The Basket of Kittens Mystery

 

It was a brisk fall day, and it appeared the sun might make an appearance early.  Although it was only seven in the morning, Kathy thought she would drink her coffee on the back porch.

 

Kathy’s children were all sound asleep.  The three sleeping angels were between the ages of four and seven.

 

Kathy’s husband was out at sea, being he was a tug boat captain, and often had to work on the weekends.  It was not unusual for Bob to be not home on this Saturday morning.

 

Kathy a very happy go lucky blonde with natural beauty sat in the cushion of the lawn chair facing the line of neighbor’s homes that sat back like hers, on the dirt road considered their street.

 

As Kathy’s cat Patches rubbed up against her legs, Lobo her dog rested near by, she pondered on her different neighbors, day dreaming of their personalities, home life, and various animals they also owned.

Patches now jumped up onto the rail of the porch to wash her face.  Kathy thought of the first couple the Eberlies that owned the red house right next to hers.  She could see their dog tied on his run, which indicated to her that they were probably home that weekend.  When the Eberlies traveled as they did often for business, they boarded the dog, as well as their two indoor Siamese cats. 

 

The Eberlies were not the friendliest of people, never attending the many parties Kathy often gave. However at the same time the Eberlies kept to themselves, and never complained or caused a disturbance.

 

Kathy still had taken barely a sip of her coffee as her mind wandered to how all three houses as well as the house on the other side of the street had all coincidently owned Siamese cats. Amazingly the same type of cat, called Chocolate Point Siamese.  She pondered how beautiful yet arrogant that breed was.

 

Than Kathy’s eye sight traveled to the second house in the row which the Pedinks lived in with their son Morris.  The Pedinks were friendly and did come occasionally to Kathy’s summer parties.  She liked the husband and wife enough, but their son Morris was a bit odd, always seeming to be crying or moping around, subject to temper tantrums when at his age of ten you would think him not to be doing such things.

 

Kathy took a few sips of her coffee and remembered that her parrot would love the fresh air, so she immediately went in the house and brought his cage outside.  By now you must gather that Kathy and her family loved to have pets.

 

Kathy again settled into her chair with her now cooling coffee and took another sip before she thought about the third and last house on the road.

She could see its weathervane very clearly of a horse running, and see the yellow clap boards that covered the house.  As well Kathy could see smoke coming from the chimney.  Thinking to herself that it was unusual for someone to be using their fireplace so early in the year, but than again the Cain’s were an elderly couple, and might had needed to take the chill out of their house.

 

The Cain’s were a jovial couple and never missed a party at Kathy’s house.  As a matter of fact they quite often were the life of the party; especially when Able Cain started playing the piano for everyone.

 

Kathy thought how blessed she and Bob were to have such nice neighbors, and took three more sips of her coffee.

The sun was already shinning brightly on the deck when Kathy’s mind thought of her neighbors across the street. 

 

The Nugins were a friendly bunch, with their four children.  They were always conversing back and forth with Kathy and Bob; as well the children were at similar ages as Kathy’s so the kids played together often.

 

As Kathy took her last sip of coffee she thought of the single house that sat on the other side of her home.

It was the home of the single mom Evelyn that delighted Kathy all the time with her great sense of humor.  Evelyn’s daughter was a dear little three year old and Kathy often would help Evelyn out and babysat Jenny.

 

With that last sip Kathy listened to hear if any of her children were stirring yet, but she couldn’t hear a peep.  This meant that Kathy had some free time to start some daily chores.  After bringing down the laundry to the basement, she started cleaning up the kitchen getting the last night snack dishes washed and draining in the sink, than she proceeded to tidy up the downstairs bathroom.

 

Time passed always quickly when Kathy did her chores, and before she knew it three little faces were gathered in the kitchen waiting for breakfast to begin.

 

There was Megan who was four, Gregory who was five, and the oldest Eric who was seven. They all were blonde haired just like their mother.

 

It was Eric that thought to look outside on the back porch when he heard a strange sound.  Kathy also thought she heard something like a baby kitten meowing?

 

So it was Eric that came running in with excitement for everyone to come and see the basket of kittens that was left there on the back porch!

 

All Kathy’s children assumed this was an extra special present from their mother, but Kathy soon informed them this was not the case.

 

This basket of kittens was a surprise to Kathy as well, and after being stunned that such a basket was left on her back porch; Kathy went into a questioning mode of where these tiny babies could had came from?

 

There were five altogether.  Two tiger, two that looked like chocolate point Siamese and one that looked all coco brown.

 

Where could these kittens of come from?

It was apparent that if there was no way of knowing or finding out, Kathy would be stuck finding these little kittens a home! This was the last thing with three little children to care for; that Kathy needed to take on!

 

 Kathy quickly called Evelyn to see if Jenny and she saw anything at all?  As well would Evelyn consider taking a kitten?  Promptly Evelyn and Jenny dashed over, and even though they knew not a thing that would help solve the mystery of whom dropped off the basket of kittens, they were glad to pick out one to take home.

 

As Kathy’s children realized she intended to give away the kittens, they proceeded to beg and plead with their mother to keep them!

 

This also was not something Kathy needed, pleading children for another pet to feed.  Kathy already had two cats, the dog, the parrot, two rabbits, a goldfish pond, a hamster and a turtle; she truly did not want kittens, for that matter a kitten at all! 

 

Kathy was kind hearted and she figured that is what some one was betting on when they shifted their basket of responsibility onto Kathy. 

 

Her children continued to plead until Kathy relented that they could keep one kitten, and than she finally said they could keep two and that was it!

 

It was finally decided they would keep the coco brown one and one of the Siamese.

 

Now it irked Kathy what a burden she had on her hands with this basket of kittens, as she could not help trying to figure out in her head who could had dropped this basket off?

 

Well she still had two more kittens to find homes for so she started calling friends.  The second tiger kitten went to her good friend Pam and her son Paul.  Last but not least the second chocolate point Siamese looking kitten went to another good friend Alisa who just happened to be searching for a second kitten for her children at that time.

 

Well at least the kittens all had homes even though Kathy had to adopt two herself.

This gave Kathy time to think and try to solve who could have dropped off such an awesome responsibility on her. It must had been some one who knew her to have a resource of friends to call and disperse of them?

 

While her children entertained their new kittens Kathy grabbed a second cup of coffee to again sit out on the porch with.

Once again she sat in the same chair now mulling over the whole morning and how this whole dropped off kitten basket could had took place without her seeing or hearing a thing.

 

The first sip of coffee had her ruling out a car or for that matter any person entering the yard from the road, because they had a censer alarm that would had gone off if anyone passed in the front yard.

 

Her second sip of coffee had her noting who owned chocolate point Siamese of her neighbors?

 

She ruled out the Nugins across the street, because in order to skip Kathy’s alarm they would had to have climbed the neighbor’s fences, because both Evelyn and the Eberlies had front fences adjacent to Kathy’s front fence.

 

That left the three houses to the side of Kathy’s home. These homes only had a natural beerier to mark the boundary lines.  There was the distinct possibility that the kittens came from one of those three neighbors’ houses.   Someone who knew Kathy liked animals, had a kind heart, and had friendship resources; but which one? Would they ever know for sure?

 

With half her cup of coffee gone now, Kathy began to list the three neighbor families that the kittens had to have come from.

 

There was the Eberlies, the Pedinks, and the Cains.

Kathy quickly ruled out the Cains because she felt they were to elderly to be roaming across two fields of property and climbing through bushes with a basket filled with teeny tiny kittens.

 

That left the Eberlies and the Pedinks only.

 

Now at the very last sip of her coffee Kathy finally came up with the mystery solved!

It had to have been the Pedinks! 

Kathy had surmised that the Pedinks Siamese cat could had been the only cat to be impregnated by a tiger cat, since the Eberlies cats were indoor cats.

That left only the Pedinks whom no one had heard much from for awhile.

 

Well some time passed in Kathy and Bob’s house.  The children had all grown a little taller, and the kittens now looked more like cats, when the confirmation of the kitten basket mystery was solved.

 

You see Kathy was too nice to approach the Pedinks about the kittens, and ask if they were the ones who snuck over with the basket.  But finally one of their sons’s crying temper tantrums paid off. 

 

During a summer picnic party at Kathy and Bob’s; Morris had a melt down, and during that tantrum he blamed his parents for getting rid of all his kittens!

 

Still Kathy and all her family were all too polite to confront the Pedinks, but it was now at least comforting to know that the mystery was solved of the kittens in a basket.

 

 

By

Lisa J. Warner

AKA

Lisa Luv

CopyRight11/01 /2010@LisaLuvLLC

AllRightsReservedByLisaJ.Warner