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     Igor looked distracted when he answered Jenny, his eyes jumping between the pet box on the kitchen floor and the opened back door. ‘The room good,’ he answered distractedly. ‘I see you bring cat?’ he added, a look of concern etched on his face.
 
     ‘Yes, I’m just letting Jasper get used to the new surroundings. I know we can’t let him loose in the kitchen, so I thought I’d wait till he comes back in for his breakfast before I put him in the dry store. It seems a bit mean to have him locked in there 24/7 with a litter tray. It’s not a problem is it?’
 
     Igor didn’t hang around long enough to answer her. When he realised Jasper was outside, he shot through the back door and ran over to the refuse bin to retrieve the box containing Nazdia and her babies, just as Jasper appeared from behind it licking his lips…

    
 
Jasper eyed Igor up and down with a contemptuous look, before shooting past his legs towards the open kitchen door. His Scooby snack had been delicious, but he needed something to wash it down. He didn’t doubt the bowl of creamy milk Jenny had obligingly placed in the pet carrier would do the trick.  
 
     Igor recognised Nazdia’s frantic squeaking immediately, and ran to the bin to extract the tin box. Now beside one of the massive wheels, it lay on its side, the lid open, containing nothing but the torn up kitchen towel and the empty water dish. The five tiny babies Nazdia had given birth to three nights ago were nowhere to be seen, and she was searching frantically all around it as she shot in and out of the ripped shreds of soft paper that lay on the ground beside it.
 
     ‘I sorry, leetle one,’ Igor said, a tear escaping his eye when he saw how distressed she was. In his rush to hide the tin after Karen inadvertently brought it through to the kitchen to make pasta the night before, he had left the lid slightly open because he believed he would be retrieving it before he went to bed. Not for a moment did he think Laura was going to surprise him with his new bedroom on the second floor, nor could he have envisaged Karen locking the back door and removing the key before he could get back out to the carpark to rescue the tin and its precious contents.
 
     Nazdia stopped her demented scurrying around after a few moments, and looked up at Igor with what he could swear were tear-filled eyes. She might be able to produce dozens of babies in rapid succession, but her mothering instinct was as keen as any other creature, and her need to protect and nurture her offspring just as important. When Igor held out his hand, her small black eyes took one last look at the overturned tin, before climbing onto it and twitching her whiskers as she looked up at him.
 
     ‘You have more babies one day, Nazdia,‘ he told her, as he gently stroked the fur on her back with his forefinger. ‘I buy you house and husband, and you be happy again…’
 
 
   
 
After Jenny took Jasper through to the dry store in the pet carrier, and shut the door, she returned to the kitchen and grabbed her cup of coffee so she could go and talk to Laura. Igor’s hasty exit out the back door concerned her, especially as he had to cook breakfast for the sixteen guests who were staying in the hotel.
 
     ‘Looks like Igor’s done a runner,' she told Laura as soon as she reached the reception desk. ‘He looked demented when he came through to the kitchen to turn the ovens on, and then he shot out the back door. Maybe the ghost made an appearance last night. Did he say anything to you?’

     Laura shook her head. ‘No, he was as bright as a button when he came down ten minutes ago. All he said was that that he slept like a baby and he needed a new bulb for his lamp. Are you sure he’s done a runner? One of us is going to have to make breakfast if he has, and I’m stuck here until the guests that are leaving today have checked out.’

     Having made the breakfasts for eighteen months before Laura bought the hotel, Jenny was more than able to take Igor’s place, but it was his disappearance that worried her most. She was therefore delighted when she returned to the kitchen to find him putting a large tray of sausages in the oven.
 
     Ah, you’re here!’ she said as she let out a sigh of relief. ‘I was worried when you disappeared. Is everything alright?’
 
     Igor felt Nazdia wriggling in his jacket pocket before she popped her head over its edge. It had been his intention to take her up to his new room after he’d put everything in the oven for breakfast, but Jenny’s return had caught him off-guard. He wrapped his hand gently around Nazdia’s tiny frame, and transferred her to his trouser pocket in the hope she couldn’t be seen when he turned around to face Jenny.
 
     ‘I no like cats…’ he then declared with a melodramatic wave of his hands.
 
     Before Jenny had a chance to say anything, Igor felt Nazdia escaping through the hole in his trouser pocket, and slipping up one of the legs of his boxers. The sensation was ticklish to say the least. ‘No… no…no,’ he yelped as she buried into the soft bedding she discovered at the top of his legs. With his voice rising to a tone that belied his gender, he danced on the spot, his face contorted. ‘I tell you, I no want cat in my kitchen!’ he screeched.
 
     Jenny looked totally taken aback at his outburst. ‘Okay, okay…’ she told him. ‘Keep your pants on, Igor… Jasper is in the dry store, and the door is shut. I won’t let him out until after you’ve finished!’
 
     Nazdia stopped moving long enough for Igor to straighten up and turn his back to Jenny again. He thrust his hand in his pocket and attempted to grab her through the two layers of fabric so she didn’t fall down his trouser leg and make her presence known. Nazdia was having none of it. Having never been inside anyone’s clothing before, she was determined to check out her surroundings. The rear view of Igor jumping from one foot to the other, with his hand jerking around in his pocket, had Jenny transfixed.
 
     ‘I need bulb from the dry store!’ he eventually yelped at her over his shoulder. ‘I no go in there if cat not in box!’
 
     Although she couldn’t understand his urgency at this time of the day, there being light in abundance, Jenny decided to retrieve a bulb from the dry store while Igor finished loading the oven. Whatever was wrong with him, he was clearly in a state, and she was relieved to get out of the kitchen in case she burst out laughing.

     'I be back in minute!' Igor announced when she returned. He then grabbed the boxed bulb from her hand, and made a hasty retreat through the dining room doors...