The cat that got the . . . lily pads?

SAHIBAN KANWAL

08/09/2014

MYTCHALL BRANSGROVE/Fairfax NZ

ALL'S WELL . . . The Noone family with one of the burglars responsible for stealing water-lily pads.

                              MYTCHALL BRANSGROVE/Fairfax NZ

BAFFLED: Neville Orford had to do some detective work.

It was a whodunit tale of two families, a cat and some water-lily pads that kept going missing.

The thefts began about six months ago and baffled the owners of the water-lily pads, Neville and Ngaire Orford. "They are just plastic water-lily pads that sit around on the ponds and the first few that were taken were really grotty. We just could not understand why anyone would want to steal them," Ngaire said.

The Orfords decided to do some detective work. "We put a length of cotton string from one side of the driveway to another, but the string never broke and the pads kept going missing," Ngaire Orford said.

They then put some talcum powder around the pond to see if it was an animal. "We saw some paw prints, but we could not get hold of the culprit. It was beginning to keep us up at night."

The couple went to the $2 shop and bought more water-lily pads to restock their pond. "We put a note at the bottom of the pads saying ‘we would love to know where our water-lily pads are going to. No offence,' and our number."

Megan Noone called. Over the past year, every couple of weeks, Noone would wake up to find a water-lily pad at her doorstep. "Our cats were going out under the cover of darkness and bringing back the lily pads. They brought at least 20 in the past year and we did not know where they were getting them from."

The last one they brought back had the note attached and the rest as they say, is history.

The Timaru Herald
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