Steve`s Country
For a smile as wide as a country sunrise
Tuesday’s Tails #19.
Good morning everyone! It’s starting off sunny again, like yesterday, but it turned out to be mostly cloudy, and it’s supposed to be like that today as well. But we are supposed to get more rain later today too. Well, time to grab a cup of coffee and see what kind of action has been on the deck lately. I haven’t said much, wanting to leave it all for today instead. Those bears just don’t want to quit for some reason. They’re not finding food, yet they keep coming, at least 3 of them, and I think maybe a fourth has joined them. This one has a hurt paw and he walked mostly just holding it up. I don’t really like that one, a hurt animal can be more dangerous.
Hard to know if it’s a different one though, it could be one of the others, the middle one of the group. And he was around in late afternoon, also not good. There were 2 bears here Sunday night, actually one was late evening while it was still light. He made a bunch of noise out there scaring Muffin, so I quickly closed my door. Must remember to close it earlier now. Like my chipmunks the bears are in a hurry to eat as much as they can before hibernation. I think they can feel an early winter coming too. Another bear showed up last night at 9:30, just when I wanted to get to bed early for a change. Oh well.
Yesterday marked a big day for the sandhill crane migration, which is also early. All our birds seem to be migrating early this fall. I really think that means an early winter. Yesterday I was out trying to get some pics of the blue jays and managed to get some good ones, even though the background isn’t really the best. But they let me stay close by, at least the young ones did, plus Baxter. So that was nice. The young are quite brave and there are 5 of them, plus the 6 adults. The young ones stay around most of the day, guess they don’t really have much else to do, just sit and wait for me to toss out more peanuts, or sunflower seeds, which they like just as much.
Then there’s the chipmunks and squirrels. But more on that tomorrow. Time to get some more coffee and enjoy the sunshine for a while. Have a wonderful day everyone and God bless!
Steve and Muffin. (top picture is Pocket the chipmunk)
©2021 Steve McLeod.
The Investigators, Inc. The Old House. Chapter 4.
After looking at the little room we went over to the door that led to the third floor. I unlocked the door and opened it and a skeleton was hanging from the ceiling! Poor Kat nearly screamed. The hair on the cats stood straight up! Meow,meow!=It Skinny! “It’s okay everyone,” I said, “it’s not a real skeleton this time.” Meow?=How you know? “Because it’s hanging,” I said, “if it was real it would fall to pieces.” Meow.=Oh, that good to know. Meow,meow=Not need to know, Skinny still Skinny. “I must admit,” said Kat, “that is so cute how she calls skeletons Skinny.” “Obviously it was put there to scare people,” I said, “but the door is kept locked, so how does anyone get up here?”
Meow,meow.=Easy, there is secret passage in here too. “Right Muffin,” I said, “and we need to find it. Of course it’s also possible that someone just picked the lock.” Meow.=That true, easy to pick locks. Up we went until…nearly at the top Muffin stops us and points to one of the steps. Someone had sawed through it, so I pushed on it and it gave way to a spot with lots of nails sticking up. “A leg falling through there would hit those nails so hard they would go right through your foot,” said Kat staring down at the trap. “Yes, someone doesn’t want anyone coming up here,” I said, “we will need to be careful about more traps.” The cats went ahead of us just a bit to check for traps.
We unlock and check the first bedroom but there was nothing unusual about it, or the next room. There was a sitting room up here with a beautiful view of the property. Meow.=Car come. I looked out the window, it was the guests that Bradley and Susan were expecting. At least now we have a way out of here if needed. And Susan should be taken to the doctor, but I’m sure I don’t have to tell Bradley that. We looked around the sitting room for a while. There was something about this room, but I just couldn’t think what it was. There was nothing out of the ordinary about it, yet it seems like there should be.
Half an hour later I looked out the window and saw the van still here. That was odd, why wasn’t Bradley taking Susan to the doctor. “You better go check Steve,” said Kat, “Susan does need to get going. The cats and I will stay in the sitting room.” “Okay,” I said and went downstairs. Bradley introduced me to everyone, then I reminded him that Susan needed to see the doctor quickly. “I’m not feeling so bad right now,” she said, “maybe I don’t really need to go see the doctor.” “You need to go,” I said, “if that gets infected, it will be too late.” Bradley agreed so they got the keys from King Davidson and went out, but they were soon back in.
Someone had taken the battery out of the van also. Bradley never thought of keeping an eye on the van, since it was during the day he thought it would be safe. We’re still stuck. King Davidson, an odd name, owns a real estate company and is very much interested in this house. Then there is Dan and Barbara Carberry, apparently quite wealthy, very much interested in ghosts and seem to me that they are a bit wacky. Then we have Ben and Tracy Kendall, also very much interested in ghosts, history and especially the history of old houses.
I think King deliberately brought these two couples here as possible buyers for this house. But it’s not up for sale. However, it does make King a prime suspect here. I will need to keep an eye on him. Upstairs Kat spotted a mouse and both cats ran down the hall chasing it. “Crazy cats,” said Kat out loud, “I will need to talk with them, they need to stay on the case and not go off chasing mice.” She laughed about it anyway. This old house likely has lots of mice, she thought. Just then my watch alarm went off. “Trouble upstairs!”, I yelled and started running up to the third floor with Bradley and King behind me. I yelled out a warning about the step and when we got to the sitting room…there was Kat…hanging from the ceiling…
To Be Continued.
Links to previous chapters of this story, and other stories, can be found on my home page under “The Investigators, Inc.”
Pictures of Mr. Cat are kindly supplied by his human, Nina.
©2021 Steve McLeod.
Steve`s Country 