From the author of the bestselling Bill the Bastard and Horrie the War Dog comes a fascinating new story of an Australian animal at war, Red Lead the Australian Navy cat. Red Lead is a sea cat with attitude and uncanny instincts. She uses up her nine lives and more in escaping a succession of disastrous events in World War II, from the sinking of the HMAS Perth off Java, to Japanese edicts to kill her on the deadly Thai-Burma Railway, where she moves, in secret, with a group of Australian POWs - known as The Big Cats, who protect her. Red Lead, in turn helps them and becomes the spirit of the prisoners, who feel obligated to keep the faithful animal alive as a symbol of hope for their own survival.