Steve`s Country
For a smile as wide as a country sunrise
Steve’s Bird Of The Day #57.
Hi everyone! Well, here we are with our bird today, the “American crow”. Crows are often mistaken for ravens, plus the other way around, but crows are much smaller, about half the size. The western crow is smaller than the eastern but it’s still the same species. There is also the fish crow and the northwestern crow, but they are different species with limited range. The American crow can be found over most of the continent from northern Canada to the southern US, though they avoid the southwestern area. In winter they will form huge roosting colonies of many thousands of birds. For most of their range they are year-round residents, even up here we have a lot of crows that spend the winter now, though even 30 years ago they were rare here in winter. They eat just about anything and during nesting season they young are fed a diet of 80% insects and even the adults eat a large portion of the diet in insects, many are harmful. They are easily attracted to feeders, something most people don’t like since they scare other birds. They are highly intelligent birds as well, can work together and solve problems. They will often help one another, nesting crows will help another pair when their nest is in danger. Ravens often get at their nests. Like ravens, crows are terrible nest robbers. They can also be quite noisy which a lot of people don’t like. They are very susceptible to West Nile virus and usually die within a week. Well, I hope you all have a wonderful day and God bless!
Steve and Muffin.
©2021 Steve McLeod.
The Investigators, Inc. Nowhere. Chapter 11.
We’re all sitting in the library right now thinking. Baldwin says, “Steve, you are staying here for now, I have a small army guarding this place, so it’s the safest place for you to be. By removing that probe the plan of these people has been interrupted, so now they are likely going to try and kill you. For some reason you hold some information about these people so they don’t want you around.” “That would mean I definitely know these people then,” I said, “so it must be someone from one of our previous cases.” “Yes, that’s true,” said Baldwin. Muffin goes over to Baldwin and sits on his lap looking at him.
Meow,meow.=Human Baldwin, we need your help, please help us get my human back to normal again. I not want someone to come and kill him, and I not want him to go prison because he kill someone. Me and Mr. Cat can’t get around and do things by ourselves, so we need your help. Please. She kept looking at him with sad eyes, and started to cry. “Muffin, everyone has told me you talk, this is the first time I have really heard you,” said Baldwin, “and I promise that I will do everything I can to help, I promise you that Muffin, I will use all my resources to try and get this solved.” Muffin gave him a hug.
Calanthe also said that all the tunnels had been sealed closed so no one can get in that way anymore. Meow,meow=Not all tunnels on map, you get all the other tunnels? “I hope so,” said Calanthe, “there was one in the cottage and one in the big tower.” Meow.=No, there 2 in cottage, another in small tower and one in garden shed too. “Do you know where they all are located Mr. Cat?” asked Baldwin. Meow.=Yes, me know all of them. Baldwin called Brian, one of his men and sent Mr. Cat with Lena and Calanthe to show Brian where these extra tunnel entrances are located. He wanted to talk with me and Muffin alone. Muffin plugged in our scrambler so no one could listen to us.
I told Baldwin about the burning hotel and the woman Trish. I also gave him a book I had with just some highlights of all our cases. “This is great,” said Baldwin, “it has all the names of people so I can check them out right away. Can I hang onto this for a while?” “Sure,” I said, “it hasn’t helped me and I have looked through it a couple of times now. I have a set of journals with a more complete look at all our cases but I keep that at…Meow,meow!=Not say anymore, best keep it secret. “Oh, you’re right Muffin, forgot about that,” I said, “we have to be careful, don’t we?” “Definitely,” said Baldwin, “keep that location a secret, those journals might be valuable yet.
Now Muffin, do you think you could shoot that slingshot at Steve if necessary?” Meow,meow=Yep, my human tell me all about doing that if I have to, so I can. “Good,” he said, “then get yourself ready while we try an experiment, I’m going to give Steve a gun and you need to shoot him before he shoots me!” So she got herself lined up and Baldwin tossed me his gun. I held it like before, just looking at it. Pictures came to mind, voices, places, real or not real, names, faces, rooms, tunnel. “My head, it’s going to explode and I started to point the gun at Baldwin. “Thwock!”, and I was down. Muffin runs over. Meow,meow=Oh, hope I not hurt him too much. “He’ll be okay Muffin,” said Baldwin, “but he might have a lump on his head.” Lena, Calanthe and Mr. Cat came in right then.
“What happened?” asked Calanthe. “Just a little experiment,” said Baldwin, “now hopefully he will remember something.” I woke up after a while and sat in the chair. Muffin came and hugged me. “Okay,” said Baldwin, “do you remember anything?” “Yeah, I think so,” I said, “the cats and I were in a room, in the tunnel. There was several people, a woman named Trish, another woman named Katharina and a big man, they called him John. One man they called “doc”, there were a couple others too, Pete and Coral. John wanted me dead, but Katharina said this was a better way, they would get their vengence and I wouldn’t be around to stop their plans… I started to sweat, I couldn’t think anymore. “Hey, it’s okay Steve, stop thinking for now, it will come to you,” said Lena as she put her arm around my shoulder. “That’s good Steve,” said Baldwin, “now we’re getting somewhere, I know Pete and Coral.” I looked around, everything seemed strange, I was still nowhere.
To Be Continued.
Pictures of Mr. Cat are kindly supplied by his human, Nina.
Previous 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.
