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I know that our house isn’t unique. Polly and Matt, with Henry and Martha, have the same situation. George says that our next door neighbours, including Hana, are far more organised than our family, and definitely not as shouty. But Sylvie has just had baby Theo, so she doesn’t go to work, and her partner Marcus is actually very calm. As for Connie, she’s more sensible than any of the grown-ups put together, so she manages to get herself to school. The main noise is caused by Theo, who basically ensures none of them get enough sleep – I can vouch for that as I remember when Summer was a baby. We were all sleep deprived and grumpy in the mornings as a result. But like Summer, Theo will grow out of it and start sleeping at some point. When George was a tiny kitten it took him a while to learn to sleep at night as well, actually, thinking about it.

Back to ours. George and I gave them a wide berth until they were all safely out of the house. After snatching a few moments’ peace and quiet after they were gone, our day could begin.

‘I’m going to Hana’s,’ George said. Since the baby, Hana had been happier to go for walks than normal. Hana was from Japan, and she was a house cat when she moved with Sylvie and Connie next door to us on Edgar Road. After trying for ages, we managed to get her to go outside but she only liked it when it was warm. However, since Theo’s arrival, she seemed to prefer the cold to staying at home all day long. I didn’t go with George and Hana on their morning walks because it was the cat equivalent of a date for them and who wanted their parents to go on a date with them? No one, that’s who.

Despite the fact it was a cold and breezy day, I decided to go and visit Tomasz, Franceska, Aleksy and Tommy. They lived in Edgar Road when I first moved there, but for a few years now, they’d lived next door to one of the restaurants they’d opened. They had come over from Poland, worked hard, and now had a number of popular restaurants, which provided great food. And I should know, as I am sometimes one of their chief tasters.

I assumed that Aleksy and Tommy would be at school, and Tomasz and Franceska would probably be working in the restaurant, so I hoped I might get a snack, and could see my cat friend Dustbin who worked for them. He was a bit of a feral cat, with a big heart and we had been friends for years. He kept the rodent population by the restaurant under control– not a job I would like by the way, but he loved his work. He was totally dedicated. I was still a bit worried about Tommy. He wasn’t himself on family day – understatement – and Franceska and Tomasz were obviously upset, so I wanted to see if I could gather as much information as possibleabout the situation, before I came up with a plan to sort it out.

I felt the wind in my fur as I ran through the back alley to the yard. Dustbin was there, licking his paws– probably after another successful rodent control – with his friend Ally, whom he was loath to call his girlfriend, although she was.

‘Hey Alfie,’ he said as he spotted me. His whiskers were raised and he sounded pleased to see me.

‘Dustbin, Ally,’ I said in greeting.

‘What brings you here in the cold?’ Ally said. She always teased me, calling me a spoilt cat with my warm homes and numerous humans to pamper me. Who was I to argue? I loved my life. But I wasn’t that fair weather, as I’ve already said. I even went out in snow. I felt my fur shiver at the thought of snow, but it might not be too far away now. Snow made me think of Christmas, and Snowball, who was as white as snow – hence her name.

‘I thought I’d brave it in order to see my two good friends,’ I replied, with a grin. I liked Ally, but she had taken a bit of winning over. She wasn’t used to being friends with ‘pampered’ cats.

‘Good to see you, Alfie. Here to catch up on the news?’ Dustbin asked. He kept me abreast of the goings on with my third family, as he saw them far more often than I did.

‘Is there news about Tommy?’ I raised my whiskers.

‘Well, yes, I’m afraid there is,’ Dustbin said, sounding serious.

‘Oh no.’ I felt my heart sink. Whereas Aleksy – who happened to be my first ever human child friend – was sensitive, serious, and a hard worker, his younger brother Tommy was the opposite. He was a good kid but he did get into trouble. Once, when George was a kitten, he sneaked him to church with the family, another time he snuck him into the younger children’s Nativity play and put him in the manger, replacing the doll that was supposed to be the baby Jesus. That even made the local newspaper. But you get the idea. He was mischievous rather than bad, I liked to think. Although, if family lunch had been anything to go by, he was now transitioning to bad.