Sadie Lynn’s cell phone, designed for the thumb-impaired, rang. “Sadie Lynn! Oh Sadie Lynn, help!” squeaked a familiar voice when she answered. “Miss Blatz? What’s wrong?” Sadie Lynn asked. “I need your nose!” said Miss Blatz, “I’m on 23rd Street! Come quick!”
Her nose? What on earth could that mean? But her friend sounded upset and possibly in trouble, so Sadie Lynn didn’t waste time wondering. Luckily, 23rd street was just a few blocks over from the Poochera Bread bistro where she’d been having lunch, and it didn’t take long at all for her to find Miss Blatz, who was standing on a street curb in tears. A smaller rat was at her side trying to comfort her.
“The golden ball that pins my Tabby Vest Accessory together,” sobbed Miss Blatz. “I lost it while we were walking! And I don’t know where — you know I’m blind! Please, Sadie Lynn, can you sniff it out?”
Rats didn’t have good vision to begin with, and being an albino, Miss Blatz had it even worse. Still, she got around fine using her whiskers to feel her way around, as well as her sense of sound and smell, so Sadie Lynn never would have known she was completely blind if she hadn’t been told. But finding the ball on her own was beyond her; Sadie Lynn would have to track it like a terrier tracking a… well, you know. So that was what she had meant by needing her nose!
Sadie Lynn sniffed the spot on Miss Blatz’s Tabby where the ball had been, then put her snout to the sidewalk, and, amidst the many other scents of the street, she caught a whiff of the same smell. She bolted after it, the two rats riding on her back, Miss Blatz seated sidesaddle like a proper lady. Soon enough, she’d tracked the scent to the opening of a storm drain.
“Oh no,” said Miss Blatz, “I’m too afraid to go down there, and you can’t fit!”
“I can!” said the other rat, and quick as a flash she had squeezed herself into one of the tiny gaps in the storm drain. Miss Blatz and Sadie Lynn both held their breath, worried about what might happen to such a little rat down in the deep, dark drain. But a moment later, her head popped up between the grate bars, the golden ball clutched in her mouth.
“I’m Sam, by the way,” the little rat told Sadie Lynn while Miss Blatz cleaned her off and scolded her for doing something so dangerous. She was black and white, with bright black eyes, and younger than Miss Blatz.
“She’s my ward,” Miss Blatz explained, “It means I’ve sort of adopted her.” “Well,” said Sadie Lynn, “She certainly has a talent for helping out in a tight spot!”
“And scaring me half to death!” added Miss Blatz, but she hugged Sam as she said it.
“I think she’s earned a Migrubbie of her own!” said Sadie Lynn, “Come back with me to Mister Migs and you can pick one out while we get Miss Blatz’s ball sewn back to her Tabby.”
With that, the trio walked down the street, towards the Mister Migs boutique and another day of adventure. Migrubbie™ Tabby Vest Accessory™ and Migdivas™ are registered trademarks of Mister Migs.com
Illustration by Mary Grace Mauney