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wonderful,” Cassie moaned. “Please tell me he’s been fixed, at least.”
    â€œHave you been fixed, Fluffer McKitty?” I cooed. “Why do we care?” I asked Cassie.
    â€œBecause pound for pound, a tomcat is like one of the toughest, most dangerous little things around.”
    â€œWho, Fluffer? My little kitty friend Fluffer?”
    â€œEven if he is fixed, a male cat, out at night in hunting mode?” Cassie shook her head. “We should have worn gloves.”
    â€œOh, come on. He’s a sweet kitty cat.” To demonstrate just how sweet Fluffer was, I reached a hand for him.
    â€œHhhhhhssssss!”
    In a movement too fast for my human eyes to see, Fluffer swiped out with one paw. Three bloody scratches appeared on the back of my hand and Fluffer shot straight up the tree.
    â€œOwww!” I stuck my injured hand to my mouth.
    â€œGloves would definitely have been a good idea,” Cassie said.
    â€œHow are you guys doing?” Jake whispered, just loudly enough for me to hear him.
    â€œWonderful,” I said through gritted teeth. “I’m bleeding and Fluffer is up the tree.”
    I heard Marco giggle. I expected that. But then I heard Jake giggling, too. I looked up and saw two glittering yellow-green eyes glaring down from the dark tree.
    â€œThis was supposed to be the easy part,” I said. “I figured, okay, we go and acquire Fluffer’s DNA, and
then
the hard stuff begins.”
    â€œWe have a cat up a tree,” Cassie said dolefully. “You know how hard it is to get a cat down out of a tree?”
    â€œI have a plan,” I said. “Tobias, are you up there?” not
going to try and snatch an angry tomcat down out of a tree.>
    â€œThat’s not what I was going to ask,” I said. I took a deep breath. This night was turning weird real fast. “What I need is a mouse.”

G ot something for you. A baby mouse. A
mean
baby mouse. It keeps trying to bite me.> Tobias flew in a low, tight circle overhead, disappearing behind the tree branches, then reappearing.
    I took a deep breath. I gave him a wave. Sure, I was ready. Why wouldn’t I be ready to have a hawk hand me a mouse? Just your normal kind of thing to deal with.
    Tobias flew low and slow. I held out my hands, cupped together. With amazing precision and perfect timing, he deposited the mouse in my hands.
    â€œDon’t let it bite you!” Cassie warned. “Rabies.”
    â€œWonderful,” I muttered. “Just one more fun aspect of this night.” Actually, I was glad for the warning. The mouse was squirming in terror, trying to get away. I could feel its tiny little mouse legs scrabbling against my palms.
    â€œYou should all get rabies shots,” Cassie said. “Seriously. I already have mine. But if we’re going to be handling wild animals … In the meantime, be careful to keep his teeth away from you.”
    â€œI wasn’t planning on feeding him my finger,” I said.
    â€œHey, wait.” Cassie pried open my hands to get a better look. “That’s not a mouse. That’s a shrew. See the eyes? They’re too small. And the tail is wrong. That’s not a baby mouse, Tobias, it’s a full-grown shrew.”
    
    Cassie shrugged. “I don’t know. I just know it isn’t a mouse.”
    â€œWait a minute,” Marco said, beginning to grin. “Rachel is going to become a
shrew?
How will we know when she’s changed? How do you
become
what you already are?”
    Everyone was too nervous to find the joke very funny. We felt kind of stupid, standing around on some stranger’s lawn playing with rodents. I mean,there are times when the whole thing just seems so utterly insane, you know?
    â€œOkay, I have to concentrate on acquiring, so everyone shut up,” I said.
    Acquiring
is what we call it when we absorb a