My name is Prince Frecklebum, Greyhound Detective. I wasn't always a detective. I was a racer once, before I retired. My track name was Occam's Razor of Lightspeed Doom. You can call me Prince. Most of the humans around these parts do.

This morning, my humans changed their daily routine. Being a Greyhound detective, it was my duty to investigate. Let's review the facts of the case.

I've gotten my humans into a routine. I sleep until the buzzy thing makes lots of noise. Then I usually poke the big guy in the eye with my nose. He LOVES that! Some of the things he says, what a HOOT! Sometimes, if I put my head on the buzzy thing just right, it stops making noise for a while. I learned that this really makes the humans run around fast in the morning. They must love all that morning exercise! All the talking and yelling and rushing around. No need to thank me, it's my job to care for the humans here. Anyway, this is one of the days the buzzy thing sleeps in cuz it doesn't make any noise. However, I still get up at my normal time. Weird thing is, he sun is missing. It's usually up when I get up. If those humans have lost the sun, they're gonna have one major pee spot to clean up!

Taking stock of the situation I figure that if I'm up and looking for the missing sun, the humans should be too! Taking drastic action, I leap over Mom (well, mostly over, I flubbed the landing and sat on her a little) and nose-poke Dad a few times. How happy they were to see me! "Ger'off!" "Dangmutt" "t'early" "golaydown". All standard exclamations of love and joy. You learn things like this when you care for humans. A few more nose pokes and a really good flop'n'roach and Mom and Dad grumble their way out of bed. This is when they, too, realize the sun is missing!

Dad interrogates the buzzy thing. ("Why, Mr. Alarm Clock, Why do you lie to me so?") Mom sighs and goes into the room with the big white water bowl. I think that's their water bowl, cuz they won't let me drink from it. Lemme tell you, though, if that's their water bowl, they really need to watch how I use mine cuz they are DOING IT WRONG! Dad grumbles a bit and we go outside. Nope. No sun here, either.

Once we get back inside, I take a few minutes out to solve a case. It's the same one I solve every morning. Having recovered the missing items for the 447th time (and, dang it, having them stolen again!), I can get back to trying to find the Sun.

I need to clear my head so I find the little boy's room. He's still asleep so I hop up on his bed and full-on head-over-the-side roach to better marinate my brains. I thinks better this way. I must have thought real hard cuz when I woke up, I mean finished my meditations, the sun was back! Figuring that, having found the Sun again, I should take a quick nap to regain my energy after such a hard case, I went to my favorite spot. You can imagine my surprise when the sunlight wasn't coming through the window in the same place it usually does at this time of the morning. I'll bet whoever put the sun back put it in the wrong spot or something cuz this stuff just ain't right!! How can I nap in Dad's chair, in the sunlight, when the sunlight ain't there?

I'll just make the best of things, I suppose.

The day sorta goes along normal, like, but toward the evening, having recovered the stolen items, yet again, I notice that it's not dark when it should be. The sun must be putting in overtime. Dad sometimes puts in "overtime." That's when Dad doesn't come home on time and I wait by the window till I see his car. You really have to make sure your humans get home safe. I guess the sun doesn't wanna go home yet and let the dark come out to play. Still, if he's going to hang around a little longer, I'm gonna go check on the holes in the garden. They turn up missing, a lot, when I'm not around to watch over them. Sure enough, the holes were gone so I put them back. I sniffed around the yard, found a sunny spot to lay in for a while and, after about an hour, I noticed the Sun was going home for the day and the dark was coming out to play. That's when I heard my name and figured the humans needed me to care for them some more.

It sure is tiring taking care of humans, so after I let them pet me and share my couch, I let them watch my special window on the wall. It makes all sorts of neat sounds and things to watch. I finally decided they had enough so I made sure they all got off to bed ok and settled down for a good night's sleep.

I hope the sun is on time tomorrow. Otherwise I'm going to have to find him again. That's ok, though, it's just another day in the life of Prince Frecklebum, Greyhound Detective.