Katie the Catsitter

Katie continues to cat sit for Ms. Lang and the cats continue to cause immense amounts of trouble while demonstrating preternatural abilities. Katie attempts to explain the situation to Mr. B, but he doesn’t believe her and assumes she is exaggerating. He also suggests that learning the cats’ names might make them more likely to listen to her.

That night, she attempts to learn their names and what they can do. Their abilities include things like computer hacking, martial arts, understanding numerous languages, helicopter repair, lock-picking, getaway driving, and using smoke bombs.

Katie writes a letter to Bethany telling her about the cats and that she should have the money to pay for the final week of camp.

Katie tells her mom the cats are supervillain levels of evil. Her mom suggests she should check the database to see if there’s anything about cats. After struggling with their terrible Internet connection due to a very old router, the search yields no results.

Katie continues to struggle with the cats and receives several lovingly decorated postcards from Bethany throughout the next week. Katie’s mom suggests she takes a night off from cat sitting. Katie declines, as she needs the money for camp. Her mom offers to help for a night instead, and the two head up to the apartment. The cats behave perfectly while Katie’s mom is around, and Katie suspects they’re doing it on purpose. When Ms. Lang returns home that night, she gives Katie some chocolate she claims to have got from work.

Katie writes to Bethany about the cats being evil and plotting something. She asks for advice on how to deal with them and expresses excitement at being just six nights of cat sitting away from being able to afford camp. Bethany says that Katie should trick the cats by changing the time on the clock since they always clean up close to midnight. She also tells Katie there’s a boy at camp named Ben who she might have a crush on.

Katie goes to the pet store and uses some of her money to buy a bunch of cat toys for that night. The cats are very excited about the toys but are distracted by a news story about an explosion at Pure Organics Chocolate factory. The company has reportedly gone out of business after discoveries made during the explosion investigation revealing that the company’s owner, Lydia Staples, had been illegally hunting endangered animals in Africa and putting them on display in a secret office.

Later, one of Mrs. Bell’s children tells Katie that she saw a giant mouse on their apartment roof, and that the mouse gave her chocolate. At 10:00 pm, Katie enacts her plan to change the clocks. She changes the time to 11:50 pm, sending the cats into a panic. They quickly clean the apartment and wait patiently by the front door. When the cats realize what has happened and that they have been tricked, they feel endeared toward Katie.