Free Misty Hollow Cat Detective (Darcy Sweet Mystery) (A Smudge the Cat Mystery Book 1) by K.J. Emrick Page B

me again, his irregular and yellowed teeth clamping closed just an inch or so from my tail.  Butch isn't the forgiving kind.  He's the nearly two hundred pounds of snarling, black and brown, I'll-kill-you-if-you-take-my-squeaky-toy Mastiff kind.
    And yes, you guessed it.  I took his squeaky toy.
    So, run it is.
    "Hey, Butch," I call back over my shoulder without slowing down.  "You aren't going to stay mad about this, are you?  I mean, it's not good for your heart."
    He lunges at me two more times but it works against him, breaking his stride and allowing me to gain some distance.  "I kill you!" he shouts.  "You steal my squeaky toy!"
    "Come on, it wasn't eve n yours!"  I'm past the houses now, heading for the edge of town where birch trees stand tall and widely spaced.  It's a sprint across open ground now, and Butch catches back up to me.  For all my sleek speed the dog has the benefit of size, and a longer stride, and if he catches me now I'm going to be puppy chow.
    Instead, I bound up onto the first tree I come to and scamper up the bark and into the branches.  No squirrel jokes, all right?  You do what you have to when your life is on the line.  My heart is hammering and my breathing so hard I'm almost hyperventilating and my tail won't stop twitching, but the dog is down there and I'm up here.  Score one for the cat.
    Butch makes a good effort at jumping up after me, but dogs aren't built for climbing trees.  Eventually he just snarls and huffs and starts pacing back and forth under me, his dark brown eyes glaring, his lips curled back from his teeth.
    "Ah, come on, Butch," I call down, licking my paw, trying to pretend like I wasn't terrified.  "It was just a rubber ball.  I'll get you another one."
    "Nobody touch my squeaky toy!" he barks up at me in his broken tough-dog way of speaking.  He punctuates each word by jumping up to hammer his front paws against the tree trunk like he means to knock it down.  Scary thing is, I think he could have done it.  "Want back my squeaky toy!"
    "It was yours not!"  Scrunching up my face, I clear my throat and try that again.  "I mean, it wasn't yours.  It belonged to the kid next door, and you know it."
    "Mine!" he shouts, with enough force that his breath ruffles my fur.  "Mine, mine, mine!"
    "Not yours," I say in a sing-song voice.  Hey, he can't get me up here.  I can afford to be a little cocky.  "I can't deny it was cool and all, but the kid really missed his ball.  I'll bet if you offered to play with him he'd share it with you."
    "No!" he huffs.  "Mine!"
    "Aren't you supposed to be on a leash?" I tease him, knowing I never would have dared do that if I wasn't fifteen feet up in the air.
    "Kill you!  Mine!"
    Not the greatest conversationalist, but he knows what he wants.  Obviously he's not going to let this go no matter what I say.  Guess I'd better get comfortable.  This is going to be a long day.  It's only mid-morning, too, and I really had a list of other things to—
    "Butch," a soft cat voice says from down below, "is that any way for a big, strong dog like you to act?"
    I'd know that voice anywhere.  I can't believe she's here, but then I suppose nothing she does should surprise me anymore.  Twistypaws is a beautiful gray cat with just a hint of white at the tips of her ears.  I've been dating her for a while now and every day is better than the last.  It just keeps getting better.  I really didn't expect her to calmly saunter up to an angry pile of fur on four legs, though.  That's new.
    I felt cold iron grip my heart.  Any second, I was sure, butch would turn on Twist and chomp her to bits.  Plans raced through my head.  I had to help her.  Could I jump on his head from here?  Claw his eyes out before he hurt her?  It would be a long fall, and if I missed I might break every bone in my body, but I'm sure I could do it.
    I tensed to spring and set my claws.  My back arched.  I sucked in a breath to scream the most