She reread it, made a couple of changes, and hit Send. One more thing crossed off the to-do list. When Sir Charles scrambled to his feet and tore out of the room, she knew she’d spent more time than she’d planned on. His happy yips announced to anyone within hearing distance that his Loren had come home. Now his pack was all together, as they should always be.

“Mom, where are you? Go get Mom, Sir Charles.”

“Just leaving my office, sorry.”

“But you told me to hurry.”

“I know but I got my column finished and I will be ready in ten minutes. Feed him and Juno, will you please?”

“Where’s Juno?” Loren appeared in the doorway to her bathroom, where Roxie was freshening her makeup.

Roxie shook her head. “I have no idea. Did you call her?”

“She always meets me at the door, like Sir Charles. How long since you’ve seen her?” Juno, their faithful fluffy orange-and-white cat, never missed a meal, and you could tell by the look of her.

Oh, now what? Lord, where is our cat?

“Could she have gotten out?”

“If she did, she’d have been yowling at the door.” Roxie dropped her mascara back in the zippered bag. She paused to suck in a calming, hopeful breath. She closed her eyes to help trigger the memory. The cat had greeted her and Sir Charles at the door after their walk that morning. She’d been rushing around to get ready to leave for her appointment. Did the cat get out while she was carrying the box she needed to deliver to the office? Possibly.

“Mom, we have to find her.”

“I know. Let me think.”

“What if she got hit on the street? She has no street smarts.” Loren was always quick to worry.

“Okay, did you check the garage?”

“She would have answered me by now.”

“Humor me.”

Sir Charles perked up his ears and headed back down the stairs.

“You think?”

“He could hear something we can’t. Follow him.” Together they pelted down the stairs. “Sir Charles!”

His yip announced he was in the kitchen. They found him wagging his tail on the front of the door to the garage. When they didn’t hurry enough, he scratched at the door and whimpered.

“Good dog.” Loren opened the door and Sir Charles barreled through it, heading for a stack of both full and empty boxes.

No cat to be seen.

Sir Charles nosed boxes that had obviously fallen from the pile.

A disgusted feline expletive came from somewhere in the stash. Both Loren and Roxie pulled boxes out, all the while calling Juno. They found her caught in a box that was crammed between several others. The two looked at each other and snorted, shaking their heads in disgust. As soon as they’d dislodged the offending box and pulled open the flaps, Juno hissed at them as she scrambled free.

“Hey, it’s not my fault, dodo bird, you got yourself stuck, you know.” Loren started restacking the boxes. “Why do we keep all this junk here?”