Mischief Makers Day 17: Meowy Christmas!

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Figgy and Pixie waited nervously outside Santa’s office. The results were in and the report was written. 

The door opened and Nim peeked out. “Santa’s ready for you.” 

Nim’s face gave nothing away and Lil would barely look at them when they sailed in the room. Not a good sign. 

“Figgy. Pixie,” Santa started. “Mr. Grimly has submitted his report to the DFFF.”

Gulp.

Santa’s eyes twinkled. “And I’m happy to say that he found nothing negative to note!”

Figgy and Pixie slumped to the floor, relieved that they were not in trouble. 

“Oh thank goodness!” Pixie sighed.

“Take that Birthday Beagle!”

“Actually,” said Lil. “It was the Tooth Fairy who made the complaint.”

“Whaaat?!” Figgy was appalled. “But we helped her when Jake lost his tooth!”

Nim narrowed his eyes at Figgy and Pixie. “Yes, if by helped you mean decorated the tooth pillow with ribbons and bows and left a glitter-covered dollar in addition to the 50 cents she normally leaves.”

“Too much?” Pixie asked.

Nim and Lil just shook their heads, but couldn’t hide relieved smiles. Disaster had been averted…at least for now.

* * *

“Thank you SOOOO much!” Joe’s smile was huge and his eyes sparkled. “I don’t know how you did it, but Mom and Dad were very happy when they saw the Lego blocks all picked up and neatly organized.”

Figgy and Pixie were happy to hear Operation Clean-up had been a success. 

“And don’t worry. We didn’t take credit for it. I told them that you guys must have done it while we were sleeping.”

“Does that mean you are still in trouble?”

Joe shrugged. “They still aren’t too happy with us, but the cleaned up Lego room definitely softened them up.”

“Are we ready to play with kittens?” Pixie clapped her hands.

“Yep!” Joe pulled out tiny cat ears and masks. “I made these for you yesterday.”

“Oh Joe, they are adorable!”

“Jake helped with the whiskers and the—.”

Joe’s eyes widened as they heard noises coming from the dark hallway. Someone was up.

“It’s Jake!” whispered Joe. “I better go!” 

He dropped the cat costumes and raced to the hallway. Figgy and Pixie heard him murmuring to Jake. 

“What are you doing Joe?”

“Nothing, just getting a drink of water. Go back to bed.” 

Joe turned back to Pixie and Figgy. ‘Go ahead without me,’ he mouthed.

“Whew. That was a close one,” said Pixie.

“Too close,” Figgy agreed. “Again.”

They didn’t say it, but they weren’t sure how much longer they could keep this up. Jake was getting closer and closer to discovering the truth about the Mischief Makers.

Shaking her head, Pixie zipped to the garage door. “C’mon, Figgy. Let’s get those cats dressed up!”

Figgy followed her into the garage. “Here kitty, kitty.”

Pounce!

Purrrrrr!

MEOW!

An orange, white and gray tornado descended on the elves. Rough, sandpaper tongues licked their faces and loud, in-stereo purrs filled the garage. 

• 

• 

“Ok, ok!” Figgy laughed. 

Pixie scratched Rusty behind the ears while Dusty batted at Figgy’s hat. 

It took them awhile, but they managed to get elf hats and ears on the two kittens.

• 

• 

• 

MROOOW!

Echo, the old gray girl, sat in the corner, glowering at the group. Poor Rusty trotted over, trying to rub noses and got a hiss and nose bat for his trouble. 

“Oh Echo, if only you would play with them,” said Pixie.

MROOOOWWW!

Figgy shook his head and approached Echo slowly, knowing this was going to be the hardest part. “Here kitty, kitty.”

SKKKKKKK!

Echo thumped Figgy on the head, knocking him across the garage and raced to the corner where she continued to hiss and growl quietly.

Pixie couldn’t help but laugh. “Well, we knew that was a longshot.”

“Now who’s going to be Santa?”

“We’ll just have to make do without a Santa Claws.” Pixie adjusted her headband and applied her whiskers. 

Figgy noticed a bag on the freezer. “Oooo! Cookies!”

Pixie wandered over. “Joe must have left them for us. A midnight snack.”

“Temptations…sounds delicious!”