Slobber sprayed from the dogs’ muzzles as they pounded the pavement in hard pursuit. Min had managed to keep inches ahead of them during the chase but was starting to fatigue. There was no reasoning with them; she’d attempted to explain her mission, but the pair spoke an unfamiliar dialect of Dog. And if they spoke Cat, they gave no indication of it.

So on she ran, certain she was about to give up another of her nine lives. Generally, she was philosophical about this fact of being feline. But the thought was now unbearable. Both Punk and Audie needed her! Min scrabbled around a corner, barely dodging the heavy hooves of a draft horse straining to pull a wagon laden with kegs of beer. Her sides heaved with the exertion. She paused in the doorway of a church, desperate to catch her breath.

“Rrroowr!” She tried once again to parley some sense into this pair of beasts. But there was no conversing. No rationalizing. Canine fangs grazed her right hip. That nip would be exceedingly painful later. Assuming there was a later.

She bounded over a row of trash bins, ducked under an organ grinder’s feet, and weaseled around a beat cop tapping a stout stick on his palm. Still, those dogs tracked her. Desperate, she changed course, unaware of the fateful consequences of that particular decision.

The dogs thundered after her.

She’d turned into a blind alley. A dead end. There was no way out. No escape.

Min did not cower. She stood her ground, willing to face what came next. She offered a fervent cat prayer that her seventh life could also be spent with Audie.

Still a good ten feet away, the lead dog lunged, teeth bared, snarling. Showers of saliva drenched Min’s fur.

This was it. She tensed.

The airborne dog, having made a serious miscalculation, smacked headfirst into the brick wall at Min’s back. The second dog hesitated, confused by its partner’s howling.

Min hissed, claws unsheathed, resolve renewed. She would not go down without a fight.

The second dog hesitated further.

A grating noise caught Min’s ear.

“Here, puss!” A girl waved an arm out an open window directly above her. “Here!”

Both dogs were momentarily distracted by the voice and the arm. It was Min’s final chance. Her only chance.

With every remaining ounce of strength, the sleek feline launched herself up, up, up.

And she fell down, down, down.

Until a pair of hands caught her, and whisked her in through the open window.

Min found herself face-to-face with a friendly pair of hazel eyes.