Page 109 of New Beginnings at the Cosy Cat Cafe
‘Isn’t that marvellous?’ said Mrs Connolly appreciatively. ‘I’ve certainly enjoyed my visits. I can’t have a cat as Bertie would eat it alive, so it’s been lovely to spend time with yours. We’re lucky to have such an enterprising young woman in to talk to the children, don’t you agree, Rose?’
‘Oh absolutely,’ said Rose, nodding her head vigorously.
‘Actually, while I’m here, Mrs Connolly, I was wondering if I could run something past you?’ Tori said.
‘Of course,’ replied Mrs Connolly.
‘Well, a few of us have been trying to think of ways to raise funds for New Beginnings, and we’ve got a barn dance planned up at Harper Farm in a few weeks’ time,’ continued Tori.
‘I’ve already got it in my diary,’ said Mrs Connolly, nodding.
‘And I was thinking, how would you feel about supporting a “Sponsor a Cat initiative”, here at the school? I haven’t worked out all the details, but I was thinking that for something like a twenty-pound donation, you’d get two access all areas visits a year to the shelter and a card for fifty per cent off hot chocolate at the café. I’ve spoken to Izzy and we both thought the school would be the perfect place to launch it.’
‘That sounds wonderful. I’ll need to know all the details, of course – email them over once you and Izzy have worked everything out. The pair of you could come to assembly one morning to explain it to the children and if you want to put a letter together, we can send it home to explain the scheme to parents. How does that sound?’
‘That sounds brilliant, thank you, Mrs Connolly. I’ll get in touch as soon as we’ve worked out all the logistics,’ said Tori.
‘If all goes well, perhaps we can arrange an outing to the café for those children who have sponsored a cat, so they can see the work you’re doing to help rehome the cats from the rescue centre,’ said Mrs Connolly.
‘Oh, we could definitely do that, and perhaps the children could help with grooming and feeding the cats we’ve got as well, with their parents’ permission, of course. I’d have to check with Izzy, though, and make sure we’ve got all the right insurance cover in place,’ replied Tori.
‘That sounds great. There’ll be a risk assessment to do, of course, but Rose can help with that. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got a mountain of paperwork to get through this afternoon; William Braithwaite has been up to his tricks again and I can’t tell you the amount of extra work that young man causes me.’
‘Oh no, what’s he done now?’ asked Rose with a sigh.
‘Forged his mum’s signature to try and get out of PE – again. Honestly, that boy is going to drive me into early retirement,’ said Mrs Connolly, as she closed her office door.
‘You can’t blame him,’ whispered Tori, waiting to make sure she was out of Mrs Connolly’s earshot. ‘I used to do everything I could to get out of PE too.’
‘I certainly admire his ingenuity,’ laughed Rose. ‘Right, let’s go to my classroom and we can set everything up before the lunchtime bell goes. I love your sponsor a cat idea, by the way – you can sign me up for sure.’
‘Thanks, Rose, I can always count on you.’
Tori and Rose had fifteen minutes to get set up in the classroom before the children arrived. Tori had brought over a mesh fabric puppy pen for Daisy and Angel to get comfortable in, while she set up some cupcakes for the children toenjoy after her talk. The thought of trying to hold the attention of a class of eight-year-olds terrified her and she figured if she had treats, she’d hopefully win them over.
‘I wasn’t expecting these,’ said Rose, picking up a cupcake and licking off the yellow frosting.
‘Hey, they’re for the kids,’ said Tori, tapping her hand away.
‘Well, there have to be some perks to my job,’ Rose laughed, taking a bite.
‘Hmm,’ said Tori, her eyes narrowing. ‘I know you’ve got a few pupils with nut allergies, so they’re all nut-free, and Mum baked a few that are gluten-free as well – they’ve got the blue icing, in case you’ve got any coeliacs.’
‘Ah, excellent. Yep, Hayden has a nut allergy, we had a really close call with him last year, I had to use an EpiPen – it was all pretty terrifying to be honest,’ said Rose, a shadow crossing her face. ‘Anyway, what’s the plan?’
‘Well, I thought I would start by telling the kids about the café and how we took inspiration from my travels, then I’ll talk about the work Izzy does at the rescue and how it all fits together, then maybe get the cats out, let the children pet them and answer any questions they’ve got?’
‘And the cupcakes? When are you dishing them out?’
‘At the end? My plan was to get the kids hyped up on sugar just before I leave and let you deal with the consequences.’
Rose groaned. ‘Cheers for that,’ she sighed.
‘Well, I wanted to give the kids a true café experience and I can’t really do that without cake.’
‘Fair enough.’ Rose nodded. ‘Any possibility this ispayback for me roping you into doing this in the first place?’
‘I guess we’ll never know,’ Tori laughed.
