“We don’t have much farther to go,” she told the big cat. “And don’t worry, it won’t be hard to walk the rest of the way. You can make it. Look at me — I’m not even tired at all! Wait till you see the house where you’ll be staying. It’s so pretty. And all the people and the cats are so nice. Did you know I’m a foster cat? I guess you’ll be a foster cat, too . . .”
And on and on it went. It was a good thing we weren’t on a top-secret mission. Or going undercover on a case. Because this kitten would have given us away long before we started.
Still, I liked the way she encouraged Trixie to keep going. Especially since Trixie looked so weak that I was beginning to wonder if she would even make it the rest of the way. I could see she was starting to shiver, much like Bogey and Lil were shivering now, too. So the five of us sort of huddled together to keep warm. And to help Trixie stay on her paws.
It seemed like it took forever before we finally reached the hole in the fence. We went through it one at a time until we were all in our own backyard. Right at that moment, I almost felt like jumping for joy. I couldn’t remember ever being so happy to get back home. I even smiled as we passed the windows, especially when I noticed that candles were still lit in the kitchen.
That meant the power was still out.
Bogey shuddered, and I could tell he was a lot colder than he was letting on. “Time for the final part of our plan,” he said. “Let’s hope the Princess kept an eye out.”
Thankfully, we spotted her when we ran around to the front of our house. She was looking out the dining room window and watching for us. Just like she was supposed to do. She jumped when she saw us, and her eyes went wide. Probably because she didn’t recognize us at first. Then again, we weren’t exactly recognizable. Not with fur plastered to our bodies and whole rivers of rain practically running off of us.
The Princess gave us a quick wave and ran off in a streak of white. I was so tired that I didn’t even have the strength to wave back. My legs felt like they weighed a ton each as we all dragged our dripping bodies up the porch steps and sat in front of the door. If nothing else, at least we were finally out of the pouring, pounding rain. Even so, the water kept on rolling off of us, and I had a pretty good idea that it would be days before my fur was completely dry.
That is, if anyone ever opened the front door. I glanced at Trixie, who was really shivering hard now, and I wondered what was taking so long.
Mitzi jumped off my back and cuddled up to Trixie, trying to keep her warm. But Mitzi’s little body wasn’t nearly enough to warm up Trixie’s huge body. Especially since Trixie was at least five times her size.
At long last, we heard the thud of footsteps coming from inside the house. They sounded heavy, which probably meant it was our Dad who was headed our way. I could also hear Gracie talking, so I knew she was headed to the door with our Dad.
“Okay, everyone, look alive,” Bogey said. “Trixie, you wait out here. Lil, Buckley, and Mitzi — be ready to shake a leg when the door opens.”
I wiped water off my forehead. “Shake our legs? Shouldn’t we run inside instead?”
“Just an expression, kid,” Bogey said with a grin. “It means hurry up. We’ve gotta get in and make it look like Trixie is the only cat out here.”
Trixie’s chin dropped. “That doesn’t sound like a very good plan to me.”
Lil put her paw on Trixie’s shoulder. “You have to trust these cats, Trix. They won’t let you down. After all, they rescued you once, right?”
Trixie took a deep breath. “You’re right, Lil. And I do trust you. All of you.”
Bogey shook himself, so that water ran off his slick fur and formed a big puddle on the porch. “Don’t worry, Trix. My plan is already in place. You just wait here until our Dad and Gracie have eyeballed you. Then stroll on in like you own the place.”
Trixie’s eyes went wide for a moment. “All right. Whatever you say.”
I did my best to smile at her, though it was probably kind of shivery. “Welcome to our house.”
“Thanks, Buckley,” she said. “Thank you all again. You’re such a great bunch.” For a moment, I couldn’t tell if those were raindrops or tears rolling down her big cheeks.
But I didn’t get a chance to find out, since the footsteps sounded closer and closer, and Gracie’s voice became louder and louder.
Little Mitzi started to bounce around the porch. “When you said ‘bunch,’ you meant me, too? Right, Trixie? I’m going to be a great cat detective one day, just like Buckley and Bogey! I already know cat karate! Watch me!” She jumped onto a porch chair and launched herself into the air. “Hi-yah!”
Just as our Dad opened the door.
Mitzi went flying into the house, spraying water as she went. She barely missed Gracie’s legs by a few inches. The force of her jump even scooted the porch chair back just a little.
But “a little” was all it took to expose something that had been right underneath that chair. For sitting there on our front porch was another glass jar with a shiny black lid. It was exactly like the one we’d found earlier. Only this one had something different inside.
“Bogey . . .” I murmured as I blinked my eyes. “Those look like . . .”
Bogey raised his brows. “Yup, kid. They do look like . . .”
“Diamonds?” Lil and Trixie both blurted out at the very same moment.
“No time for this now,” Bogey said as he pointed a paw toward our front hallway.
Then he and Lil zoomed inside. In the darkness, they raced right past Gracie’s legs, kicking up water as they went. As for me, well, I used one of my big paws to bat that little jar right into our house. Kind of like I’ve seen hockey players on TV when they smack a hockey puck with a stick. I could hardly believe it, but my big paws went exactly where I wanted them to go. If I had been playing hockey, I would have scored a perfect goal. I raced in after the little jar, only seconds before our Dad shined a flashlight right onto Trixie.
“So Mrs. Bumble just sent this poor cat over to our house? To be a foster cat?” our Dad asked. “All by herself in the pouring rain? That’s really odd.”
“I know, Dad,” Gracie said with a shrug. “But that’s what my phone message said. It’s a good thing little Lexie found my phone under that buffet. I still don’t know how it got there.”
Hearing that made me smile. It meant the Princess had played her role in our plan perfectly. She’d hidden the phone on time, and then gotten it back to Gracie just like she was supposed to. At the exact, right moment.
Our Dad shook his head. “I think Mrs. Bumble should have waited until the storm was over and then brought the cat over herself.”
“And maybe asked us if we could take in another foster cat,” our Mom said with a chuckle from the other end of the room. “It’s a wonder this cat could even find her way over here. Thank goodness she didn’t get lost out there.”
Gracie gasped. “Oh, this poor kitty, she’s all wet! And look how huge she is. She’s even bigger than Buckley. The message on my phone said her name is Trixie.”
“She’s skin and bones,” our Dad said in disbelief. “It looks like she hasn’t eaten in a week.”
As Gracie took Trixie into her arms, I batted the little jar behind the potted plant in the dining room. Then I looked up to see Gracie give Trixie a nice, gentle hug. The big cat closed her eyes, probably exhausted from the journey. Not to mention, relieved to be somewhere safe.
“I’ll get her some food and water,” Gracie said softly. “Right after I get her dried off.” She didn’t seem to mind one bit that she was getting wet, with Trixie dripping water all over her.
And our Mom and Dad didn’t seem to mind, either.
That is, until the lights suddenly went back on, exposing us all. Our Mom and Dad and Gracie all gasped at the exact same moment. But Bogey just grinned and wiped more water from his face while Mitzi shook her whole body.
“Oh, my goodness,” our Mom said under her breath. “These cats ar
e all soaking wet! What in the world . . .? Do we have a leak in the roof somewhere?”
Our Dad shook his head and shut the front door. “I don’t know how they got so wet. We just got a new roof last spring. We’ve never seen a leak during any other thunderstorms.”
“It almost looks like these cats have been . . . out in the rain,” our Mom added with wide eyes. “Because they’re muddy, too.”
“I don’t know how they could have been outside,” came our Dad’s reply. “I thought they were inside the whole time.”
Our Mom shook her head. “Well, one thing’s for sure, regardless of what happened — they all need a bath.”
That’s when my breath got stuck in my throat. A bath? Did she just say a bath?
Apparently so. Because the next thing I knew, Lil, Mitzi, Trixie, Bogey and I were all being carted to the upstairs bathroom. Gracie and our Mom shut the door and started to fill the huge claw-foot tub with warm, sudsy water.
I could hardly believe what was happening. Of all the things I hated the most, a bath was probably smack dab at the top of my list. It came right after running around outside in a thunderstorm and being drenched by rain. Okay, maybe there were a few other things on my list that were higher, but a bath was still pretty high up there. As far as I was concerned, we’d had enough water for one night. Maybe even a whole year.
To top it off, Bogey and I hadn’t even had a chance to look at the second clue we’d found. Specifically, the jar that looked like it had diamonds in it. Instead, we were locked in a bathroom with no chance for escape.
Helplessly awaiting our doom.
Holy Catnip!
CHAPTER 6
Holy Mackerel!
There I was, staring at a huge, claw-foot tub that was being filled with water. Okay, maybe it wasn’t actually being filled full. The truth was, our Mom didn’t put a lot of water in the tub for a cat bath. But still, a bath is a bath, no matter how you looked at it. And I could not stop shaking in my paws at the very thought of being lowered down into that tub. Worst of all, I seemed to be the only scaredy-cat in the whole bunch.
Mitzi was so excited that she would’ve happily leaped into that tub on her own. If she’d been big enough to get up and over the sides. As it was, she jumped right out of Gracie’s hands and into the water when Gracie lowered her in. And Lil didn’t mind one bit when our Mom gently lifted her in. Trixie was so happy to be away from her old house that she didn’t care, either. In fact, I think she enjoyed getting some attention for a change. Because she went into the tub right beside Lil.
While all this was going on, Bogey grinned and nudged me in the ribs. “Don’t sweat it, kid. It’ll be over before you know it.”
Funny he should say that. Because, as far as I was concerned, a bath was something that usually went on forever.
And ever.
My brother pulled a bag of cat treats out from under a cabinet. He glanced to make sure no one was looking before he passed me a couple of treats and then took some for himself.
“Here you go, kid. This’ll take the edge off,” he said before he hid the bag again.
“Thanks,” I told him. “I needed that.”
And those were my final words before our Mom took Bogey and put him in the tub with the others.
That left me as the only cat still sitting on the tile floor. And wouldn’t you know it, but Gracie leaned down and picked me up, too. All ready to set me into the water. But I had other ideas. In fact, I decided this might be a really good time to give her a nice, big hug. After all, a cat should show appreciation to his humans every day. And when I thought about it, I realized I hadn’t shown her as much love lately as I should have. So I wrapped my arms around her neck and hung on for dear life.
She started to giggle right away. “Buckley, you have to take a bath. How did you get so wet and muddy, anyhow? I sure hope you didn’t go outside. You know I would be lost if anything ever happened to you.”
Just like I would be lost if something ever happened to her. And to show her how much I cared, I gave her a big, wet kiss on the nose.
She giggled again. “Buckley, you have to let go now.” Then she pried my arms away from her.
And before I knew it, there I was, sitting right in the middle of that tub. I let out a loud yowl and tried with everything I had to scramble my way up and out of there. But the more I tried to escape, the more I just slipped around.
I glanced over to Bogey and Lil, and I could hardly believe my eyes. The two of them looked downright calm. And if they were calm, I knew I had to do my best to be brave, too. Sometimes there’s a lot of pressure on a guy to be a big, tough cat detective — especially when he was facing down a bathtub full of water.
Holy Catnip!
But being brave was easier said than done, especially when Mitzi started to bounce around and play with the bubbles. She even splashed water in my face a few times, right before she jumped on my back. Just like she’d jumped on my back when we were running back and forth to rescue Trixie. And even though she didn’t weigh much, it was still enough to knock me over in the slippery tub. That meant we both landed in the sudsy drink. But instead of saying she was sorry, she just laughed and scampered off.
And let me tell you, I did not appreciate it one bit! I knew she was just a little kitten, but she was starting to get on my nerves. I tried to say something to her, but my words just came out like, “blub, blub, blub.” Probably because I now had suds in my mouth, thanks to all the splashing.
At least I managed to make my way to the faucet and rinse my mouth out. After that, we all got scrubbed and rinsed until we were squeaky clean. It seemed like an eternity passed before I was back in Gracie’s arms and wrapped up in a fluffy towel. More than anything in the world, I wanted to take a nice, long nap while Gracie cuddled me. Especially since it was so comfy and warm right there in the bathroom. In fact, all of a sudden, my eyelids felt like they weighed about a hundred pounds each. I could even feel them starting to droop.
Only seconds before Gracie’s cell phone rang. Then without so much as a “Here you go, Buckley,” she plopped me on the floor and answered her phone.
“Uh-huh, Sophie,” I heard her say. “That’s right, our lights went out, too . . .”
Our Mom wrapped Lil in a big, blue towel and waved to get Gracie’s attention. “Please tell Sophie that you’ll call her back later. Right now I need you to go get some food for the cats and bring it up here.”
Gracie’s eyes took on kind of a funny, glazed look, like she didn’t know where she was for a moment or two. But then she snapped out of it.
“Oh, okay, Mom,” she said before she got off the phone and dropped it in her pocket. Then she left the bathroom and shut the door behind her.
Our Mom picked up Trixie and dried her off, too. Without hesitating, the big cat leaned into our Mom and started to purr. Very, very loudly. As loud as a lawn mower. In fact, I’ve never heard a cat purr like she did. I thought Bogey and I purred loudly, but ours was nothing compared to hers.
“There you go, big girl,” our Mom murmured as she set Trixie carefully on the floor again.
Trixie looked right up at our Mom and meowed her thanks.
Mitzi, on the other hand, didn’t want to hold still when it was her turn to get dried off. Despite all that, our Mom had everyone toweled off by the time Gracie returned with six plates and a couple of cans of tuna fish.
The Princess pranced right into the bathroom behind Gracie and joined us. “Welcome to our home, Trixie,” the Princess meowed graciously. “I’m so glad the rescue went well. I was once rescued from a bad situation myself, so I know what it’s like to be in your paws. Just know that you are safe now and you couldn’t be staying in a better home.”
“Thank you,” Trixie meowed back with tears in her eyes. “I can’t even begin to tell you how grateful I am. To all of you. I wish there were some way I could repay everyone.”
The Princess waved her off. “You don’t owe us a thing. And who knows?
Maybe you’ll end up rescuing another cat in danger some day. But right now, please just enjoy a nice meal and don’t worry about a thing.”
I found myself smiling at the Princess. She was always so kind and thoughtful. Just looking at her and hearing her words was enough to make my heart go thump, thump, thump. Really loud. So loud I was afraid someone else might hear it. Thankfully, none of the other cats were paying attention to me. Because Gracie didn’t waste any time dishing out our dinner and putting the plates in front of us.
Let me tell you, I took one good whiff of that tuna fish and I suddenly realized how hungry I was! As near as I could tell, everyone else was, too. Because we all dug into our dinners and barely came up for air. I couldn’t remember when food ever tasted so good.
I could only imagine how Trixie must have felt.
Though I was starting to get a pretty good idea when I saw her eat and eat and eat some more. Like she hadn’t had any food in a year.
I was so glad she was here with us. And I couldn’t help but feel proud when I played back the whole rescue in my head. It took more courage than I knew I had to run through that scary thunderstorm. Not to mention, climb up onto that slippery roof and get her down. But now that I saw her looking so happy, I had to say — going out in that awful storm and saving her was one of the best things I’ve ever done.
And I’d do it all over again if I had to.
Especially since I knew our Mom and Dad and Gracie would take really good care of her. And of course, us cats would help out plenty, too. I only hoped the people at that creepy mansion wouldn’t try to find her and take her back. Just thinking about it made a shiver run up and down my spine.
But I didn’t have time to think about that now. Not with such good food in front of me. And not when all the other cats were having so much fun.
In fact, the whole thing turned into quite a party before long. Bogey pulled out his hidden bag of cat treats and passed around plenty for everyone. The Princess and Trixie kept on chatting away, like they were old friends. Lil watched as Mitzi showed off her “cat karate” and hit a stack of toilet paper rolls with a loud “Hi-yah!” The rolls tumbled in all around her, but that didn’t seem to bother Mitzi one bit. She just grabbed the end of one roll and ran. Seconds later, she had that whole roll of toilet paper wound around the room.
The Case of Too Many Clues Page 6
