Gary and Morris Foil the Pumpkin Thieves

The sun was setting at The Hervey Foundation for Cats, and there was a gentle breeze blowing through the windows. Gary and Morris were lying on the deck, enjoying the cool, comfortable air.

Marjorie had spent the afternoon raking leaves and rounding up dead sticks around the property. She had a perfect pile of leaves stacked together when a big gust came and blew a bunch of them up into the air.

“Oh, jeez,” she said. “Isn’t that nice?”

She glanced over at Gary and Morris, who were on their backs and staring back at her upside-down.

“Some days it’d be easier to be one of you, wouldn’t it?” she said with a laugh. “You two are too cute.”

She walked over and started petting the cats while the wind continued to blow her heap of leaves into the air.

“You don’t have to worry about leaves!” she said.

“Not a bad deal to lie in the sun and then get a massage,” said Gary, as Marjorie scratched the back of his head.

“You’re telling me!” said Morris, while stretching and getting his belly rubbed.

The cats started purring and gleefully flailing around on the deck while Marjorie kept scratching their fur.

“You two are so funny,” she said. “Are you excited for Halloween this year?”

The cats kept rolling around, enjoying the attention.

“We’re going to watch a Halloween classic after supper tonight,” she said. “It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown.”

The cats had no idea what that meant, but they loved watching movies with Marjorie, so they were game for anything!

“Suppertime!” said Marjorie, as she walked into the house and held the door open.

Gary and Morris shot up instantly, stretched out, then ran into the house with Marjorie.

After dinner had been served to all the kitties at The Foundation, Marjorie moved into the living room and got ready to watch Halloween movies.

Gary and Morris jumped up onto her lap after she had put in a DVD for It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown. She sat down and put a warm, fuzzy blanket over her legs.

“What do you think this one is about?” Morris asked Gary.

“I would assume a great pumpkin,” Gary replied.

Morris rolled his eyes as the show started.

The cats at The Foundation were all watching the screen with Marjorie, enjoying the bright colours of animated TV. Some pawed at the screen periodically while others just listened or dozed off.

Once the show was over, Marjorie switched over to watch the Halloween Baking Championship, and Gary and Morris decided to get some fresh air on the back deck.

“That Charlie Brown sure is timid,” said Morris.

“Good grief,” said Gary.

The cats laughed, then stopped for a second as an unfamiliar truck drove down the road. It had wood sides built up on its bed, and the windows were open with loud music playing.

Gary and Morris looked at each other.

“Did something feel off about that truck?” asked Gary.

“Who knows,” Morris replied.

The cats stood around for a bit, then decided to go for a walk.

“Let’s go check out Mr. Howell’s pumpkin patch,” said Gary. “Maybe we’ll see The Great Pumpkin!”

Morris giggled.

“Sounds good to me,” he said. “Onward!”

The cats darted off the deck and into the ditch out front of the property. It was nice and dry after a long, hot summer, and much easier on the paws than on the gravel road.

After twenty minutes or so, they arrived at the back of The Howell Farm, and snuck their way onto the property.

Mr. Howell had always grown prize-winning pumpkins. It’s his passion. He’s grown some that are over 300 pounds! Every year at the county fair, he enters one of his pumpkins in the biggest pumpkin contest, and every year he wins that contest.

Gary and Morris were having a great time jumping from pumpkin to pumpkin, flipping around on their backs and rolling around in the dry dirt. The vines were like a big jungle gym, and the pumpkins were the platforms.

“This place is great this time of year!” said Morris. “These pumpkins are incredible!”

“I wish it were like this all the time!” said Gary.

Then they heard a man’s voice.

The two cats immediately jumped down to the ground and stopped moving.

“Look at this one!” said the voice. “It’s massive!”

The cats stayed low to the ground and watched as headlights started to shine past the pumpkins – throwing massive shadows against the fence.

“This one is perfect. Bring the truck over here,” said the man.

Gary looked at Morris and whispered, “That’s not Farmer Howell.”

Morris looked at him, then back at the man who was walking past them.

“That’s that truck from earlier,” Morris whispered.

The truck grew louder as it moved closer and closer. Its engine roared as it accelerated periodically, and the music got louder and louder. As it got close, a beer can flew out of one of the windows and landed near the two cats.

“Disgusting,” said Gary. “These are not good guys.”

Morris nodded.

The truck eventually stopped next to the biggest pumpkin in the patch, then three men got out to join the fourth, who was already standing next to it. They all bent down to try to lift the pumpkin, but it was too heavy.

“Let’s do something,” Morris said.

“What?” Gary replied.

“Follow my lead!” said Morris.

The cats ran back to the fence where the men were trying to lift the pumpkin, and, keeping in the shadows, crept up close to the railing where they had left their beer cans. The cats then rubbed against the post until the cans fell down and onto the ground.

“The drinks!” one of the men shouted.

“How’d they all fall?” another asked.

“Must’ve been the wind,” said another.

“Brother, there hasn’t been a shred of wind all night,” said the man who was yelling back to the truck earlier.

“Weird,” said the first one.

They shrugged it off and went back to trying to lift the massive pumpkin.

Morris looked at Gary, who was now understanding the plan, then took off running. Gary followed a few steps behind, eager to see what Morris had in mind.

They moved over to where a bucket of tools had been left on top of a nearby hay bale.

“Let’s knock these things over and make a bunch of noise!” said Morris.

He and Gary used their heads to push the big pail. It hit the ground with a thunderous crashing sound. The metal tools clanged off each other and the metal walls of the bucket.

“What was that?!” one of the men shouted out.

“Who is there?” shouted another.

It was silent for a moment while the obviously scared men awaited a response. Gary and Morris silently laughed to themselves.

“Hello?”

“Show yourself!”

Two of the men shouted while another told them to be quiet.

“You two are going to get us caught! Do you want that?” he said. “Let’s go, we need to be quick about this.”

Gary and Morris ran out from behind the hay bale and over to where the men’s truck was parked. They noticed that the wood panels on the back were not securely tied down, so they jumped on in and used their snouts to push the bottoms of the wood panels towards the middle of the bed. Both fell out of the truck at the same time.

The four men gasped and jumped backwards.

“I don’t like this,” said one.

“I don’t either,” said another. “I don’t care how badly you want this pumpkin. I am freaked right out.”

The most determined of the men didn’t seem to want to leave, but they could tell he was starting to get a little scared, too.

“Look… I don’t like it either, but my uncle offered us $250 to steal the biggest pumpkin we could find, and I don’t know about you, but this pumpkin is huge,” he said.

Just then, the scarecrow in the field started to shake and sway. Its chest looked like waves were moving through it, and its head swayed back and forth as the rocking seemed to get louder and more intense.

The men did not like this. They were already freaked right out, and this put them over the edge. More importantly, so were Gary and Morris. Up to this point, the only paranormal phenomena of the night had been caused by them, but this one was not them.

“What the…” said one of the men.

The rest of them stood there, frozen, in the headlights of the pickup truck.

“Get back in the truck!” said one of them. “We don’t need this money!”

The men ran back into their pickup, slammed the doors, and then drove away as quickly as possible.

Gary and Morris were ducking down behind a pumpkin in some tall grass, still terrified of the scarecrow that seemed to be coming to life.

Then, suddenly, three young raccoons fell out of the scarecrow – local teenage raccoons from the nearby valley!

“Psst! Raccoons!” said Gary.

The raccoons stood up and looked towards the noise.

“Psst! Over here!” Morris said a bit louder.

The raccoons made eye contact with the cats and waddled over.

“Hey, guys!” said Phil the raccoon. He was the nephew of Mama and Papa Raccoon from the forest back home. “What’s up?”

“Did you not see that truck? And all the humans?” Morris asked.

The raccoons laughed.

“What truck?” asked Phil. “We were having fun hanging out in the pumpkin patch, then we ate some pumpkins, then we fell asleep in the scarecrow’s body.”

Gary and Morris laughed.

“Well, your timing was impeccable,” said Morris. “You managed to scare away those pumpkin thieves!”

“No way! Really?” Phil replied. “That’s great!”

“You’re telling me,” said Gary. “We were trying to freak them out to make them leave, then you guys woke up, and they thought the scarecrow was coming to life! It put them right over the top!”

“To be honest, I kind of thought the scarecrow was coming to life, too,” Morris added.

Everyone had a laugh.

“Well then, I don’t feel quite so guilty about eating Mr. Howell’s pumpkins,” said Phil. “We aren’t part of the problem anymore; we’re the solution!”

Gary and Morris laughed, then bid the raccoons adieu.

“Have a good night, fellas,” Phil said as they walked off.

“You, too!” said Gary.

“Stay safe!” said Morris.

The cats walked back to the shelter using the ditch by the highway, and once home, grabbed a spot on the deck. Marjorie was still watching Halloween Baking Championship in the living room with the other cats.

“Let’s go see how things are going inside,” said Gary.

Morris nodded, and the two made their way indoors and onto Marjorie’s lap.

“You boys smell like the outdoors,” she said as she petted them on their backs.

The cats looked at each other, smirked, then got comfortable and fell right asleep.