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Now she wouldn’t merely be upset with Brutus, but with me and Dooley, too, for trying to deceive her.

“Dooley?” suddenly asked Gran as we passed the table of adults. “A word, please?”

So I left Dooley in Grandma’s care, while I went off in search of some peace and quiet. I needed to think up a new strategy on how to deal with Harriet’s latest eruption. The future of our friendly foursome depended on it.

And I’d just entered the house when I came upon Dudley Checkers, wandering around Odelia’s living room, and looking at picture frames and generally making himself right at home—in a house that technically wasn’t his.

“Oh, hi there,” he said when he saw me. “Max, is it?” He crouched down and tickled me under the chin. “Why, aren’t you a chunky kitty?”

I frowned at the guy. I don’t like to be called chunky. I mean, can I help it that I was born with big bones?

“So where are your friends, Max?” he asked. “Oh, that’s right. You divide your time between Odelia’s place and her parents’. Yeah, she told me all about you and your little buddies. She also told me you had a big scare this morning. Some crazy person tried to set you on fire.” He shook his head. “Personally I think crimes against pets are the worst crimes imaginable. Right up there with crimes against kids. But then that’s me. I’m a big pet fan myself.” He then gave me a big smile and tickled me behind the ears and got up.

I don’t know why, but I was already starting to like this kid. I mean, anyone who loves cats is all right in my book, you know.

Odelia then walked in, followed by Chase.“Oh, I see you’ve met Max,” said Odelia.

“Yeah, he’s a big cutie, isn’t he?” said Dudley.

“Yeah, we think so,” said Odelia.

For a moment an awkward silence ensued, the kind of awkward silence that tends to exist between a brother and a sister who’ve never met before and didn’t even know the other one existed until now. Then Odelia laughed an awkward little laugh, and so did Dudley, and then Chase said, “I have to tell you, Dudley, that the story you told us at dinner really got me, man. Your mom dying and you finding your dad and all? Heavy.”

“Thanks, Chase. I’m just glad I finally got to meet you guys. It’s just… I grew up thinking I was an only child, you know. And now suddenly… I’ve got a sister!”

Chase tapped his chest with his fist for some reason, and said,“And a brother, too, buddy,” then clasped the other guy in a tight embrace. There was a lot of back-slapping, and Odelia, wiping away a tear, watched the emotional scene, sniffling all the while.

And then she joined the group hug. And since I didn’t want to be left behind, I joined in, too.

What can I say? It’s one thing to see this stuff in a Lifetime movie, but something else to be suddenly right in the middle of it. And I may even have shed a happy tear, too.

Chapter 16

“Look, Dooley,” said Gran. “Sometimes people make mistakes, and that’s only natural. And sometimes cats make mistakes, and that’s okay, too. If they own up to those mistakes, and are honest about them and apologize, you will generally discover that your friends and your loved ones will find it in their hearts to forgive and forget.”

Dooley looked up at Gran, and said,“But what if the mistake is so big that they can’t forgive and forget, Gran?”

“Oh, Dooley,” said Gran, placing a hand on the small cat’s head. “Your mistake was a very small one, darling. In fact I don’t even think it can be called a mistake at all. I’d call it an accident. And who can blame you for an accident, right?”

“You mean… Max will be able to forgive and forget?”

“I talked to Max, and he’s already forgiven you, and he probably would have forgotten about it, too, if you didn’t keep reminding him.”

“Oh,” said Dooley, taking all this in. It was some really heady stuff, he thought, all this talk of forgiving and forgetting. “You know, Gran, I think that maybe you’re right.”

“Of course I’m right. Have you ever known me not to be right?”

He preferred not to answer that, but instead said,“You see, Brutus did the exact same thing as me. He also had an accident. Or in fact he had six accidents.”

“What do you mean?”

“Well, he just confessed that he peed in all of our bowls on six separate occasions, and now Harriet is very angry with him, because Brutus asked me to tell Harriet that it had in fact been me who’d been peeing in her bowl, but since Max had already told her it had been him, now she’s even more angry than before.”

Gran chuckled at this for a reason that Dooley couldn’t quite comprehend, but then he already knew from extensive experience that sometimes humans laughed at different things than cats, and that was all right with him.

“Looks like I’ll have to have a word with Harriet too,” she said. “Though I think I’ll wait until she’s cooled down some.”

“So you think Max isn’t angry with me anymore?”

“Sweetie, Max was never angry with you to begin with.”