Inspector Provost: The Case of the Feline Prankster

Welcome back to the Inspector Provost mysteries! If you missed the beginning of the journey, you can catch up with Chapter One: The Case of the Missing Wallet. In this second installment, we follow Buddy — a mischievous tabby with a penchant for disruption — as he transforms a simple board game into a detective case filled with clues, spirit nudges, and lessons in 5D living.

Case File #002: Inspector Provost and The Feline Prankster 

Filed by Inspector Provost.

Date: A morning scented with croissants and mischief.

Man suffers only because he takes seriously
what the gods made for fun.

Alan Watts

Inspector Provost Investigates Buddy the Cat

Opening of the case file. The suspect? A tabby with a flair for mischief.

The morning began with a meow — Buddy’s usual announcement that something was afoot. Our tabby suspect sauntered in, belly swinging, eyes gleaming with playful intent. He had watched us play Tikal before, but this time he decided to join the expedition. Among the vibrant explorer pieces, he chose the white one — a color I seldom favored. And then, as if by sleight of paw, the piece was gone.

Tikal is no ordinary board game. It’s an expedition into the heart of the Guatemalan jungle, where players uncover ancient temples and hidden treasures. Each turn reveals new terrain, demanding strategy, timing, and intuition. You don’t just play Tikal — you explore it. You lead teams of adventurers through dense rainforest paths, excavate ruins, and claim artifacts that have lain concealed for centuries. Victory belongs to those who can see what others overlook. It’s a game of discovery, and this morning, Buddy had decided to play.

The game was about to begin when I felt it — a spirit nudge, quiet but insistent, urging me to verify the count of my explorers. Without that whisper, I might have dismissed the absence as human error. Instead, the investigation began.

“There are nineteen explorers,” my adversary declared, his eyes ablaze with the fire of competition.

But my count revealed only eighteen. The white set, the very color Buddy had claimed, was incomplete. The scent of freshly baked croissants wafted through the air as I began my search. I checked the usual haunts — under tables, behind cushions, lifting up carpets where Buddy so often claims my missing hair ties — but the explorer piece was nowhere to be found.

The trail grew colder until intuition guided me to the feline’s toy basket. There, nestled among a dynamite stick and a toy sloth, lay the missing explorer. The evidence was undeniable. Buddy had claimed the piece, not by accident but by design, as if inviting us to see the game through his eyes.

Spirit Nudges and 5D Living

Years earlier, the puzzle piece had vanished. It was the final piece of a sprawling, intricate puzzle, and its absence turned triumph into frustration. I searched relentlessly, expanding my radius from the table to the floor, from cushions to carpets, while Buddy watched with the quiet amusement of a seasoned trickster. Days passed, and still the piece eluded me. My frustration grew heavy, until another spirit nudge whispered: check the sofa again. Reluctantly, I lifted the cushions once more — and there it was, tucked neatly into the crevice of our tufted couch. Ingenious. Calculated. Feline. In that moment, I knew the culprit was not chance but Buddy, who had once again transformed a simple pastime into a mystery worth solving.

Patterns emerged. Buddy’s mischief was not random. Each disappearance carried meaning, each prank a lesson. He was teaching us to pause, to notice, to trust intuition. What seemed like sabotage was, in truth, an invitation — to see the world through his eyes, where play and discovery are inseparable.

And here lies the essence of 5D living: spirit joins the game of life with wit and guidance. The missing piece was not just a prank, but a reminder that we are never playing alone. Guidance arrives in whispers, in nudges, in the playful paws of a cat who insists we pay attention.

The case of the feline prankster was solved, the explorer returned, the puzzle completed. Yet the deeper mystery remains: Buddy’s mind, spirit’s timing, the dance between mischief and meaning. Perhaps the true detective is not me, but the unseen hand that nudges us toward discovery.

Case closed. Lesson learned.

🧭 Clue to 5D Living: Spirit plays the game with us.

Inspector Provost
Chapter Two: The Case of the Feline Prankster
Copyright © 2024 by Althea Provost
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