Free The Cats that Surfed the Web by Karen Golden

up her nose and ran into the living room. She put the rest of the juice in Iris’s bowl. “Appetizer, dearest.” Iris—with dramatic sweeps of her paw—tried to bury the bowl. “Fakers,” Katherine said. “Lilac, catch of the day,” she called enticingly to the living room.
    Lilac streaked down the hall, disappearing into the bedroom, still clutching her bear.
    Katherine transferred the tuna into a plastic bowl and put it in the refrigerator. The phone rang. Katherine picked it up on the second ring.
    “I’ve been trying to call you all weekend,” the male voice complained.
    “Gary?” Katherine said, surprised.
    “Yes, Gary. Have you forgotten my voice? Did you think I’d died?”
    “Possibly, but I wasn’t sure,” she said sarcastically. “Why are you calling?”
    “I was wondering if you’d like to meet for drinks tomorrow night after work. I’m going to be in Midtown, and I thought it would be nice to sit back and have a nice chat about old times.”
    “Old times,” she repeated. “Did Tamara dump you?”
    There was a long pause, then he said, “How did you know?”
    “Gut feeling. Gary, when I said it was over, I meant it. So please don’t call me again— ever !” she stressed, hanging up the phone.
    The phone rang immediately.
    “Hello,” she said angrily, thinking it was her ex-boyfriend calling again.
    “It’s me, Colleen. What’s the matter?”
    “Gary just called me. Can you believe the nerve?”
    “What did he want?”
    “To meet for drinks.”
    “Did you give him the name of that bar we used to go to that burned down last week? Since he lives out-of-town, he’d never know. When he got to the place, he’d realize you’d stood him up. Wouldn’t it be a hoot?”
    “Not really,” Katherine said, feeling suddenly depressed.
    “Don’t let it get you down. Mum said you sounded so happy on the phone—tired, but happy. When’s the wedding?”
    “Wedding,” Katherine said sharply, still fuming about Gary. “How about the wake?”
    “No, not Gary. Mr. Lawyer. You said you were in love.”
    “In love with the cat,” Katherine stressed.
    “The cat,” Colleen laughed. “What about the lawyer? Was he cute?”
    “He was ninety-five and used a walker.”
    “For real?”
    “No, just kidding.”
    “I’ve got to dart back to the Laundromat. I just came home to get the fabric softener. My clothes are still cooking. Speaking of cooking, Chinese sounds great, but I must tend to the clothes. Want to meet for lunch tomorrow?”
    “Sure. Cottage cheese and apple, ” Katherine teased. Colleen was always concerned about her weight.
    “Very funny. How about meet me at Grand Central at 1:00 and we’ll go from there to the Mexican place.”
    “Beef burrito sounds good. Meet you there,” Katherine said, hanging up.
    Katherine went into her bedroom and was surprised to see her computer turned on. Normally after so many minutes, a screensaver would pop up on the flat-screen monitor. If Colleen had used the PC, Katherine surmised, and she had left the apartment hours before, the computer should have been in sleep mode. Or, she thought, one of the cats walked across keyboard. That would wake up the PC. But they would have had to done it in the last half-hour. But now, not only was the computer active, but someone had done a Google search. The topic on-screen was toxic poisoning. Katherine stepped back, surprised. For a moment, the hair on the back of her neck stood up. She thought of the argument she overheard at her great aunt’s house about the dangerous weed. Lilac came out from under the bed and tried to jump on the monitor, but instead fell back on the keyboard, which caused a series of beeping sounds.
    “You little monkey,” Katherine said. “Did you wake up the computer?” She picked up the Siamese and put her on the office chair.
    Lilac tucked her paws underneath her, adjusted her body to maximum comfort, then squeezed her eyes.
    Katherine pulled up a second