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Where We Left Off:
The Winchester-Nabu team of cat detectives and humans were unable to trap the young and gorgeous tuxedo cat who has only recently become a neighborhood addition.
Mr. Chu:
| Some images in this case file might disturb you. I’ll do my best to keep them under an accordion, but when it comes to WordPress themes and plug-ins, I can’t guarantee certain tools won’t stop working. |
Early in December, our weather fluctuated from days of warmth (reaching 50ºF) to absolute freezing, especially at night. Some writing professors would say that opening a story with a concise description of the weather is hack—It was a dark and stormy night—if it’s good enough for Snoopy…
I consider it part of explaining what our (or the characters’) circumstances were like. This year, we simply never knew what to expect from day to day. On one of our adventure shifts, Gus and I got inside the hangar in time as sleet shot down from the sky. It pelted the metal building like bullets and sounded louder because of the acoustics.
Our detective agency has covered the curiosities of the weather before (climate change) because of our investigations involving the wild animals. This case is one of those instances where the weather played a role.
Oliver chose to stay home near his favorite human, The Cook and the fireplace. The birds had decreased in numbers as most of them migrated or kept to the inner woods where there was protection. Ollie loves watching the birds. Sometimes, he had to settle for CatTV on YouTube.
Gus was immediately aware at how cold it was. His toe beans and pads were the coldest parts of his body. His fur does a remarkable job of keeping him warm, but I couldn’t help but think an additional layer of warmth would do him some good. On an unplanned moment of retail therapy, I had stopped at Tractor Supply (not an affiliate). During that shopping trip, I picked up a sweatshirt for Gus that looked more substantial and much easier to get on and off than the one I bought online years ago. Neither fit Gus well. This new one is a size Medium and he pops the Velcro. It’s also short, but he doesn’t like to be fully covered opting instead for range of motion over protection.
The Discovery
I picked up Gus and carried him to the back near Bunny Hollow and the Big Rock as we made our rounds putting out bird seeds and peanuts. Gus took time to prowl around the grass, bushes, and the various junk that has accumulated on the side of the building because critters not only hide there—stray cats mark the objects as if it’s their territory.
I reached over the top of the Big Rock which is getting harder for me to reach as the soil erodes. I saw something in front of me move and assumed it was one of the birds fluttering to a different branch. I was way off. That was no sparrow.
Wenge wood colored eyes with long lashes met mine. The noir and romance genres’ colloquialism doe eyes for female human eyes doesn’t do a doe justice when staring at the real thing only a few feet away. Simona is growing independent of her mother, Deerdra. This season, the fawns have been facing their first time going through the rutting (basically Pon Farr for bucks). That’s why I was surprised when Simona didn’t run away from me immediately. Maybe because I was surrounded by the aromas of sunflower seeds and peanuts.
Gus approached which caused Simona more fear than I had. I reminded him to be nice because recently he chased one of the deer. I think that was Twiggy, young son of Hazel.
Simona paused her chewing and told Gus that there was something at the end of Bunny Hollow he should see. Gus and I walked to the junkyard where our footsteps crunched the gravel beneath us. Without a sound, Simona left Bunny Hollow and I didn’t know until Gus and I had gotten to the opposite end. Near the private road, Gus picked up a scent.
“Where are you going?” I asked him when he quickly changed direction and didn’t want to go near the beginning of the trail.
“I’d rather go inside and work.” There were critters living or resting inside the hangar. It was surprising that the smell of something we were told to investigate lost his interest, but it would have certainly been warmer in there.
I let him inside and unhooked his leash so he could roam through the equipment without getting caught. I was left alone to follow the pavement to the new rock wall (still unfinished and dangerous). I navigated around the wall and stepped on the stones that I learned were more stable than others. I sprinkled some seeds in the corner where the tall black walnut tree used to stand but now lays on top of smaller brush. I had to keep my eyes on the ground anyway. I often tripped and sometimes fell due to the holes or roots covered by grass that look like solid ground. I started to walk back the way I came only more slowly than usual. I saw various depths of animal tracks—some so deep they looked like three-inch wide voids of black.
I expected to simply make my way to the building to join Guster, but something dark on the frosty ground made me do a double-take. I looked more closely. Squatting down, I was almost positive there was a small critter. I was wearing gloves anyway, so I reached to the icy grass and moved the object. The dark fur was tipped in spikes of white ice. Its feet and mouth still appropriately pink as it had been in life. The temperature preserved some of this creature’s state at the time of death.
I took photos of the location, but I did relocate the body to a place near a trail camera hoping I’d get photographs or video of a scavenger in need of a meal. Nothing ever showed up, but the body was gone by the next day. After going inside the building to meet up with Gus and give him the chicken treats he expects whenever he gets on top of the truck, I carried him home. We were able to warm up, get food, and reunite with Ollie to go over this new case.
Who Was Mr. Chu?
Mr. Chu was a northern short-tailed shrew who had found a comfortable life in the ground behind the new rock wall. The allure of food often brought him out into the light for less than a second at a time. He was quick enough to snare seeds before I realized I had actually seen him.
Was food the reason Mr. Chu left the safety of his burrow during the night? Oliver and Gus didn’t believe so. We had to reach out to our network of informants and friends. We went to the observation deck where Ollie used his expert bird call to attract a couple of house sparrows.
Fortunately, house sparrows love the tall hedge that is as tall as the floor of the balcony. House sparrows would be said to have a Napolean Complex. They’re tiny but can be aggressive in sneaky ways like nest/home invasions—the sort of bird behavior one would first think of belonging to cowbirds. It was a surprising fact to me. Two of them perched to talk with Ollie.
The female sparrow had the last word in the duo’s conversation with our ginger detective.
“That’s Lorna,” Oliver told us. “She’ll be back later. She’s going to fly over to see if the dark-eyed juncos have information about Mr. Chu.”
The juncos thrive in the back next to Bunny Hollow. They’re often called snowbirds. The report came back during “Batman Time” which when the boys (sometimes with humans) go out to observe the neighborhood from up high. Lorna the sparrow returned with information she obtained from a bird called Sësëkshkinkwe. That’s a dark-eyed junco friend Lorna trusts.
“Mr. Chu was not looking for food. He had already been gathering food. It was to impress a potential mate,” Lorna said.
“What happened?” Ollie asked.
“It’s tragic,” Lorna continued. “Mr. Chu made plans to meet the other shrew under the moonlight. It was terribly cold, but he stayed out there waiting all night. She never showed up probably because she wanted to survive the night and stay underground.”
“Poor Mr. Chu,” I said when I heard the story. “He waited for his true love and froze to death.”
Case Findings:
Simona the fawn felt comfortable enough to relay to me (and Gus) that there was something of importance we needed to see at the one entrance to the Bunny Hollow Trail. She wouldn’t give more information. Gus felt the pull of indoor pest control which left me alone out in the cold where I found Mr. Chu’s body frozen in the grass. Oliver reached out to the avian network and learned from a house sparrow named Lorna that Mr. Chu had been out all night waiting for his date who never showed because it was too unsafe for northern short-tailed shrews to be out in the frigid air especially at night when an owl or fox could easily find them.
Case Status: Closed