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“Perspective is a state of mind,” Odelia explained, throwing off the covers and slipping her feet into her Hello Kitty slippers.

“A state of mind?”

“Harriet probably meant she wants to sort out some stuff in her life.” Perhaps the Brutus thing, Odelia thought. She hoped they would be able to settle in a new amicable relationship. Otherwise it would be very unpleasant for the others if two cats kept on fighting and bickering. If worse came to worst, she’d have to have a talk with Harriet and Brutus herself. Clear the air. Play cat therapist.

She walked over to the window and yanked the curtains wide to let the sun stream in. From her window she had a great view of the backyards of all the neighboring houses. Nearby was a middle school, and she could hear the kids playing the moment she cracked open the window. A church spire gleamed in the distance, and she took a deep breath. A new day, and a fresh beginning. And she was just running a few scenarios through her mind on how to arrange her day, when suddenly her phone started buzzing, and buzzing, and buzzing some more. She frowned as she picked it up. Messages from her uncle, her mother, her dad, and her grandmother rolled across the screen, one after the other.

‘Where are you?’

‘Are you all right?’

‘Answer me!’

What was going on?

She picked up the phone and called up her mom’s number and was just about to hit Connect when she slipped over the bedside rug and went down hard, hitting her head against the bed as she did. The last thing she remembered was Max, yelling, “Odeliaiaaaah!”

And then the world went dark.

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It was by far the scariest thing I’d ever encountered. One minute I was chatting happily with my human, the next she went down and was gone. The phone slipped from her hand, bounced three times on the hardwood floor, and then kept sliding across the floor, buzzing all the while with incoming messages.

Both Dooley and I gathered around Odelia, and I watched in horror as a trickle of blood seeped from her temple.

“Is she dead?” asked Dooley in a choked voice.

“I don’t know! What do we do?”

“We have to wake her up,” said Dooley. “Make sure she stays awake. If she closes her eyes, she’s a goner.”

“Her eyes are closed already!” Nevertheless, I pawed her face. “Odelia, wake up,” I said urgently. “Odelia! Can you hear me?!”

Oh, this was bad. This was very, very bad.

I lifted an eyelid, but all I found was a deadish-looking eye staring back at me.

“I think she’s dead,” I said, and stifled a panicky sob.

“We have to do what humans do,” said Dooley. “Call 911.”

“And how do you suppose we do that?!”

We both stared at Odelia’s phone, which was still buzzing away.

‘How hard can it be?” said Dooley. “It’s a touchscreen. So let’s touch it.”

We moved over to the phone and stared at the thing. Then I gathered my courage and flicked it to life. Messages flashed across the screen. I ignored them. Instead, I called up the phone app, then tapped 911 and hit the Connect button.

“Now what?” I asked.

“Now you tell them Odelia may be dead or dying and to get here immediately!”

A woman’s voice intoned, “Nine one one, what’s your emergency?”

I yelled, in case she couldn’t hear me, “You have to come quick. Odelia has bumped her head and she’s not responding! There’s also blood!”

“Sir or ma’am, I can’t hear a thing on account of the fact that your cat is meowing. Please remove your animal and tell me what your emergency is.”

“It’s Odelia!” I tried again. “Send an ambulance! Quick!”

“I have to advise you once again to remove your cat. I can’t hear a thing with all the meowing.”

“Help!” Dooley cried. “Help!”

“I can’t believe this,” the woman said, sounding annoyed, and just hung up!

“I don’t think she understood us,” said Dooley.

“I think you’re right,” I said.

There was only one thing we could do, and that was to get help.

So we both ran from the room and down the stairs, then out through the cat flap and into the backyard. First destination: Marge. She wasn’t home, of course, having gone to the library. So we ran out into the street, on our way to the library. Marge would understand. She would call 911 and tell that silly woman that there was an emergency.

We hadn’t even run a hundred yards when a strange sight greeted our eyes: Uncle Alec, Tex, Marge and Gran all came huffing and puffing around the corner, as if they’d just run a marathon. When they saw us, they all started talking at the same time, and so did Dooley and I.

Finally, I managed to shout,“It’s Odelia! She took a nasty fall and she looks dead!”

That urged them into action, and soon they were galloping towards the house.

“It’s the man in the yellow parka,” Gran huffed as she passed us. “He’s done it again!”

I hadn’t seen any man in a yellow parka. Just Odelia slipping on the rug. But Gran seemed sure of herself, and there was no time to argue, so I kept my mouth shut.

At the house, they all stomped up the stairs, and so did we.