Hey fam!

Guess what? I cracked a bone-stealing case in Spencerville! Walked around with Rookie, the enthusiastic newbie, and discovered it was Brownie all along. Wanted to hold onto something precious while waiting for their human. We returned all the bones and peace is back. Now, off to enjoy apple slices and peanut butter! 🐾✨

Love, Lucy Lu

Sunbeams cascade through the trees in Upper Collie Canyon, dappling the ground with sprinkles of golden light. I am not one for sentimentality, but I do find this quite lovely. Though, if I’m to be completely honest, I’d rather be munching on apple slices and peanut butter treats. Damn fine snack, those.

Anyway, I should get on with it. There’s a matter at hand, no time to dawdle. They call me Lucy Lu—yes, the white with a little tan, muscular build, adorably wrinkled face, and all that jazz. But for today’s purposes, consider me the investigator, the handler of urgent petitions, the dog with a nose for trouble. Figuratively, of course. Thunderstorms still give me the jibblies, and pickles? Ugh. Can’t stand ‘em.

It started with a quiet murmur, a sense of unrest bubbling up through the usually idyllic harmony of Spencerville. Someone, a particularly disturbed someone, was stealing bones. Not just any bones, but the ones pets held dear, the ones that bore memories. Particularly distasteful, that.

“There’s a madbone thief about, Lucy,” Max, the spirited Beagle, had told me with a wry wag of his tail. Bella, the gentle Golden Retriever, had nodded gravely. Max’s nose was too spirited, Bella’s heart too gentle to dig into the gritty business of bone nabbing. It had to be me, didn’t it?

The rookie—let’s call him Rookie, although he had a proper name buried under all that exuberance—had come to Spencerville recently. He was eager, this one, bounding about with that greenhorn gleam in his eyes. Together, we formed an unlikely alliance: the scarred veteran and the plucky newcomer. More classic than a squeaky rubber chicken, really.

We started our investigation at Yappy Yogurt. Seemed an odd choice, sure, but the Yappy crowd had the best gossip. It’s a well-known fact that mysteries dissolve faster in yogurt than in kibble.

“I heard it, I did,” yipped a curly-haired Poodle between licks. “A shadow creeping about Pet Partners Pet Supplies late at night.”

Rookie perked his ears, eager to chase shadows in the night, heroic pup that he was. “And what then?”

“What then? Lots of sneaking about, love. A bit of rustling and the bones vanish, just like that.”

That night, we staked out Pet Partners Pet Supplies. Rookie was alert, every muscle quivering in that annoyingly enthusiastic manner. Me? I was more pragmatic. Years of experience had taught me that trouble came quietly, often sidling in when you least expected it.

A rustle, a whisper of movement. My heart pounded—not from fear but from the thrill of the hunt. Could it be? There, near the back entrance!

Rookie bounded forward, but I stopped him with a firm bark. Careful now. We don’t want to startle the shadow thief. We crept closer, every paw step as silent as a squirrel’s sigh—if, you know, squirrels sighed.

And there, standing over an open sack of precious bones, was… Brownie. My sibling, my kin, caught red-pawed. So this was it—a betrayal in the night.

“Brownie! What on earth are you doing?”

Brownie’s ears drooped, the look of guilt unmistakable. “I… I just wanted to hold onto something while waiting. Something to remember…”

The anger ebbed, replaced by a familiar tug at the heart. We all missed our humans in our own way, didn’t we? Even the most well-intentioned actions can twist into something darker if left unchecked.

Rookie looked at me, those clear eyes questioning. “What now?”

“Now,” I said slowly, “we return these bones. Somethings are more important than the ache of waiting.”

And slowly, carefully, navigated by the dim light of our shared understanding, we returned every single bone. Upper Collie Canyon would sleep soundly again, no shadows to haunt their dreams.

So, here we are, amid golden sunbeams once more. Spencerville’s back to its nearly perfect self, and I’m once again free to indulge in rolling on the grass, peanut butter treats, and naps by the fireplace.

But let this be a reminder: even in a place as idyllic as Spencerville, a little chaos can stir. Just makes the calm all the more precious, doesn’t it?

The End.