The Cats

I’d just turned into Somerset Road and was maybe halfway home when I first felt that something wasn’t right. The streetlight was out and I don’t know whether it was the increased darkness or the skeletal branches of the trees blowing in the autumn wind, but something certainly sent a shiver down my spine. I stopped for a moment and put my bags down, turned my collar up and gathered my things when I first noticed it. Sat ten feet in front of me on a wooden fence was the biggest ginger tom cat I’d ever seen and he was looking straight at me through his large yellow eyes. I walked up to him and rubbed the top of his head with my free hand as I passed and continued on my way, stopping and smiling as I heard the sound of his paws thumping on the ground as he headed off home. I carried on for maybe fifty yards and glanced back sensing something following me and sat down in the path behind me was the same ginger tom, washing his face as if he’d been sat there all the time. I told him to go home and gestured at him to shoo, but the cat continued to follow me, stopping motionless every time I turned to look at him in a surreal game of musical statues. Arriving at the junction of Dorset Avenue, I crossed the road and was greeted by another cat, a scruffy looking tabby. Still aware that Ginger was following me I sidestepped Tabby and headed up the street. I paused at the Essex Road to allow a car to pass in front of me and taking advantage of the momentary lull, I turned round to see that not only were Ginger and Tabby following me, but that a scruffy looking grey cat had joined them. I told the three cats to beat it but Tabby meowed at me in a defiant manner with the support of his two mates and none of them made any attempt to move. Seeing a gap in the traffic I darted across Essex Road and into Lime Street and guessed that crossing the busy road would have seen off my assailants but there behind me were the three cats still following closely. My pace quickened and I started breathing harder as I tried to get away from them as a second tabby jumped out of a hedge and hissed at me. I feigned stamping in his direction and he leapt out of the way allowing me to pass, only to fall in line behind me with the gathering group of felines. This pursuit continued for maybe 10 minutes as I varied my route, first up Cherry Street and then via an alleyway onto School Lane and Low Street, but every time I turned around the gang of cats was still there, and growing. Seven cats were now following me from the Ginger I saw some 15 minutes earlier to a pair of identical ginger and whites that had appeared out of nowhere in the alleyway.

I was starting to panic. Although I don’t mind cats, I’m not really a cat person and this was starting to get silly. My pace had now quickened to a near jog and sweat was beginning to form at the base of my spine as my winter coat was not only keeping the weather out but keeping my increasing body temperature in. But the cats weren’t bothered, they just continued with their pursuit and no matter what I did or where I went, they were still there.

I arrived at the bottom of my street and sensed that this had to end soon. With the cats now numbering a dozen and my front door within sight, I freaked. With hindsight it seems silly but I cut through a gap between two parked cars and dropped my shopping in the middle of the road as I bolted for my sanctuary. I dived through the front door and slammed it shut behind me and collapsed against it to gather my thoughts. After what seemed like an age I went into my lounge and looked out through the window.

And there in the middle of the street were a dozen cats, rifling through my shopping and eating the fish I’d just bought at the market.