This work is supported by the generous backers who adore my cat stories at Patreon.com/amberunmasked and they also get first access to what’s happening with my books and projects.
Where We Left Off:
The Winchester-Nabu Detective Agency investigated and solved a blue jay murder.
Stowaway:
Sometimes, Gus and Oliver’s most tenacious foes come in the tiniest of packages. In this Winchester-Nabu Detective Agency case file, there was yet another mouse where it did not belong.
It’s not as though we haven’t had a lot of mice caught inside the house. There’s a rather substantial amount of them. Last year proved that these cats are pretty good at mousing. They don’t approve of the accepted practice I created for putting the little rodents into a Witness Relocation Program. I can’t blame the mice for intruding either. They have it made inside our walls and floors. There’s easy access to all sorts of food and nesting materials.
One of our most famous cases about catching mice inside and trying to relocate them was turned into a comic book! The Case of the Bloody Burrow Gang is part of our Kickstarter campaign until March 18, 2026.
What Happened This Time?
The case began when The Cook said Oliver Winchester was chasing a mouse that he could hear inside the walls. He heard it move to the ceiling. He climbed up his tall cat tower and yelled for assistance. The Grumpy Old Man moved the cat tower for Ollie and then got a flashlight.
“It came right out of that grate!” The Cook pointed to the defunct metal heating grate in the ceiling right above where Ollie positioned himself.
The flashlight illuminated the dark crawl space of the old heating duct.
“I saw it!” The Grumpy Old Man navigated around the cat tower to assist Oliver.
“I can almost reach,” Ollie said. “I think it ran away. Can you put me up in the ductwork?”
“No, Ollie.” His favorite person, The Cook remembered when we had a cat who went exploring during a renovation and was between floors and joists or whatever you call the bones of a house.
By the time Gus and I were at the scene, the mouse was nowhere to be found. We had to get basic information from Ollie for the case file. While I talked to Ollie and the elders, Gus began doing his part of the investigation. He used his Super Smeller to track a scent and had a hit. At the stacks of firewood in the wheelbarrow and next to the fireplace, Gus picked up a trail and key information about the intruder.
The Perp:
Name/Alias: Salvatore “Little Sal” Timpero
Species: white-footed deer mouse
Age: mature/adult
Known associates and affiliations: “Little Sal” is believed to be a member of the Banana Crime Family and likely knows Perry Cristelli and Pittsburgh Phil.
Here’s What Happened:
“I think I know how this intruder gained access,” Gus said. “It most certainly was the firewood.”
“Are you saying he was brought into the home?” The Cook was aghast, yet not terribly surprised. Critters love to live inside stacks of wood.
The split logs were brought from a Top Secret location by trailer to our backyard. The Grumpy Old Man took the logs from the trailer to the wheelbarrow and stacked them on the back porch. This is where Little Sal decided to seek some shelter in a prime spot near easy food sources. Days later, when The Grumpy Old Man needed to restock the firewood inside, he never noticed a stowaway on one of the logs as he put them into the wheelbarrow, moved through the building, then restacked the wood next to the fireplace.
“From there, Little Sal knew he had it made,” Ollie said. “There are all kinds of edible crumbs dropped on the floor in the kitchen, dining room, and upstairs.”
“He’s still inside,” Gus said. “We’ll just have to wait for him to come out and then grab him.”
“And he can go into our relocation program,” I added. I caught the glance between Ollie and Gus that was a dead giveaway they didn’t plan on letting the mouse live unless I could rescue the culprit in time.
Case Summary:
Oliver and the elders saw a mouse peek out of an old ceiling grate from the ductwork. When the mouse escaped through the nooks between floors, Gus went to work tracking a scent trail and gathering important information. He identified the scent as belonging to a mouse, Little Sal, a member of the Banana Crime Family. The intruder made a clean getaway and will stay on Gus and Ollie’s radar.
Case Status: Open