"What don't you like about that cat?"  Thorn asked.  "It's not like it had ever done anything wrong."

  If we only knew then that the cat was ambitious.  It may have saved us a lot of time on the journey, if we knew that Gold's instincts were correct.

  "Let's follow him."  Cream said.  "Maybe we could thank him for saving us."

  "No!"  Beth yowled in a nasty tone.  "We wasted too much time already with that Jagged furball."

  Beth sometimes may bite my tail like a nasty flea, but she had a point.  If we followed that cat we could run into Jagged again or worse.  We could not take the risk.

  "I agree with Beth."  Gold said.  "There is something about that sir that bites my paws like frostbite.  Let's keep moving."

  Cream had no argument.  Tom looked like he agreed with Gold, but I saw in his eyes that he was stuck in the middle.  I knew that Thorn was so loyal to Gold that even if he got sprayed by a skunk he would stay near Gold.  We then went the other direction of the cat.

  For the next few days, we went through harsh winter weather.  The amount of mice caught was low in this weather.  It was like one day we were in the season of summer and the next, the season of winter.  We all wished the weather would just go away.

  The weather reminded me of Jeanette.  I wondered how she was with Jagged and his warriors.  Was she safe or had Jagged killed her, the thought of getting some blood in his claws?  I hoped she was safe.

  What happened that day changed everything I knew about Gold Whisker.  I almost missed it.  At first it looked like a mound of dirt in the snow, a spark of hope that the snow would melt soon, but when I looked closer, the mound of dirt had fur.  I couldn't believe my eyes.

  "What's wrong Maxine?"  Tom asked.  "It looked like you've seen a ghost."

  I froze at that response.