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Where We Left Off:
The surveillance operations at the Winchester-Nabu estate caught the first footage of the year of a bear friend.
The Marsh Mama:
These free-roaming cats have gotten too brazen. They come right up to the house! MamaCat Marsh—not a stray, but a neighbor’s roaming cat—comes up to the front door. The black cat, Bud aka Doppelgus, goes through Oliver’s patio all the time. And now, I think I saw a new tuxedo cat unless…Savile didn’t really die as we suspected. It was only seen on the cameras once. Perhaps it was Savile’s ghost.
Unfortunately, I don’t think MamaCat’s humans have taken the responsibility to get her spayed. I’ve seen her marking a chair on the front porch. Not that spaying always guarantees a cat won’t mark. I had one who did routinely mark inside the house after she was spayed. However, camera footage shows other cats, like Bud, following MamaCat Marsh.
The one camera goes through batteries like crazy. It took only a 5-second clip, but it was enough to see MamaCat Marsh carrying something in her mouth. The recording is so bad that I can’t tell what it is. I was concerned it might be a kitten. More likely, it was a rodent.
Ollie and Gus hated the task of analyzing footage unless it was really high quality. Both of them enjoy “CatTV” on Caturday and Sunday. Maybe it has something to do with cat vision. I have no idea. I generally have to do most of the frame-by-frame analysis when the quality is low.
Who did MamaCat Marsh Murder?
We know MamaCat has a home. Therefore, it’s likely she gets fed regularly. Her instincts must have kicked in to hunt when she detected something under the ground or scurrying in her vicinity (our vicinity). Of course, it is possible that the critter she captured was wanted for criminal activities.
On the night of April 16 at 8:57PM, MamaCat Marsh was caught on camera crying at our front door. I had Ollie review the clip to decipher what was wrong and what she might have been trying to communicate.
“She really wants to come in here,” Ollie said, “which you won’t let her do, right?”
“No, I won’t let her in here. Your humans would…let’s just say, it would not go well at all,” I assured him.
I asked him if she explained why she wanted to come in when she lives down the road about ten or so house away.
“She has information.” That’s all Oliver was able to get from a recording of her vocalizations.
I knew there was more out. It was time for Gus to do his part. “You know she’s been leaving her marks on the chair at the front door. What can you tell from that?”
“Do you remember when we found Harry Strauss living here instead of being in prison like everyone thought?” Gus jumped up to a window and looked out while recalling the day Strauss was released into our relocation program.
“I remember, Gus. It was two cases ago. You caught him and I relocated him last month.” I referred to Case File No. 48-412.
“She found him.” Gus stared out the window longingly wanting to be out there smelling the scents the world leaves for his Super Smeller to absorb.
Motives:
MamaCat Marsh found Harry Strauss in his new Top Secret location, killed him, and brought his body back to us. Why?
Ollie suggested we hold a meeting out on the balcony while the weather was reasonably pleasant. The occasional wind gusts anywhere from 10-20 mph and it’s annoying to both cats. Gus knew his partner would want a drink from the outside fountain so he made sure to beat him to it by jumping up to the table where it was. Ollie pretended he wanted to sit by the sparse pot of cat grass all along. We brainstormed and came up with motives why MamaCat would deliver the dead body of a known criminal that we tried to relocate.
- She wanted to impress us with her hunting skills.
- She intended it to be a present someone in this house.
- She thought she could audition for a staff position at the Winchester-Nabu Detective Agency and this seemed like a good way to do it.
- She was confused and thought she was at her own house.
- She wasn’t delivering the body to us at all. She had her fun catching the critter and wanted to leave it in a good place for another animal to eat.
After another adventure to look for clues into this mystery, we felt we had a reasonable conclusion.
Case Findings:
MamaCat Marsh is an old gal who visits often. She wants to come in and be friends which neither Gus nor Oliver (nor the elder humans) want. They’re okay remaining outside/remote friends. Her presence doesn’t bring out aggression in either cat the way male strays do. As for delivering the body here, she didn’t feel like taking it all the way home which requires either a dangerous and busy road or navigating through fences, brambles, and junk to get to her own house. Leaving the body of Harry Strauss wasn’t intended for the Winchester-Nabu cats or humans. She left the body somewhere it could be used by another creature. She was correct because it quickly vanished.
Case Status: Closed