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“Um… so do you want me to take you guys for a walk?” she asked now. She was unsure of how to proceed. She hadn’t lied when she’d told Vesta that she was a dog person. She and Alec had recently even opened a dog kennel in town, though in actual fact it was an animal shelter where all pets were welcome, whether great or small, canine or otherwise inclined. She wondered if she should call the manager of the shelter and ask her for some tips and tricks on how to deal with cats, but then decided against it.

How hard could it be to care for these cuddly creatures? And they were so sweet, too.

Though the way they were staring at her, their gaze unwavering, their eyes never moving away from hers for even a second, was frankly making her feel a little uneasy.

“So, um… how do you guys feel about suddenly being donated to a new human? A little weird, right, this Poole family ritual?” She’d known that the Pooles had this thing about cats, but this whole thing about giving away cats to new partners entering the family was something she’d never heard of before. Alec hadn’t mentioned it either.

“Look, if you guys expect me to talk to you, I’m very sorry but I can’t. I don’t speak your language, I’m afraid,” she said when they just kept staring at her, not moving a muscle and not saying a single thing.

“So, um… just make yourselves comfortable, and I’ll go and get you some food and, um…” And as the biggest of the twosome, the cat named Max, smacked his lips a little, she swallowed uncomfortably and quickly turned away. Oh, how she wished Alec was there.

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“She seems nice enough,” said Dooley.

“Yeah, she’s great,” I said.

“Nervous, though. And unhappy.”

“What do you expect, Dooley? Her boyfriend just got kidnapped before her eyes and who knows what these maniacs are up to next?” I sighed and glanced around. I already missed my favorite spot on Odelia’s couch, and I knew I wasn’t going to be able to sleep as soundly as I usually did. Not tomention the fact that Charlene probably had never heard of the words ‘litter box,’ something Gran conveniently forgot to mention.

“I think we’ll have to do doo-doo and wee-wee in the backyard, Max,” said Dooley, who’d noticed the same thing.

“Yeah, looks like it,” I said. Which posed another problem: no pet flap!

Grandma Muffin had definitely done it this time. Giving us away? That hadn’t been part of the deal. Did this mean we’d have to stay with Charlene forever? I didn’t think I liked that. She was nice enough, sure, but even cats get attached to their own humans.

“Do you think we’ll have to stay here forever now, Max?” asked Dooley as he glanced around. The living room was minimalistically furnished, all black and white, the entire house constructed in plenty of steel and glass. Not exactly the coziest environment I’d ever encountered, as it lent the place more of an office feel than a real home.

“I hope not,” I said.

“I think Odelia won’t be happy when she finds out that Gran has given us away to Charlene,” Dooley surmised.

“And it’s not as if she can take us back either,” I said. “It’s hard to take a gift back once you’ve given it. Especially a wedding gift.”

“I never thought I’d be a wedding gift, Max.”

“Me neither, Dooley.”

But when Charlene returned from the kitchen carrying two porcelain plates heaped high with pieces of turkey, I quickly perked up. So maybe this new human of ours wasn’t so bad after all? We’d just have to break her in, like cats do with all of their humans.

Chapter 12

Odelia glanced around and frowned.“Have you seen the cats?” she asked.

“Didn’t your grandmother take them?” said Chase. He was on the couch surfing on his laptop, busily going through a list of convicts Uncle Alec had collared. It was a long list.

“Yeah, but they should have been back by now,” she said. “Unless she took them along on one of her neighborhood watch patrols.”

“Then that must be it. You know how she loves those patrols.”

Odelia hadn’t seen any sign of Harriet and Brutus either, but then they spent most of their time next door, at her parents’ place.

She decided to wander over there. She needed to talk to her mother anyway. But when she entered her parents’ kitchen, neither her mother or her father were in evidence, and of the cats there was no trace either.

Weird. People just kept disappearing, though of course the case of her uncle being kidnapped had everyone on edge, so things weren’t exactly normal right now.

And as she walked out again, she noticed a flyer her mom or dad had put up on the fridge with magnets. She read it with a rising sense of surprise.

‘Madame Solange will tell you everything you need to know about your future. Schedule a consult now, and find out what the future holds in store for you and your nearest and dearest.’

There was a phone number, and someone had circled it twice, adding a few exclamation marks for good measure.