The Catnapper Mystery

Cody, the catnapper, had a talent for taking cats from trees, yards, and porches. He’d keep them until their owners paid for their return. One day, Milly’s kitten Mousie was missing. Milly accused Cody. “No way!” said Detective Denny. “I saw Cody catch a train to Planters Plain this morning. Mousie can’t have been kidnapped (绑架) by Cody!”

“There are no paw prints on my lawn,” noted Milly. “Mousie didn’t just scamper off!”

“And there are no sneaker prints,” said Detective Denny. “Cody only wears sneakers.” Then he noticed tiny holes in the grass that looked like they were made by high-heeled shoes. Denny pulled out a pencil. He was very careful as he measured the holes. “Half a pencil deep! Only Patty Perry’s Pet Shop wears heels that high and thin.”

Milly and Detective Denny ran to Patty’s, where a man was loading pets into a van. “Where are these animals going?” asked Milly.

“To Carter’s Cats in Planters Plain,” he replied.

“Where is Patty Perry?” asked Detective Denny.

“She had to catch a train,” said the man.

“Hmmm,” thought Denny. “Cody’s full name is Cody Carter. Sounds like Carter’s Cats! And he’s on a train to Planters Plain.”

Denny figured Patty would sell the cats and then Cody would steal them back. Only this time, Patty made the snatch. “They resell the cats in Planters Plain,” he realized, “and split the money!”

“Sounds illegal!” said the man with the van.

The Planters Plain police met the train and took the catnappers straight to jail. Best of all, the cats in captivity, including Milly’s Mousie, were returned to their owners.

A waste collector’s quick thinking and heroic actions saved the lives of a man, a woman, and their pet dog as a fire broke out in a small house in Birmingham.

The event happened around 8 a. m. when several 999 calls reported the fire. Firefighters from Tipton, Dudley, Bilston, and Wednesbury stations raced to the event site. Upon arrival, they felt a sense of relief to find that Steve Whitehouse, a 49-year-old Refuse Operative employed by Serco, had already rescued the people inside.

Steve was collecting waste with driver Kevin Marriott when they saw the fire. Without hesitation (犹豫), Steve took action — climbing a first-floor balcony (阳台) three times to ensure the safety of the trapped persons and the dog.

“I saw a young woman crying from the balcony to attract people’s attention, and all I could think of was that I needed to get to her as quickly as possible,” Steve told West Midlands Fire Service. He successfully pulled the woman to safety and then went back up to rescue a painful young man and his dog.

“The smoke was getting thicker. I managed to pack the dog in a blanket, jumped back down to the ground, and got the owner to throw the dog to me. I then went back up to help him,” Steve described.

Once the rescue task was complete, Steve turned his attention to warning neighbors of the danger, while Kevin helped those who had left their homes. After taking a moment to recover over coffee, the two continued their daily rounds.

Chris Green, the officer responsible for the event, praised Steve’s great courage, stating, “He is a hero. To save the lives of two people and a dog is amazing. We will be putting him forward for official recognition.”

The fire is believed to have started when an e-bike battery burst while on charge at the bottom of the stairs, cutting off the residents’ escape route.

When our second child was born, Jim and I thought she was perfect, but the doctor pointed out that her feet were turned inward. “Left uncorrected, it would be a problem,” he told us.

We decided to do anything we could to help our baby. When she was only two weeks old, I brought her back to the doctor, just as he had directed, and the doctor put her tiny feet into casts（模子）, her precious baby toes just barely visible. Because she was growing, I had to take her back to the doctor every two weeks to have each foot recast.

Eventually the casting was finished and it was time for corrective shoes and bars. Jim and I watched with hope and concern as she struggled to walk. Those first, awkward（笨拙的）steps made us so proud. By the time she entered preschool, her steps had appeared quite normal. Encouraged by her progress, we expected her to become much stronger.

As is turned out, she loved the ice!

When she turned six, we persuaded her to attend skating lessons and soon she was very good. Of course, she had to work hard at every new movement, but she loved the ice and her dedication（奉献）paid off. At fifteen, she competed in both pair skating and the ladies’ single skating at the 1988 World Junior Championships in Australia, winning both events! At the World Championships in 1991, she won the ladies’ single skating. Then we found ourselves filled with love and admiration in France, at the 1992 Winter Olympics, as our daughter, Kristi Yamaguchi won the gold medal.

I thought back to the early years of challenge for Kristi. During those years, we didn’t expect gold medals and professional career ahead of her. We respected her strength and hard work. In our eyes, Kristi had always walked in the life with the grace（优美）of a true champion.