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“I wonder if Harriet and Brutus have caught the mouse in Odelia’s basement.”

“I’ll bet she has. Harriet seemed dead set on catching that mouse.”

“Poor Mr. Mouse,” said Dooley, shaking his head in dismay.

“Are you actually rooting for the creature now, Dooley?”

“I am. We are all members of God’s great flock, Max, and I feel for that poor thing, with Harriet on his tail, trying to eat him at every turn. I’ll bet that poor Mr. Mouse is scared stiff right now, running for his life and wondering where the next attack will come from, and then, just before the final blow lands, looking into Mrs. Mouse’s eyes, and together gazing at all of their sweet little baby mice…”

My heart sank at Dooley’s words. Poor Mr. Mouse. Poor Mrs. Mouse. Poor baby mice.

“We have to save that mouse, Max,” he said. “What are those precious little baby mice going to do when Harriet and Brutus have brutally slain and eaten their mom and dad?”

The picture Dooley had painted was so poignant I felt compelled to wipe away a tear.“I think it’s probably too late, Dooley,” I said. “That poor mouse has probably gotten it in the neck by now.”

“That poor, poor Mr. Mouse,” he said in sad lament.

Chapter 7

“That horrible, horrible mouse!” Harriet was yelling as she stomped around the basement, furious.

“Maybe we should preserve our energy,” Brutus suggested. “We could be down here for a long time.”

“I can’t believe this. Imagine what the members of cat choir are going to say when they find out we’ve been bested by a stupid little mouse. They’re going to turn us into the laughingstock of Hampton Cove. They’ll make fun of us until the day we die!”

“Speaking of dying,” said Brutus as he nervously glanced at the locked door. “How long do you think we can go without food or water?”

“Oh, days and days and days,” said Harriet with an airy wave of the hand. “And even then we’ll find something to sustain us down here.” She glanced at the fungus-covered wall in the more dank part of the basement. “Do you think that’s edible? It looks edible.”

Brutus shivered.“I don’t want to find out, do you?”

“No, maybe not,” said Harriet. “Though it looks a lot like that chlorella Odelia likes to eat, or even spirulina, and that’s supposed to be very good for you. She says they’re superfoods, and superfoods are very beneficial to the health of your gut, Brutus.”

Brutus took a hold of his gut. It felt very empty, but even then he wasn’t so far gone he was willing to eat mold from the walls. Something told him his gut wouldn’t like it.

“And we can always drink our own pee,” said Harriet. “I could drink yours and you could drink mine. People have been known to survive that way,” she explained. “It was on the Discovery Channel last week.”

“I thought you hated the Discovery Channel?” asked Brutus.

“Oh, it’s all right. Tex loves to watch it, and Gran does, too, from time to time, and since us cats don’t have control over the remote, we’re forced to watch with them.”

“There must be a way out of here,” said Brutus, searching around. “Some secret passageway or hidden door?”

“I’m sorry to have to tell you this, Brutus, but this isn’t like the kind of place Nancy Drew or the Hardy Boys always end up in,” said Harriet. “No trap doors or secret passageways. There’s only one way in or out of this basement and that’s through that door.” Harriet sat down on the cold stone floor and heaved a deep sigh. “We’ve been had by a mouse, Brutus, and we probably have to learn to accept that horrible truth.”

He took up position next to his mate and both sat there for a moment, contemplating what could have been, when suddenly a squeaky voice sounded from right behind them.

“Can I help you with something?”

They both looked in the direction the voice seemed to be coming from, and Harriet was the first one to discover its source.

“Oh, hey, mouse,” she said.

“You can call me Molly,” said the mouse.

“A member of your family managed to lock us up down here,” Harriet explained, “and now we’re kinda stuck.”

“That will be Rupert,” said Molly, a frown on her face, her tiny paws planted on tiny hips. “If I’ve told him once I’ve told him a million times: don’t mess with the humans or their pets. But does he listen? Of course not. He thinks he’s engaged in some sort of noble battle with our mortal enemy or something. Are you our mortal enemy, cats?”

“I guess… we are, in a sense,” said Harriet. ‘”Or at least Odelia sent us down here to get rid of you, so there’s something very enemy-like to that.”

“Look, we don’t want any trouble,” said Molly. “And if Rupert has given you trouble, my sincerest apologies. He runs a little wild, my Rupert does.”

“Is he…”

“My husband? Yes, he is. And also the father of my four hundred babies.”

“Four hundred babies,” said Brutus, gulping slightly. “How about that?”

“Four hundred is a lot,” Harriet admitted.

“Yeah, they’re a handful,” Molly agreed.

“Brutus and I can’t have babies, you see,” said Harriet. “We tried but it turns out our humans had him castrated and had me spayed, so now we can’t have kittens.”