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Introductions were made and then the company distributed themselves among the different elevators and then it was just me and Dooley and our humans again.

“Did you see that diamond?” asked Odelia.

“Yeah, I saw it,” said her husband.

“Do you know how much it cost?”

“I’m guessing a lot?”

“Twenty million dollars,” said Odelia.

Chase whistled through his teeth.“That’s a lot of dough.”

“Why does that man have a diamond glued to his face, Max?” asked Dooley.

“I think it’s some kind of fashion accessory,” I said.

“A fashion accessory that cost twenty million,” Odelia added. “And it’s not glued to his face, Dooley. It’s been surgically implanted.”

“That must have hurt,” I commented.

“What are they saying?” asked Chase with a smile.

“They’re wondering about the diamond,” Odelia said. “Max says it must have hurt when he had it implanted in his face.”

“Probably not more than a piercing.”

“Well, technically it is a kind of piercing.”

“I just hope he doesn’t lose it when he takes a shower. Imagine flushing twenty million down the drain.”

The elevator gently jerked to a stop, and we got out. The deck, where we now found ourselves, was filled to capacity with people, and loud music poured from the speakers. There was a swimming pool located in the center. Kids were playing on the water slides, and there was an atmosphere of gaiety and fun. All in all, I felt like setting paw for our cabin to have a lie-down. As you may or may not know, cats aren’t very big on gaiety and fun, or pools, or kids playing on water slides. We also don’t care all that much for loud music, or umbrella drinks being served or large gatherings in general.

But I decided to suck it up and go through the motions. Odelia wanted us to be part of the revelries so I was determined to do the best I could.

“So much noise,” said Dooley, as he glanced around a little nervously.

“Yep.”

“So many people.”

“Yep.”

And then suddenly a tremor went through the ship, and he yelled,“This is it! We’re going down! Save yourselves!”

“We’re not going down, Dooley,” I said. “The ship is setting sail, that’s all.”

“Oh. Okay.”

And indeed this was it. We stepped up to the railings so we could look out across the quay. It was moving away from us—or we from it. And as people waved us off from the safety of the shore, and passengers were whooping with excitement, I gulped a little, and hoped Dooley’s predictions wouldn’t come true. We’d all seen Titanic, and even though so far I hadn’t caught sight of Kate or Leo, that didn’t mean things couldn’t still go awry.

3

Dooley and I stepped away from the crowd, as we didn’t want to get trampled underfoot, and found ourselves near the back of the ship. When we looked down, we could see the churn created by the powerful propellers as the vessel quickly sailed further and further away from shore and we now were truly underway.

“I hope they have plenty of lifeboats,” said Dooley as he stared unhappily at the shoreline growing ever smaller in the distance.

“I’m sure they do,” I said reassuringly.

“And I hope they’ll change their women and children first policy to pets and women.”

“Odelia isn’t going to let anything happen to us,” I said. “And neither is Chase. Besides, how often do you hear about a cruise ship sinking?”

“A cruise ship sank off the coast of Florida only last month,” said my friend. “No human casualties, according to the news, but who knows how many pets died, Max.”

I gulped some more. And as we both stared down at the water of the Atlantic Ocean, I suddenly felt relieved I’d recently learned how to swim. I’d taken swimming lessons from none other than Odelia’s neighbor’s Yorkie of all people—or dogs, actually. Though I very much doubted whether I’d be able to stay afloat if we found ourselves going down in the middle of the ocean long enough for the rescue boats to reach us.

Suddenly, and without warning, a pair of birds landed nearby and settled on top of the railing. They were very big birds. In fact it wasn’t too much to say that they were probably just about the biggest birds I’d ever seen in my entire life—they were about Dooley’s size and regarded us with a distinct lack of chumminess.

“Cats,” growled one of the birds. “What are you doing here?”

“We’re on our honeymoon,” I announced.

The bird blinked.“Honeymooners, eh? Nice, nice.”

“Do you know if this boat has lifeboats, bird?” asked Dooley.

The bird blinked again, and cocked its head.“How would I know?”

“What do you need lifeboats for, cat?” asked the second bird.

“Well, if the ship goes down, it’s good to know that we’ll be safe.”

The birds shared a look, then burst into raucous laughter.“You’re funny, cat,” said the first bird.

“Yeah, hilarious,” said the second one.

“My name is Max,” I said by way of introduction, “and this is Dooley, and this is actually the first time we’re going on a cruise, so excuse us if we don’t know the ins and outs of cruising just yet.”

“Oh, you’ll get the ins and outs pretty quickly,” said the first bird.

“I’m Jack,” said bird number two. “And this is Frank.”