Raven diary #36 The case of tresspooping felines pt 2: The footage

Dear diary,

Raven here.

Folks. I just went to Seward Park yesterday and got these awesome binoculars that connect to the handsome man’s iPad so Lolli and I can both see these cats and the tiny clues they may be hiding. The human giving me the binoculars reluctantly accepted, and I promised him that I’d give them back. The binoculars even have night vision. I mean, what could go wrong???????????

“Okay,” says Lollipop, stroking his orange fur as we pace the human’s livingroom a couple days later. “I haven’t gotten a chance to review this footage yet, but it looks intriguing. Let’s see it.”

“They’re really only 10 to 30 second clips,” I tell Lollipop. “Do you really think they can reveal anything to solve our case?”

“It’s worth a shot,” meows Lolli. “If cats can see in the dark, then we can surely make out clues in this footage, right?”

“Well,” I meow. “You do have a good point Lolli. Let’s do it. But I can’t guarantee you that we’ll find any clues here.”

Lolli agrees and we fumble the handsome man’s iPad out from its hiding spot. We go to the humans’ email. We scroll until we find the email the human’s father forwarded the handsome man of the footage that our cat-hating neighbor human took a few nights ago. I load some of the footage from the previous nights. As the different cat videos unfold before our eyes, I find myself seething with anger at our feline hating neighbor. Why does this random human hate cats so much? So much that she sends out an email to the entire neighborhood asking to get innocent felines off her property. So much that she drags us into this case. But I can’t give up the case now.

Lolli and I carefully survey each clip accordingly.  Suddenly, Lolli yowls so loud I practically jump out of my fur.

“Whoa there, Lolli,” I growl. “Chill out, there! What is it?”

“S… so…” Someone framed ME for this crime!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!” Lolli yowls in sheer anger. “GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”

I rewind the footage and sure enough, the cat on screen looks a lot like Lollipop. But there’s one subtle difference.

“Lolli, look,” I say, pointing a paw at the cat’s belly. “That cat is mostly orange, but it has a white underside. Looking at you Lolli, it’s clear that you’re all orange and if this feline DID try to frame you, Lollipop, they did a real bad job of it.”

The footage ends. I rewind it, pause it, and let Lolli look closer at the footage. He stares at the cat closer, an angry expression still planted on his face.

“Oh yeah,” Lolli says, a growl still in his voice. “I see it now.” He points with an orange paw. “That white fur. You’re saying that’s proof that I WASN’T framed?”

“Well…” I stutter. “N… no… not exactly.”

But Lolli’s on a roll. “How in the name of felinehood could YOU say that these little tufts of white fur are concrete proof this cat ISN’T trying to frame me!?!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!???” Now Lolli is in full gear, yowling in anger. “Do you know what a wretched action our neighbor is doing by catching innocent felines doing innocent things on her property? If this keeps up, a cat could potentially be killed. We have to solve this case. Who framed me and why? Why are these cats coming onto our neighbor’s property? And, most of all, why oh why does our neighbor HATE cats? Thinking that this orange fiend didn’t frame me is preposterous! Simply preposterous!”

I take a moment to take in Lolli’s angry soliloquy. He was right about everything. He had convinced me that we couldn’t just sit around looking at footage of suspicious looking cats all day. We had to get out to our neighbors’ house and solve this case.

“Alright,” I say to Lolli, closing the human’s iPad. “Tomorrow, we will go out to house 5555 and set things right!”

TO BE CONTINUED…