It was the shadow that first caught her attention. It flicked along the baseboards in erratic skips, accompanied by the skittering noise that had plagued her sleep for weeks. Ha. She flexed her claws in glee as she slowly unwound from the pile on the foot of the bed.

Mrrrr… Patches rumbled unhappily as Piper twitched her tail free from under his head, but fell back asleep with yawn. She sniffed in indignation. There were mice about. Mister-Mister and Cleo didn’t even stir a whisker as she slunk off the bed.

It took every ounce of cunning to sneak to the door. Twice she thought she’d given herself away and she froze, one paw off the ground and whiskers quivering. But it had come again. Skitter, scrape, skitter. One last step…