‘Hey, Alfie,’ Tiger said, a bit breathlessly.
‘What’s going on?’ I asked. She lifted her head towards the lamppost and I saw that there was a picture of a tabby cat on it, along with some words – which, of course, being a cat, I couldn’t read.‘What is that?’ I asked.
‘Not sure, there were two others that went up on lampposts while you were away. None of us cats know what they mean.’
‘I’m not sure either.’ I felt puzzled. ‘Let’s go and see the others,’ I suggested.‘See if they know anything.’ Something was bothering me, but I wasn’t sure what. As we made our way to the end of the street, we saw the other two cat pictures, but we didn’t recognise the cats.
‘Are these the only other two?’ I asked Tiger.
‘Yup. Weird, huh?’
We found Elvis and Nellie at our usual meeting place. They were sitting away from the damp grass, on a strip of concrete that was relatively dry.
‘Guess what?’ Tiger said.
‘What?’ Nellie loved drama and looked excited.
‘We just saw a cat picture going up on a lamppost,’ said Tiger.
‘Another one? What can they mean?’ Elvis asked.
‘I’m not sure,’ I said.‘But something is niggling me.’
‘I think we should definitely keep an eye on it. This all seems very strange,’ Tiger said. As we lapsed into silence, Salmon, our nemesis cat, approached.
‘He might know,’ hissed Nellie, although we were all loath to ask him.
‘What are you up to?’ Salmon asked, narrowing his eyes and flicking his tail in a hostile way. Salmon was the meanest of cats and never missed an opportunity to be horrible to us.
‘Just hanging out with friends, something you know nothing about,’ Tiger replied. She was the only one of us not scared of Salmon.
‘Very funny, Tiger.’
‘Salmon,’ Elvis cut in quickly.‘We just saw another cat picture going up. Do you know what they mean?’
Salmon flicked his tail again.‘Of course I know, but I can’t possibly tell you.’
‘Which means he doesn’t have a clue,’ I cut in.
‘I do! I know far more than you think,’ he hissed.‘Why don’t you find that girlfriend of yours and ask her what’s going on.’
‘What do you mean?’ I felt angry now – how dare he bring Snowball into this.
‘I just heard her owners talking to mine, and let’s just say it doesn’t look good for you.’ He licked his lips, looking pleased with himself.
‘Salmon, tell me right now, or I’ll, I’ll …’
‘You’ll what? Set your girlfriend on me?’ he laughed, and before I could say anything else, he bounded off.
‘What could Salmon mean by that?’ Nellie asked. But as my cat friends looked at me, worry in their eyes, I knew there could only be bad news to come. I had to get to Snowball.
I found Snowball waiting by my front gate. As soon as I saw her, I knew that something was very wrong.
‘We’re in trouble, Alfie,’ she said.
‘What have we done?’ I asked. I was prone to a bit of trouble but I didn’t think I had done anything lately.
‘No,’ said Snowball, wiggling further into the bush. It was still a bit damp from the rain but she looked so serious that I didn’t complain.‘Not that sort of trouble. You know that conversation you heard? Well, it seems it wasn’t nothing after all.’
‘Snowball, slow down, you’re not making any sense at all.’
‘OK, well, Tim and Karen were talking to Daisy and Christopher last night. It seems that we’re moving away, because Tim’s been offered a really good job.’
‘Moving away?’ I asked, my heart sinking into my paws. The Snells had been through a terrible time when they first moved to Edgar Road. It had taken quite a while and a lot of planning from me to make them part of our community, but we had done it in the end. Surely they wouldn’t move away now?
‘The worst thing is that the job is in Cheshire.’ Snowball looked glum.
‘Cheshire? Where is that? Is it far away?’ I asked, fearing the answer.
‘Yes, it’s hours away. Christopher will have to go to a different school, although he doesn’t mind, and Daisy said she would be travelling for work so much that it didn’t matter to her. And she has friends in London she can stay with. Of course, no one asked me what I thought.’
‘Of course they didn’t. Humans can be so selfish. Hold on, does this mean you’re leaving me, Edgar Road, us?’ My eyes were so wide I thought they might ping off my face. Salmon had been right.
‘I don’t know when exactly, but it sounds like it.’ Snowball looked sad and I started to panic. She couldn’t go, not when we were so in love. Not when we’d had such a wonderful holiday together. Though I knew full well that although human life worked very differently to cat life, there was no way they could be so cruel to us. It had to be a mistake. It just had to be.
Snowball and I moped around for the rest of the day.
‘I don’t want to go home,’ she said. She was angry and confused, as was I. I did try to be positive, but there’s only so much of that you can do in such a dire situation, especially when you have the post-holiday blues to boot. I led Snowball into my house and we curled up in my basket in the living room, both of us upset and worried and trying to take some comfort where we could. We must have fallen asleep because when we woke up, Claire, Jonathan, Summer, Tim and Karen were all staring at us.
‘It’s as if they know they’re going to be separated,’ Claire said.
‘Alfie is a very perceptive cat,’ Jonathan added.
‘But how can they know? They’re cats,’ Tim said.
‘Miaow,’ I objected.
‘See,’ Jonathan said. ‘Alfie knows.’
Snowball glared at her owners as, now fully awake, we sat side by side.
‘Maybe …’ Karen sounded uncertain. ‘Maybe you should try to explain it to them, properly. You know, man to cat?’
‘Really?’ Tim asked.‘You want me to talk to the cats and tell them?’
‘I think it’s a good idea,’ Claire concurred.
‘Yes, go on, Tim.’ I wasn’t sure if Jonathan was goading Tim because he found it amusing, but he was smirking a bit. I gave him one of my looks and thankfully he had the grace to look ashamed. After all, this was clearly no joking matter.
Tim cleared his throat. Snowball and I looked at him expectantly.
‘We love living here, on this street, and we’ve made some great friends.’ Tim looked really uncomfortable. ‘But just as moving here was a big decision for our family, and far from ideal at the time, actually, we have had to make another difficult decision. You see, Snowball and Alfie, I’ve been offered a dream job, a really amazing opportunity. It means we can buy our own home again, so I can give my family the security they need and deserve.’ He was a bit pink. I looked at Snowball, who looked at me. I felt a sense of disbelief. Although I had heard they were moving already, having this confirmation from Tim wasn’t making it any easier. I had been holding onto the hope that the rumours weren’t true.
‘As much as we hate to leave here,’ Tim continued,‘having spoken to the family, we feel we have to take this opportunity. We’ll be leaving in a