The Kittens Are Found

Ella scrambled to her feet, bumping her head on the bed. “Ow!” she exclaimed. She rubbed her head. “What are you doing here?” she asked the girls, looking panicked.

“You’re the cat thief we’ve been looking for,” Nancy repeated angrily. “Where are they? Where are you hiding Creampuff and Cocoa?”

Ella’s mouth dropped open. “I — I don’t know what you’re talking about,” she sputtered.

“We heard you calling for them,” Bess said, putting her hands on her hips. “Come on. Hand them over!”

Ella fell silent. Then she lowered her head. “Oh, all right,” she said finally. “I’m your cat thief. But I’m not, really! I didn’t steal the kittens. Not exactly, anyway. I just kind of, um, borrowed them.”

“Borrowed them?” Nancy said, surprised.

Ella nodded. “Toward the end of Terry’s open house. I thought I’d borrow them, and that nobody would notice if they were missing for an hour or two. I wanted to bring them here to show my great-aunt Rosalie. She used to have two cats that looked a lot like Creampuff and Cocoa. I figured it would cheer her up, because she’s been kind of sad lately.”

Nancy pondered all this. Ella seemed to be telling the truth. “But why didn’t you just ask Terry if you could borrow them?” she asked Ella.

Ella shrugged. “I was afraid Terry would say no. I guess that was pretty dumb of me, huh?”

“Where are the kitties now?” Bess demanded.

“That’s the problem,” Ella confessed. “They kind of, um, escaped from Great-Aunt Rosalie’s room. I couldn’t find them anywhere. I’ve been here every day, looking for them. I heard a rumor that they were living in the cafeteria and stealing leftovers. Then I heard a rumor that they were living with Mrs. Knowles in Room 342. I keep hearing all sorts of rumors. But I haven’t been able to find them.”

She added, “I thought I could just find them and sneak them back into Furball Farm. I didn’t want to tell Terry that I lost them. I was afraid she would fire me.”

Nancy glanced around. “I have a plan,” she announced. “Ella, you’re going to call Terry on your cell phone and tell her everything you just told us. At least she’ll know that the kittens are here and safe. Bess, George, I need you to go to the cafeteria and get me some strawberries.”

“Strawberries?” Bess and George said in unison.

• • •

Fifteen minutes later, Nancy, Bess, and George were walking down the second-floor hallway of the nursing home with several bowls of strawberries. Nancy had followed a trail of furballs, chewed-up magazines, and fresh, half-eaten granola bars to this wing of the nursing home. She figured Cocoa and Creampuff must be close.

“Cocoa!” Nancy called out. “Creampuff!” But there was no response.

A gray-haired woman poked her head out of one of the doors. “There’s nobody by those names here,” she rasped at the girls.

“We’re looking for a couple of kittens,” Bess explained.

The woman smiled. “Oh, those little rascals? They were just here. I think they went to visit Joyce Mains in Room 255.”

“Thank you!” Nancy said.

The girls hurried down to Room 255. There was no one inside. There were no cats inside, either.

Nancy set down a bowl of strawberries in the doorway. She indicated to George and Bess that they should do the same, farther down the hall.

Then they waited. And waited.

After a while, Nancy heard a scurrying noise coming from a side hallway. Seconds later a furry little figure appeared from around the corner. And then another. The two figures raced toward one of the bowls of strawberries and began sniffing eagerly. Then they started munching away.

Creampuff and Cocoa!

“We found them!” Bess hooted. “Kitties, we found you!”

Creampuff and Cocoa looked up briefly from their bowl of strawberries. Creampuff had a spot of red juice on her cream-colored nose. Then they went right back to their snack.

Nancy and the girls rushed up to the kittens and petted them happily. The kittens purred and continued eating.

• • •

That night Nancy curled up under the covers and pulled out her special blue detective notebook. She thought for a moment, tapping her purple pen against the notebook. Then she began to write:

Today we found Creampuff and Cocoa. They were living at the Wesley Nursing Home. They snuck food from the cafeteria and hid from the authorities. But they also made a lot of friends there.

Terry was super glad that we found them. Ella apologized about a hundred times for what she did. Terry accepted her apology and even let her keep working at Furball Farm — as long as she promised to not sneak any more cats away for nursing-home visits without telling Terry first!

The senior citizens at the nursing home really loved having Creampuff and Cocoa living with them. Especially Ella’s great-aunt Rosalie. In fact, Terry suggested that maybe the kitties could keep living there as house pets. The nursing home manager agreed.

So now Creampuff and Cocoa have a wonderful new place to live — together!

And Bess, George, and I have an awesome article for our school project about Terry, Furball Farm, and the mystery we solved!

Case closed!

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