He ventured further down the alleyway, but became acutely aware that he was holding his breath and was starting to walk very slowly and quietly. He moved closer to one of the walls almost pressing against it. Thomas peered through the darkness, looking for any sign of movement and stopped periodically to listen for any other sign of life.

He was now at the halfway point. He heard a noise! He strained his ears and stared further down the alley. There it was again! His heart was banging in his chest – should he turn around and go back, or should he look to see what it was first? He squeezed his body as close to the wall as possible and slowly and silently crept forward. He could now hear voices – the rain was muffling them but he was sure there were at least two people… Thomas moved closer still. There was a tall man wearing a camouflage jacket and jeans. He had greasy looking hair and tattoos on his face. He held an elderly, but well dressed gentleman against the wall.

“Give me your money and you won’t get hurt”. Thomas watched wide-eyed as the thug of a man held a knife to the old man’s throat.

“I haven’t got any,” he pleaded as he held open his jacket to try and prove what he was saying. Thomas stared in horror, frozen to the spot.

“Don’t lie to me old man – give me your money or I’ll slit your throat” he growled.

Thomas started to back away from the scene, not taking his eyes off the man with knife. As he cowered backwards, he nudged one of the dustbins – not very hard but sufficient to cause the battered bin lid to slide from its resting place and clatter on the floor. The noise echoed up and down the alleyway. Seconds later a light flicked on at a tiny window above their heads.

The man with the knife panicked and in an act of desperation tried to grab the old man’s wallet from the inside of his jacket before sprinting past Thomas and into the darkness.

Thomas turned to look at the old man and noticed that he was slumped in a heap on the floor – the puddle that the man was lying in started to turn pink, then red.

The small tiny window above them scraped open and a round-faced man stuck his head out and switched on a flashlight

“I bet it’s those bloody dogs again…” The beam missed Thomas as he was still in the shadows against the wall – but came to rest on the old man on the floor.

“Oh my god. Marie, call an ambulance now!!” The face suddenly disappeared and Thomas knew it would only be a few minutes before the round-faced man would be appearing in the alleyway.

Thomas walked over to the old man – he was still breathing but his eyes were half closed, it looked like he would be ok.

“Thank you – you saved my life,” he wheezed. A door that Thomas hadn’t seen swung open and the round-faced man shuffled out with a blanket and a pillow, closely followed by Marie.

Time to leave! Thomas ran. He ran to the end of the alleyway, ran straight across the road without looking and shot into the park. He never stopped running until he could see his house.

He was about 20 feet away from the back garden when the door opened, and the garden was suddenly illuminated by the kitchen light. Michelle was stood at the back door her face wrinkled with worry and concern.

Head down, Thomas slowly slinked up to the back door.

“Where have you been?? I’ve been worried sick about you! You didn’t come back for your dinner. Look at you you’re wet through. I’m going to have to dry you down with a towel”.

Thomas stepped in through the back door whilst Michelle fetched him a warm towel from the airing cupboard.

“I don’t know – worrying me half to death! What have you got to say for yourself?” She wrapped him up in the towel and started to dry him down.

“Meoow” replied Thomas and started purring.