A dark and uproarious satire about media, the modern city and a missing cat, from journalist and award-winning broadcaster Bill Cameron
When Jones, an ordinary house cat, pops through a loose window screen and abandons his wealthy owner's country home for the sweltering city by the lake, he does not think of the trouble he'll cause. Ethical-sausage magnate François Will tries to impress his heartbroken wife by announcing a two-million-dollar reward for Jones's return and throws the city into chaos.
In 17 Division, home to downtown's seediest neighbourhoods, the promise of millions drives its residents into alleys, trash heaps and garages, searching for the little black cat that can make all their dreams come true. Sergeant Judd, a hard-boiled but deeply troubled cop, sees an escape from his own problems; his favourite stripper-turned-informant is courting disaster with an obsessive dentistry professor and a very large snake, while his senile aunt wastes his children's badly needed inheritance on a house full of stray cats, driving Judd to desperate measures.
One
The black cat woke in the late afternoon and felt something wrong with his right hind leg. There was a new presence, a strange thin layer between the flesh and the muscle. He stretched. This film in his body tightened and loosened and followed him as he moved.
He jumped down onto the big room's carpet and felt pain in his leg when he landed. It set him slightly off balance. The leg didn't hurt, but it felt numb and only half connected, as though the muscles had pulled and then gone slack and weak.
The sun had begun to move toward the horizon, and the light in the room was beginning to fade. He had a few minutes before the person came. She'd arrive in a billow of sweet scent, and he'd arch his back and bump against her, waiting for the rattle of dry food into his bowl. She always fed him and stroked him at this time of day, but now he felt an impulse to avoid her, even if that meant missing his food. He wasn't hungry.
There was a loose screen in the window at the top of the landing. He had noticed it a few weeks ago and marked it with the scent from the side of his mouth. He moved into the hall and up the stairs. The presence in his haunch was
