Asprin, Robert Lynn – Catwoman – Tiger Hunt (With Lynn Abbey)

“I knew you couldn’t resist. No cat can resist a mess of sparkly junk.”

The kitten found himself dangling in front of a face as large as himself. It wasn’t the first time he’d been snatched from the brink of satisfaction. That face, the voice, and especially the hands were everywhere in his life. Usually they brought pleasure, but there was something different this time that made him wary.

“We’ve been invited to dinner. Both of us. The invitation was very specific: me and my most irresistible kitten. That’s you. And since I make a habit of never refusing a free meal, you’re going in the box.”

The kitten hadn’t understood a word, but he got the general idea. An instinctive expert in the swimming arts, he writhed until his claws hooked something solid, after which other instincts took over. A heartbeat later he was in free-fall.

“You drew blood!”

As nature intended, the kitten landed on his feet and scrabbling toward the door. The footing was lousy everywhere in his world. Slick bathroom tiles gave way to slick wood floors. He struck the door frame as he cornered and made more noise than forward progress down the hall.

“Get back here!”

Another thump against the door frame informed the kitten that the face and hands were on the move beneath him. He bounded for the aptly named throw rug which spun him around the corner after which he made a flat-out dive for another safe place beneath the sleeping place. The other cats in the room—his littermates and a handful of adults—understood that chaos was near, and hastened its arrival by scrambling for shelter themselves.