‘I know you probably want to stay,’ I said to George, ‘but I’m going to have a last breath of air, just for a minute.’ It was our Christmas tradition, to go and speak to Tiger on Christmas night. And despite everything that had happened, it was important for me to do so.
‘I’ll stay here,’ Snowball said, knowing instinctively, as she always did, that I needed to be alone, or alone with my boy.
‘I’ll come; just for a minute though,’ George said.
We sat outside and found the brightest star in the sky.
‘I’m a dad, Tiger mum,’ George said. ‘And we’ve named one of the kittens after you.’ I could barely keep my emotions in.
‘George, you will be an amazing dad,’ I said. I meant it.
‘Wow, it hasn’t sunk in yet, a dad. Three kittens, it means—’
‘It means you are going to be very busy. I just had you, and you kept me on my paws.’ I laughed, but was choked up at the same time.
‘Oh, Dad, you are the best dad ever.’
‘And now you are going to be too,’ I said.
‘And you are going to be the best granddad ever,’ George said.
‘Oh boy, I’m a granddad cat – a grandcat! Wow, I mean …’
‘You can help me and you will teach those kittens everything you know, like you did me,’ George said.
‘And we will love them so much, we really will.’ I already did. Those tiny bundles of fur who would no doubt keep both George and I on our paws for a good while to come. I nuzzled my boy. He nuzzled me back.
Just as I thought my heart was as full, as full and as big as it could ever be, it suddenly grew once again.