The Twitch

The Ghost Tail twitched and woke Reese from her sleep. She was used to this because the tail worked better than her ears, better than radar. Resse was a mixed breed pup, a mutt, half hound dog, half lab but all ghost dog. The last thing Reese's dog mother had told her before she left to be adopted was to remember that she was a ghost dog. Every ghost dog had a secret weapon and for Resse, it was the Ghost Tail.

The Ghost Tail twitched faster and Reese cracked open one eye and listened. She could hear several things at once, the sound of Devin, the oldest boy moving around as he got ready for work and a tap on the window. Two taps, a pause, two more taps. That was the signal from Betty, her partner with the AAPS. The Animal Alliance for Protection and Safety had been headquartered on Edgewood Trail since its conception over 70 years ago. Now they had branched out all over the world! Reese had been recruited right before her first birthday.

Reese raised her head and wagged her tail as she watched Devin walk into the kitchen and pour his cereal. Devin didn't talk to her in the mornings, the best Reese could tell it was around 3:00 a.m. She could tell time but it was hard to see the clock from this angle. The tapping at the dining room window came again but Devin didn't notice as he prepared to leave. Reese said a prayer that there was no immediate danger out front that Devin may walk right into. The most important rule that AAPS had was that all animals must appear to be just typical animals unless it is a matter of life and death. Reese lay still until she heard Devin's car pull out of the driveway and start down the gravel road. One, two, three, time to go! Reese turned quickly in her crate and let the Ghost Tail get to work. Mom only slides in the top latch of her crate door, making it easy enough for her tail to slide right through the bars, loop around, push the latch and that's it! The door popped open and Reese stepped out, she trotted over to the long bench seat under the dining room windows and quickly jumped up onto it. Reese paused now to make sure Mom wasn't moving around. Mom was a light sleeper and had woken up more than once when Reese was coming and going on missions. Most of the time Mom assumed she had left Reese's crate open. The house was quiet so Reese carefully balanced her back legs on the back of the bench so the Ghost Tail could reach the window lock. A quick push had it twisted around while another hard push upward sent the window itself up. Reese sniffed Betty in a quick sign of affection and jumped down. You might have been thinking that Betty was a dog but she wasn't. Betty was an opossum and she was five years old, which was pretty old for an opossum. Betty and Reese quickly crossed the yard and huddled together in the regular meeting spot, under the yellow slide. Here, they had a good view of the yard, the house, and the shed. There was an old gray cat that lived in the shed but he was a "mod" cat. Mod cats had no special powers or communities. Some humans called them barn cats. They floated from place to place and got into moderate amounts of trouble, hence the name.

"I think we have a problem. You remember the old pit bull that was running through Clearview Street and into the woods here last week? Well, Dodge just told me he was asking about Margo." Betty said to Reese urgently.