The Misty Hollow Cat Detective is back again!
In a few days, I will be publishing A Smudge the Cat Mystery box set 3. Here is a little sneak peek. Enjoy!
Part One – The Case of the Missing Dog
Chapter One
Every once in a while a cat just needs to go off on his own.
We’re solitary creatures by nature. Sure, we make friends with other cats. Sometimes other animals, too. Even dogs. And sure, we make strong attachments with special humans. If you have the love and trust of a cat, then count yourself lucky. We don’t get attached to just anybody.
Me, I’m lucky enough to be good friends with my owner, Darcy Sweet. She’s definitely one of the special ones. Sometimes she understands me better than even other cats can.
But even the best humans can’t spend all their time with their cats. Sometimes they need to be with other humans.
Darcy just got married to that man of hers, Jon Tinker. Me and Jon got off on the wrong paw when I first met him, but we like each other well enough now. Darcy’s a part of both our lives so I’ve learned to make him part of my life, too, for her sake.
Now that they got married, they’re going on a trip to some place called Australia. I don’t know where that is, but I get the impression it’s a long ways off. They’ll be gone for a few days. Our neighbor is making sure I get fed while she’s away, which I appreciate for sure, but a cat gets bored with nothing to do.
I need to stretch my legs.
I’m supposed to be locked up all safe in Darcy’s house, but there’s plenty of ways for an enterprising young cat to get out of a house when he’s got a mind to. Well. Maybe I’m not that young anymore, but I can still sneak around with the best of them. After Jon and Darcy left with their bags full of clothes and things, all smiles and secret winks for each other, it only took me a day to get restless. I decided it was time to have some fun.
Downstairs in the basement is my usual escape route. The top part of the walls here are above ground level, so with the help of a few loose stones it’s a simple matter to make it outside. Even when the doors and windows are all locked up like they are now. I might be a little dusty, but I’m out. I can sneak back in some other time and no one will ever know I was even gone.
Outside, the world was peaceful and I took the time to stretch out and enjoy the warmth of the sun. It’s the simple things in life that I really enjoy.
Being surprised is one of those things I do not enjoy. I’ve had too many surprises in my life turn out to be bad ones. That’s the reason I’m missing one of my nine lives.
What I want and what I actually get in life aren’t always the same thing, though. Life enjoys sending me surprises. You learn to live with it.
Ready to face the day and find some excitement, it found me instead.
Surprise.
A yowling ball of tiger-striped fur came barreling into me at full speed, knocking me into the dirt and then tumbling over and over to land on his feet with his tail in the air. Cats are supposed to be light on their paws. I don’t think Tony ever heard that saying.
It took me another long moment to untangle my own feet. I got up again, but only when I was sure he wasn’t going to come running into me again. You never really know with Tony.
Yes. Tony the tiger-striped cat. Whatever human named him must have thought they were really funny.
“Smudge!” he hollers my name. I don’t know why he’s shouting. He knows who I am and I can hear him just fine. “Smudge! Smudge, I need your help. Well, not me. A friend. Your friend. He needs help.”
“Good morning, Tony,” I say very politely. Except for a flick of my tail I don’t let him see how annoyed I am that my day out is being interrupted. Tony is… unique. He’s a good friend, a cat who likes to live on the street but who would give up his last scrap of food to anyone who needed it, friend or stranger alike.
“Uh, good morning,” he says, blinking, finally slowing down a bit. “Sure. Hi. Good to see you. You, uh… you heard me, right? Friend? Help? All of that?”
One of my ears flicked involuntarily. “Yes, I heard. Kind of hard not to hear you, Tony. I’m pretty sure every animal in town heard you.”
He smiled like I’d just given him a great compliment. “So, what are we waiting for?”
Sometimes talking with Tony makes me feel like I’m chasing my own tail like a dog, round and round in a circle. “Tony, maybe if you start from the beginning again. Where exactly do you think we’re going?”
He was already starting across the side lawn when my question brought him up short, his claws digging into the soil, nearly sending him tumbling over his own four feet again.
“We’re going to see your friend,” he told me, as if that explained everything.
It didn’t explain a thing, really, but I could either stay here and play twenty questions with him or I could just go with him and see who this friend was. It was going to be a whole lot easier to see what was going on for myself.
A cat’s work is never done.
“Lead the way, Tony.”
He bounded off so quickly that I had to race to keep up with him. I’m faster than him, but not by much.
He knows that I like to help the animals of Misty Hollow when they’re in trouble. All the animals in town know that. I help the people, too, but I sort of have to do that anonymously. Most people would never accept help from cats. Even cat people usually won’t take direction from their four-footed friends. My owner Darcy is an exception but like I’ve already said, she’s one of a kind.
I wasn’t sure where he was leading me until we took that last turn I should’ve figured. Tony spends most of his days behind the deli in town so he can get his first pick of the meat scraps they toss out with the trash. I know the woman who runs the deli. She’s a good person. I think she puts out a few good pieces along with the scraps sometimes so Tony has enough to eat.
The trash bins are behind the deli. Next to the bins, my friend is waiting for me.
Now, I’ve lived most of my life here in Misty Hollow, but I’ve had friends that have moved on from here to other towns for whatever reason. It’s always sad to see them go. I miss a few of them.
I’ve probably missed Houston more than all the rest.
Shouting his name out loud I pounce and tackle him like we used to do when we were just kittens growing up here in town. We were pretty evenly matched back then. Now, Houston has quite a bit of size on me. He’s burly, and he’s strong. There’s a lot of muscle underneath that pure black hair. He let me take him down once, but after that he rolls me around but good, laughing the whole time.
“I can’t believe it’s you!” I tell him when we finally get back to our feet. “I wasn’t sure I’d ever see you again!”
“This one here didn’t tell you?” he asked, nodding his head at Tony. “He was supposed to tell you I needed your help.”
Tony looks a little uncertain, turning from Houston to me. “I said your friend needed help… didn’t I?”
Sure he did. He just forgot to tell me which friend it was.
“Don’t worry about it, Tony.” Like I said, Tony always means well. He’s just not the sharpest claw on the paw. “Houston, did you really come all this way just to ask for my help?”
Houston shifted his weight between his two front paws, the cat equivalent of a shrug. “You were always the smart one. I remember when we were just kittens and you were always thinking like a human being.”
I’m really not sure that’s a compliment, but I’m going to let it slide. There must be something really wrong if Houston came to find me and ask for my help after all this time. “Okay, so I was the smart one. I still don’t understand why you’re back in Misty Hollow.”
“You need to ask? Smudge, if you’re too busy…”
“Houston, of course I’ll help you. Actually you came at the right time. It turns out that I’ve got a few days away from my owners. Tell me what the trouble is and I’ll do whatever I can.”
“Me, too!” Tony declares.
Houston and I both turned to look at him.
“Oh, come on guys,” he says to us both. “Sure, you guys are friends, but I’m Smudge’s friend, too. I want to help.”
“I sure won’t turn it down,” Houston offers. “That is, if it’s all right with you, Smudge.”
Tony’s bouncing on all fours at this point, and how could I say no to that? His help isn’t always what you call… helpful, but he’s always willing to try.
“So what’s this trouble?” I ask Houston.
“Always right to the point with you,” he answered, which is to say he didn’t answer at all. “Can’t we get something to eat first? Maybe give me a tour of the town now that it’s changed so much?”
Okay. You know that old parable about how curiosity killed the cat? I’ve tested that one to the limit more than once. I’m about to test it again. Houston came all this way from… well, I don’t exactly remember what town he lives in now but I know it’s a long way from Misty Hollow by cat’s paw. Now that he’s here, why doesn’t he want to talk about whatever’s bothering him?
It must be really, really bad.
Stepping closer to him, I study his green eyes. Cat’s eyes are always hard to read but I can see something troubling in Houston’s eyes now. He’s troubled about something.
“What happened, Houston?”
Looking away from me, he draws a breath. It’s still a moment before he gives me an answer.
“Well. You know I moved over to Cider Hill, right?” He didn’t wait for my response. “Got a good life there now. My human is a real good woman. Heart of gold. Always looking for someone to help. You know the type?”
Yes. Yes I do.
“So,” Houston continued, “when she brought in the new pet I didn’t say anything because that’s just the way she is. I mean, I don’t like dogs but some humans do, right?”
“Houston, you’re babbling.” Usually cats are very short and to the point. I mean, time doesn’t matter much to us—things are going to happen when they happen—but we don’t like to waste time either. “Let’s try this again. What pet? What happened?”
“The dog,” he sighed. “My human… Stephanie is her name. She took in this dog that lost his home. Percy.”
Tony sputtered with laughter. “What kind of name is Percy?”
I ignored Tony the tiger-striped cat. As pets, we don’t always get to pick our own name. I’ve always liked my name, Smudge. It describes the mix of black and white in my fur pretty well. Plus it’s cool. But I mean, let’s face it. I’m not in a position to judge someone else’s name. So Houston’s owner named the new dog Percy. I doubt that’s what brought my friend here from Cider hill.
“So, Houston… You’re not here because there’s a dog in your house, right? I can’t control what kind of pets people let into their homes. I don’t like being around dogs either, but sometimes they’re actually kind of—”
“No, Smudge, you don’t understand.” Houston got back up to his four feet and began pacing, his tail flicking with each step. “I liked Percy. He was real friendly. One of those dogs that’s no bigger than you or me. Scruffy little thing. Curly brown hair but two black paws up front. Goofy smile. My owner Stephanie loved him. She’s so sad now. She’s gonna be so mad at me. Oh, Smudge I really screwed up. She’s never going to forgive me!”
“Houston…what did you do?”
He hung his head, and let his ears droop. “I left the pet door open. Percy got out.”
I blinked at him. “That’s all? You let the dog out?”
“Not on purpose! Smudge, you don’t understand. Percy doesn’t know about the big outside world. He’s been an indoor pet all his life. He told me so. Stephanie always kept the pet door closed up tight. She didn’t want him to get out. We only had him for a week and now he’s gone, and we don’t know where he went!”
All the things that I had imagined, all the things that could have been so terribly wrong, and this is what he’s upset about? “Houston… I mean…” How should I put this? I didn’t want to let one of my best friends down, but I had my limits. “I don’t really track down animals who run away from home. I mean, I help solve, er, problems. Mysteries, and that sort of thing, but if Percy just ran away he could be anywhere.”
“Smudge, he won’t survive out there. He’s not tough like you and me.”
“And me,” Tony said, not wanting to be left out. He flicked an ear at us when Houston and I just kept talking.
I actually have tracked down missing animals before. Those were animals that had been stolen, though. Catnapped. Dognapped. Whatever you call it when a guinea pig gets stolen. And there was that one time I found Linda’s missing cat Persephone when she’d been chased out of the neighbourhood and ended up down a hole.
But what was I supposed to do about a dog that didn’t want to stay a house pet? Sometimes animals just need to go off on their own.
Which is where I think I started this story.
“Look, Houston…”
“Smudge, seriously,” he says to me. “You ever make a mistake, and suddenly you’re afraid that your human might not want you around anymore?”
Sure I have. What pet hasn’t clawed at the curtains or eaten part of a sandwich that was just a bit too close to the edge of the table… ahem. These things happen. Let’s just say I understand what Houston means.
“That’s where I’m at, Smudge. I made a mistake. A big one.” Houston shook himself all over, and looked off into the distance, in the direction I’m pretty sure would take him back to Cider Hill. “I’ve never seen Stephanie so upset. She’s been crying almost nonstop since Percy left. I need to fix this for her. Please, Smudge. I need your help.”
I sighed and gave up arguing. My human, Darcy, does everything she can for her friends. I’ve always tried to do the same. Sure, Darcy’s no cat, but I know a lot of cats who could learn a thing or two from her.
Besides, I wanted something to do today.
“Fine, Houston.” I padded over to him to bump my shoulder against his. “Let’s go find a missing dog.”
He perked up right away. “Yeah? You mean it?”
“What are friends for?”
For a moment, I’m sure he’s about to say something else, until Tony pushes his face in between us with his eyes open wide. “So… road trip?”
