Collinsalex2, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
By Bill Stokes
Kickass, the doorstop dog, passes along the keeper’s recent exercise of his—the keeper’s, boundless powers of observation and deduction; enough, certainly, that if he had so chosen, he could have been another Sherlock Holmes, or at least a Columbo. (It is not necessary to point out that the keeper’s detective efforts make a meaningful contribution to the security of the Vista West facility where he and Phyllis reside, but he will point it out anyway.)
In walking past a set of glass doors near the elevator, the keeper spied some suspicious tracks on the snow-covered sidewalk outside. The tracks led up to the door and ended there, indicating that whoever made them had entered the building. In a careful analysis of the tracks, the keeper concluded they had been made by an average sized man who had been using a cane while walking a small dog.
In subsequent follow up interrogations of fellow residents, it was determined that the tracks had been made by Roger who lives at Vista West with Sandra and a small, white fluffy dog named Sugar.
Following Roger’s confession to having made the tracks, and Sugar’s obvious expectation of a “treat,” the case of “Tracks in the Snow” was closed; and the keeper moved on to studying the suspicious cloud patterns visible through the windows where he naps.
