Goodness only knew what Felix thought of it all as she investigated each new addition with a sniff of her velvety nose. What did she see as she stared into the life-size model’s plastic eyes? What did she make of all these ‘other’ cats – who were actually only representations of her own spectacular beauty? Felix’s reaction was not completely out of character; after a full study, she tended to turn her back, curl up and go to sleep.
The booking office was a favourite location for a snooze. Here she slept on top of the Delay Repay forms, or among the lever-arch files on the metal shelves, or even on the black-plastic photocopier, which could get nice and toasty after it had been used. A super spot was the shelf right above the electric fire. She would curl up there contentedly, near the kooky sign that read: ‘A very spoiled cat lives here’.
There was perhaps no one who spoiled Felix more than TPE’s maintenance man, Dave Chin. Not when it came to cuddles, at least. Dave – a weather-beaten chap who had big rough hands and an easy smile – was not based at Huddersfield but roamed all over the railway network, wherever his services were required. If anything went wrong, a cry would go up for Dave, and Dave would come, practical and handy in his orange hi-vis suit. He had once spent a fair amount of time at Huddersfield, as he used to do all his paperwork in the station buffet on platform four, but with a lot of the records now going digital, he came to the station far less frequently.
But, when Felix had been a kitten, he’d spent a lot of time at the station getting to know the railway cat. So close had they become that Dave had become known as the Felix-whisperer. Felix had quite the reputation when she wanted to throw a strop – and plenty of staff members had the scars to prove it. Never did Felix want to throw a strop more than when she had to travel in her carry case. (The irony of a railway cat who hated travelling was not lost on anyone.) She would fight every journey with all she had. Due to their closeness, for a long time it was only Dave who could get the reluctant cat into her carry case. There was something about the maintenance man that made Felix putty in his hands. Even at the great age of five and a half, Felix would allow him to cradle her like a baby: on her back in his arms with her belly exposed and a silly-sausage expression stuck to her sweet fluffy face. If Dave had been willing, she’d have let him walk round with her all day like that.
So imagine her delight that autumn when her long-time partner in crime called by to see her one afternoon. Dave found her in the booking office and before too long Felix was blissfully luxuriating in a lovely long cuddle in his arms. As Dave tickled her toes and stroked her belly, she flung her head back in feline ecstasy. Jean Randall, a dark-haired old-timer who was working in the office that day, rolled her eyes indulgently at Felix’s flagrant surrender.
Well, who should come to the desk that day but Mark Allan, Felix’s Facebook manager? He knew all about Dave and his cat-whispering skills, of course, having documented them for Felix’s followers. The cat’s loyalty to the maintenance man was legendary up and down not only the railway but also the social network.
I wonder … Mark thought mischievously that afternoon. I wonder how far her loyalty really goes?
Though he and Felix were close, Mark knew that he was no match for Dave in Felix’s affections. But Dave versus Dreamies? Now, there was a challenge.
As had become habit by now, Mark happened to have a packet of cat treats in his pocket. Like a Boy Scout, he thought it always best to ‘be prepared’ when it came to Felix. You never knew when she might do something fabulously funny so Mark liked to keep the tools of his trade about him just in case. Now, looking at Felix behind the counter in the booking office, stretched out in Dave’s arms and seemingly lost to the world, he felt it was time to put those pocket treats to use.
Ever so slowly, keeping his eyes fixed on Felix, Mark dug his hand into his coat pocket, where the cat treats lay within their plastic pouch. Deliberately, he twiddled his fingers gently against the packet and a barely audible rustling sound resulted.
Barely audible to him – but not to Felix.
How will she react? he wondered, as he noticed her ears pricking up at once.
Well, he barely had time to compose that thought – before Felix had leapt from Dave’s arms with unseemly haste. Then she flung herself on to the counter at a million miles an hour, rudely pushing her way past Jean, who was attempting to serve Mark. She stood eagerly at the edge of the desk, as close to that tantalising sound as she could possibly get. Once in position, she glared insistently at Mark, demanding that he now come up with the goods she knew he had.
Seeing her flagrant abandonment of Dave for the far superior temptation of a treat, all three humans roared with laughter. Mark did as he was silently told, stepping forward and pulling the packet from his pocket, before placing a treat down on the counter. Felix watched his hands closely, all thoughts of Dave long gone, before she bent her head to the counter and gobbled up the treat with lip-smacking satisfaction, her little pink tongue gathering up every last crumb.
Jean smiled and tutted at Felix. That cat … She would do anything for food!
That, in fact, was a universal truth that was widely acknowledged. And Felix’s love for food was so evident that it soon became one of the first things new joiners to the station learned.
That autumn, Felix gained two new colleagues. First up, arriving at the station in October 2016, was a new team leader called Jacqui. A petite woman with curly brown hair, she had previously been an announcer at Manchester Piccadilly. Over time, she and Angie Hunte became very good friends, bonding over their shared love of cats and cruises. As she was to many others, Angie became a mentor to Jacqui, expertly steering her through the station’s ways with a steady hand. Jacqui took to calling her ‘Mrs H’, which was something of a bittersweet moniker for Angie – for Billy Bolt had used to call her that too. Yet Angie found she rather liked it; hearing the pet name again as she went about her work was almost a way of bringing Billy back.
As it was the team leaders who took responsibility for feeding Felix, Jacqui swiftly became an important person in Felix’s life too. She also quickly learned of the mischievous cat’s duplicitous ways. Jacqui would feed her promptly, and she knew she’d fed her, but not five minutes later Felix would come begging for more, trying hard to convince her that she’d not had anything to eat for weeks on end. She’d turn her green eyes molten with persuasive pleading and mew plaintively, her cries so tragic it was almost like an opera where everybody dies.
But Jacqui wasn’t having any of it. She had three cats of her own – Deanie, Smudgie and Pickle – and she knew all the tricks in the book. ‘You’ve had your food,’ she would say firmly to Felix. ‘I’ve not forgotten, you know!’
Joining Felix and Jacqui at the station that autumn was another new recruit, Karl, who worked out on the platforms as an RSA (Railway Supervisor, Grade A). He was a really good lad: the type of bloke who you’d ask to do two jobs and he’d actually do three, just to help you out. Karl couldn’t believe his luck to land a job on the railway, for it had been his dream vocation ever since he’d been a lad. He knew lots of the folk at Huddersfield station already, because his previous job had been working with the rail-replacement buses. In that role, he’d become used to a bit of banter on nights with Dale and the others, so when he joined the station properly he slotted right in, immediately becoming a much-loved member of the team. Karl was everybody’s friend.