“He tried to poison himself,” said Hawk. “He tried to take his own life, so he ate a bunch of poisonous berries. But I couldn’t let that happen. Because all animal lives are priceless! I gave him a regurgitating solution and performed beak to muzzle. The situation was quite hopeless!”
“You should’ve let me die in peace,” growled Polkan. “Here, I’ll be mauled for my crimes.”
“So you admit to murdering the chicken?” asked Chief Badger.
“Yes, I do.”
“What’s going on?” asked Nina Palna. “Polkan killed one of my chickens?”
“Yes, I killed her,” said Polkan laying down and rolling over on his back in a pose of submission. “I wanted to instigate a Hunt. I am guilty, and I’m ready for my punishment.”
“I suddenly feel sorry for him,” whispered Badgercat in Badger’s ear.
“Then talk to Nina Palna,” Badger whispered back.
“Why do you think she’ll listen to me?”
“Starling said Nina Palna likes cats, so I thought…” Badger suddenly caught himself. “Err, I mean, I just thought she might like you, that’s all…”
“I’m not a cat,” hissed Badgercat. “I’m Assistant Chief Badger—”
“Of course, of course,” nodded Badger. “It’s just that sometimes you act like a cat. So Nina Palna might mistake you for a cat. That’s all I meant.”
“All right.” Badgercat smoothed his whiskers with his paw and puffed up his tail. “I’ll try.”
Badgercat gracefully came up to Nina Palna, purring at a level four of bliss, and lightly brushed the tip of his tail against her leg.
“Oh, what a beautiful kitty cat!” smiled Nina Palna, leaning down to pet him. “Here, kitty kitty! What a darling. What a purring sweetie. Come here and purr into my ear,” and she leaned her ear down to Badgercat.
Overcoming his disgust with difficulty, Badgercat purred into her ear.
“You really think so, darling kitty?” melted Nina Palna.
“I’m not a kitty,” Badgercat couldn’t stand it any longer. “I’m Assistant Chief Badger of the Far Woods Police.”
“Aren’t you a sweetie pie? What a little fluff ball!” said Nina Palna scratching him behind the ear.
“Holy claw!” yelped Badgercat darting away from Nina Palna, scrambling up a nearby tree.
“I’ve decided I won’t get rid of Polkan,” said Nina Palna sweetly. “I’ll just take away his medals and put him on a leash for a while. Then we’ll see.”
“I think that’s the right decision,” said Badger.
“It was that fluff ball. He tugged at my heart strings. He’s so sweet.”
“Fluff ball?” hissed Badgercat from the tree, furiously cleaning behind his ears with his paw. “Don’t even get me started—”
“Hi, fluff ball” came a gentle, sweet, though slightly mocking, voice from a nearby branch. “She calls me that too. Don’t mind her.”
Badgercat shuddered, puffing himself up to look as big as possible, and carefully turned around. On a nearby branch he saw a snow-white, short-haired, silk-whiskered, yellow-eyed, slender-pawed, angelic being—the most beautiful cat in the world.
“I’m Marquise,” she said. “What’s your name, kitty?”
“I’m not a—I’m Badgercat.”
“Badgercat, Son!” came Chief Badger’s voice from below. “What’re you doing up there? We’ve solved the case. It’s time to go home to the Far Woods. Let’s go. Our work here is done.”
“You live in the woods?” Marquise’s yellow eyes grew wide.
“Yes. And unfortunately I have to say goodbye.”
“But we’ll see each other again, right?”
Badgercat looked at Marquise, trying to imprint her beautiful features in his memory, then jumped down without answering. What could he have said to a snow-white, angelic house cat?
“I’m not a cat,” he mumbled to himself once they’d left Huntington Farm. “I am Assistant Chief Badger of the Far Woods Police.”
“Of course you’re not a cat,” said Chief Badger, patting him on the back.
But for the first time in his life, these words didn’t make him feel any better.
(To be continued…)
THE AUTHOR
Anna Starobinets is an award-winning novelist, screenwriter, and journalist who lives in Moscow, Russia. Best known as a writer of dystopian and metaphysical stories, she is also a successful children’s author of fairy tales and detective stories, including four Beastly Crimes books from Dover Publications. She is the widow of the writer Alexander Garros and is raising two kids and a poodle named Cocos.
THE TRANSLATOR
Jane Bugaeva immigrated to the United States from Russia at the age of six. Forever a child at heart, she translates children’s literature from Russian to English. Her translations include Anna Starobinets’s Catlantis and the Beastly Crimes books and Sveta Dorosheva’s The Land of Stone Flowers. Bugaeva lives in North Carolina with her husband, daughter, and two cats.
www.doverpublications.com
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