e9c12ac8d703d9a536f23183edf8b22c

We all laughed, and so did the humans, who encouraged Dooley to go on. Then a couple of the humans took out their phones, and soon he was doing a whole show.

“You’re a natural, Dooley,” said Brutus with a wide grin.

“You should have been a dance star,” said Harriet reluctantly. She likes to be the center of attention, and she didn’t appreciate sharing the limelight with Dooley.

“Your turn, Max,” said Odelia, holding up her phone.

“Yeah, Max,” said Gran. “Show us what you got.”

“I don’t ‘got’ anything,” I said. But since they were cheering me on, I had no alternative but to hop down, and strut my stuff.

Soon we were all dancing to the music, and even Rufus and Fifi joined in, and then it was the humans’ turn. And generally a good time was had by all. Even Tex stood shaking and swinging behind his grill, Uncle Alex danced with Charlene, Chase and Odelia demonstrated a few steps of a dance called the tango they’d recently picked up, and Scarlett and Gran showed us they weren’t too old to hitthe dance floor either. But Ted and Marcie beat us all: they actually danced a mean foxtrot, and moved like professionals!

“YouTube lessons,” said Ted, panting when the dance was done. “There’s a lot of them, and I mean alot.”

Okay, so YouTube can be used for good or for evil, and isn’t that the case with all technology? The evening wound down, and it was time to go to bed. At least for the humans. For us cats the night had only just begun. And as we walked along the sidewalk in the direction of the park, a feeling of extreme contentment filled me. “It’s nice to have friends, you guys,” I suddenly burst out.

“That’s your near-death experience talking, buddy,” said Brutus.

“What do you mean, near death? I was never near death.”

“Oh, yes, you were. If that diamond had slipped a little further down, it would have torn a hole in your gut the size of a melon.”

“No way!” Dooley cried. “A whole melon?”

“Yep, a melon, and then you wouldn’t be here right now, Max.”

“A melon is pretty big, isn’t it?” said Dooley.

“Guys, please, let’s not talk about gruesome stuff like that,” said Harriet.

“If that diamond had been in there five minutes longer,” Brutus said, undeterred, “it would have turned Max’s insides into mush. Like a blender!”

“No way!” said Dooley. “An actual blender!”

“Yep. Scrambled him up something good.”

Friends. You can’t live with them—but you can sure live without them, right? Though I have to admit I was still glad to have them.

“If that diamond had been in there for only a single minute more, it would have torn a hole in Max’s gut the size of Mount Everest!”

“No way! That’s a big hole, Brutus!”

Ugh. See what I mean?

38. PURRFECT CURE

Prologue

Angel Church had been walking along the road home for what felt like an eternity. She was a little unsteady on her feet after a night out with the girls. She would have driven her car home, but her friends had confiscated her keys. A precaution, since she was clearly a great deal over the limit. And since they, too, had imbibed more alcohol than was probably advisable, they’d taken a cab home. They’d offered to share, but she said she’d walk home—the fresh air would do her good.”

And so now she was gingerly navigating the one-mile distance back to the cozy little apartment where she lived with her mom, located in a leafy suburb of Hampton Cove, her small town. On any other night she probably would have felt a tinge of concern to be walking home alone in the middle of the night, but one of the side effects of replacing one’s blood with alcohol is that all sense of self-preservation goes flying out the window.

“Where are my keys?” she muttered to herself. The girls had taken her car keys, but had they also taken her house key? She couldn’t remember. She vaguely became aware that she had a minor weight dangling from her left arm, and when she glanced down saw to her surprise that a small purse was attached to that particular appendage. “Huh. How about that?” she murmured vaguely. At least a small portion of her mind was still functional, and determined to see its owner and proprietor home safe and sound.

An unusual sound reached her ear and she jerked her head up. It seemed to come from a nearby tree. It was one of those sounds one isn’t accustomed to when spending most of one’s life surrounded by the hallmarks of civilization, such as there are: the noise of cars and other motorized vehicles, and if asked she would have said it sounded like…

“Will you look at that. It’s an owl. Hello there, Mr. Owl. I hope you’re having a hoot!” She collapsed in giggles at her own amazing wit. “A hoot! Get it, Mr. Owl!”

The owl abruptly stopped hooting, as if it didn’t think the joke was all that hilarious.

Angel was still snickering under her breath at her own brilliance when suddenly a bright light lit up the night, and she glanced back to see what was going on.