“Phew, glad that’s over,” Colorfur mewed, breaking the silence. Darktail was bouncing around, yowling, “Is it still going? IS IT STILL GOING???? I can’t keep bouncing forever!” “No, it’s done.” mewed a shaken up and shell shocked Brightnose. “But what the heck was that?” Colorfur stood up, shook herself, and said “It was an earthquake. It’s when the big flat pieces of earth under the surface of the Earth move together, move apart, or collide. Those pieces of earth are called plates. Tectonic plates.” “How do you know all that?” asked Brightnose. “When I was a kitten, I was an old librarian’s cat. She taught me to read and I read all the books in the library because she could understand me. I am very smart because of her. I wish she was still alive today. She was such a good owner.” She scuffed up the dirt with her paws and looked dejected. “Aww, it’s OK.” said Darktail. “But hey, who’s giving away secrets now, huh!” Colorfur giggled. “You’re right. I have a good owner now, too.” Brightnose pawed at the ground. “C’mon, we need to go.” “But where?” questioned Darktail, flicking her tail in annoyance that they had to go so soon after an earthquake. “We have to get to the time machine,” answered Brightnose. “Which is where?” asked Colorfur. “Could pop up anywhere. We just have to keep going.” replied the futuristic feline. “Sooo, we are walking across the world so we can find a random place where a time machine is?” Brightnose nodded. “We could walk our whole lives and never find it!” cried Darktail, almost jumping into the grave she had dug for Brightnose out of shock. (She had thought Brightnose had known EXACTLY where they were going.) “I thought I had told you that!” exclaimed Brightnose, a look of confusion on her furry face. “Well, you didn’t!” growled Colorfur. Brightnose’s behavior was starting to annoy her. She didn’t like doing something without knowing the whole plan. "At the moment, I am finding it very hard to trust you." She said, eyes narrowed in distrust. "I really need to take a break from this stress. As soon as we get to the future, you had better be buying me extra tuna in that cat spa." "Fine. I will get you the high quality tuna. But if you dislike it you will still have to eat it all because I don't like it and Darktail won't either." Brightnose said, a look of annoyance crossing her face. "Is there any part of it that I shouldn't like?" hissed Colorfur, her tail whipping around like it had a mind of its own. "It's fake. The high quality tuna is fake. That's why I won't eat it." Brightnose hissed back, her madly waving tail almost whacking Darktail. "Hey!!! You almost hit me!" cried Darktail. Now her tail was twitching in irritation. The three cats had crouched down, preparing to pounce on each other, when sharp claws grazed Colorfur's whipping tail. "Ouch!!!" she yowled. Brightnose looked up and saw a huge black dog towering over them. She yelped in pain as a strong paw forced her down and pinned her onto the ground. She managed to look up                                                  and saw that her two companions were getting the same treatment from two other dogs. "Rufus! Pansy! Sir Poopsalot! Where are you?" cried a voice that was gradually getting louder. It must be a human, thought Brightnose, cheering up a bit at the sound of something familiar. Then she saw her. The human was obviously a female. She had long blond hair and a slightly higher pitched voice than Dylan. "Come on, you guys know I'm just walking you! I need the money! Hey, why do you guys have cats? Have you hurt them?!" The dogs let the three cats go from shock and ran off to their owner who was waiting for them at the exit of the Dog Park. Colorfur and Darktail bolted as soon as they were free, but Brightnose stayed behind. She thought she recognized this person from somewhere, but she wasn't sure where. "Hey!" said the girl, "Don't I know you from somewhere? I mean, I know you can't talk, and you probably can't understand me, but you look a lot like my pet cat. Her name is Isobel. Do you know her? You look like you could be her cousin!" Then Brightnose heard a quiet mew. She saw Darktail and Colorfur watching her from the shadows of a dark alley. She gestured to them with her tail, telling them to come out. They slunk out into the open, not making a sound, keeping an eye on the girl the whole time. The girl seemed surprised that there were multiple cats, but only watched. Finally she broke the silence and said "Wait. Patches? Isis? Is that you?" The two cats almost bolted again, but then the girl spoke again. "Hold on!" She cried, "Lauren and Zach are really worried about you two!!!! Please stay!" "We can't stay! We have to keep going!" said Brightnose. "Oh. My. Gosh. You just talked. Are you an alien? Why do you look so much like my cat? Do other people understand you?" said the human in amazement."Where is a confidential place we can talk? I must talk to you and the owners of these cats to discuss something that is very important to all of us."  replied Brightnose urgently. The human looked around and then whispered "I'm sure Zach will let us use his house. By the way, what are their names to you? My name is Savannah." "Oh! I am sorry! I am Brightnose.  Because of the silver nose. The Siamese is known to me as Darktail, and the one with the multicolored fur is Colorfur. But please, we have to go to this Zach's house. And fast!!"