Steve`s Country
For a smile as wide as a country sunrise
Tuesday’s Tails #16.
Good morning everyone! It’s a beautiful, sunny (and smoky), summer morning. Everything is once more covered with that orange/yellow glow from the smoke of forest fires that are getting more active again now that the hot, dry weather has returned. However, according to the forecast, there is a fair amount of rain coming by the weekend. Hopefully that rain will hit the areas where the fires are worst. A lot of new fires have started recently. There are 110 forest fires burning at the moment, 20 are either under control or being held, and 90 are not under control. One of the new fires is 30 miles (50km) from our town, but is being held, which means it is not growing in size.
Two of my gulls were here for their breakfast, the chickadees were also here and a couple of blue jays. But they don’t stay long. The chipmunks are certainly busy however! It’s just non stop coming and going of the various chipmunks these days. Slim hasn’t been around for a while now, neither has any other squirrel. I thought maybe some of the other squirrels might have checked things out and discovered that Slim was gone. I guess they are just too scared to come back. I’m sure that eventually a squirrel will come back again, hopefully it will be Jasper.
I just went to put more sunflower seeds and peanuts out for the chipmunks and Scooter managed to get in the door. That’s why I like to really pay attention to the chipmunks, so that doesn’t happen. Anyway, I stomped my foot right in front of Scooter which scared him and he ran back out with Muffin right behind him. Good thing the chair was right there, Muffin has to duck a bit to go under the rungs of the chair, so it slows her down just a bit. That gave me time to grab her and get the door closed. But it was very close, almost lost a chipmunk, that wouldn’t be good.
Oh well, everyone is safe, so that’s a good thing. And I praised Muffin for chasing the chipmunk back outside, even though that’s not really what she had in mind. Sitting inside enjoying my morning coffee is not quite the same as being outside, so it’s back outside for me. Can’t waste all this nice weather sitting inside with the doors locked. I do that all winter. Summer is for being outside, and summer is almost gone. Not really much happening these days. I hope you all have a wonderful day and God bless!
Steve and Muffin.
©2021 Steve McLeod.
The Investigators, Inc. The Game. Chapter 11.
I just fell to the ground, the pain was so bad. “Steve needs help you two,” said Kat. Chomp!, Chomp! “AAAA”, I said as quietly as possible. Meow.=That always work. “Good thing,” said Kat. “Yes, it certainly is a good thing,” I said, “but for how long?” Meow,meow.=We keep biting till leg full of holes if we have to. “Thanks, but I hope that won’t be necessary,” I said. Meow.=Chop, chop coming. “I don’t hear anything,” said Kat. “I don’t hear it either,” I said. Meow,meow.=But it come, not far away, over there. “That hill with all those pines on top is probably blocking the sound nicely,” I said, “I just hope it’s for us, and not for our ‘friends’ over there.” Meow,meow.=They catching up to us fast.
“Come here Muffin,” I said, and loaded a flare onto her launcher. Up it went to warn the helicopter that trouble awaits. I had one more grenade and put it on top of the gas tank of one quad. That explosion destroyed the 3 quads that were together, the other one was further away. Suddenly the helicopter came over the hill and just above the trees, which is definitely why we couldn’t hear it well. It shot four rockets at the other men and landed quickly on the road. A guy jumped out and called for us to hurry. Kat and I jumped in, then the guy and the helicopter was in the air and the door closed.
“Hey, the cats!,” I yelled. That was the last thing I remembered and the helicopter flew off quickly leaving the cats behind on the road. Muffin and M.C. just sat there staring at the helicopter as it disappeared from view. Meow?=Now what we do? Meow,meow.=Not know, but that not helicopter from human Baldwin, that enemy helicopter. Meow.=Oh, that mean big trouble for them. And for us, now we stuck out here in forest. Meow,meow.=I call for help again, but we go hide on hill first. Meow.=Okay. Off they went to the top of the hill where Muffin called Baldwin again. But Baldwin wasn’t there, he was at some meetings in Australia. Calanthe got the call for help however.
“No, that can’t be!”, she yelled. “What happened Calanthe?”, asked Jennifer. “Baldwin’s helicopter must have been hijacked by one of Steve’s enemies and took them somewhere,” she explained, “but they left the cats alone in the forest!” Calanthe called Baldwin but he was in a very important meeting and couldn’t be disturbed, a secretary told her. “You better disturb him right now or you won’t have a job!”, yelled Calanthe, “this is an emergency!” Baldwin was soon on the phone and he too was shocked at the news. “It’s going to take 2 or 3 days to get another helicopter out there,” said Baldwin, “and without Muffin with them there’s no way to track Steve and Kat.”
Calanthe was devastated by that news and just sat down staring. “One of Baldwin’s jets is at the airport,” said Jennifer. “That’s right!”, exclaimed Calanthe, “that’s the answer.” Soon it was dark, the cats were spending their first night alone in the forest. Some men had come and picked up the other men that had been chasing us. Apparently they had just been knocked out with some kind of gas. The cats climbed one of the pine trees and slept on a large branch that night. It was a quiet night, but they still didn’t sleep well. Soon the sun was just peeking over the treetops and they came down from their sleeping spot. Muffin stayed sitting on a large boulder while M.C. went hunting.
Soon he was back with 2 mice for their breakfast. Meow,meow!=Oh, you such good provider M.C.! Meow.=It easy catching forest mice, they not know much about us cats. After breakfast they sat looking around. Meow,meow?=Where they take my humans? What they do with them? What we do now? Meow.=We not able to help them right now. We need to stay right here so they can find us easy. Meow,meow?=What if they not come? Maybe they forget us and just look for my humans. M.C. sits right beside Muffin and puts his tail around her. Meow.=Don’t cry Muffin, I here with you, we be okay. They sit and look across those miles of empty forest from their high hill lookout. They both felt very much alone right then…
To Be Continued.
Pictures of M.C. are kindly provided by his human, Nina.
Previous chapters of this story, and other stories, can be found on my home page under “The Investigators, Inc.”
©2021 Steve McLeod.
Steve`s Country 