“But…” said Shanille, looking up at her human with wide-eyed consternation. “But…”
“Let’s go, I said!” the priest exclaimed, and gave the rest of us cats a nasty look before scooping our choir director up in his arms and carrying her off with him!
“Carry on without me, you guys!” Shanille managed to shout, but then we heard that car door slam again, the car take off in a hurry, and our choir conductor was gone.
“What just happened?” asked Harriet.
“I think Father Reilly never fully realized what Shanille was up to at night,” I explained, “and now that he has, thanks to her tracking device, it’s obvious he doesn’t fully agree with her nocturnal escapades.”
More cars were pulling up nearby, and more car doors slammed, and the sound of humans talking amongst themselves could be heard, their voices carrying far in the night’s silence. They were approaching, and before long they were upon us, all looking startled and surprised that so many cats would have gathered at the park’s playground.
Buster’s human was there: Fido Siniawski, the hairdresser, and Kingman’s human, Wilbur Vickery, and Norberto Beachhead, the electrician, who’s Misty’s human, and Franklin Beaver, the hardware store owner and Shadow’s human. Garvin Chanting appeared—he’s a landscaper and Missy’s human—and I could probably go on for a little while. Suffice it to say that all of Hampton Cove suddenly appeared to have discovered our hiding place, and before long they’d all swooped down and took off with their cats.
All of them had their phones glued to their hands, and their eyes glued to their tracking apps, brought to the park by the beep-beeping insistence of the software. And so the playground quickly emptied out, and soon only myself, Dooley, Harriet and Brutus were left! The others had all been collected by their respective human owners, and taken away in their cars to safe havens scattered all across town.
“Looks like cat choir has been canceled,” said Brutus finally, stating the obvious.
“I hate this tracker!” said Harriet. “I wish it had never been invented!”
“It’s a fine device,” I said, “but maybe someone should have warned our friends that there are two sides to wearing a tracking device: it provides safety in case of a catnapping, but it also takes away every notion of privacy, unfortunately.”
“Get it off me, Max!” Harriet cried. “I don’t want it anymore! I don’t want our humans to follow us around all the time!”
“I’m afraid it takes a human to remove it,” I said.
“I could gnaw it off,” Brutus suggested.
“Oh, please do, smoochie poo,” said Harriet.
“I wouldn’t do that that if I were—”
There was a sudden spark and a soft pop and a loud yelp from Brutus, and then he was sitting back on his haunches and smoke was billowing from his mouth and ears.
“It’s an electronic device with a built-in battery,” I explained. “Best not to chew on it.”
“And now you tell me!” he cried indignantly.
Chapter 29
The next morning, bright and early, saw me and Dooley heading into town. The night had been relatively uneventful, apart from the tracking device business: Gran had shared the guestroom with her daughter, while Tex slept on the couch. It wasn’t an ideal situation, to be sure, but it was better than the alternative Tex had suggested, with Gran sleeping on the couch. Odelia and Marge had argued that they couldn’t very well let an old woman sleep on the couch, and Tex had finally seen reason and had decided to comply.
“I think it’s nice that Harriet and Brutus are staying over,” said Dooley, who’s a real family cat, and likes nothing more than to have our entire family under one roof. “I hope it takes a really long time before the house is ready, so we all can live happily together.”
“You like it now,” I told him, “but I wonder if you’ll still like it a couple of weeks from now.”
“Oh, I’m sure I will,” he said. “It’s so nice to have everyone under the same roof. You know, Max, maybe we could suggest that Marge and Tex build one big house.”
“They are building one big house, Dooley.”
“No, but I mean tear down Odelia’s house, too, and build one big house instead of two. That way we can all live together all the time. Wouldn’t that be nice?”
I made a face, but I doubt whether he saw it. I didn’t want to crush his illusions, though, so I said nothing.
“Oh, look, it’s Gran,” he said when we’d arrived in town. “What is she doing, Max?”
“I have no idea, Dooley,” I admitted. Gran and Scarlett had apparently set up some kind of stand in Town Square, and judging from the long line of cats, she seemed to be selling them something or other.
“Let’s go and take a closer look,” I suggested.
We arrived just in time to see Shanille join Gran and Scarlett, and hop onto a table placed there for some unknown purpose.
“What’s going on?” I asked.
“Oh, your gran is such a lifesaver!” Shanille exclaimed. “After Father Reilly practically kidnapped me last night I realized I needed to do something, so when I heard about this new initiative, I was among the first ones to sign up.” She then directed a hopeful look at Gran, and said, an emotional tremor in her voice, “Free me from this bond, Mrs. Muffin.”
“I will, Shanille,” said Gran warmly, and proceeded to cut the collar that had been placed around our friend’s neck, and with a flourish exclaim, “Free again, sweetie!”
“Oh, thank you, Vesta. Thank you from the bottom of my heart!”
“I’ll send the bill to Father Reilly,” Gran said as she dumped the discarded collar in a plastic container where at least a dozen others already resided.
“Please do,” said Shanille happily as she pranced off. “Never again!” she told me as she walked out. “Say no to trackers and yes to freedom!”
“Gran, are you sure this is such a good idea?” I said.
“Of course it’s a good idea! Didn’t you see how happy Shanille is? We’re doing your friends a favor, you guys. And they couldn’t be happier.”
“And how much are you charging for this favor?”
“A hundred bucks. Peanuts when compared to the joy we’re bringing into these precious creatures’ lives.”
“A hundred bucks!”
“I wanted to ask two hundred, but Scarlett shut me down.”
“Of course I did. I think even a hundred is too much, but what do I know,” Scarlett grumbled.
“So let me get this straight,” I said. “First you sold the entire cat community of Hampton Cove collars with tracking devices, and now you’re getting rid of them?”
“It’s called business, Max, now shut up and get lost. Can’t you see you’re holding up the line? Next!” she bellowed.
Just then, Uncle Alec suddenly came waddling up, pulling up his pants as he did. He frowned when he saw the collective of cats lining up, and his mom and her friend in their stand. “What’s going on here?” he asked, as if it wasn’t perfectly obvious.
“We’re providing an essential service to the cats of Hampton Cove,” said Gran.
“Yeah, we’re giving them back their freedom,” Scarlett chimed in.
“I’ve received a number of complaints about thieves or vandals,” said Uncle Alec. “Someone is stealing cat collars. I should have known you had something to do with it.”
“We’re not stealing the collars,” said Gran indignantly. “We’re simply removing them.”
“You can’t go around removing these collars,” said Uncle Alec. “Those are private property, and if you keep this up I will have no choice but to arrest you for theft.”