AMBER LOVE 24-JULY-2017 My work is supported by the generous backers who tolerate my cat stories at Patreon.com/amberunmasked and they also get first access to what’s happening with my books and podcast.
Where we left off…
Detective Inspector Guster Nabu and his partner at the detective agency, Professor Oliver Winchester were happy to have their biographer return to a normal schedule after a long week of training. Gus has continued hunting for intruding rabbits and shows no interest in hiring a new protege.
The Blue Dahlia
THE WINCHESTER-NABU ESTATE. EXTERIOR HUNTING GROUNDS.
As his human companion and biographer, Detective Inspector Guster Nabu has to tolerate some of my behavior whether he likes it or not. If he gets annoyed enough, he’ll leave our domicile and spend hours in Oliver’s tower. I’m not sure how Oliver feels about that. This being said, when I began writing about my experience in the first week of yoga immersion and I turned on some chants I found online, Gus was like, “What is this hippie shit?” He takes the Ron Swanson approach in appreciating nature. Gus is big fan of stretching, but he has more love for parkour than for yoga vinyasas.
Oliver really digs guided meditations and new age music though. After spending time out on the second floor balcony to listen to rain, watch elder humans, and eat the brand new flower blooms, Ollie came back inside and was ready to get his yoga on. He’s a believer in yoga making his mind more focused so he can solve more mysteries. He’s tried to add a protocol for it into the official Winchester-Nabu Detective Agency personnel manual, but Gus thinks the less rules written, the better.
Clearly, Oliver is on to something. The Winchester-Nabu Detective Agency was presented with a new case. The Grumpy Old Man couldn’t find his camera. Supposedly all the usual spots were checked: the cars, the truck, the trailer, the house. Oliver looked right at the humans and said the most logical conclusion would be to check the trailer again. Lo and behold, the missing camera was there. It was a simple case.
DI Guster Nabu continued this week with checking the usual spots for bunnies. Several times he went back to confirm that the freeloading baby bunnies were no longer behind the workshop at the border of Bunny Hollow. It makes me sad, because I loved having baby bunnies there. Gus has decided to not only chase free-roaming cats of the neighborhood from the estate, but also basically anything that moves.
He regularly spots adult bunnies in the plot next door where he’s not allowed. He may try and beg, but he’s not allowed to go after those rabbits. They seem to realize they’re safe there. The younger one will run several feet away, but the larger one just gives Gus a look. You know that look. The Fuck you, pal, I’m eating and minding my own business and you don’t want to start trouble here, look. It’s kind of a badass big bunny.
We had approached the 45-minute mark of our adventurous walk around the grounds. Gus was still in the mood for some real kickass action. I was ready to go back inside to the air conditioning. It was getting late. Like after 7PM (yeah yeah I’m an old fart). Since Gus lead me to the main entrance we use for the detective agency on the side of the main house, I thought maybe it was time to go in and relax. Instead, he checked out the new sunflower stalks and turned back around.
He lead the way to the central garden’s lilac bush. I know birds nest inside the bushes, but given Gus’ track record with only having caught two mice so far (which I was kind of thought Ollie did and Gus was stealing the credit), I didn’t expect Gus to have much chance with birds. He was obsessed with the finches while they lived on the second floor and rented space from the agency headquarters, but he was never allowed to touch them. Plus, when Gus is on his leash, he’s wearing a jingle bell and tethered to a large human with no ninja skills.
The rain had stopped but the sky was still overcast with that blanket of soft grey. It seemed like so many people on Instagram were finding beautiful rainbows to photograph. I found the slightest relief from my depression when I looked up and spotted a barely visible chunk of a rainbow high up in the sky without arches that could reach the ground.
I looked down to check on Gus and saw him studying the lilac bush. I squatted down to see if I could notice anything. I didn’t. He jumped in and out so fast, he startled me and I almost fell back on my ass. More startling was that he actually caught something!
It was a female bluebird and he was determined to carry it somewhere else away from the nest for dissection and examination. The male bluebird was there immediately. He stalked us, circling above and diving in our direction while Gus lead us to the back border of the grounds. The male landed in a nearby branch and then swooped more with his eyes constantly on us.
GUS CARRYING THE BIRD AWAY; PLAY VIDEO AT YOUR DISCRETION.
Gus let go of the bird for a moment and walked around her. She hadn’t made a sound so I thought she died quickly. He tapped her and nudged her and then growled more. That’s when she let out a sad, pained chirp loudly calling on her mate to help, I assume. Gus picked her up in his jaws again and kept growling.
By then I felt terrible. Not only for the poor bird in his mouth but for the furious one diving around us. I kept saying I was sorry to them. Gus didn’t growl at me, fortunately, so I got a hold of him and kept trying to get him to release his jaws. Eventually he did and I scooped him up as fast as I possibly could.
The lame bluebird hobbled away squawking and her mate went closer to her. I held Gus tightly and looked back to watch for a few seconds to see if she could fly. She wasn’t. Like the mouse he previously had inside the house and I let go outside near that same spot, it hobbled and I hoped it was only stunning with manageable injuries. I hope the same for this little bluebird. I also hope that she was not incubating eggs when he snatched her. The bluebird couple in the birdhouse on a high fence just had their babies and they were leaving the nest. With any luck, this injured bluebird doesn’t have a nest of babies waiting for her to feed them.
When we got back inside, Gus immediately checked his litterbox then hissed at Oliver. He was upset that I stopped his fun. He came upstairs where I gave him some treats, but then I didn’t see him again for hours. When he returned to the bedroom, I was happy to see that he had his favorite toy. Normally he makes some soft predatory sounds with his mousey, but that night, he carried mousey in with a deep loud howl.
The next morning there was a soft rain. I know Gus hates rain, but he was insistent on going out so I zipped him up in his buggy. We had a nice slow walk up the driveway and back. Ollie wasn’t interested in having a turn. Instead later on, we had porch time where all of us could listen to the rain and the birds. Ollie proceeded to eat half of the brand new flower blooms.
Case Status: Closed
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