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Alley Cat LbNA #22866

Owner:Adoptable
Plant date:Apr 27, 2006
Location:
City:Columbia
County:Boone
State:Missouri
Boxes:1
Planted by:Fox-fyr
Found by: LadyEilonwy
Last found:Oct 23, 2011
Status:FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF
Last edited:Apr 27, 2006
Confirmed in place 10/24/11. Note: The Alley Cat Yoga location mentioned in the clue has since moved but you should still be able to find the box once you have the rest of the clues.

The Alley Cat Letterbox (or should it be litterbox?) is located in a high traffic area in downtown Columbia. This box will take you through the back alleys and byways off the beaten path (but no bushwhacking). A compass is not required, but you'll need some luck to solve the clue (see below).

Please use EXTREME discretion when hunting for this box. This spot seems to always have some foot and vehicle traffic. The busiest times seem to be Monday-Friday at the open and close of the business day (bankers' hours) as well as whenever Columbia hosts various downtown festivals and also on Friday and Saturday evenings. If there are too many people about, please elect to try again a different day.

Since the location is so sensitive, the clue is not actually posted on LBNA. Instead, it is a traveling Cuckoo Clue. Like the Cuckoo bird (which lays its eggs in other birds' nests), a cuckoo clue is a clue that has been left in one letterbox but gives directions to another box. Like a Hitchhiker, this clue also travels from box to box. It is important, however, that this clue remain in Boone or Callaway County. It may be in a newer box, it may be in a box you've already visited and which has been out for a while, or from time to time it maybe traveling from one box to another in the area.

To help ensure that this clue stays in the area, I made five exact copies of the clue, put each one in its own Ziploc bag, and then planted each Ziploc bag in a different letterbox in Boone or Calaway counties. Since the clue involves a crossword puzzle and some fill-in-the-blanks, please make sure you make a photocopy of the clue before trying to solve it so that you don't spoil the fun of puzzle solving for the next person. For convenience, I also made a few extra copies and stuck them in each of the five Ziplocs.

So here are the rules:
1) If there's more than one copy of the Crossword Puzzle in the bag when you find it, please feel free to take and write on one of the copies. (Keep this copy--do not replant it once you've written on it).
2) If you plan to visit another box in the Boone or Callaway county area soon, feel free to move the Cuckoo Clue to another box in the area. Otherwise, take or make a copy if you wish, but return the Ziploc with the clean original(s)back to the same box in which you found it.
3)Solve the puzzle, find the box, then contact me using the "Contact the Placer" link on LBNA.
4) Finally,let me know where you found the clue, where you left it, and how many copies are left in the bag, so that I can monitor them and make additional copies if necessary. There's a Kinkos in downtown Columbia at 26 South 6th street.

Good Luck Hunting!
--Fox-fyr,
Columbia, MO

If you would like a cipher-lesson plan that explains how to decode many of the ciphers used in mid-Missouri letterboxing, please e-mail me using the "Contact the Placer" link.