Well, here we are, settled back into our home in Canada, trying to do some thinking about all that just happened in the last case. I remember it all, unfortunately, though right now it seems more like a nightmare experience. The cats are busy playing on their play structure, Muffin wants to buy more to make it even bigger. But then we would need a bigger house, and we do have that in France. We could move there and still continue our PI business, and I think we just might do that. Maybe. Lena is working with Calanthe and they should be opening their resort very soon. Even Baldwin decided to stay and help them out for a while, he thought it might be a lot of fun.

But the cats and I are going on a vacation finally. Just relaxing, no cases, we need some time off. “Now, I wonder where we should go,” I said very quietly to myself. Poke, poke. Two little heads looking around the corner from the hallway as I sit in the living room. “How did you two hear that when you’re playing?”, I ask. Meow.=We have good hearing. Meow,meow=Yep, it time for vacation brochures. Out they come with their little wagon overflowing with brochures. I’ve never seen so many. They come jumping onto the chair and look at me, then it’s hugging time again! We do this a lot now, Muffin is so happy to have me back to normal. And so is Mr. Cat.

I have had my 5 shots of this experimental drug combination to combat what Pete had given me. So far it seems to be working good, my memory is back to normal and I feel so much better. But the doctor figures I may need a booster shot yearly to prevent a relapse, because if that happens I will likely stay that way. I don’t mind the booster shots, as many as I need. “Okay, let’s see the brochures,” I said and we divided them between us. Meow!=Oh look, big castle, 1,000 years old! Meow,meow!=NO castles! That mean ghosts and we not want ghosts! Rip, rip, shred, shred. Meow.=She rip my brochure.

Meow,meow!=Look here, tropical island, big sand beaches. Meow!=NO sand! It get in fur and it mean big bath, no big baths! Rip, rip, shred, shred. Meow,meow=He rip my brochure. “Here’s a nice city vacation…”, I began to say. Meow,meow!!=NO cities! They both said together. Rip, rip, shred, shred. “My brochure,” I said. This went on for over an hour and the only thing we accomplished was filling the room with tiny bits of paper ripping up all the brochures. Well, half of the brochures anyway. Meow,meow=That okay, we have more in playroom. “There’s more brochures?”, I asked, “oh my, we’re in trouble, we need to agree on something fast.”

We keep looking for another half hour. Finally I see something that might work. “Here’s a nice quiet place in the mountains, on the shore of a lake, small quiet town nearby, lots of attractions close as well, hiking trails, or just relax by the lake. And, it’s a nice log chalet,” I explained, “this sounds great, there should be something we will all like at this place.” Meow,meow!=Oh, me like that one! Meow.=Yep, me too, let’s pack. They both look over the brochure and I book our own private chalet for 3 weeks. Soon we are flying to our destination, and what a place it is too! It should be easy to relax here, that’s for sure, just what we need.

There is a restaurant at our location, but it’s only open for breakfast, which is okay since the town is close and there are several restaurants there. Our first breakfast was an interesting one. The restaurant allowed cats inside, but we had to stay away from any other customers. That was easy, there was only 2 other guys in the place. This is the off season here and this year it’s less busy than normal for some reason. That’s nice for us though. Meow,meow?=Why we have to sit in corner, they think we have disease? “Well, some people don’t like animals in a restaurant, they consider them dirty,” I tried to explain.

Their ears went straight up! Meow!=Hey, we not dirty, we just wash ourselves this morning! “Don’t worry about it,” I said, “let’s talk about something else, like maybe what our next case might be.” Meow,meow.=Yep, we need another case soon, have to keep in shape with PI skills. The waitress brought our breakfast, we all had pancakes and bacon. Then she came back with a cup of coffee in her hand and asked if she could join us. I said that would be fine. Her name was Caren Fager. She looked at the cats and said, “they can talk, I heard them, they said you were PI’s. I need some help, how much do you charge?”

To Be Continued.

Pictures of Mr. Cat are kindly supplied by his human, Nina.

All chapters of this story, and other stories, can be found on my home page under “The Investigators, Inc.” and “20/20 Investigations, Inc.”

©2021 Steve McLeod.