This is brilliant! (as are all of your stories that I have so far read)
I was crying with mirth myself from Ali's first note until they were sat in the sitting-room.

You had a very original idea and carried it off well. Well done@+!

ANOTHER GREAT STORY!

"MR. HOLMES – SICK OF KEEPING STUFFED CROCODILE FOR YOU. IF YOU DO NOT CLAIM, I THROW IN NILE. ALI"

I love this! And Dickens does looks so nice leather bound. I have a rather nice leather bound copy of the Pickwick Papers that I love. It seems so in character for Holmes to immediatly decide to do this without thinking it all the way through. Bravo!

Poette, you are a genius!
It is very unusual to make me laugh out loud while reading anything, but your story was so droll in such a very reserved English way, that I couldn't help myself!
I LOVE the way you capture Holmes language and sentence structure. I am trying to do the same thing in my Northanger Abby fanfic and it is extremely difficult. *goes back to re-read in the hope of plagiarising some vocab and phrases* No, it is not Austen's subject matter or character type, but it is brilliant none the less.

"This may turn out to be a three-pipe problem after all." Lovely imagry! *although not a smoker herself, happens to love the smell of pipe tobacco*

I am curious about this 'being dead' business. It almost inspires me to read the three copies of Sherlock Holmes books that I have on the shelves ("The Adventures of SH"; "The Return of SH;" "The Further adventures of SH")despite the fact that I don't actually like mysteries... You couldn't give me more of a hint about how to find it could you so I don't have to read through the whole three volumes?

I suppose that is the greatest compliment I can give you: Your story compels me to go against my preferences and practices by 'lol'ing in a review *blushes in shame*, and by giving up some of my precious reading time to enjoy the source of your inspiration!

Well done.
EVA

::chuckle snort:: Oh, I gotta hand it to him to have the gall to give Watson a gift like that. But with Holmes, one can never tell! Wish I could think up a gift like that... XD

Well, at least Watson has been assured that he won't have a boring birthday. ^_^

Really, really funny, I enjoyed it a lot!

It was very enjoyable to read, and I love the humour! Thank you for sharing.

::giggles and applauds::

Oh, I love it! Especially the messages from Ali. Classic! :)