Alyson Meadowcroft, meanwhile, found that when she was struggling desperately with having lost the man she loved after he tragically passed away, Felix was of incalculable help. ‘On those days when I feel it most,’ she said, ‘Felix lifts me up.’
The sheer healing power that Felix had, even through a screen, was truly special. She touched hearts across the globe. She brought happiness to thousands. Some felt their involvement in her life, as they followed her trials and tribulations online, was like owning a cat by association; Felix had many international ‘aunties’. Quite simply, they were her family, and she theirs.
And with such a depth of feeling focused on Felix, her fans kept on coming to meet the flooftastic one in person …
One afternoon in the summer of 2017, Angie Hunte’s radio crackled into life.
‘Base receiving,’ she answered.
‘Angie, there’s somebody here to see Felix.’
‘No problem,’ she said. ‘I’ll be right out.’
Tap, tap, tap went Angie Hunte on the door of the ladies’ locker room. ‘Felix …’ she called gently. ‘There is somebody here to see you …’
But when Angie tiptoed into the room, she saw that it was empty. Felix wasn’t there.
Not to worry, thought Angie. I’ll check some of her other favourite spots.
Felix did have a habit of getting all over; though she had a bed laid out for her in the shower room, she rarely used it, preferring to find another cosy spot for a catnap. Sometimes they found her in the old announcer’s office, where the conductors still kept their in-trays; at other times, she would sneak into the former lost-property office, whose shelves were now lined with maintenance log books and blue-flashing mobile revenue devices set to charge.
‘Felix!’ Angie called now, as she stuck her head into the old lost-property office and looked for the cat. She was careful to scour the uppermost shelves of the room too, where a series of black conductor bags lay. On one occasion, when Angie had thought she’d lost Felix, the cat had, in fact, crept in there and curled up, way up high, on top of a conductor’s bag on the third shelf up. So high had she been, and so well camouflaged – her black fur indistinguishable against the black bag – that Angie had not spotted her for ages. In the end, it had been Felix’s ears that had given her away. As they always did, they had pricked up upon hearing Angie calling to her, and the slight movement of those pointy ears peeping above the bag had revealed to Angie exactly where her baby girl was hiding.
But while she had hidden there before, she was not there today.
‘Dear, oh dear,’ Angie muttered to herself. ‘Where can she be?’
She went out on to the platform to greet the person who wanted to meet Felix. Today, it turned out to be a softly spoken lady in her sixties with short cropped hair. She hesitantly asked Angie if she might be able to see the cat.
‘I’ve brought something for her,’ she explained, holding out her hand. In it, two white ping-pong balls nestled. It turned out that the lady, who was from down south, had been attending a table tennis tournament at Huddersfield University – and she’d brought the balls that had been used in the contest for Felix to enjoy.
‘Well, she’s not in the back,’ Angie told her. ‘But let me see if I can find her for you out here.’
Angie had already checked the little lobby as she came out of the office, but she now scouted out the bike racks and the benches – to no avail. Felix did not seem to be around. Angie looked high and low, but could not find Felix. She asked Chris Bamford, who was out on duty, if he had seen the cat – but he had not.
‘Felix!’ Angie called with increasing desperation, but there was still no sign of the station cat.
Just then, an announcement interrupted proceedings – it was Andy Yarwood, a TPE colleague, who was working on platform one.
‘Please stand clear of the incoming train,’ he intoned in his deep voice on his portable microphone. Though the announcing system was now fully automated, for safety reasons the team still kept a portable capacity for making those announcements which required immediate delivery – and it was this system that Andy now used. ‘Please keep back behind the yellow line,’ he continued.
Angie scurried swiftly over to him as the scheduled train arrived and then departed, accompanied by the timid lady who so longed to meet the cat.
‘Oh, Andy,’ Angie exclaimed. ‘This woman has come all the way from down south to meet Felix and I can’t find her anywhere. Have you seen her?’
Andy was a well-built, characterful man in his fifties, with a cheery voice that always brightened up the station. When Angie asked him how he was of a morning, he would sometimes reply in his Lancashire drawl, ‘Living the dream, Angie Hunte, I am living the dream …’
But, to her disappointment, she found he could not help this particular visitor live her dream today.
‘I’ve not seen her, Angie,’ he said, shrugging his shoulders helplessly.
Angie put her hands on her hips, wracking her brains. She’d seen the cat earlier that shift, so where could she be now? ‘She can’t be too far off …’ Angie said.
Just then, her eyes fell on Andy’s portable microphone, which hung round his neck on a black lanyard. It was a black tube, about six inches long, on which Andy could press a red button to speak to the whole station. An idea suddenly struck Angie – an idea that was a little bit crazy and a little bit kooky, but also an idea that might just work.
‘Andy,’ Angie said slowly, ‘would you put out a staff announcement for Felix for me please?’
Andy looked at her askance, his big brow furrowed.
‘You know,’ Angie said with increasing enthusiasm, as he looked rather lost, ‘just put out a staff announcement: “Will Felix please contact the station supervisor?” Let’s just see if she comes.’
Andy chuckled aloud, shaking his head at the silly idea. Nevertheless, he did as his boss had instructed. In his booming, jolly voice, he intoned into the small black tube, ‘This is a staff announcement. Would Felix please contact the station supervisor?’
He, Angie and the lady all fell about laughing. But then, to everyone’s surprise – including, it seemed, Felix’s – a little black-and-white head suddenly came poking out from the bushes in Billy’s garden on platform four!
Angie and Andy exchanged looks of complete surprise.
‘I don’t believe it …’ Andy said, walking away down the platform, shaking his head. ‘I do not believe it …’
Angie, meanwhile, was crowing with excitement. She waved her arms across the tracks at Felix with characteristic enthusiasm. ‘Come over here, sweetheart!’
In a heartbeat, Felix dropped down on to the railway lines and trotted safely across, before leaping up from the four foot with expert skill. She looked nonchalant as she did so, as though answering a staff announcement was all in an ordinary day’s work for the station cat.
The ping-pong lady looked from Angie to Felix in sheer admiration.
‘If I hadn’t seen that for myself, I would never have believed it!’ the woman exclaimed in delight. ‘She responded to a staff announcement! My oh my. She really is a very special cat.’
12. Fears for Felix
The summer of 2017 proved a busy one for the team at Huddersfield. Though the school holidays were a while off yet, the weekends were hectic as daytrippers made the most of the sunshine. The team found that the swell of passengers came in waves – and they all had favourite and not-so-favourite times as their customers sought out entertainment on the railway lines that summer. There was nothing lovelier, for example, than seeing an excited family heading for a day out at the seaside or to see men and women dressed up for a day out at the races. But all team members – Felix included – detested those Friday nights when the Real Ale Trail came to town.