The Case of the Cat Show Princess

by Cindy Vincent

  “Why, Madame! I never!” the Count huffed.

  “Why, Count. I believe you have,” my Mom told him. “Made up stories, that is.”

  “They’re coming closer,” Bogey whispered to me. “Remember, kid, act like you’ve been sound asleep for hours.”

  “Um, okay,” I told him. I rolled over onto my back and put my feet up in the air. “But I have a quick question. Why did you tell me to stop the mission back there? Why didn’t we just get the Princess to run off with us?”

  Bogey glanced outside our cage. “I know it was hard to leave her, kid. But think about it. You’d already been spotted. And chances are, you and the Princess would have been caught if you ran off. If you weren’t caught right away, they would have always been looking for her. And you.”

  I shivered. “That sounds kind of scary.”

  “Yup, kid,” Bogey said. “It would have been scary, all right. Especially since you couldn’t have gone home, or they would have found you there. So where would you live? On the streets? You might be able to fend for yourself. But a pampered girl like the Princess would never survive in the big, bad world.”

  “Oh,” I said. “I guess it’s kind of complicated.”

  Bogey touched me on the shoulder. “Don’t sweat it, kid. We’ll get Lil’s help tonight and figure out an even better plan.”

  Suddenly Felicia Fairweather’s voice boomed just a few feet away. “All right. All right, now. We shall settle this once and for all when we see if Buckley is in his cage.”

  We heard footsteps coming closer, and I squeezed my eyes tightly shut.

  Then I heard Bogey start to meow at them.

  “Bogey!” Gracie hollered. “I’m so glad you’re okay! I thought we lost you. Oh, Bogey!”

  Right about then I was pretty sure she had him cradled in her arms.

  Now I could sense my Mom looking in on me. “See,” she whispered. “Buckley has been here the whole time. He’s sound asleep. Probably been sleeping since we left him.”

  “Well,” Felicia said, “he sure does look like he’s asleep to me.”

  For effect, I started to snore. Really loud.

  “I don’t care,” answered the Count. “I want this beast banned from the cat show.”

  And even though I was pretending to be asleep, I felt my heart sinking once again. If that man had me removed from the cat show, I would never be able to save the Princess.

  “Nobody’s going to ban my cats,” my Mom told him. “After all, we received a personal invitation to attend.”

  “A personal invitation?” Felicia asked.

  “Why, yes, Felicia. The letter came from you,” my Mom told her.

  “But, Abigail,” said Felicia. “I don’t recall sending out any personal invitations.”

  Uh-oh. Was this the end of the line for us? Were we about to get kicked out of the cat show, once and for all?

  I yawned and stretched and pretended like I had just woken up. If nothing else, I figured now might be a good time to go into my “cute” routine.

  I sat up and looked adoringly at my Mom and Felicia. I tilted my head one way and then the other. I noticed my Mom had Bogey’s new blue ribbon in her hand. I wanted to congratulate him, but I knew it would have to wait.

  Felicia smiled at me. “Oh, isn’t Buckley cute?”

  The Count stamped his feet. “He’s a monster in disguise. He’s been pestering Princess Alexandra all day. That cat should be removed permanently and sent to the pound.”

  That’s when my Mom suddenly cried out. I sat at full attention and looked at her. I sure wished I could have given her a kiss on the nose right about then. Because it sure was nice to know how she felt about someone wanting to send me to the pound.

  But then I noticed she had grabbed her wrist. Was my Mom hurt?

  “My bracelet!” she cried out. “Oh, no! It’s gone!”

  My heart suddenly started to pound really loud inside my chest. I could hardly believe it! Mom’s favorite bracelet gone! I knew how much that bracelet meant to her. My Dad had given it to her as a present. She loved it. It was an antique and one of a kind.

  And now it was missing.

  I shook my head. Because if I thought things were complicated before, well, that was nothing compared to now. Not only did we have to rescue the Princess. But I had a feeling we were going to need every one of our cat detective skills to help find our Mom’s bracelet, too.

  And we had to do it all during what was left of the cat show weekend.

  Holy Mackerel!

  CHAPTER 11

  Holy Catnip! I stared at my Mom’s wrist. I just didn’t want to believe that her bracelet was really gone. Instead I sort of hoped we might be in the middle of a magic show. And maybe somebody would yell “Ta-da!” and her bracelet would appear back on her wrist again.

  But it didn’t happen that way.

  Felicia touched my Mom’s arm. “My dear, what happened to your bracelet?”

  Tears formed in my Mom’s eyes. “It’s missing. I know I was wearing it earlier. But now it’s gone.”

  Gracie gave my Mom a quick hug. “It can’t be far away, Mom. I’ll trace our steps and see if I can find it.”

  My Mom kissed the top of her head. “Thanks, honey, that would be great.”

  Gracie turned and started walking in the direction of the Agility area. She kept her chin down and her eyes to the floor. I watched her head move from side to side, and I could tell she was searching every inch of that floor.

  Now Felicia put her arm around my Mom’s shoulders. “What did your bracelet look like, dear?”

  My Mom wiped away a couple of tears. “It was about a hundred years old. And it was gold with several nice diamonds in it. Plus there were daisy designs in the gold.”

  “That’s a good description,” Felicia said. “Now don’t worry, Abigail. I’ll make an announcement over the loud speaker. We’ll find your bracelet.”

  And that’s when I noticed something really strange. The Count had suddenly become very, very quiet. I could hardly believe it. Especially since he’d been so upset only a few minutes ago. He’d been yelling and shouting and making a huge fuss. Besides that, he’d absolutely insisted that I get thrown out of the cat show.

  But now he was silent.

  What was going on?

  He took a step back from my Mom and Felicia. Then he stared at me with his mean, dark eyes. It gave me the shivers. Because, to tell you the truth, I got the feeling he wanted to smack me like he almost smacked the Princess.

  Just the thought of him raising a hand to the Princess made me mad. And being mad gave me courage that I didn’t even know I had.

  So I stood up tall and stared right back at him. Somebody needed to teach this Count a lesson. And if that somebody was me, well, so be it!

  But before I could make a move, the Count made a funny grunting sound and stuck his nose up in the air. Then he spun around on his heel and marched off.

  Bogey touched me on the shoulder. “I smell something fishy here, kid.”

  I wasn’t sure what he was getting at. “Lunch?” I asked him.

  Bogey shook his head. “Nope, kid. About the bracelet. Our Mom would never lose that bracelet. She has a safety chain on it. So if the latch ever comes undone, the chain keeps the bracelet from falling off her wrist.”

  I nodded. “I know. I can’t believe she lost it.”

  Bogey glanced outside our cage. “Me neither, kid. Me neither.”

  Now I felt my eyes go wide. “But if she didn’t lose it, that means the bracelet was . . . ”

  Bogey nodded. “Yup, you got it, kid. It means the bracelet was stolen.”

  I suddenly felt a little dizzy. Who would want to steal our Mom’s bracelet? And how did they steal it? Because the only way they could have stolen it was to take it right off her wrist.

  Holy Mackerel!

  I was about to say more when Ranger’s voice rang out from behind our cage.

  “Knock, knock,” he hollered. “Anybod
y home?”

  I picked up our back curtain and saw that Ranger had done the same thing.

  I waved at him. “Hey, looks like you got back into your cage okay.”

  He grinned at us. “Oh, yeah. My Mom found me. Then she hugged me like she hadn’t seen me in a million years. She was crying and gushing all over the place. And of course, she was talking baby talk to me. It reminded me of the time I got out of my harness while I was hunting frogs near the Colorado River.”

  “Wow,” I sighed. “Hunting frogs sounds so cool.”

  Bogey passed us all a cat treat. “We might need your hunting skills now. Our Mom’s diamond bracelet has gone missing. My guess is, it’ll be up to us to find it.”

  For once, Ranger’s eyes went wide. “A diamond bracelet? Missing? I know my Mom would be pretty upset if her bracelet went missing.”

  I nodded. “And there’s even more to the story.”

  I was about to tell him how Bogey and I thought the bracelet had been stolen. But I was interrupted by an announcement on the loud speaker.

  It was Felicia Fairweather. “Attention, everyone. Attention, please. I would like you to look around your areas for a missing antique bracelet. If you find it, please return that bracelet at once to Abigail Abernathy. She’s at cage number 724.”

  Felicia had barely finished her announcement when it seemed like every human at the cat show started talking at once. There was so much noise that Bogey and Ranger and I couldn’t even hear each other speak.

  So we waved good-bye to Ranger and moved to the front of our cage to peek out.

  That’s when my Mom reached in and kissed us both on the top of our heads. Then she finally zipped up our cage again.

  Of course, I kept quiet when Bogey sneaked a cat toy into the spot where the zippers met.

  Was he planning another mission outside of our cage?

  Holy Catnip!

  Bogey and I watched as our Mom attached Bogey’s new blue ribbon to our cage. I gave him a paws up for the moment. I knew I’d have to wait for the hubbub to quiet down before I could congratulate him.

  But the noise outside just kept getting louder and louder and louder. People were running all over the place. They looked under tables and behind cat cages and anywhere they could think of. About five minutes later, at least ten cat Moms had stopped in front of our cage. Each of them wanted to talk to our Mom.

  “Oh, Abigail, your bracelet is missing? My ring is missing, too. It belonged to my grandmother,” one lady said.

  Another was crying. “I have a bracelet missing, too.”

  And another of the Moms said, “For me, it’s my necklace. A big diamond necklace. It was given to me by my Great Aunt. And it was given to her by a Prince she once dated.”

  Before long, Bogey and I had overheard lots of stories about lots of missing jewelry. And not the kind of inexpensive jewelry that cat Moms sometimes wear. Oh, no. The stuff that was missing was expensive. And most of those things had been passed down in people’s families.

  Now Felicia Fairweather joined the group. Right away, the women all turned to her and starting speaking at once. From where Bogey and I sat, the uproar was almost more than we could stand.

  Felicia raised her hands for silence. “Rest assured, ladies. There is no question that this is a matter for the police.”

  Bogey and I looked at each other. The police?

  Bogey leaned over and meowed into my ear. “I think we’ve got a cat burglar on our hands.”

  “A cat burglar?” I meowed back. “What’s a cat burglar?”

  Bogey nodded. “A cat burglar is a thief who can come and go as quietly as any cat. And they’re usually pretty sneaky, too. They can slip jewelry off someone without them even knowing it.”

  I’m sure right about then my eyes went as wide as my cat dish. “Wow. So is this burglar a human or a cat?”

  Bogey glanced outside our cage. “That’s a good question, kid. Could be either. Wish I knew the answer.”

  Well, we might not have known who the cat burglar was. But one thing was for sure — there was nothing quiet about the cat Moms standing in our row. Because they had all started talking or crying or waving their arms again.

  Finally, Felicia Fairweather clapped her hands. “Ladies, we need to get to the bottom of this right away. And we won’t accomplish a thing if we just stand here gabbing.”

  She took two of the ladies by the arm. “Come with me, everyone. Let’s go to my office and call the police immediately.”

  Our Mom and Gracie blew us a quick kiss good-bye, and off they went. The whole group of women followed Felicia and they kept on talking the entire time.

  With all the commotion, it seemed the cat show had come to a complete halt.

  And judging from the grin on Bogey’s face, I guessed it was just the break we needed.

  Bogey sat up and stretched his front legs. “Are you thinking what I’m thinking, kid?”

  I put a paw to my mouth. “Um, maybe.” Though to tell you the truth, I wasn’t really sure what he was thinking.

  Even so, I did my best to put the pieces together. After all, that’s what cat detectives were supposed to do. I started by remembering that we had come to the cat show to save the Princess. And now the whole place was in chaos thanks to the burglaries. That meant no one was paying attention to the cats. So it might be the perfect time to . . .

  Suddenly, I was pretty sure I had the answer to Bogey’s question. I sat up straight and raised my paw. “It’s the perfect time for us to go rescue the Princess.”

  Bogey grinned and tossed me a cat treat. “You got it, kid. You’re getting the hang of this business. With all the hoopla going on around us, nobody will notice a couple of cats running around.”

  “So we’re going to leave our cage again?” I asked him.

  Bogey nodded and tugged the cat toy from between the zipper pulls. “That’s right, kid. Time for us to get back to the Princess.”

  “Aye-aye.” I tried to salute him, but this time I poked myself in the ear with my huge paw. Someday I was going to figure out how to salute without hitting something I didn’t want to hit.

  Bogey jumped around to face the back of the cage. “But first things first, kid. Let’s help our Mom before we go. Let’s spread the word about the stolen jewelry. And see if anyone has seen anything suspicious.”

  I spun around to face him. “Oh, how do we do that?”

  Bogey pulled up the back curtain. “Let’s start with Ranger.”

  We saw Ranger had left his curtain up and was lolling on his side. His eyes were half closed and he looked like he was about to fall asleep.

  But he opened his eyes wide again when we meowed to him. “Hey, glad to see you guys. Can you believe all the fuss around here? I can hardly hear myself think.”

  Bogey nodded. “I know just what you mean.” Then Bogey quickly told him the whole story about our Mom’s bracelet and how we thought it had been stolen. And he told him that other cat Moms had missing jewelry that we believed had been stolen, too. Finally, Bogey told Ranger about Felicia taking everyone to contact the police.

  Bogey finished by saying, “I think we’ve got a cat burglar at work here.”

  Ranger yawned and sat up at attention. “I’ve never even been up close and personal to a cat burglar before. So this will be something new for me. And I’ll bet you guys will be on the case, right?”

  Bogey nodded. “Yup. You got it.”

  Ranger looked from me to Bogey. “Just let me know how I can help.”

  “Thanks,” Bogey said. “We could use your help, all right. We’d like you to pass the word around. Find out if anyone has seen or heard anything. Have them pass any information back to you. Then you can let us know.”

  Ranger gave us a paw bump. “I’m on it, guys. I’ll start asking right away.”

  “Thanks a bunch,” I told him. “If all of us cats work together, we’ll find this cat burglar. And, we’ll find all the missing jewelry, too.”

 
And then the strangest thing happened. Ranger saluted Bogey and then he saluted me, too.

  Holy Mackerel!

  Right about then, my mouth fell open and my chin practically hit the floor. I’d never had anyone salute me before! And to tell you the truth, it felt pretty nice.

  But before I could say a word, Ranger turned and meowed to the cats in the cage next to his. Holy Catnip! When he said he was going to get started right away, well, he wasn’t kidding!

  Now Bogey nodded at me. “Okay, kid. Let’s finish up here and go save the Princess. I’ll talk to the Siamese next door if you’ll take the kittens. Just ask them to do exactly what we asked Ranger.”

  I watched him lift the side curtain and call out to the Siamese. So I turned to the other side and hollered to the kittens.

  And boy, oh, boy, I sure was glad he hadn’t asked me to talk to the Siamese while he talked to the kittens. As far as I was concerned, I’d had just about as much of that Siamese as I could take for one day.

  “Hello,” I called out as I lifted up the curtain. “Hello, Havana Browns.”

  “Hi, hi, hi, hi!” I heard them say just a few seconds later.

  “Hello,” I said again. “My name is Buckley and I need your help.”

  The smallest of the bunch looked up at me with wide eyes. “Wow,” he said. “We’ve never seen you up close before. You must be the biggest cat in the world.”

  “Gee,” another one said. “I sure hope we get to be as big as you some day.”

  I smiled at them. “Thanks. And don’t worry. You’ll get bigger some day, too. After all, I was a kitten once, and look how much I’ve grown up. If you can believe it, I’ve still got more growing to do.”

  “Wow,” all four kittens said at the same time.

  I couldn’t help but feel proud. There was something nice about having the little cats look up to me. Especially since I was still a rookie. And because I always looked up to Bogey, it felt pretty good to be on the other side of things for once.

  Besides, when I watched the kittens, I remembered what I felt like when I was that young. I’d come a long way since those days. I’d learned so many things I could hardly count them all. Back then I never even dreamed I’d be a cat detective someday. Now here I was, working on a really big and important case.