Transpennine Express
and
Kate Moore
FELIX THE RAILWAY CAT
Contents
1. A Madcap Idea
2. A ‘Mouse’ in the House
3. A Star Is Born
4. Welcome to Huddersfield
5. First Day on the Job
6. What’s in a Name?
7. Felix Works His Magic
8. New Discoveries
9. Brave New World
10. Doctor’s Orders
11. Learning the Ropes
12. A Very Special Cat
13. Missing
14. Angel Felix?
15. The First Farewell
16. On the Night Shift
17. The Pest Controller
18. Stranger Danger
19. The Final Hurdle
20. Queen Felix
21. Curtain Up
22. It Must Be Love
23. The Battle for Huddersfield Station
24. Clever Felix
25. Meet the Boss
26. Santa Claws
27. The Hardest Goodbye
28. A Helping Hand
29. Felix the Facebooker
30. One Night in January
31. Felix Is Famous
32. Back to Work
Epilogue
Introduction
If you go down to Huddersfield station in Yorkshire, you may be in for a big surprise … For greeting you at the ‘Customer Information and Assistance’ point, waiting patiently to attend to customer enquiries, might not be a bright young woman or a helpful old man dressed in the purple-and-navy uniform of TransPennine Express.
Instead, the team member on duty may be Felix, the Huddersfield station cat.
She sits proudly at the desk, her ears attuned to the familiar cacophony of station sounds, her green eyes alert and intelligent as you approach. Her fluffy black tail – tipped with a dash of white – flicks back and forth rhythmically, almost wagging, as though she is delighted to see you.
But Felix is a working pest controller, not a house cat, and years of being patted and prodded by customers have made her, at times, wary of strangers. Yet when she knows you, whether you’re a colleague or a commuter, her affection knows no bounds.
With a single, graceful leap, she dives from the desk to the floor and winds her way around your legs, her long white whiskers twitching as she investigates the possibility of you being in possession of a treat. Felix lives for treats and, despite her initial grumpiness, the most unfamiliar of strangers can soon become a lifelong friend in the right circumstances.
Yet a cat cannot live on treats alone; and for Felix adventure gives just as much sustenance. So although Felix can be found most days at the station – on duty at her desk, patrolling the platforms, or helping to check tickets at the gateline – she also explores far beyond the station’s borders. Watch her as she goes: passing the bronze statue in St George’s Square outside with a friendly flick of her swishing tail; bypassing the beflowered garden on Platform 4; or disappearing into the darkness of the railway tunnels, on her way to who-knows-where. She crosses the train tracks with a certain cockiness: a swagger to her swaying walk. Things weren’t always this way but, just as Felix has grown on the job, so, too, have her confidence and courage.
Much as Felix relishes her role in charge of the station – and make no mistake, this cat is most
For now, though, we leave her sitting at the customer service desk, those sharp emerald eyes missing nothing as she surveys her kingdom, her glitzy purple collar shining brightly in the morning sun. A slim gold disc dangles from it, bearing her name and her home address:
FELIX, PLATFORM 1.
This is the story of the Huddersfield station cat.
1. A Madcap Idea
‘What this station needs,’ announced Gareth Hope one morning in the summer of 2008, ‘is a station cat.’
His colleague, Andy Croughan, laughed out loud. When the two mates got together – as they did most days, after the morning rush hour was over, to kick about some conversation during the quiet phases of their shift – they were always coming up with daft ideas, but this one had to take the biscuit. A station cat? Oh, it was a good bit of mischief, but nothing that would happen in a million years.
