Short Story

The Sentinel

Nancy's Notes 🖊️🎶

Written for The Unicorn Challenge where
we are urged to get creative in 250 words or less.
The photo below is our inspiration; this is my story.

© Ayr/Gray

The old wooden fence groaned under the weight of the late afternoon sun. Perched atop it, Sherlock the cat surveyed the scene with golden eyes. He wasn’t just sunbathing; Sherlock was on duty as the self-appointed neighborhood watch.

Mrs. Randazzo’s prize-winning roses were missing. Not just a bloom or two, but the entire bush, vanished without a trace. This had happened three times in as many weeks. Today, Sherlock was determined to crack the case. He’d watched the street, the yards, the alleyway, every rustle of leaves, every chirp of a bird. Then, he saw it …. a glint of something obscured by overgrown ivy.

He leaped off the fence, landing silently on the soft earth. He crossed the street, weaving through Mrs. Stein’s petunias, and slipped into the ivy’s embrace. There, tucked away behind the dense foliage, was a small, dented wagon. And inside lay wilting was Mrs. Randazzo’s Blue Moon rose bush.

But there was no one around.

Sherlock sniffed the wagon; the faint scent of motor oil lingered. He glanced up, following a barely discernible trail of disturbed earth leading towards Old Man FitzWilliam’s garage.

Malcolm FitzWilliam claimed he couldn’t even bend over due to his bad back, but Sherlock knew better. He’d seen the old geezer lugging hefty bags of fertilizer just last week. And now Mrs. Randazzo’s roses were gone. Sherlock narrowed his eyes, a low growl rumbling in his chest. The mystery might be solved; he just needed to convince someone to believe him.

NAR©2025
250 Words

This is “The Theft” by Atreyu

The Unicorn Challenge-07/03/25

All text, graphics and videos are copyright for Nancy’s Notes 🖊️🎶, The Sicilian Storyteller, The Elephant’s Trunk, The Rhythm Section, et al., and are not to be used without permission. NAR©2017-present.

34 thoughts on “The Sentinel”

  4. Since Sherlock is smart enough to solve the crime, he’s plenty smart enough to reveal the criminal. I believe in him.

    Great story. Great cat character. Also great song choice.

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  6. Oh, I love clever Sherlock and your tale. It certainly will be tricky for the cat to convince someone. He’s a wonderful character, along with the neighbors you created, that you could use to weave more stories. I read what you said in Jenne’s comments and wanted to say that I’m so sorry you (and your family) have been sick. The stomach flu is awful. I hope you are feeling well soon, Nancy!

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    1. Thank you so much, dear Brenda, for your most gracious comments; how very kind of you.
      The bug started with our 5 yr old granddaughter who spent last Friday (her birthday!) in the hospital. I caught her bug as did our son and daughter-in-law, and also passed it on to our other son and his family. Somehow, my mister has not gotten sick …. yet!
      I’m so pleased you enjoy my story, Brenda.

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  7. If that cat could talk what tales he’d tell
    About Della and the Dealer and the dog as well?
    But the cat was cool and he never said a mumbling’ word. Hoyt Axton. The aloof Feline. Paw and butt licking little creature. I have a feral cat that visits my bird feeders, as of yet, he, or she, has yet to nab a Cardinal. My local bully bird, the black Crow, slapped the cat around a bit so I haven’t seen it in a while. If I need a case cracked, I will put out a tin of Tuna. As always, Nancy, good stuff.

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    1. Gotta love old Hoyt! The local bullies up here are blue jays; they can be very nasty when they wanna be. My old piano teacher got chased around her yard by an incessant blue jay who came at her like a kamikaze pilot. Pecked a hole right on the top of her head. Thanks so much, Phil!

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      1. I put out peanuts for the Blue boys, Crows and a beautiful Red Headed Stranger Woodpecker, I call him Willie. This moring there was a Road Runner ( Chapperal) hanging out in our back yard. He has no fear of us, and will come up from behind to inquire what we might be doing, scares me sometimes. He keeps the snakes away, is safe from Coyotes in our fenced yard.

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        1. I used to feed the birds faithfully. I loved watching them from our sunroom and recorded each new visitor; my list was up to 73 different birds when I was forced to cease and desist. My best friend of 40+ years called to do her husband’s dirty work. He didn’t have the cajones to talk to be personally; isn’t that always the case? Anyway, the story he told went something like this: All the birds I was feeding would fly over to his house and crap all over his back deck. One morning he stepped outside to find a “mountain of bird shit” on the deck. Suddenly, before his eyes, the mountain “burst open” and “thousands” of “angry flies” flew out. Astounding, isn’t it? For the sake of my friendship (and to keep my friend from getting a daily earfull from her husband), I stopped feeding the birds. That’s a true story, Phil. Maybe my friend’s husband should start his own storytelling page here on WordPress.

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          1. Our birds are polite, they wait on the high wires or in the tree by the feeder until we fill them up, then they engulf the area. Our nearest neighbor is across the road and then some, so we have no compaints. Momo can’t be without her avian companions, so I keep the stock of seed up.

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    1. Oh, I’m sure you’re right!
      Thanks for your very nice comments, Jenne. I must confess, I’ve been down all week with a nasty stomach virus which is working its way through my family. I dug into a file of stories I wrote for my granddaughter Mckenna 12 years ago and found this one about Sherlock, Cat Detective. A few tweaks and I got it to work for today’s challenge. Thank goodness for computers!

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