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Where We Left Off:
There were magickal happenings at the Winchester-Nabu estate when Gus made contact with The Morrigan.
9 Lives:
*Note: This case file has images that show blood*
Let me start off by saying everything is fine—now. On March 11th, it was not. It was far from fine. We had emergency situation at the residence when The Cook (Oliver’s favorite human) tripped on Guster’s food placemat and she took a header into the cabinetry. But was that actually what happened or was there something supernatural at play? I’ll get to that.
Here’s What Happened:
Gus was on high alert through all this. He made me stop skritchies and stood at attention! I had been wearing my noise-cancelling headphones, but when I heard something, I waited to see if there was anything to be concerned about. I know when Gus is trying to warn me. We have all kinds of noise here especially when The Butler is working, but he wasn’t that day. I’ve learned to wait and see if there’s any reason to rush into action. Then The Grumpy Old Man yelled for me. I threw off my headphones and ran down the stairs with Gus.
The Cook was on the kitchen floor. The Grumpy Old Man was holding towels to her head. I saw blood everywhere. I told him to get ice and then felt bad because he had to limp in pain to the freezer to fill up a plastic bag and limp back. I had to take a look at her injury to see if we could handle it at home or needed the hospital.
We debated some about the amount of time an ambulance would take and whether she could stand and get into a car. Finally, The Grumpy Old Man and I agreed on something and I called 9-1-1.
I never thought all the workshops and book reading I’ve done on blood spatter analysis would come into my real world. Before the blood all over the kitchen was cleaned up, I tried to memorize where it was and what it looked like. I took a couple photos trying not to he insensitive while waiting for anyone in a first responder uniform to show up.
The first to show up was a local cop who seemed so familiar, but I knew I’d never met him. Since The Grumpy Old Man stopped being active in the fire department, we don’t know any of the cops these days. The ones we knew retired or died (natural causes).
Gus ran through the kitchen to make sure the ridiculously TALL cop was taking care of her, but he didn’t even stop to sniff the stranger. I was concerned about Oliver. His attachment to The Cook is strong. Ollie was underneath the side table on the end of the couch which is “her spot” on the couch. He had a safe space there and was smart to be out of the way so no one tripped over him, but he didn’t move from that spot.
We waited around 20 minutes or more for an ambulance because the EMS service in our town was disbanded and the closest station called was redirected to a higher priority case—a little baby girl, about a year and a half, was having a seizure. At least the cop was there to give us those updates and he did more First Aid. We had the bleeding under control and she was conscious, alert, able to speak, knew her name etc. She was aware enough to yell at me when I gave the wrong age to the dispatcher. I said, “female senior citizen age seventy-fine…” and from the other room, I hear, “SEVENTY-EIGHT!” She was shaking a lot from the adrenaline and that took hours to subside. We made small talk until an ambulance finally arrived.
There were no rooms at the ER, a lot like the height of the pandemic. All the rooms were full plus there were multiple people being treated in the hallways including that little girl who took the other ambulance. There was a recliner where The Grumpy Old Man rested his gout riddled foot for a while and that recliner was later used as a spot to treat a patient. It was chaos.
Yet the woman who takes admissions info in order to make sure to bill patients was wheeling around with her cart between stressed out patients and staff. She also kept coughing into her arm but wasn’t wearing a mask. Only a few people were masked besides myself.
But when we got home Gus was locobananapants crazy all over the house. I couldn’t figure out if he was trying to tell me something or if he simply needed to run off all the energy he had because he never got an adventure. It was too windy anyway. Shit was flying all over the neighborhood. A piece of aluminum siding made its way to one of our lilac bushes from the next yard.
It took a long time before Gus was ready to sit calmly next to me and explain his theory.
Gus Thinks It Was a Ghost:
That’s right. Gus does not believe that he moved his food mat which he routinely does. To his credit, he mostly only moves his plate. The mat is thick rubber so it’s a bit harder to move. It’s also in a tough spot near the kitchen table. In order for anyone to sit in the chair on that side, the mat is in the way. Yet Gus insists, he did not move his mat.
A ghost either moved the mat and The Cook genuinely tripped on it or a malicious entity pushed her.
This was going to take time to sort out with Oliver. Ollie needed a day off to keep his eyes on his human. He had no interest in Gus’ theories. All that mattered was that The Cook was home safe.
Buzz!
After we were home, I finally realized who the cop was and why I felt like I knew him! He was so tall. I know tall people hate hearing it, but it was the friggin’ first thing I said after hello. “Damn, you’re tall,” as if he didn’t know. But we were at the back of his vehicle with the tailgate up and he had to hunch over quite a bit. Then once instead this hobbit house, I felt like I had to do that soccer-mom arm thing to keep him from smashing his head into hanging frying pans and thresholds. I made sure to lead him to one of the few modern, normal-sized doors not the hobbit door.
Sgt. Buzz McNab and I were talking about the K9s around here. Our local one retired years ago but the two neighboring towns have one. All three are siblings and Belgian Malinois. I talked about how informative it was at Crime Con in Orlando to learn about the differences in K9s and their various certifications.
Buzz said the dogs used to be great for community relations but these days, in NJ, public officials have the feeling the dogs are not welcome on the force. The public perception has done a 180 and now civilians have more fear of the dogs than seeing them as a better alternative than humans using tasers or bullets. I’m absolutely shocked. I would think (severe) dog bites would be better than getting shot (which is trained to only be lethal not in the leg to stop someone as tv would have you think).
He said it was a shame people have that impression about K9s because they are incredibly useful. A common call for them is when people with special needs or dementia wander. One happened about a week ago.
I wish I had met Buzz under better circumstances because I wanted to keep talking, but The Cook was getting triaged and the ambulance was leaving. Let’s not forgot that Shawn Spencer gave Buzz a cat in the episode 9 Lives.
Case Findings:
After all the panic, anxiety, frustration, stitches, worry, anger, embarrassment, more anxiety—The Cook still insisted on cleaning up the kitchen and starting a load of laundry to clean the bloody clothes and towels. I had already put away the uncooked food, but seriously, a few dishes left out (clean ones, btw) did not make a tragedy that required tidying up at that moment. She had her head wrapped and some stains of blood still streaking her white hair where the Physician’s Assistant, Jared missed spots. He was kind and gentle to her trying hard not to remove any of her hair (I guess a lot of women worry about that). I said she can wear a babushka for a while.
Since a day has gone by, The Cook is still insisting on preparing food. She’s not in the mood to take a day off. She gets dressed and showered. She even washed her hair. I’ve been tending to her bandages. The Grumpy Old Man used to be the medic of the house (good gods, iodine on everything), but his gout and the painkillers have him laid up. He refuses to use my cane as if the white beard wasn’t a giveaway that he’s an old man, a cane would be too much.
Oliver doesn’t believe Gus that a ghost or evil spirit was to blame. I hope Oliver isn’t resentful towards Gus that it was his food mat that caused The Cook to trip. These boys have their moments when they need time apart. What’s funny is when they sleep near each other because it’s so rare. Several days before this incident, they stole the old man’s bed and napped at opposite ends.
Case Status: Closed