WHEN HE GOT HOME AT 7:30 am, he found Sadie right away—sitting like a fuzzy triangle in the corner of the living room, apparently sound asleep. At least that’s what he’d thought until he knelt beside her and found her not only awake—but staring at the birdcage intently. Nor had she moved so much as an inch as he’d approached, which was unusual in itself.
“Sadie ... Hey.” He snapped his fingers next to her head, twice, and still there was nothing. “Hello? Earth to Sadie?”
At last she came out of it, stirring as if from a trance, and he scratched her behind the ears. “What was that?”
And she growled at him, not hard, and not long, but enough to make him pull his hand back.
“Hey!”
And then she leapt forward, shaking herself, and trotted away from him, padding first into the hallway and t
