Pebblepup's Writing Den

From: Agent Zoe

To: Mr. Whiskers

Date: 5 October 2025

Subject: Mission Report

I’m pleased to announce that all my recruits are doing well in stalking sessions. I hope to have them catching food soon. Once I get them up to the task of hunting, I can start their lessons on observing humans.

It has been a hard few months, but I think we are now on track. The recruits will be ready for the next semester of the Academy. I confess, there were times when I had my doubts about that. Praise be to Bast for the pleasures of hunting. Once I managed to get that across to them, it went well.

Now I’m working on having them do observations and reports. They should be ready soon. I’m happy with their progress.

I have been lookinfg forward to the next batch of raw recruits. I’ve set up modules of lesson plans that will help me to get them trained. Once this batch has moved on to the academy, the next batch will arrive. I’ve devised placement tests so I will not have the same issues with the recruits not knowing basic stealth techniques. I will test each one and either set them up to learn basic hunting and then on to the skills they will need in the Academy.

I have also discussed this idea with Agents Probie, Winnie and Cuddles who agreed that some of the new recruits were more inept at hunting than others, so testing will be easier if there are more of us watching the recruits to eliminate any cheating, not that any of this group were cheaters. I have set them to observing with an experienced agent and will be checking their reports. I will have copies of my colleague’s reports for comparisons. That will help as well. No one will have the option to copy any other cat’s reports without getting caught.

I will organize them in groups and have them make reports both verbally and written, on their own. They will not be allowed to compare notes. I’m appalled that the Academy complained that my recruits were collaborating on their reports. I am certain that none of them were cheaters. This new batch will not be so accused.

Cheating is not tolerated here. I assure you. Each of my pre-training recruits will be proficient in hunting, observing and report writing. I resent any criticism of that sort aimed at my recruits. I’m a better teacher than that.

All that said, my colleagues and I will be vigilant. I’ll get them all to the point that their entrance to the Academy will happen with no issues. They may not have been prepared to to hunt for themselves when I got them, they are now. They will handle the Academy without the need to cheat. They will be good agents, eventually.

I’m proud of each and every one of my recruits. I’m also proud of the way my colleagues have stepped up to help the youngsters succeed. 

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