THE CAT BURGLAR

Evening had almost reached and we still hadn't found her. I was about to lose my mind. Who could have possibly taken her, I thought to myself.

"Poor little Shelly, she must be scared and alone." I said to myself.

My mind started racing with all the different dangerous scenarios that could have possibly happened to her. My siblings and I set out on a search to find Shelly, from morning, and it was almost evening, and we still hadn't any clue where she could be. She had been missing since yesterday evening and neither me nor any of my siblings knew where she was.

Shelly was our little pet dog. She has been with us for over five years now. And I couldn't imagine losing her. The special bond we had created over the years was too strong for us to just let her go. Little did we know, she had grown under our skin, and we were finding it difficult to cope without her. Those little moments we thought were meaningless were now proving to be more significant than we thought. We had searched all over the neighborhood, we had even checked in with the local animal shelter but all to no avail.

The sun had begun to set and Shelly was nowhere to be found. With our heads down, we walked back disappointedly to our house.

" But who could have possibly taken her" Bobo, the youngest, asked that had been racing through my mind all day.

"Are you sure it's not Mrs Grande?" Celine, the immediate elder to Bobo, asked. That piqued my curiosity. Mrs Grande, or rather grumpy old Grande as we so often secretly called her, was our neighbor. An old woman in her eighties who lived next door, opposite our flat. She was a short middle-aged woman who usually used a walking stick whenever she walked, as old age had really taken a great toll on her. But even at that, Mrs Grande was a grumpy old lady. Her eccentric character often chased people away from her. She looked very innocent and pitiful at first glance, but when you come close to her, her character would put you off in an instant.

My siblings and I nicknamed her grumpy old Grande because you would never catch her in a good mood or laughing or smiling. She was always wearing a frown on her face for no good reason.

She was that kind of woman that would complain about every little thing and try to find faults even when they were known. Whenever she was around, you could hear her voice from a mile away. One would think she was as old and feeble as she looked. But in reality, she was the opposite, at least in her words and speech. I don't know if it was her natural loud voice or the strength she put in when she spoke, because, whenever she talked, one could hear her voice from a mile away. We sometimes often pitied her house girl who she would always shout out every time for a tiny mistake.

Now there was every possibility that Mrs Grande was likely the one who kidnapped Shelly. As I thought about it the more, the more it began to make sense. She disliked Shelly a lot. In fact, her hatred for dogs was unfathomable. She claimed she was allergic to dogs, but I had a feeling it was more than that. Shelly was often afraid of her. The way she acted whenever Shelly was outside or around her made us afraid she would try to kill Shelly one day. So to avoid that, we often kept her inside.

It was now turning dark and Shelly was still nowhere to be found. In our desperation, my siblings and I marched up to her apartment.

"Knock, Knock!" We banged almost forcefully on the door.

"Who is that?" She asked in her usual grumpy voice, opening the door to see the intruder who dared disturb her.

" Good evening ma, please where is Shelly", I asked her straight away, not wasting time for pleasantries.

"What? I don't know what you're talking about". She tried denying it.

"Where is our Dog? I know she's in here, bring her out", I kept on insisting.

However, Mrs Grande stood there dumbfounded. Totally at a loss about what we were talking about. Could our Mom be right, I wondered. With the way she acted, it was as if she knew nothing of what we were talking about. She had warned us not to go raining accusations on people without proper proof or evidence. But we were so convinced she had kidnapped Shelly we didn't bother for any sort of evidence. As we stood there, berating, we insisted on going in and searching for her. But old grumpy Grande was as stubborn as ever. Forcefully, we entered her house, being quite many in number, and searched the whole apartment, but Shelly wasn't there. Disappointedly, we came out only to find Shelly, coming out from the bush, running to meet us. We were mortified. We stood there speechless as Mrs Grande looked at us with venom in her eyes.

Source

"Just get out of my house" she said.

Bowing our heads in shame, we all left her house with Shelly.

The following day, we were all seated at the breakfast table, eating while we told our Mom what had happened last night. As we were talking, Bobo, the youngest, peached in

"Do you think old grumpy Grande would let us off the hook so easily?"

" I don't think she has the strength to do anything to us, she is too old for her age". Celine and I said, dismissing the topic.

" Bobo is right" my mum said.

" Don't count your chickens before they hatch. Who knows, she might as well actually kidnap Shelly, or get back at you three, so be very careful around her "she continued.

" Okay mum "we all replied.