“Now listen up, cats of Bedlam. As your unelected leader—”

The street cats were furious.

“Why have you called us all here?”

“I could be out chasing rats!”

“Look at her soft fur! What does she know? She’s one of them right stuck-up cats that never leave the house.”

“RHHAAAAOOOW!“ snarled Velma. She bared her fangs and her sharp claws pinged out. Now she had their attention.

“Thank you!” she began. “There is a new menace in Bedlam! A menace far worse than any of the master criminals that roam our streets! A menace that will destroy not only our lives, but the lives of all cats around the world! If we do nothing, we cats are doomed forever!”

The cats looked around at each other in a state of shock. Except one.

An alley cat with a huge scar across his face stepped out of the shadows.

“What rot!” he snarled.

“Who on earth are you?” demanded Velma.

“You don’t know me?”

Velma shook her head.

“I run this city. They call me ‘Slash’. You see this scar? I got that from a fight with a pack of wolves.”

“What happened?”

“They died. So, darling, nothing and nobody and no one can destroy me. Not even the biggest, baddest dog in the world!”

Velma shook her head again. “Well, I am sorry to be the one to burst your balloon, Slash, but you haven’t met Robodog!”

A stunned silence descended on the cats.

“A robot dog?” spluttered Slash.

Velma nodded her head. “The fastest, strongest, smartest dog who ever lived.”

“Then that dog must be destroyed!”

“If only it were that simple, Slash,” replied Velma. “The problem is: Robodog is indestructible.”

The cats fell silent for a moment before a booming voice was heard from the back.

“I will sit on him!”

All turned to look at a mountain of a cat who was lolling in a wheelbarrow, his preferred mode of transport. “I am Pavarotti, and I promise you I can squash him as flat as a pancake. Look, here’s one I made earlier!”

With that, he yanked a flattened dog out from under him.

“That won’t work in this case, Pavarotti,” replied Velma. “The professor who built him has made him bombproof!”

“But is he bumproof?” boomed Pavarotti, much to the amusement of the others.

“TEE! HEE! HEE!”

“I hate to state the obvious,” piped up a scraggly old cat, leaning against a tree. “Name’s Codger, by the way. But does this robot dog have an off button?”

There were murmurs of approval. It did seem like the simplest idea.

“Just switch the blasted thing off!”

“Off! Off! Off!”

“Forever!”

“NO! NO! NO!” shouted Velma over the ever-growing chorus of cats. “You turn Robodog off and then someone can just turn him straight back on again. Then we are back to square one. No! Robodog must be destroyed. Forever.”

“YES!” cried the cats.

“LET’S ROCK AND ROLL!” shouted Slash.

“WAIT!” shouted Velma from the top of the statue. “We need a plan because we won’t be able to get anywhere near the blasted thing.”

“Why?” demanded Codger.

“Because right now Robodog is at the Police Dog School.”

There were shouts from the cats.

“The Police Dog School!”

“You have to be joking!”

“That’s home to a hundred dogs!”

“I am not going anywhere near that place!”

“We’ll never get out of there alive!”

Immediately, the cats began slinking off into the night.

“WAIT!” shouted Velma again. “COME BACK!”

But they just kept on slinking. Soon there were only three remaining: Slash, Pavarotti and Codger.

“DARN!” screamed Velma.

“Don’t upset yourself, love. We three are all you need,” said Slash.

“All we have to do is get the other dogs out of the school,” said Codger.

“But how?” demanded Slash.

“We’re cats. We’re smart. We must be able to think of something!”

“Especially me,” agreed Velma.

There was silence for a moment.

“Food!” piped up Pavarotti.

“Don’t say you’re hungry again?” asked Slash.

“The great Pavarotti is always hungry. But I know creatures that are even greedier than the greediest cat in the world…”

“DOGS!” cried all four cats in unison.

In moments, a DASTARDLY MASTERPLAN TO DESTROY ROBODOG was hatched.