At least they took the bag off his head. But the view wasn’t pleasant. There were several cages in this van. In the cage on Karl’s immediate left was a cat-sized lizard with a ruff of red fur around its neck. A rather strange-looking fellow, but it didn’t appear to be hostile. On Karl’s right, however, was . . . well. Karl wasn’t quite sure. A coyote, perhaps? But with too many legs. Far too many. Why, the creature was positively bristling with legs. And teeth.

Karl sidled to the left and addressed the lizard. Hello, Kind Sir, he chittered. Would you mind terribly telling us where we are headed?

The lizard turned a blue eye on him, but didn’t make a sound. Not the talkative sort, Karl guessed.

The creature on the right, though, laughed. “Heh, heh, heh,” it said.

Karl squished himself against the left side of his cage. Would you mind telling me what is so amusing? he chittered.

The creature lurched toward Karl on its numerous legs. It was a deeply unpleasant thing to watch. “Heh, heh, heh.”

Keep your distance, please, Karl said, I am in great need of personal space at this particular time, I’m sure you understand.

The creature regarded him, tipping its furred head this way and that, just like a dog might. And then it launched itself at the bars of the cage. “HEH!”

Karl tried to scramble backward, but couldn’t move any farther away. Furry legs poked through the spaces between the bars, trying to reach him. At the end of each leg was a long, curved claw. One of them swiped only inches away from Karl’s nose. The creature kept this up—the laughing, the launching, and the swiping—the whole ride. It was perfectly traumatic.

So it was quite a relief when the vehicle stopped moving and the doors opened. Two men in white coats and heavy gloves hefted the cages and carried them into a strange building that smelled of cleaning solutions and something else. Deeper and more frightening. It smelled like the coyote with too many legs. It smelled like many coyotes with too many legs.

Karl yearned for a Cheez Doodle. He yearned for his comfortable bed with his favorite hand-crocheted afghan. He yearned for Cricket.