It was a dark and windy night in late autumn when Sherlock Kitty finished
reading. He closed the cover of the book he was reading and put it carefully
back on his shelf. He had many many books, even for a famous cat detective.
Feeling warm and content, he began a long slow stretch that felt so wonderful,
from the tips of his claws to the end of his handsome grey tail.
"What a fascinating tale that was!" he said out loud to himself.
"I do love reading books about detectives and mysteries. Finding out
things and looking for clues - it is so exciting!" Sherlock Kitty
crossed his paws and lay down again.
He was thinking about that great human detective, Sherlock Holmes. "Solving
mysteries," he continued. "To know the unknown. I do wish I had
a nice fresh mystery to solve."
"What mystery?" asked Dr. Boo, as she strolled into the warm
den from the kitchen. "I don't know of any mystery."
"That's because there isn't one...yet," replied Sherlock Kitty.
"There are lots and lots of mysteries, all there waiting to be discovered
and solved by excellent detectives like me."
"When are we getting fed? That's what I want to know," grumbled
Dr. Boo, who was always hungry and didn't mind saying so.
"There's lots in the food dish," said Sherlock Kitty, "and
don't change the subject. I was talking about detectives and..."
"It's all gone," said Dr. Boo unhappily. "The dish is
as clean as new glass."
Sherlock Kitty instantly forgot all about detectives and mysteries and
gave a medium-sized meow of frustration. "The only good thing you
can ever say about a dog is that it's gone somewhere and isn't around!"
"What do you mean?" asked Dr. Boo, puzzled.
"I suspect Edgar the dog," declared Sherlock Kitty, with
a sniff. "He is clever and sneaky and sly. He gets our food and we
get nothing."
"If only we could catch him in the act," declared Dr. Boo.
"That's it!" cried Sherlock Kitty. "We'll catch him in
the act!"
Dr. Boo stopped licking her fur and looked at Sherlock Kitty. She was
quite interested. "How?"
Sherlock Kitty rubbed his head with his paw. "Using my knowledge
as a world class detective, of course. I was born to detect things and
solve puzzles, you know."
Dr. Boo tried not to yawn. "Last week it was Tarzan Kitty. And
you didn't catch any squirrels. Not one."
"Foodlecrackers!" sniffed Sherlock Kitty. "They weren't
worth catching." He looked down his nose at Dr. Boo. "Some people
do a lot of complaining around here, but it always seems to be me who gets
something done, thank you very much!"
"I'm just hungry, that's all," sighed Dr. Boo. "If Sherlock
Kitty can catch Edgar in the act of eating my dinner, then be my guest.
But the Human has to see it too," she added wisely, because she didn't
always think about food.
"Right," stated Sherlock Kitty. "The first thing is to
think of a way to catch that canine eating our food."
"I can picture him eating our food right now," complained
Dr. Boo. "Horrible old Edgar!"
Sherlock Kitty leapt up and patted Dr. Boo on her shoulder. "That's
it! We'll take a picture of him eating our food!"
"But how?" asked Dr. Boo. "We don't have a camera."
"No," agreed Sherlock Kitty, "we don't, but the Human
does. I'll just borrow it and when we capture Edgar in the act...presto!
we'll have all the proof that we need."
"Excellent!" purred Dr. Boo. "Sherlock Kitty is on the
case!"
The next morning, when the Human went to work, Sherlock Kitty borrowed
the camera and jumped onto the kitchen counter with it. Being careful to
be very quiet so Edgar would not hear, Sherlock Kitty placed the camera
on the edge of the sink and pointed it right at the dish where he and Dr.
Boo had already been served breakfast.
It took real effort on Sherlock Kitty's part to persuade Dr. Boo to
skip her breakfast. "You can't take a picture of Edgar eating our
breakfast if there isn't any breakfast to eat, now can you?" he said
to Dr. Boo.
"But I'm so-o-o hungry," meowed Dr. Boo. "How long will
it take?"
"Not very long," promised Sherlock Kitty. "Now, you must
jump into the sink and hide until Edgar comes and then you pop up and...presto!,
take his picture."
"Why do I have to take the picture?" asked Dr. Boo, whose
stomach was begin to rumble. "I don't know how to take a picture."
"It's very easy, just use your paw to press this button right here."
"Where will you be? Why can't you take the picture?"
Sherlock Kitty snorted. "I've got the most difficult job of all,"
he said importantly. "I'm going to lure Edgar to the dish. Now no
more yabbering, Dr. Boo, you get into the sink and get ready." And
with that, Sherlock Kitty jumped down from the kitchen counter to the floor
and went looking for Edgar.
Sherlock Kitty's plan didn't work very well.
He dropped a trail of cat treats from the basement where Edgar was sleeping
all the way up the stairs and along the hallway and into the kitchen, right
to where breakfast was and...oh no!...
"Dr. Boo! What are you doing?" There she was, eating breakfast
instead of hiding in the sink!
"I...I was a little hungry," meowed Dr. Boo. "I...I thought
I might take a better picture if I had some food first..."
"Foodlecrackers!" declared Sherlock Kitty, most annoyed. "Now
you get back into the sink and I'll wake Edgar. Hurry up now and don't
you get anymore bright ideas. Bright ideas are my job."
Dr. Boo swallowed what she had been chewing and nodded. "Oh all
right then. But how I'm supposed to have breakfast if you're bringing Edgar
upstairs to eat it all is something that doesn't make very much sense to
me." All the same, she jumped into the sink and hid as carefully as
she could.
"Here I go!" announced Sherlock Kitty, heading down the stairs.
"Get ready!"
This time Sherlock Kitty's plan worked...almost. Just as he suspected,
Edgar woke up immediately when he sneaked up very, very close and swatted
him right on his nose.
"Ow!" said Edgar, wondering what had happened. "Oh! Cat
treats! Yummy!" he exclaimed, and he began to gobble them up, all
along the carpet and up the stairs and along the hallway and..."Yummy!
Yummy! the cats have left me their breakfast!"
Just then there was a big flash of light, followed by a bang. Dr. Boo
had unfortunately pushed a little too hard on the camera and it had fallen
off the edge of the sink and onto the floor!
Flash! Flash! Flash!
The camera was taking picture after picture and wouldn't stop! And it
kept pushing each picture out onto the floor!
Flash! Flash! Flash!
Edgar, who had jumped three feet into the air when the camera hit the
floor, decided that the flash wasn't worth bothering about and, besides,
there was all of the lovely breakfast to eat. In just a moment or two,
he had swallowed the entire breakfast and licked the bowl clean. "As
yummy as can be," Edgar said, and decided to go back downstairs to
finish his nap.
"Look what you've done!" declared Sherlock Kitty, making a
ferocious face at Dr. Boo. "You've broken the Human's camera and these...look
at these pictures! You've taken a picture of the refrigerator...and the
flowers on the kitchen table...and...why I can't even tell what this one
is..."
"It's your tail, isn't it?" suggested Dr. Boo, helpfully.
She had jumped out of the sink and onto floor. "I am sorry but it
just seemed to jump off the edge of the sink," she meowed.
"Oh, we're in big trouble now!" declared Sherlock Kitty.
And just then they heard the front door open. The Human was back!
"Hide! Hide!" Sherlock Kitty yelled, heading for the couch
in the living room.
"Oh dear!" said Dr. Boo and she hurried to hide between the
stove and the refrigerator.
"Who's been playing with my camera?" said a loud voice. "And
who's been taking all of these pictures."
"Oh", thought Sherlock Kitty. "He's going to be so mad,
he won't feed us for a week!" and he burrowed under the cushions as
far as he could.
"Edgar?" said the Human. "Now how did he manage to do
that? A picture of the refrigerator, a picture of the flowers on the table,
a picture of...is that the cat's tail? And look, a picture of the Edgar
eating the cats' breakfast...hey! Just a minute!"
Sherlock Kitty peeked out from underneath the cushions as Dr. Boo took
a quick look from her hiding place. The Human had picked up the camera
and the pictures and was now standing at the top of the stairs.
"Edgar! Come here, Edgar!" he said.
Edgar came bounding up the stairs and sat thumping his tail on the kitchen
floor.
"Shame on you for eating the cats' breakfast, Edgar!"
"But...but..," pleaded Edgar, except it sounded like "woof,
woof."
"No excuses, Edgar, just look at this picture of you eating the
cats' breakfast. Aha! Caught in the act! Now I bet you're sorry you knocked
the camera off the table!"
"But...but...," said Edgar again, quite confused because he
didn't know what a camera was. But he couldn't deny that he had eaten the
cats' breakfast, so he hung his head in shame and looked very apologetic
about the whole affair.
"This is delicious!" declared Dr. Boo, a little while later,
between big mouthfuls of their new breakfast.
"Yes indeed," agreed Sherlock Kitty, "especially now
that Edgar can't come upstairs anymore," and he turned and looked
at the folding gate which the Human had placed in the doorway which led
to the basement.
"I must say, Sherlock," purred Dr. Boo, "you hatched
a most excellent plan."
"Why thank you, Dr. Boo," replied Sherlock Kitty, licking
a paw and feeling very full and satisfied. "And thanks to your excellent
photography, the whole operation was picture-perfect!"
THE END
Written by:
David Boyd
