One would have thought that a man in his position, and with his resources, would not have quite so much difficulty finding a new familiar for his spouse but the abundance, of which he was only too aware, had stumped him. First he had thought about owls, but they were a little too stately for his liking and he had never enjoyed the way their sharp, clever eyes sometimes watched him, as though they knew he could be food for them with only a single transformation. So that put the kibosh on all avian possibilities.

He had also decided against anything with a cottontail and long ears – frankly he didn’t care for the competition. And then there were the magical beasts at his disposal. Amelia had tried to talk him into a Pygmy Puff but he knew she was only joking, or at least he dearly hoped she was, and the fashionable thing this year seemed to owning a fwooper: which was curious as to Philip’s mind it would be liking owning a silent and especially grumpy parrot.

Eventually his eyes had been drawn to something much more lovable. Something much more fitting. Unfortunately he was currently having the very real problem that it did not, in fact, fit into anything. So far he had attempted to put the little kitten into a basket - it had escaped - then transfigured it into a cat bed wrapped in a ribbon - which it had promptly torn off before escaping - and finally an actual cage - which had caused such loud protests that he had worried Della would wake before he was ready. After letting the kitten free again it had, inevitably, run away again, leading him into the kitchen and unable to reach the ridiculous thing to lure it out.

With a sigh he had transformed and shuffled under the kitchen sink too, nudging the belligerent kitten in vain hope until his ministrations proved a little too effective and the kitten turned towards him, swiping out with mostly useless claws. Leaning forward for one last nudge he set the kitten off in a run, chasing after it and trying, luckily with success, to direct the kitten into the living room where they both barreled promptly into his wife's feet.

Being held against his wife was far from an unpleasant way to spend the morning but doing it in his transformed state felt like an utter waste and the moment his hind legs touched the ground he turned himself back, grinning from ear to ear. The kitten was still clutched in Della’s arms, quite content in ways it had never been when around him, and that was probably a good thing even if it did leave him imagining future conflict with the little menace.

“I hope you like her? She’s already proving herself a troublesome tyke,” he said ruefully, reaching up to smooth his hair back into place, having found himself becoming ruffled in the scuffle.

The smile on his wife’s face was already well worth the effort he had put in picking out the kitten and the trouble it had given his this morning, although really it was a small price to pay when he would have happily done so much more. They were still in the first flush so nothing was too much; especially when they did not have another shared joy to see them through Christmas.

This would be enough. If it never happened it would be enough.

“We most certainly are not. I wouldn’t dare try to take her out of this house, so unless she destroys the entire sitting room I daresay we can keep her,” he grinned, reaching to scratch under the kitten’s chin and being soundly growled out. He withdrew his hand, sensing he was about to get swiped, but the creature purred for Adella and that was the main thing.

Still, it would be nice to have its affection given that he wrangled animals for a living! He would just have to be patient, but at the moment it was terrible difficult to stomach.

“Assuming you’d like to of course?”

It seemed the kitten had done the trick but even seeing Della so happy could not entirely quell the reason for his present. By now he had expected they might have a child or two to celebrate Christmas morning with and, with each passing month, he began to wonder whether it would ever be a blessing they would receive. It was something he desperately wished to discuss with his wife and yet the one person he wanted to talk to most was the one it would upset the most: and he could not conceive of upsetting Della deliberately.

And yet, it played on his mind. He agonised over the question as he settled the books in the backroom of his thriving shop, when he woke next to his beautiful wife and whenever he saw some comfort in the eyes of a child who looked frightened to be away from home alone and he knew he had helped: if everything else in his life was so perfect, was it some sort of balance to deny them a child?

“Call her something Christmassy,” he suggested, returning the kiss to her cheek. “We should save our best names for now.”

Noelle was most definitely not the sort of name he would ever think to name a child so Philip thought it a perfect fit for the cat. He might be getting ahead of himself but it seemed a shame not to think about it at all purely because it had not happened yet. It would, they had probably just been unlucky. He would never say it to Della, because Merlin it sounded crude even in his head, but he knew from a lifetime of working with animals that sometimes things just had to be in the right season to take seed!

“Perfect!” He leaned in for a kiss, taking his time despite the wriggling creature still held in his wife’s arms, savouring this and once again coming to the conclusion that if this was all the family he was supposed to have then it would be enough. Della was enough. How could he tell her though? There was no way to bring it up without risking upsetting her further.

“I’m told there is to be snow later,” he told her with a warm smile. “And a little bird told me they’re running carriage rides around the park this afternoon. What do you say? I know it’s not Irvingly but I think I fell in love with you on that carriage ride and I’d very much like to see if I can fall more on another.”