It was pure instinct as Mary squuezed her highly flexible little body through the bars of the cage and hopped her way to the floor by way of armchair to tabletop to curtain to floor.
[Okay, okay, okay... Jess wants to hurt and/or kill me... but why? What have I ever done to her? What was so horrible that she'd want to do this to me?] Her mind races as she searches for a place to hide... hide, hide, hide... that's what her brain is screaming to her now, must hide, must hide... smells of predator... have to hide...
That's when she sees it - a hole in the wall, made by the punch of the doorknob - small, but just big enough for her to squeeze in... if only she could get up there... Mary scrambles over to the place where the hole is and, at full speed, charges up the wall, using the texture of the wall and her own mousy claws to make the scrambling possible.
With a harsh exhalation to make her body as squeezable as possible, Mary slips into the hole and finds herself inside her home's wall...
That's when she hears it. Not the padding of her feet, but the soft rumble of her breathing. Jess is back - wholly a housecat now, and she hops up to the back of the chair to observe the birdcage that is... empty.
[Clever girl...] Jess thinks, her tail swishing back and forth with anticipation of the hunt.