed for the kitchen and made a fuss of all of us, which was nice for George, before demanding snacks.

‘We’re going to put Pickles on the lead and take him to the park,’ Summer announced bossily. She was wearing her school uniform, her fair hair in a ponytail was bobbing behind her.

‘I’m so going to hold the lead,’ Henry said. He was the biggest of our younger children, very tall for his age, and he looked a little like his father with his light brown hair and nose sprinkled with freckles.

‘But I want to,’ Martha asked. Martha was usually the most laid-back of the children, apart from when it came to Pickles it seemed. She was such a pretty child with dark hair and big dark eyes. Polly, her mum, used to be a model and she often said that Martha took after her.

‘And me,’ Summer shouted.

‘But what about me?’ Toby said. Toby was the same age as Henry but was smaller. He had sandy blond hair and serious blue eyes. He was so gentle which with bossy Summer as a sister was a very good thing.

‘Listen.’ Claire had her best parenting voice on. ‘We will all take turns looking after Pickles. I will have to take him across the roads because I’m the grown-up, and the rest of the time you will have equal time holding the lead, I’ll use the stopwatch.’

None of them argued with that. If only Pickles and George were so easy to control.

I was tired by the time everyone had left for the park. I lay down on the sofa, and George joined me. We snuggled up together, which was lovely, and rare these days. George was usually too busy or pleaded to be too old for a cuddle with his old dad. He told me all about his day with Pickles.

‘He’s quite funny really, but then so naughty, and also a bit too easy to tease, so I’m sorry, but when I told him to stop chewing, he really didn’t listen. And he tried to eat my food, which he doesn’t even like. When I pointed out that you already told him it was cat food, he claimed he forgot. I think it might be harder than I first thought for him to be like me.’

‘Keep trying,’ I said, deciding not to tell him that I didn’t necessarily want Pickles to be like George, but to humour him for now. ‘And you’ll never guess what I found out today.’

‘What?’ George’s ears pricked up, he loved gossip.

‘Dustbin has got a girlfriend,’ I said.

‘No way! Oh my goodness, Dustbin who said love was soppy and he didn’t have time for all that, as he had too many mice to catch?’

‘Exactly. But I think he’s met a kindred spirit. Ally, from a nearby street actually, and she sees off the rodents with him.’

‘She sounds like the perfect match for him.’

I nodded, and purred, my boy was pretty perceptive. Now, if only he could teach Pickles that quality, we’d all be alright.

‘I like that Dustbin is happy. Can we visit him soon, and maybe I’ll get to meet Ally from the alley too.’

‘Of course, I’ll take you one day soon, when we don’t have to puppy-sit. I wonder if his relationship with Ally the same as yours and Hana’s.’ I was trying to dig, of course, I was.

‘I am getting to like Pickles a little bit. Especially watching him try to climb trees, it was so funny, he kept trying to grip his front claws, but they slid down, and he ended up on his bottom. The best thing was that he kept trying, which I suppose either shows great character or extreme stupidity, I’m not sure which.’ So he wasn’t giving me anything, as usual.

‘Let’s go for great character, it’s nicer,’ I replied, although I wasn’t sure that was the right answer either.

‘And then when Claire found us in the garden, she was a bit cross, so she took him inside, and he fell asleep straight away, you should have heard how loudly he snores. He sounds like a train.’

‘But you like him?’ I asked.

‘Yes, I like him. A bit anyway.’

This was progress. We snuggled up together, and both fell asleep.

‘Oh for goodness’ sake, George, can you stop trying to trip me up,’ Claire snapped, as George followed her around, hanging around her legs too closely and hoping to get some scraps of food she was carrying. But Claire, preparing for the family get-together was stressed enough, without George adding to it.

‘George,’ I hissed. Trying to get him to come over. He bounded over to me.

‘What?’ he asked, looking at me innocently.

‘You know better than to annoy Claire when she’s stressed.’

‘But the food smells so good.’

‘And if we keep out of her way, we’ll get something nice, but for now, we need to let her get on with it.’

‘Claire, how much food do we really need?’ Jonathan asked, coming into the kitchen.

‘I don’t want anyone to go hungry,’ Claire replied.

‘You know it’s a good job I got a promotion; otherwise there’s no way we could afford all this,’ Jonathan moaned.

‘Oh shut up and go and get the drinks ready. Oh, and can you give the cats some food, to keep them out of my way.’

‘Meow!’I objected, I wasn’t in her way, it was all George. But I grinned at George, we were getting food, his annoying ways had worked in both our favour.

Family days were utterly precious, and my heart was full as the doorbell kept going, heralding the arrival of the people we loved.

Polly, Matt, the children and guest of honour Pickles arrived first. The children all crowded round Pickles, which I could tell annoyed George, although he had played with Summer and Toby that morning. Before I had much time to be fussed over by Matt, the door went again and in came, Tomasz, Franceska, Aleksy and Tommy. They made a huge fuss of George and me, which placated George. Tomasz picked Georgia up and cuddled him, Aleksy did the same to me. Franceska gave us both a stroke and Tommy took George out of Tomasz’s arms and ticked his head the way he loved. Before they even got past the hallway, the door went again. Sylvie and Connie came in, Connie make a beeline for Aleksy and Sylvie raising her eyebrows, but not objecting as they went off to the living room hand in hand.

‘Marcus has just gone to get Harold, so they’ll be here any minute. But I have to warn you, Harold said he didn’t sleep so well, so he’s a little moody today.’

‘Don’t worry, I’m sure George will cheer him up.’ George preened at that. He was the only one who could cheer Harold up after all, and I was so glad for anything that made him feel good about himself.

‘Watch what we taught Pickles,’ Henry said, to all of us. We watched. ‘Right, sit,’ Henry commanded. Pickles wagged his tail but didn’t sit. ‘SIT,’ Henry shouted. Pickles didn’t move,

‘You’re not doing it right, do it like this,’ Martha said. ‘Pickles, sit down,’ she commanded in her sweet voice, with a smile. Pickles barked.

‘I can do it,’ Toby said. ‘Pickles sit,’ he shouted. Pickles walked to the other side of the hall.

‘PICKLES, SIT RIGHT NOW!’ Summer shrieked. Pickles sat down, but then so did we all.

‘Well Summer wins the training prize I guess,’ Polly said.

‘No, she’s just the scariest,’ Claire said. ‘Summer, the secret to good puppy training is not to shout at him, he’s a baby, and you could scare him.’ She’d certainly scared me after all. Just as all hell threatened to break loose as Summer didn’t take criticism well, we were once again saved by the doorbell, and Marcus and Harold appeared. George, taking no chances, leapt into Harold’s arms, taking him by surprise.