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We followed her up what looked like some kind of mountain trail, and soon had left civilization behind, an area where no man or beast dares to tread, and before long I was starting to question the wisdom of this mission. What if we encountered some wild animal preying on innocent and soft-bellied cats like myself? Then again, we were in the company ofthe wild animal, and as far as I could tell no other wild animal would come anywhere near Clarice.

“I think I’ve got the trail,” suddenly Clarice declared. She put her nose to the ground and was sniffling freely.

“You have?” I asked, surprised. I put my nose to the ground, too, but all I got was a noseful of the musty scent of decaying leaves and moss.

“Cats have definitely been through here,” she grunted. “Let’s keep going.”

“Clarice is pretty amazing, isn’t she, Max?” said Dooley admiringly.

“She is,” I confirmed. She might have fooled us all into thinking that all these years she’d been feeding on rats and mice while actually enjoying a steady diet of the most delicious and expensive food known to man, but she did have a good nose on her, that much was definitely true.

We were in a part of the woods where the brush was thick on the ground, and brambles were thick on the brush, and suddenly Clarice halted, her tail in the air and her ears pricking up.“We’re close!” she declared excitedly. “We’re definitely close, you guys.”

“Oh, dear, oh, dear,” I said, feeling her excitement rubbing off on me, too. I just hoped we wouldn’t find Chouchou and the others dead or dying—or even undead!

And then suddenly we arrived in a clearing, and lo and behold: five cats were sitting there, looking at us with fear written all over their features, hugging each other close, and shivering freely!

“Don’t hurt us!” said one of the cats, a very hairy Maine Coon. “Please don’t hurt us!”

Chapter 5

The cats all looked pretty bedraggled—and also pretty scared.

“We come in peace,” I said therefore, holding out my paws in a peaceable gesture.

“Are you the pussies that have gone missing?” asked Clarice, a lot less peaceable.

The Maine Coon, who seemed to be the spokescat of the bunch, blinked.“Max? Is that you?”

“Yep, it’s me,” I confirmed.

The cats all seemed to rejoice at this.“It’s Max!” said one of the others.

“We’re saved!”

“Actually it’s Clarice who found you,” I said, pointing to our feral friend.

They all stared at Clarice for a moment, then back to me. “Oh, Max, thank you for saving us!” said the Maine Coon, whom I assumed was the Chouchou we’d been looking for.

“Always the same story,” Clarice grunted. “No recognition for the star of the show.”

“Is your name Chouchou?” asked Dooley, approaching the small group.

“Dooley!” said the cat. “Am I happy to see you!”

“And I’m happy to see you!” said Dooley.

“Yes, my name is Chouchou.” She lowered her lashes. “I didn’t realize you knew who I was.”

“Well, I don’t,” Dooley was quick to explain. “But you fit your description.”

“Your human is out looking for you,” I said. “And she’s asked us to lead the search. Or actually she’s asked our human, and our human asked us, and we asked Clarice here.”

“Is your human Odelia Poole, by any chance?” asked one of the other cats.

“Yes, that’s right.”

“Odelia Poole!” a whisper rang out amongst the cats. “Odelia Poole tracked us down!”

“Actually I tracked you down,” said Clarice.

The cats gave her a moment’s attention, then resumed with their cries of “Odelia Poole saved our lives!”

“I’m getting out of here,” Clarice growled, and started to leave.

“No, wait!” I said. “You have to lead us back!”

“Oh, for crying out loud. Don’t tell me you can’t find your way back.”

“Well,” I said, glancing around a little uncertainly. “You did lead us very deep into these woods.”

“Do you think there are bears in these woods, Clarice?” asked Dooley.

“No, there are no bears in these woods,” said Clarice with an exaggerated sigh.

“Or wolves?”

“No wolves!”

“Let’s get you back home, you guys,” I told the five cats. “But first tell us what happened. How did you get all the way out here?”

“Well, I don’t know exactly what happened,” said Chouchou. “I was walking along, after leaving cat choir, when suddenly a car stopped in my immediate rear, and a bag was thrown over my head. I was dumped in the trunk of the car and then brought out here.”

“Same here,” said one of the other cats. “I was put in a bag and then dumped here.”

“Same thing for me,” the other cats all chimed in, one after the other.

“So… you were all catnapped?” I asked with a frown. This was serious business.

“Yeah, looks like,” Chouchou confirmed.

“And you have no idea who catnapped you?”

Chouchou shook her head.“I would have smelled who it was, but I have a cold, so my nose is blocked. I think it was a man, though, but I can’t be absolutely sure.”

“That narrows it down,” said Clarice, who clearly hadn’t taken to these cats to a great extent.

“I did see someone dig a hole,” said one of the other cats.

“Dig a hole?” I asked. “What kind of hole?”