‘Mystic Mog’ herself took the resultant flurry of media interest in her second-sight skills entirely in her stride, looking impassively at the sports journalists who now flocked to meet her. Such a laid-back stance was increasingly becoming Felix’s default position. After her wobble in June, when she’d tried to ‘attack’ Jeff Stelling (as the Huddersfield Examiner dramatically put it), she seemed to be slowly becoming more and more tolerant of both fans and cameras.
It could be seen in her interactions with the travelling football fans. Many Huddersfield Town supporters regularly journeyed through the station on their way to and from games, and they now made a habit of coming over to their good-luck charm to give her a fuss. Sometimes fans would have a drink inside them and be a bit lairy, but rather than being frightened of them, Felix instead seemed to act as a calming influence. It wasn’t unusual to spot a group of lads in their football shirts hunkered down on the ground beside her, stealing a shot or two of the famous station cat on their smartphones. And their loud cheering would diminish to a burble of baby talk as they greeted the cat affectionately. Their big, dominant gestures soon subsided into gentle, sensitive strokes of her fluffy black fur. It really was quite something to behold.
Of course, nothing in life lasts forever – and sadly Felix’s winning streak came to an end on the Terriers’ third game, when they drew against Southampton in a nil–nil draw at home. Mystic Mog hadn’t seen that coming.
Coming to an end, too, was former announcer Chris Bamford’s time at the station; he was soon to move on to his dream job within the company as a train driver, with his end date set for October 2017. Though he’d be passing through Huddersfield at least twice a day in his new role, as he’d be working on the line that ran from Liverpool to York, he knew he wouldn’t be hanging out with Felix any more. The best he could hope for was that he might sometimes glimpse her sitting by her favourite bike racks as he drove through the station. It was a rather sad thought. He really had loved working with the little cat.
So it was the end of an era for both Chris and Mystic Mog. It was a shame, in a way, as everyone at the station would have liked some warning as to what would happen next. For dark times lay ahead for the Huddersfield station team – and they were dark times that no one, not even Felix, could ever have predicted.
15. Shocks and Sadness
‘Come on, princess,’ said Karl. ‘Where’s my hug?’
Sara squeezed her friend tight before heading home that September evening. She’d been a bit down of late, still pining for Dan yet persistently tongue-tied about saying how she felt, but Karl never let her go home feeling low. Every day as they said goodbye he and Sara would have a quick hug, and within his big, brotherly, bear-like arms, she always felt so much better, whatever had happened that day. Sara, at twenty-four, was the eldest of her real-life siblings; to have a work ‘big brother’ in the form of Karl, who was twenty-nine, was a lovely perk of the job.
Even after all these months, Sara really didn’t know how Dan felt about her. They got on so well, but he had never made a move. Every day, they laughed their heads off together, but she wondered if he just saw her as a friend. Karl acted as a go-between, encouraging each of them separately, dropping hints and teasing them, but despite his cheeky words and the knowing twinkle in his brown eyes, neither Sara nor Dan had taken things further. Since Dan had joined the station, he had become heavily involved in Felix’s Facebook page; a recent, popular video series he’d made, called ‘The Floof Files’, had included the following caption from Felix: ‘Dan. Must you tell the world our secrets?’ But when it came to the secrets of Dan’s heart, he was keeping them under wraps.
For the newly engaged Karl, it seemed obvious that love was in the air – but for the time being he and his fiancée were on their own when it came to such affairs of the heart. All Karl could do, besides urging Sara to seize the day and tell Dan how she felt, was try to cheer her up. That September, he took her to her first football match at Old Trafford, where they watched his beloved team Manchester United roar to victory. Aside from his fiancée, Karl’s passion was football, and Sara didn’t think she’d ever seen him happier than watching his team play that beautiful game.
As for Felix, more game-playing was certainly afoot that autumn – not least when Jack Kempf organised an autumnal-themed photo shoot for her upcoming 2018 calendar, which would this time be raising funds for Cash for Kids.
At six years old, Felix was a pretty worldly-wise moggy. She’d been around the block a few times; she knew her four foot from her forests and her Dreamies from her supermarket own-brand treats. She knew, too, all the ins and outs of station life and had seen all the usual things that regularly got rolled out on to the platforms – suitcases and carry-ons, beer kegs and crates. So what – she must have thought that autumn – was this new, huge object? And what on earth was it doing in the middle of her train station?
For on to the platform that September rolled a massive orange pumpkin, the ideal prop for the October 2018 calendar image. Jack and the team had sourced it from a local veg shop in Huddersfield and it really was gigantic – about ten times Felix’s size. She watched warily as it came closer – it was that heavy, it took at least three men to move it – and Jack plonked it down with some relief in the centre of platform one. He didn’t think he could drag it any further if he tried.
‘Come on, Felix!’ he called out to the station cat. ‘Come and check this out!’
Felix needed no second invitation. Curiosity soon sent her scurrying over to the mysterious orange globe, which had a thick green stalk in its centre that was almost as long as Felix’s fluffy tail. Nose twitching furiously, she gave the pumpkin the once-over, walking all the way round its very long edge. Still no closer to deciphering its identity by the time she had completed one circumference, she decided to jump on top of it, launching herself at it with all the velocity of a space rocket. It was so high up when she landed that, really, she might as well have been on the moon, albeit a bright orange one.
Way up high, Felix continued her investigations. She seemed to decide that, whatever this ginormous object was, it was really fun! Before too long she was leaping all over it, as a professional photographer snapped away happily, capturing Felix as the queen of the pumpkin castle, as well as midway through her own private hide-and-seek game; the pumpkin made the perfect shield for the mischievous station cat. Squashed down on the floor beside the pumpkin, doing her best to conceal herself, Felix made the giant orb look even bigger than it really was. She seemed rather sad to say goodbye to it when the photographer finally finished the shoot and the orange moon rolled away into the sunset.
Luckily, however, that was not the last of the autumn fun. In October, a brand-new toy rolled on to the concourse: a black-and-white-keyed station piano to entertain the black-and-white cat! The new arrival was partly the brainchild of station manager Andy Croughan. He’d wanted to get one for a while, having seen the success of station pianos in places such as Leeds and London St Pancras. But they were expensive instruments; wishes weren’t always so easy to turn into reality. That year, however, a local Green Party councillor had called him to discuss the idea: the councillor had links with the nearby Marsden Jazz Festival and was able to arrange for a piano to be situated at the station, as long as the station got involved with the festival. Andy was delighted to agree.