Conversations with Critters
Walk with the animals. Talk with the animals. And Chapter 2 of the unfolding mystery, The Case of The Misplaced Priority Envelope!
Today, Critters, we continue to investigate the unfolding mystery from the J Kitten, Sleuth & Purveyor of Bright Shiny Objects Detective Agency.
In Chapter 1, we saw Jasper Kitten, Chris and our Senior Shining Star, hit the ground running with a close call car accident, involving a Big Rig, and then receive a mysterious large Priority Envelope, containing a treatise on Animal Magnetism and a Clue in a Haiku.
Please, join us now in excellent detective critter conversation as we stay tuned for what happens next!
Jasper: Hello, Critters! Thank you for your rapt attention as the mystery unfolds.
Chris: What. And thank you for staying tuned.
Star: Friends, we now present to you, what happens next!
The Case of The Misplaced Priority Envelope
Book 1 from the J Kitten, Sleuth & Purveyor of Bright Shiny Objects Detective Agency
By Jasper Kitten, Chris & Star
Chapter 2
Milepost
A gust of wind rattled the Catio screens. Jasper Kitten twitched his orange ringed tail to the left and to the right.
”A warning,” he repeated after Star. “Or a threat.”
”Why, I’ll crush them!” said Chris, flexing his long white legs. “The gloves,” he growled “are off. I’ll throw my weight around!”
Star nodded at the portfolio on the coffee table.
”It looks like we have some work to do,” she adjusted her reading glasses.
Long after midnight, Jasper Kitten turned the last page of the treatise and closed the binder. Star and Chris drifted off to sleep and he left them undisturbed on the couch. He stretched his legs and arched his back, the tension releasing along his spine.
A light rain started to fall, the damp air cool and refreshing to his mind as he thought hard about what they had read. He stared out into the night, into the mist that drifted with the scent of the approaching Fall.
“Animal magnetism,” he said in a low meow. “Animal magnetism.”
Chris and Star stirred on the couch.
”Jasper Kitten, it’s late,” Star said. “Try to get some sleep, at least, a cat nap before dawn.”
He nodded and climbed onto the couch and drifted into a deep sleep.
Jasper Kitten woke up with a start to the sound of kibble pouring into their bowls. Light streamed into the room. He hopped off the couch and ambled into the breakfast nook, taking his seat at the table.
”Good morning, Jasper Kitten,” said Star.
”Good morning,” he nodded to her. “How did you sleep?”
”Soundly, thank you.”
“Excellent. And thank you, Chris, for preparing my bowl of kibble.”
”Of course,” said Chris as he glanced up from scrolling on his phone. “A fire broke out at Milepost 47.” He tapped a toebean on the screen.
”Isn’t that close to where I slammed on the brakes yesterday?”
“Yes. In fact, an eyewitness account saw a Big Rig veer off the road into a ravine.”
“That sounds quite suspicious,” said Jasper, his spoon suspended above his bowl. “What a reckless driver. But we didn’t see a fire when we drove past that area. The rain must have helped to tamp it down.”
”Good point, Jasper Kitten. It must have been smoldering,” said Star. “Perhaps a slow burn rather than a fiery conflagration due to the heavy rains.”
”Correct, Star, and the rain made the roads slick, too.”
“Yes,” she said. “Fortunately, because of your quick thinking and instincts, we averted disaster yesterday.”
”Thank you, Star. You make an excellent Back Seat Driver if I do say so.”
”Gosh, thank you, Jasper Kitten. That’s so nice of you. Thank you very much.”
Chris continued reading while they all chowed down, but again, Jasper Kitten held his spoon suspended over his bowl.
“Starting a fire only takes one spark, afterall,” Chris said and looked up from the screen. “There’s also no sign of the driver, but the fire has been extinguished after burning a mere one acre. It could have been so much worse. Crews continue to monitor the situation. End report.”
”This is quite serious,” said Jasper, pushing his chair back from the table.
”Jasper Kitten, aren’t you going to finish your kibble?” asked Star.
”Chris and Star, please prepare yourselves. We’ve got another road trip.” He grabbed his keys and headed for the garage.
They remained seated for a moment, absorbing the news, then they too pushed their chairs back from the table, their mugs of tea still steaming, and without a backwards glance at the remains of their morning meal, hurried to the garage, the car revving and ready to go.
The gravel crunched under the tires as Jasper Kitten pulled onto the shoulder at Milepost 47. They sniffed the smoke laden air, the acrid scent of burned vegetation all around them. Wisps of smoke circled around a fire crew, mopping up in the distance.
The blackened land opened like a gash before them as they stood at the edge of the ravine, peering down at the jackknifed wreckage of the Big Rig.
”We’ll need to repel down the slope,” said Jasper Kitten, fastening his waist pack. Soot and ash covered his white gloved paws as he pointed to the ravine. “I’d like to see what’s left inside the truck. If anything.”
”Gosh, the truck is anything but a bright shiny object,” observed Star.
Chris opened the trunk and gathered their climbing gear. He secured the rope to the milepost and they watched the line unfurl as he tossed it over the edge.
They touched down on the charred ground and hiked to the wreckage, gutted by fire.
”Jasper Kitten, it doesn’t look good,” said Chris as they peered into the shell of the cab.
“It’s completely incinerated,” confirmed Star.
”Yes. You’re right,” a tinge of disappointment in his voice.
Jasper Kitten walked toward the back of the trailer and discovered the door slightly ajar.
”Look! Chris! Star! Over here!”
”This must have open opened on impact,” observed Star.
Jasper Kitten positioned his headlamp against his orange stripes and switched the beam on high. He squeezed through the opening of the trailer. Rows of twisted metal cluttered the interior.
Chris and Star pressed inside, standing side by side in the cramped, airless space.
”Gosh, this place smells like a litterbox,” she sniffed.
Jasper Kitten scanned the depths of the interior. The glint of a bright shiny object caught in the light at the front of the trailer.
He crawled forward, stepping over the twisted metal.
”Jasper Kitten, be careful,” Star cautioned as he moved closer and closer to the reflected light.
”That twisted metal could be sharp. Watch those toebeans,” said Chris.
”Got it,” he said as his lithe body maneuvered ever closer to the front.
He brushed against a metal bar and gave it a shove. It clattered to the floor, opening enough room for him to reach what had so caught his eye.
Jasper Kitten reached down and picked up a chain. When he pulled on it, he felt it tear from the wall. He stumbled back a step and the chain dropped from his grasp.
And then he heard it. The unmistakable ring of a bell, the same tone known to cats around the world. Know that I am here, he thought. Know that I am present. The natural stealth that can no longer go unnoticed. A dead giveaway.
Jasper Kitten picked it up. A chrome plated bell. Beyond the shadow of a doubt. Yet, this was larger than the average cat bell, that human invention mass marketed to warn small critters, especially birds, of a cat’s approach.
When he had solved the identity theft in The Case of the Clandestine Orange Cat Collar, it had been the bell that tipped him off. Now, in the confines of a jackknifed Big Rig trailer, he held in his paws what he definitely knew to be a clue.
He moved back to the door, meeting Chris and Star with the bright shiny object clasped in his white gloved paws.
They hopped onto the ground one by one.
”What an incredible find, Jasper Kitten,” said Star.
”Well done, Jasper Kitten,” Chris gave him a slap on the back.
”It definitely caught my eye,” he turned the large bell over in his paws, examining it in the light of day and then tucked into his pack.
Jasper Kitten surveyed the ground, a topsoil of ash and mud underneath. He sifted through the ash, brushing it away from the truck to reveal large paw prints that led away from the wreckage, heading downslope.
He followed the tracks, flanked by Chris and Star who continued sweeping the ash aside. They came to a creek, wide and rushing from the recent rain, at the base of the ravine.
”The tracks stop here and so does the scent which I was able to detect with my canine olfactory senses,” said Star.
“Thank you for the confirmation, Star, that’s super helpful,” said Jasper Kitten.
”I know the two of you don’t like to get wet, but I’m willing to swim to the other side of the creek. Perhaps the tracks continue there.”
”It’s too much of a risk. The current is swift and deep and you could be swept away,” cautioned Jasper Kitten.
”I beg to differ. My Senior Chihuahua can do attitude, my life experience, and my own pound per pound strength will get me to the other side.”
She dove in, not waiting for a response from her cats, and dog paddled to the other side of the creek. The current was no match for her agility and determination. She kept her head above water.
Star shook herself off on the bank, the water spraying, and gave a laugh.
”Well, that was quite refreshing, Chris and Jasper Kitten!”
She scouted the area, but turned up nothing, not a track, not a single scent. Satisfied, she swam back to her companions.
”In my humble opinion,” she said, shaking herself off again, “I’d say those tracks belong to a critter who got swept downsteam.”
They hiked back to their rope. Chris scaled the side of the ravine first. As he reached eye level with the road, a shadow streaked past the car.
Chris pounced onto the road, racing toward the form, but it vanished over the ravine in a blur of fur.
He raced back to the rope, calling out.
”Did you see that?”
Two white gloved paws, followed by two cinnamon brown paws, grasped the edge of the road. Chris helped Jasper Kitten and Star scramble up.
”See what?” Jasper Kitten asked.
Chris caught his breath.
”Chris, you look winded,” said Star.
“Look!” Chris shot a glance back at the ravine.
“I don’t see anything,” said Jasper.
”Exactly! Because someone just went over the edge and disappeared! I tried to catch up, but they had the advantage. They had…”
”You mean…” cried Jasper.
”Yes! They had the element of surprise!”
”Gosh,” gasped Star.
”Who could it be?” Jasper Kitten cried again.
”Good question. Why, I’m going to headbutt that perp who did this.”
They looked at the car, leaning off kilter on the gravel shoulder.
“Only one front tire is flat on the driver’s side,” reported Star, circling the car for an all points inspection.
“Chris, you clearly interrupted this nefarious activity,” said Jasper Kitten.
”The pleasure was all mine,” said Chris, his breathing calm again. He unfastened the climbing rope from the milepost and returned it to the trunk. Then he pulled out the spare and the jack.
Jasper Kitten waved a sooty white gloved paw at the flat tire.
”It takes,” said Jasper Kitten, “a very large claw to make a slash like that.”
🐾🐾🐾🐾🐾
Poetry with Pets
Please stay tuned, Critters
Chapter Three is next Tuesday
Sleuth and purveyor
By Jasper Kitten, Chris & Star
NOTES:
The Case of The Misplaced Priority Envelope
Chapter 1
Excellent Chapter 2! I like where this mystery is going CwC!
Large bell, tyre slash,
the element of surprise!
Beware giant cat????
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Critter friends explore.
Supportive sleuthing journey.
We hold anxious breath!