Keep your eye on the ball.

Nipper, the baby dog, loves to chase his toys in the backyard. Every morning, sun, rain, snow, hail, fog, whatever, you can find me throwing or kicking balls around the place for the little guy to chase. He has a lot of bounce in the morning, and we have to help him work it off. Happy puppy!

I've noticed that one of his balls has disappeared without trace, though. It was a squeaky plastic ball with nubby spikes, much like this one:

It wasn't Nipper's favorite, because he had crunched it too hard and killed its squeak. But he still liked it. And one morning it had vanished. 

Where could it be?

Our yard's not fenced, but we don't get other dogs taking shortcuts. We get a neighbor cat from time to time, but they like their own toys, and this ball's kind of big for a cat. We get plenty of deer, but I don't see them show any interest in anything but my rolling field of salad (grass) (and weeds). Never seen a racoon here.

So what could have taken the ball? 

Here are some artist's renderings of our prime suspects. If you see any of these alleged varmints, please alert our Crimestoppers hotline via frederick_key at yahoo.com. That is all.