Conversations with Critters
Walk with the animals. Talk with the animals. And the highly anticipated release of Chap. 11! The Case of The Misplaced Priority Envelope!
Today, Critters, we are pleased to present to you the highly anticipated release of Chapter 11 of The Case of The Misplaced Priority Envelope! Brought to you by the one, the only J Kitten, Sleuth & Purveyor of Bright Shiny Objects Detective Agency! We left off previously in our unfolding mystery with Jasper Kitten and his Crew, landing on Southeast Farallon Island. This wild place, rugged and remote sets the stage for what is sure to be a wild ride!
Please, welcome welcome our Core Community Cats, Jasper Kitten and Chris, for a brief commentary and excellent detective critter conversation. Take it away!
Jasper: Hello, Critters! We are stoked to have you here with us for Chapter 11!
Chris: Hello, Friends! Thank you for staying tuned. Thank you very much.
Jasper: Last week, our Detectives along with their Serval Clients, Cecil and Clementine, made landfall on Southeast Farallon Island. And, Chris, I’ve got to hand it to you with my white gloved paw, you did a great job operating the boat crane for the Zodiac.
Chris: That is so complimentary of you, Jasper Kitten. What. Will. Happen. Next?
Jasper: Let’s find out right now! Thank you for reading!
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 and Star in Heaven Furever and Ever
Dedicated in luvluvluving memory of Star
Chapter 11
Knock Knock
Jasper Kitten knocked on the weather-beaten door with his white gloved paw. The door creaked open from the mere pressure of his toebeans. Must and dust floated out. The Critters shuffled and snuffled and stepped back on the porch.
Star gazed up at the second story, the curtain unmoving in the small window. A glint of light reflected off the glass from the sun as it sat low in the west. She looked back to the open front door in time to see Jasper Kitten’s orange tail disappear inside.
His eyes adjusted to the dim interior, empty of all furnishings except for a bookcase that lined a wall in the corner. He padded over to it. A row of journals crowded a shelf, their bindings damp and cracked. He noticed a large book on an upper shelf, covered in mildew and faded gold lettering.
”The Definitive Fieldguide to Furbabies of the Farallones and The Rest of The World,” he mewed.
Chris crossed the cottage threshold and stood guard at the doorway.
”Jasper Kitten,” he called out. “What did you find?”
”Field notebooks from the looks of it. One book in particular has caught my ever watchful eye.”
”We’re all ears,” replied Chris.
Star, Cecil and Clementine stood listening outside the doorway.
”It’s titled, The Definitive Fieldguide to Furbabies of the Farallones,” he called out to them.
”Gosh, that certainly is a compelling and comprehensive name for a field guide,” said Star.
”It sure is, but the rest of the place looks pretty empty, in my humble opinion,” said Chris.
”Chris, please accompany me upstairs. We must be thorough in our search. I could have been mistaken, but it sure seemed like there was a shadow that passed behind that curtain.”
”Yeah, it sure did,” said Chris, walking further inside. He stopped short of the narrow staircase.
Jasper Kitten proceeded upstairs with Chris a step behind. They stood still together on the landing in the cold dank air. A peeling sheet of wallpaper hung near the window. In the draft of the room, it floated across the curtain and then fell back against the wall.
Jasper Kitten and Chris gave a sigh of relief.
”That explains it,” they said together.
They returned downstairs and exited the cottage. Jasper Kitten gave a tilt of his head toward the cottage on their left. They all hopped off the porch and walked through the overgrown grass.
”Gosh, Jasper Kitten,” said Star, “unlike the cottage on the right, this cottage on the left doesn’t even have a door.”
Jasper Kitten advanced to the porch while everyone else hung back. He approached the doorway and peered inside. It was empty except for another bookcase that lined a wall in the back corner. He tread carefully toward it and read the splintered gold lettering.
”The Definitive Fieldguide to Featherbabies of the Farallones and The Rest of The World,” he mewed.
Jasper Kitten left the book on the shelf and met up with his crew on the porch.
”It is as I suspected,” he said. “If my instincts serve me correctly, Critters, I believe we have a doubling of circumstances here.”
”You mean…,” said Chris.
”Are you saying…,” said Star.
”Yes, you are both correct. We have both mammals and birds involved in this case.”
”Gosh, Jasper Kitten,” said Star, “I see something stuck to your tail. What is that?”
Jasper Kitten looked back at his orange ringed tail and switched it from side to side.
“Why, it’s a feather, Jasper Kitten,” confirmed Chris.
Jasper Kitten scooped it up and held it out for all of them to see. He pulled out his pocket magnifying glass and the Critters gathered round.
Under magnification, an iridescent purple hue shone amidst the black.
”This is not a mere feather,” declared Jasper Kitten. “This. Is. A. Quill. Pen.”
The Critters stood huddled together, taking in the gravity of Jasper Kitten’s discovery.
”Furthermore,” he went on, “this is the Feather either from a Rhinoceros Auklet or the closely related Cousin, the Tufted Puffin.”
“But how will you be able to tell them apart, Jasper Kitten?” inquired Clementine, stepping forward.
”Clementine, thank you for this important probing question on closely related species identification,” replied Jasper Kitten.
”You’re welcome, Jasper Kitten,” she said with an inquisitive mew.
”I must do a closer comparative analysis. Chris, does your phone have a signal?”
Chris tapped his toebeans on his phone, held it high over his head and turned in a slow circle, first clockwise and then counterclockwise.
”It’s very weak, Jasper Kitten, but there must be a satellite overhead even though the Farallones are a wild, rugged and remote place.” Chris tapped twice more on the screen.
The Critters waited in rapt attention as the phone began to load comparative images of a Rhinoceros Auklet and a Tufted Puffin.
Jasper Kitten held the Quill Pen next to the screen.
”Yes,” he mewed. “My instincts have served me correctly. Critters, this is the feather of a Rhinoceros Auklet. It’s definitive.”
He brushed the feather across the phone screen.
”Thank you, Chris. Good work. Thank you very much.”
”You’re welcome, Jasper Kitten.”
”Gosh, I really don’t see any purple in the natural feathers of either bird, Jasper Kitten.”
”Star, the purple is not a part of the feather.”
”Oh, my goodness, Jasper Kitten. That can only mean one thing.”
”That is correct, Star. It can mean one thing and one thing only.”
”The purple is ink,” said Star, the light flashing in her eyes.
”Yes. It is ink and it is visible, but only under magnification.”
“Gosh, Jasper Kitten, it is entirely reasonable and well within the realm of chemical possibility that this could have been applied with a visible method and then dried as invisible ink.”
”I see,” said Jasper Kitten. “Yes. It is within the realm of possibility.”
Jasper Kitten turned the Quill Pen over and over in his white gloved paw.
“I can’t quite put my toebean on it, but there’s something else that my instincts are telling me about this feather,” he mewed.
”Why, I’ll tell you one thing for sure,” growled Chris low and slow. “If any featherbaby was harmed in the act of making that Quill Pen much less using it as a writing instrument, I’m gonna rip whoever did it to shreds. Nefarious Perp of no Nefarious Perp.”
Jasper Kitten looked toward the setting sun, the stripes of his brow furrowed in thought. Night was falling and the fog engulfed the islands.
”Our travels have brought us quite far today and we are still up against real and certain odds. We need to keep up with our nutrition and sleep.”
The Critters ambled over to the cottage on the right. Chris set up their travel bowls and spoons on the porch and they chowed down, famished and focused wholly on their meal.
The open front door had helped to air the place out. They went inside and closed the door behind them. In the center of the room, they spread out the camp blanket that Capt. Kangaroo Rat had tucked away in the storage of the Zodiac for them.
Clementine took shelter in Cecil’s arms and the Detectives cuddled close to conserve their body heat against the frigid temperature of the Farallon night.
The wind howled, rattling the walls and the surf lashed at the rocky shore, but the Critters were all fast asleep in no time at all.
Clementine stirred and Cecil drew her close. She began the same chant as before, the same jolts and the same shudders wracked her small body.
”Nefarious Perp! Nefarious Perp! Help! Daddy! Help! Daddy!” she cried out in rhythm with the crashing waves.
Cecil rocked her in his arms, purring in a soft and almost subaudible level. She did not wake, but she did not settle either.
A fine dusting of plaster drifted down from the ceiling and Cecil felt it on Clementine’s fur. He brushed it away and continued to pet and soothe her. She cried less and less and her breathing returned to a deep, steady cycle.
Cecil drifted back to sleep, dreaming of grasslands and the stillness of a summer sun that blazed overhead. Yet, without a cloud in the sky, rain beat down upon him and he crouched in the grass. The rain became relentless and pelted his fur. The wind picked up. The earth met the sky in a clap of thunder and lightning, bolts that came from the sun itself, fast and direct. Exposed to the elements and with nowhere to go, he roared in desperation.
Jasper Kitten wasted no time in switching on his headlamp. Cecil bolted awake. Clementine bolted awake. And the J Kitten, Sleuth & Purveyor of Bright Shiny Objects Detective Agency had an entirely new circumstance to investigate, for cowering in front of them were two figures, one big and one small and completely covered in plaster and dust from head to tail.
The room was abuzz with the Critters fully awake and alert and surrounded by debris on their camp blanket. Splintered floorboards continued to rain down on them from what remained of the ceiling which was now nothing more than a gaping chasm.
”Gosh, Mr. Cecil Serval,” cried Star in alarm, “you look like you’ve seen a ghost!”
🐾🐾🐾🐾🐾
Poetry with Pets
Fieldguides of Critters
Rhinoceros and Tufted
Auklet and Puffin
By Jasper Kitten, Chris and Star in Heaven Furever and Ever
Critters! Catch up on Chapters 1-10 of The Case of The Misplaced Priority Envelope! Brought to you with luvluvluv from the J Kitten, Sleuth & Purveyor of Bright Shiny Objects Detective Agency!
Chap. 1🐾Chap. 2🐾Chap. 3🐾Chap. 4🐾Chap. 5🐾Chap. 6🐾Chap. 7🐾Chap. 8🐾Chap. 9🐾Chap. 10
Fantastic! I looked up the Farallon Islands after reading about them here, and I was amazed to see those two cottages actually exist! That's such a great setting, and I'm luvluvluving it. The end... 😎
Such an exciting episode Heidi, sorry I am late getting to it!
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House on left or right?
Cast vote to feather or fur.
In this together
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