Nine Lives

A non-descript email received on Monday enquiring about pubs in New York where English football is shown, has since led me to an extraordinary and true story about two extra special cats living in the city, and one now sadly deceased.

The email was from an American couple living in New York who have acquired a love of the Addicks following a trip to London that saw them attend three Premiership games where the Valley experience stuck with them the most. As a result they have stayed loyal and hubby will even be at the Valley this Saturday for the Everton game.

However as a hardcore feline fanatic, I was particularly moved when I heard about their two cats Sam Bartram and Alan Curbishley, and the late Floyd Road Valley the Cat (for whom surely a belated minute's silence is in order on Saturday).

Their owner has refused to confirm whether Alan Curbishley the cat was a wonderfully loyal and true companion for 13 years but more recently has been rather boring, has run up enormous and unnecessary vet bills and has gone missing since May.

Sam Bartram meanwhile has agreed to fly back to the UK prior to matches to cross the path of the squad and rid them of their ill-fortune.

I was able to grab an exclusive interview with Sam and Alan, snippets of which are reproduced below:

"I hope we spay up this season because relegation and missing out on next year's Sky money would be cat-astrophic. However with the likes of Cat Holland, Purr-mann Hreidarsson and Ste-fur-n Andersen in the squad, we are still feline confident."