‘That’s so great of you. Homelessness is a huge problem in this country, not just in London.’ Claire looked concerned. It was hard enough being homeless as a cat, at least we have some survival skills, but imagine being a homeless human? I shuddered; it was a terrible thought.
‘But we can do something more to help as well, I think,’ Aleksy said. ‘We want to raise money.’
‘Like a big Christmas fundraiser to do something for the local shelter,’ Connie added.
‘That’s a wonderful idea. Where do I come in?’ Claire asked.
‘Meow.’ Where do I come in, I added.
‘Well out of all the adults you have the most time on your hands …’ Aleksy started. Claire narrowed her eyes. Oh boy. Because Claire didn’t technically have a job, a paying job, sometimes she felt undervalued. But she looked after two children, a house, two cats, a husband, Polly and Matt’s children part-time, and Pickles. She also shopped and made lunch for Harold some days, she coordinated most of the Sunday Lunch Club … She was incredibly busy and she worked very hard.
‘What Aleksy meant was that you used to work in marketing so we thought you might have the right expertise to help us.’ Connie managed to rescue things, phew. I noticed that she kicked Aleksy under the table. He turned a little bit red.
‘Yes, but Aleksy I don’t have much spare time, I’m so busy with the Sunday Lunch Club, the family, Pickles even, and we’ve got Christmas to organise … Anyway, of course I’ll help, it’s a great cause. What were you thinking?’
‘That’s the problem, we don’t have a good idea yet,’ Aleksy said. ‘We thought we could do a sponsored thing, maybe a sleep out, but then our parents wouldn’t like that.’
‘My mum would worry,’ Connie said.
‘Yes, she would,’ Claire agreed. Sylvie could be very overprotective.
‘Then we thought we could do something at school, but what?’ Aleksy added.
‘Yes, you see, we want to involve the community, really,’ Connie said. ‘But we don’t have many ideas that seem good enough.’
So, their big idea was that they needed a big idea, it seemed.
‘Meow,’ I said. They had come to the right place. Only I needed a bit of time to think about it. Although I had heard them talking about this the other day, with all that was going on, I’d forgotten, so now I needed to put my thinking cap on. Not literally. Not unless Doris knitted me one, anyway.
‘OK, why don’t you let me think about it for a bit, because I think it’d be great if you could do something,’ Claire offered.
‘The project at school was to raise awareness but we thought what if we do something that raises both awareness and money,’ Connie said.
‘I know, we really want to come up with something amazing,’ Aleksy said. I was so proud of these two, I purred at him to show him that.
‘Let’s brainstorm,’ Claire said, grabbing a pad and pen. She did love making lists.
‘Our first idea was doing something sponsored,’ Connie suggested.
‘But that’s not exactly exciting or different is it?’ Aleksy said. ‘I mean it’s not really very original.’
‘Meow.’ I didn’t exactly know what sponsored something was but it certainly didn’t sound as if it was quite good enough.
‘People do love a charity song,’ Claire said. ‘Remember Band Aid?’
We all shook our heads.
‘No of course not, before your time. But pop stars made this amazing song to raise money for famine in Africa. I’m sure there’ve been others, but that’s the one that springs to mind.’
‘Like the Children in Need songs,’ Aleksy said.
‘Yes, we could do a song.’ Claire nodded.
‘I actually can’t sing, or write music,’ Connie said. ‘I did learn the piano in Japan but I gave it up after coming here.’
‘No, I’m not exactly Beethoven either,’ Claire said.
‘And if we did a song, then how would we make it into a record and get people to buy it?’ Aleksy asked.
‘Yowl.’ I knew they weren’t quite on the right track. But it did get me thinking. Raising money for charity, the homeless, Christmas. There had to be something that would do all they wanted to do.
‘It’s impossible, we’ll never think of something that’s good enough,’ Aleksy said.
‘We will if we think about Christmas, how to raise money, and something we can all get involved in,’ Connie summed it up.
‘Of course we will,’ Claire reassured. ‘Look, let’s mull it over tonight and then get together after school tomorrow to see what we’ve come up with.’
‘Meow.’ That was fine, I had twenty-four hours to come up with the best idea ever.
While George and I paid our pre-bed visit to the garden I filled him in.
‘So, they want to raise money for charity?’ he asked.
‘Yes and it’s Christmas so I think we should have a Christmas theme,’ I explained.
‘And involve the community, like the Sunday Lunch Club has done?’ he said.
‘Yes. Oh what about we have homeless people come to lunch as well as our regulars?’
‘But Dad, you said that they’re raising money for the local shelter, which already feeds people,’ George pointed out. I was glad he’d been paying attention. ‘And they all go there for help already so we need to give them the money we raise.’
‘Oh yes, of course. Um, right, it’s harder than I thought.’
‘I know, Dad, but you’ll come up with something, you always do.’
‘Thanks son.’ I was so touched he had faith in me and I was determined not to let him down. I hoped that I would have a very good night’s sleep and then wake up full of inspiration. I was going to come up with the best ever idea, of that I was determined.
Chapter Seven
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Iwoke early with excitement rippling through my fur, and as I opened my eyes and stretched, I remembered that we had a new friend to meet. I hoped that she had good taste in food, and also, as she was on her own, I hoped she wasn’t too lonely. But if she was she had come to the right road. We specialised in helping lonely people. I had been thinking about Aleksy and Connie and their idea for raising money, but I had to put it aside to make a new friend. I told myself I would go back to it later.
George actually saw it as his job. Last year I caught him visiting Harold when he was ill in hospital, and it turned out that whilst there he had managed to cheer up people who didn’t have any visitors and were feeling very down. He said it was his career. I managed to get him fired, with Pickles’ help – accidentally of course, as I was just worried about him, but that’s another story. The point was that George, who was very much my son, liked to reach out a helping paw to those who needed it and this woman, newly moved into our street and on her own, would probably be one of those people.
I was impatient as I waited for George to get up. He slept in Toby’s room, something he’d established when Toby first came to live with us and didn’t sleep well. Now, although Toby slept better than anyone else in the family, George still always slept in there, curled up at the end of his bed. It was very sweet.
I did my ablutions as I waited, tempted to wake George, but knowing it was too early for us to go anyway. You see, I might be a grown-up but I still got overexcited at times. There was a kitten in all of us, I believed. Finally, George emerged with Toby, who was rubbing his eyes. The house was about to spring to life, and the morning routine would begin.
‘Why can’t I find any socks?’ Jonathan shouted as he emerged from the shower.
‘They are all in your sock drawer,’ Claire replied, far more patiently than he deserved.
‘Mummy, I don’t feel well I think I better stay home from school,’ Summer groaned, as she did most mornings.
‘If you have all your limbs then you’re going to school,’ Claire replied. ‘Now both of you get dressed and then come down for breakfast.’
‘I can’t find my pants,’ Toby said.