The Case of the Jewel Covered Cat Statues

by Cindy Vincent

  “We sure learned a lot at the Museum,” I said to him.

  Bogey passed me a cat treat. “You got that right, kid. Just a few more pieces to this puzzle.”

  I took the treat and started to munch on it. “It looked like Byron and that lady, Delilah, knew each other.”

  Bogey took a treat for himself. “From a long time ago, I would say, kid.”

  I shook my head. “Boy, it was hard to tell if they liked each other or not.”

  Bogey passed me a second treat and took another one, too. “I hear you, kid. I’m guessing they were friends once. But I don’t think they’re friends any more.”

  “That’s kind of sad.” I popped the next treat into my mouth and munched away.

  Bogey nodded. “You can say that again, kid. Hard to imagine not being friends with your friends any more.”

  Holy Catnip. I remembered what my life had been like before I had Bogey for my best friend and my brother. Or before I had Lil or the Princess or any of the rest of my family. To tell you the truth, it was pretty lonely. I was on my own. And the world seemed like a big, scary place.

  And well, it still seemed like a big, scary place sometimes. But having my brother and my family and friends made the world seem a whole lot less scary.

  Just then, we heard piano music coming from the living room. It was the song that Gracie was practicing for her recital on Saturday at church. She’d been practicing a bunch. She told us the name of the song she was going to play was called “Rondo Espressivo.” That was quite a name, if you asked me. She said it was written a long time ago by a guy named Carl Phillipp Emanuel Bach. Well, I’ll bet it sounded just as pretty then as it did now.

  Bogey stashed the treats in his hiding place and nodded to me. I knew exactly what he meant and we made a beeline for the living room. Us cats always gathered around while Gracie played the piano. It was like having a concert right there in our own house.

  Lil and the Princess were already there when we trotted in. They waved hello, and we joined them to make kind of a semi-circle around the back of the shiny black, baby grand piano.

  “Did you see the Daunton statues, Buckley?” the Princess whispered.

  “Uh-huh,” I whispered back. “They were really beautiful and sparkly.”

  Lil glanced from me to Bogey. “We’ll want to hear all about the Museum when you get a chance.”

  “You got it,” Bogey said in a low voice. “I’ll fill you in when we’re done here.”

  After that, we all kept quiet and just listened to Gracie’s song. I slid down onto the floor and closed my eyes. Gracie played on and on, and I just sort of floated away. I could feel a smile slide right across my face.

  Then Gracie hit two wrong keys and stopped playing. That’s when I kind of woke up. Just in time to see our Mom walk in.

  She smiled at Gracie. “How’s it going?”

  Gracie shook her head. “Not very good. This is an awfully hard piece to play. Way too hard for me.”

  Our Mom slid her arm around Gracie’s shoulders. “It sounded to me like you were playing it pretty well.”

  Gracie sighed. “But then I make mistakes. I always make mistakes.”

  Our Mom picked up the sheet music that was sitting up on the music-holder shelf of the piano. “Nobody does anything perfect at first. But the more we practice, the better we get at something. It just takes a little time.”

  A tear rolled down Gracie’s cheek. “It doesn’t seem like I’m getting any better.”

  Well, let me tell you, I knew exactly what that felt like! I kept trying and trying to be a good cat detective, and sometimes it didn’t seem like I was getting any better either. To tell you the truth, lots of days I felt like I was barely more than a rookie. I really wanted to be a great cat detective just like Bogey. But so far, well, I wasn’t even half as good as he was. And I still made lots of mistakes.

  Even so, when I looked back, I had to say, I really had learned lots of things. There was a time when I didn’t even know how to run surveillance. And I didn’t know anything about creating a distraction, either. And well, I’d never helped to solve a case before. But now I’d done all those things. So, I guess when I thought about it, maybe I was getting to be a better cat detective.

  Maybe better than I thought.

  Just like Gracie was getting to be a better piano player. After all, the first time she played this piece of music, she couldn’t even make it all the way through. Now she played most of it really well, with only a few mistakes. And she made fewer mistakes every time she played it.

  I smiled up at her. Somehow I had to let her know that she was going to get better at playing her song. Just like I was probably going to get better at being a cat detective.

  So I jumped up on the piano bench right beside her. Then I reached up and gave her a kiss on the nose.

  I guess it must have cheered her up, because she started to giggle. And I figured if one kiss was good, two kisses were probably even better. So I gave her a second kiss. That’s when she wrapped her arms around me and held me tight.

  Now Bogey got in on the action. He jumped up on the piano, on the ledge right above the keyboard. Then he reached his paws down and hit a few piano keys. Like he was trying to get her to start playing again.

  Our Mom laughed. “It looks like Buckley and Bogey like your piano playing!”

  Lil and the Princess sat up nice and tall. Lil meowed and the Princess started to purr.

  Our Mom petted everyone on the head. “And the rest of the cats seem to like it, too!”

  “I wish they could come to my recital,” Gracie said. “Then it wouldn’t be so scary.”

  Our Mom put the sheet music back on the piano. “Much as we love them, I think they’d better stay home.”

  Gracie kissed me on top of my head. “But they’ll be going to church anyway on Friday. For the Blessing of the Animals.”

  The Blessing of the Animals? I leaned back and looked at Gracie’s face.

  She smiled down at me. “That’s right, Buckley. You and Bogey and Lexie are all going. Lil and Miss Mokie have already gone before. So now it’s your turn. You’re going to be blessed by the minister.”

  I was? As far as I was concerned, I was really blessed already. I had my brother and my family and my home and plenty of food to eat.

  I gave Gracie another kiss on the nose. She giggled again and put me on the seat beside her.

  Then she took a deep breath. “Mom, I don’t think I can do this. I think this music is too hard for me.”

  Our Mom stood right next to the piano. “Are you sure, honey? Your teacher seems to think you can play it.”

  I leaned against Gracie and purred. I thought she could play it, too.

  Gracie shook her head. “I’ve never played anything this hard before. It’ll be really scary to play this in front of a bunch of people.”

  “I see,” our Mom said softly. “You know, sometimes it’s good to stretch ourselves a little. Having a challenge can make us do bigger and better things. Sometimes we don’t even know what we’re capable of until we try.”

  “Do you really think so?” Gracie murmured.

  Our Mom nodded. “I do. If we never try to do something difficult, we never grow and improve ourselves.”

  “Maybe . . .” Gracie sort of sighed.

  But I knew our Mom was right. I’d learned the same thing as a cat detective. Bogey knew I could do lots of stuff that I never dreamed I could do. And long before I actually did it. That was how I did get to be a better cat detective.

  Our Mom touched Gracie’s shoulder. “Why don’t you try practicing some more? Maybe that’s all you need.”

  “Okay, Mom,” Gracie said. Then she started to play again.

  I jumped down and rubbed our Mom around her legs. I had to say, she sure gave Gracie some great advice. And now I wondered if I needed some great advice, too. To become an even better cat detective. Maybe I could start by figuring out why I got so distracted by those sparkly statu
es today. And why I didn’t see the little symbols on the bottom of them.

  I knew just the place to go to get the kind of advice I needed.

  The only problem was, I was scared to go there.

  The Wise One.

  Actually, she wasn’t a “place” at all. Instead, she was a very, very, very old cat. Her real name was Miss Mokie, and she was so old you could even say she was ancient. It was said she'd been to lots of different places and seen lots of different things in her lifetime. Some said she'd even flown on an airplane once. Bogey told me she'd lived in five different states and two different countries.

  Apparently, that’s the way it goes when you add more candles to your birthday cake. Because the older you get, the more places you’ve been and the more you’ve learned in life. So by the time you get to be as old as Miss Mokie, you have all kinds of wisdom. And let me tell you, that old cat in the sunroom was known for her wisdom. That's why everyone just called her “The Wise One.” She was absolutely revered among us cats.

  Yet even though she'd become very wise, her joints were kind of stiff and achy. That meant she had a hard time getting around the house. So she mostly just stayed in the sunroom where she could feel the warmth of the sun. The heat made her aching joints feel a whole lot better.

  I didn’t usually see much of the Wise One. Except during our surveillance runs at night. Mostly I just stayed away from her. To tell you the truth, I was really kind of scared of the Wise One. It was said she once ruled our household with an iron paw. Besides that, every time I talked to her, I felt like she was reading my mind or something.

  Even so, whenever us cats needed advice, she always seemed to have the answer.

  And this was one time when I needed some answers.

  So I took a deep breath and trotted up the stairs to the second floor. I kept on moving until I reached the door of the sunroom. That’s when I froze in my tracks and started to shake in my paws just a little bit.

  For some reason, I couldn’t make myself go inside that sunroom. I even started to wonder if I really needed her advice as much as I thought I did. Come to think of it, maybe I should have asked Bogey instead. And well, I sure didn’t want to bother Miss Mokie if she was taking a nap or something.

  Still, because she was so old and wise, I knew she’d have some good information for me. And I really wanted to hear what she thought about the situation.

  But what would I say to her? How would I ask for advice?

  It was always so hard to know how to act in the presence of one so honored as Miss Mokie. It was almost like I needed advice on how to ask for advice!

  Holy Catnip!

  I tried to take just one step toward the doorway. But my big paws suddenly seemed to weigh about a thousand pounds more than they did a few minutes ago. And no matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t make them move.

  Then I saw a white streak headed my way. It looked an awful lot like the ghost I thought I saw the other night. The ghost that really turned out to be the Princess.

  Just like this time.

  She came to stand right beside me. And if I thought I was having a hard time already, well, it was nothing compared to how I felt now. When the Princess stared at me with her big, green eyes.

  “Hello, Buckley,” she said in her sweet voice. “Are you having a little trouble?”

  “Um, no,” I told her. “I don’t think so . . . Um, okay, maybe just a little. Okay . . . maybe a lot.”

  “Want me to go in with you?” she asked. “You know, for moral support? After all, Miss Mokie and I have become friends.”

  “Oh, okay,” I told her. “That would be nice.” I tried to smile, but I’m sure my lips were sort of trembling a little.

  The Princess didn’t have a problem smiling. “Let’s go then.”

  And so we did. The Princess ran in front of me, and I managed to follow. Miss Mokie noticed us the second we walked in. She was a huge, gray cat with long fur. Her fur stuck out in a ruff around her neck that kind of made her look like a lion. She was lounging on her purple velvet couch with her long arms stretched out before her. And even though she was a little wobbly these days, her green eyes were still bright and full of life.

  She raised a paw, letting us know that we should halt. “Please announce yourselves.”

  The Princess and I both bowed.

  Then I cleared my throat. “Detective Buckley Bergdorf and Princess Alexandra here to see you, oh Reverent One.”

  She nodded to us, like a queen nodding to her subjects. “Ah, yes, young ones. Please enter and partake of a drink.” She pointed a paw in the direction of her private water dish.

  I let the Princess take a drink first. Then I leaned over the dish and took a sip. It would have been rude not to. And us cats always used our very best manners around Miss Mokie.

  When I stood up again, Miss Mokie nodded to me. “I can see something is troubling you, young Detective. What is the purpose of your visit?”

  “Well, um . . .” I started to say.

  The Princess looked right at me. “You can do this, Buckley. Just tell her what’s on your mind.” Then she moved over to a chair, jumped up, and settled into place.

  Miss Mokie waved her paw above me. “Yes, please proceed, young Detective.”

  “Um, okay . . .” I started. “It’s kind of hard to explain. But when Bogey and I were at the Museum today, investigating our case, we saw some little statues in the Daunton Exhibit.”

  “Ah, yes,” Miss Mokie murmured. “I’ve heard of such statues. I should guess you have, too, Princess Alexandra.”

  The Princess smiled and nodded. “I have. They’re considered some of the most prized, jeweled pieces in the world. Especially the pair of cats that went missing.”

  I raised my brow. “Bogey and I saw painted pictures of those statues. I can see they were the prettiest of all. Mr. Daunton sure must have loved his cats.”

  “As well he should have,” the Wise One said. “But tell me, young Detective, why does this pose a dilemma for you?”

  I sighed. “Because those statues were so pretty and covered with jewels. And the lights were so bright and everything was so sparkly and glittery . . . and well, I kind of lost myself and I could barely think straight with everything around me shining all over the place. And, I guess you could say I got a little dazzled. And distracted.”

  “I see,” the Wise One added. “And this created a problem for you?”

  “Oh yes,” I nodded my chin really fast. “Because I completely missed the important stuff. I didn’t even see the tiny symbols near the bottom of each statue. And it turns out that was the stuff I should have been looking at. Instead of all the pretty sparkly stuff. Those little symbols could be the most important clues of all. And if Bogey hadn’t seen them, well, I never would have spotted them.”

  “Ah, yes,” Miss Mokie said. “Yours is an age-old problem.”

  Now my eyes went wide. “It is?”

  “Most definitely. As I’m sure young Princess Alexandra can attest to. Jewels and things that shine and sparkle have always been coveted. Though mostly by humans, rather than cats.”

  “Really?” I asked.

  “Yes, young one. Humans especially are easily taken in by anything that shines. Gold and silver and diamonds and rubies. To name but a few. And most certainly, there is nothing wrong with owning and collecting objects of great beauty. But, when the quest for those objects makes you do terrible things, that’s when you’ve crossed a line.”

  The Princess sat up. “I knew all about that in my former life, Buckley. I saw humans do all kinds of mean things to each other. They would lie and cheat and steal. They would deceive their own friends, just so they could own some priceless jewels.”

  That’s when I felt my chin practically drop to the floor. How could someone do something like that to a friend? I sure couldn’t understand it.

  Though I knew one thing for sure — I didn’t want to be like those people! My friends were too important to me. Maybe t
hat meant I’d better start watching out for shiny things right away!

  My heart began to pound. “But how can I make sure it never happens again? How can I stop myself from being dazzled like that another time?”

  The Wise One flexed a front paw. “Ah, yes. The answer is easy. Always look deeper. Always look past the shine and outer beauty to see what is underneath. That goes for people and cats and any objects.”

  “Oh . . .” I murmured. “So I shouldn’t just look at the shiny part. I should look at the rest of it, too.”

  For once, Miss Mokie smiled. “You have learned well, Grasshopper. And now you must leave me, for I need my rest.”

  With those words, she closed her eyes.

  “Thank you,” I said quietly before I bowed again and backed out of the room.

  The Princess smiled at me once more. I knew she’d be staying in the sunroom with Miss Mokie. She liked to watch over the older cat to make sure she was okay. We all appreciated the Princess doing that. Especially since having one so old and wise in our house was such a blessing for us all.

  I scooted out the door and headed down the hall. I couldn’t hear any more music coming from the living room, so I figured Gracie had finished her piano practice.

  I started down the stairs and ran into Bogey as he was coming up.

  He waved me over. “I’ve been looking for you, kid,” he said quietly. “I filled Lil in on our museum trip. Then I went to our Mom’s office. You’ll never believe what I found on the Internet.”

  “Another piece to the puzzle?” I asked him.

  He glanced down the stairs. “You got it, kid. I’ll show you tonight on the computer. After we run surveillance. It’s about those missing cat statues.”

  Suddenly I seemed to have a hard time breathing. “It is?”

  He looked up the stairs. “Yup, kid. But I’ve got just one thing to say right now.”

  “What is it?” I asked.

  He leaned in closer to my ear. “We’ve gotta go to our Mom’s store in the morning, kid. No matter what.”

  That’s when my heart practically skipped a beat.

  What in the world was going on? And what did it have to do with those cat statues?