Hey you, just unravelled the caper of the century before breakfast! The Great Bone of Pomeranian vanished, and guess who sniffed out the culprit? Yours truly, alongside Percy and Bella. Turned out, it was all Snoutley’s riddle for a Bone Voyage party. Being Pawsburgh’s Sherlock Bones has its perks. Now, off to savor my steak-shaped reward! 🕵️‍♂️🦴🎉 – T-Bone Detective Agency’s Top Dog, Toby

The first glimmer of false dawn had not yet cracked the sky when I, Toby, slipped through the dog flap into the shrouded world. My midnight silk fur melded with the near-dawn, a specter upon the cobblestones, there and then unseen as I made for Pawsburgh – the sanctuary of canine capers.

Percy and Bella, my finest comrades in four-legged hijinks, awaited me at Onyx Otterhound Oasis, the air thick with mystery. They sat stiff as statues, perturbed. It appeared our world had woken to a conundrum as bewildering as a cat at a dog show.

“What’s amiss?” I ventured, nose twitching for clues amidst the crisp morning air.

Bella’s tail twirled in distress, “The Great Bone of Pomeranian Park, it’s gone!”

“Vanished without a trace,” Percy added with a snort.

The Great Bone, a relic of unknown origin, stood – or rather, had stood – at the park’s heart, as immutable as the sunrise. To find it missing was as perplexing as finding a squirrel parked upon one’s nose.

“There’s not a second to waste,” I declared, a detective as by destiny as by choice. “To the site of its last known whereabouts!”

We trotted with purpose to Pomeranian Park, where the bare pedestal confirmed their fears. A mystery indeed, and only my keen nose and their unmatched spirits could unravel it.

First, the scent – not a trace remained. A clean job. Professional. Thoughts twirled like leaves in an autumnal gust until a small revelation piqued my curiosity.

“Do any new establishments, food emporiums perhaps, recall where you last saw the bone?” I questioned.

The Woofy Bakery, Percy barked. He remembered because he had been lusting after their newly baked liver loaf and took it as an omen that such culinary delights would mark the day.

So the game was afoot. The Woofy Bakery was our next paw stop. The aroma was intoxicating, but my concentration was ironclad. We inquired with the baker, a stout Saint Bernard with a crumb-dotted jowls.

“Seen any oversized bones pass your windows?” I inquired.

“Only those in my baguettes,” he boomed, but a glint of something in his eyes triggered my suspicion. “Though Master Snoutley was in earlier, babbling on about his latest scavenger hunt.”

Master Snoutley, the tycoon Terrier with a taste for the theatrical? It made sense. We thanked the baker with a bow and bolt amid a cascade of flour.

Snoutley’s sniff led us to Setter’s Steakhouse, where the aroma of seared steak mingled with a whiff of revelation. I could see the memory already taking color — the taste of the steak was undeniably a clue. Percy and Bella, they were trotting ahead, their tails pendulum-like with anticipation.

“Snoutley?” Bella panted her question to the maitre d’, a dignified Dalmatian.

“In the private dining room,” he proclaimed with a wag.

We entered to find a banquet laid out on a grand table, and at its head, Snoutley himself, daintily nibbling on a ribeye the size of a rudder.

“Looking for this?” He gestured with a flourish to the side of his chair where, draped in finery, sat the Great Bone.

I felt my jaw slacken; Percy’s eyes bulged, Bella choked on an astounded yip.

“Why?” The question hung suspended like a leaf on a pond.

“For the bluff, dear Toby. For the thrill of the chase!” Snoutley’s laugh was rich and crackling. “I needed the finest detectives in Pawsburgh to test their mettle. And to join my Bone Voyage party!”

We had been outwitted, outplayed by a mastermind of mischief, a raconteur of riddles. Here we stood, a triad of gumshoe pooches, who’d sniffed out the tail only to find we were part of the tale all along. And so, I learned the greatest mystery of all was not the unsolved puzzle, but the journey the puzzle provoked.

“Steak, Toby?” my host proffered, and I, eyes sparkling with wisdom and a hunger for adventure, closed another chapter in the hallowed halls of Pawsburgh.

The End.