Happily Ever After
Life in The Rural Retreat with a beautiful wife, three cats, garden wildlife, a camera, a computer – and increasing amounts about running
Earlier posts can be found on Adventures of a Lone Bass Player, where this blog began life. Recent entries can be found here.
Gone In The Night
by admin - 18:41 on 13 September 2012
The day didn't start well – when I stepped outside The Rural Retreat at 8.40 this morning I discovered that Mr Ford had disappeared during the previous twelve hours.
Matchgirl and I took a quick whiz around the area in Agent Cooper but there was nothing to be found. Back home, I called the police in Cromarty. But the Cromarty station had closed some time ago, despite its number still being in the phone book, as the resigned new occupier of the former premises explained.
Area HQ in Dingwall was still there, and within an hour an officer arrived to take the details. The licence plate is now on Northern Constabulary's watch list; number plate recognition cameras will be examined. He was helpful, efficient and didn't even tut too much when I admitted that I customarily left the car unlocked with the keys in the ignition. There seems little point in alerting my insurers.
In my defence, the Retreat is ten miles from an A road and nearly a mile from a B road – the kind of place where you should feel safe without locks and keys, which I did. Our parking area isn't one a passing ne'er-do-well would stumble across on the way home from the pub, or that would be targeted by steal-to-order thieves from the big city, so a certain amount of local knowledge may be involved.
Inquiries are proceeding.
Agent Cooper, I must report, was also entered and rummaged through, but though Matchgirl also leaves him unlocked she takes the key away. The only thing missing was a small pot of lip balm. Bizarre.
I'm told that the odds are on my side for eventual recovery of Mr Ford. Let's hope so – car-buying is not my favourite occupation, let alone the expense.
Fortunately, I have kittens to cheer me up, which they did by spending the morning charging back and forth across the Retreat's upper storey, play-fighting on the bed, then snoozing as sweetly as only kittens can. They also spent some time in the same room as Maia for the first time: no sparks flew so a peaceful, fully-integrated future isn't far away.
The only snappery today was a brief session through That Bloody Window which resulted in a new woodpecker portrait. The feline residents will be put in focus tomorrow.
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