It was quite early in the morning and I was still asleep, but Jennifer was awake and she shook me to wake me up. “Steve, I sense danger!” she said, “And it’s very close!” I was up fast when she said that. Muffin was sleeping at the foot of the bed and Storm was sniffing her. Meowr!= Me not think Muffin is here now! I tried to wake Muffin, but there was no response.

I picked her up and disappeared, reappearing at the clinic. Cindy was the only one up that early but she pressed the emergency button for Bridgette and she showed up quickly. She sleeps at the clinic, as does Cindy, Lily, Samantha and Dr. Jorgenson. But Bridgette is our vet which is why Cindy called for her. She took Muffin into the examination room and then looked at me very worried.

“We need Kat right away or we’ll lose Muffin,” she said. I was gone immediately, showing up in Kat’s hotel room. They were just getting into bed. “Amber, Jennifer is putting you in charge of the Wildcats until Kat gets back,” I said. Then I took Kat’s hand and we were back at the clinic. “What is going on?” she asked, somewhat confused.

“Muffin will die without you,” I said. She ran into the examination room to check on Muffin. Soon after bringing Kat back home the girls began bringing cat after cat to the clinic. We have 12 cats at home, the others are with the girls and guys in Canada. There were 10 cats brought to the clinic, but oddly enough, Storm and Rascal were fine.

I asked Bridgette about that and she thought that perhaps because they are wild cats then maybe this virus, or whatever is affecting the other cats, may not affect them. But, she said that was just a guess, however, she wanted them to stay away from the sick cats anyway, just in case. Kat was worried, she can’t possibly work on all the cats at the same time, that means some of them might die.

But what affected them so quickly? If there was poison in the cat’s food then it would have affected Storm and Rascal too. Whatever it was, it hit the cats at about the same time. After a while Bridgette said that perhaps the cats ate something outside yesterday during their exercise period. Insects! Maybe that’s it. I called Storm and Rascal over and asked if the cats ate anything different outside yesterday.

Meowrrrr.= Yep, lots of bugs around yesterday. Meowr= Yep, we have contest to eat most bugs. My team win. “Show me where you found these bugs,” I said. Jennifer, Sky and Angel came along as well but no one else was allowed outside right now. We each had a glass collection jar, in case we found any of these insects. Fortunately there were still quite a few of these weird, but colorful, insects crawling around.

We each captured one and brought them inside to Bridgette. But before we went into the room Misty met us in the waiting area. She was concerned about the cats so she came to see if she could help. “Oooo, pretty insects,” she said, “but you shouldn’t play around with these things, they are poisonous.” Then she proceeded to leave.

“Misty, come back here,” I said to her. She came sliding back, nearly hitting me. Jennifer and I looked at her feet. “You’re only wearing socks,” I said, “where are your shoes?” “If I just wear socks,” she said, “then I can slide around like the cats do.” She smiled. “Right.” said Jennifer, “Anyway, how did you know about these insects?”

“Oh, I have been studying about insects with Carolyn and Melissa,” she said, “they know so much about insects from all over the world. They study mostly the poisonous varieties because those ones are used to make various poisonous concoctions used to kill people in various ways, from slow to fast.” She smiled again. I turned to Jennifer.

“I request permission to stay with Misty for 24 hours,” I said, “to find out how she does all this without sleeping.” “Permission granted,” said Jennifer, “but you may need a whole week.” Then Cristy contacted Jennifer with a message she just received. She played it for us.

“Good morning Investigators. How are your precious kitties this morning? (then the voice laughed) Worse things will happen to you unless you stay away from us. Call your girls back, all 9 of them. Leave Lily alone, she is one of us, stay away from her or you will begin to die, one by one. You have been warned!”

“They sent such a nice message,” I said. “Don’t be sarcastic,” said Jennifer, “this is serious. What now?” “Well, I’m sure you will want to issue a Code Red Attack notice since we are obviously being watched,” I said, “but I’m sure you won’t be scared off by these people and will keep the guards around Lily.” “They are not people,” said Jennifer, “they are cowards!

Cristy, Code Red Attack, now!” It was soon blaring on our systems around the chateau and clinic, plus the teams in Canada got the notice as well. Mandar was just sitting down for his breakfast when it sounded on his phone. He likes to be informed of these things too, since he is concerned about his daughter Jackie. He was on the phone to me right away to find out what was happening, so I filled him in.

“Don’t give in to them Steve,” he said, “I will send Teams A1 and A2 right away to help at the chateau. If you need anything else, let me know.” “Thanks Mandar,” I said, “um, enjoy your breakfast.” Aari called next and I filled him in too. Jennifer communicated with Kristina, Carine and Kitty, so they too would know and could tell the others. “Was that a real voice or fake voice Cristy?” asked Jennifer.

“Aha, she’s learning,” I thought to myself. “It was real,” she replied, “but distorted to sound like a male voice. But I’m sure it is a female voice. I will be able to tell you for sure shortly.” “That sister of mine can do so much it’s amazing!” said Misty, “She’s a walking library too!” Jennifer and I just looked at each other. “By the way,” said Jennifer, “I heard what you said about me learning.”

As Misty walked into the kitchen Cassie called to her and said the mail is here but one letter from the government needed a signature. “Okay, I’ll sign,” said Misty. Any of our team leaders can sign for such mail. Cassie opened the door and when she did there was a shot and Misty fell to the floor. The letter carrier then turned and ran back to her van with Cassie calling for her to stop.

She didn’t though, so Cassie shot her and she fell to the ground. Several girls came running to the door, including Angel who went outside to check around. The letter carrier was dead. Oddly enough, she was our regular letter carrier too. Sky arrived with Misty, taking her into the operating room…

To Be Continued.

©2025 Steve McLeod.