I think you got the numbers thing just fine. I’m telling you, this talking/not-talking cat mystery is a puzzler!

It was staring at me. At that point, I realized that I had less than 250 characters to solve this cat mystery.

Had me laughing outloud. Such a well-put statement of dealing with the limitations of Ficlets. I have to knock you back two stars though, for hurting the cat. I know, it’s a fictional cat, but still, that was just wrong.