“Trixie” is a brown and white spaniel and she had five of the cutest little brown and white puppies that you ever did see…and then the most unusual thing EVER, happened. Trixie’s sixth and last puppy was…get ready for this…a female pink and purple polka dot puppy!
It was as hard to believe as it was to say. Just try saying “Pink and Purple Polka Dot Puppy” and you’ll see what I mean.
Well, Trixie loved her multicolored and polka dotted spotted puppy just as much as all the others but “Dottie”, as Trixie’s owners named her, did cause a great amount of attention.
In fact, Dottie attracted so much attention that soon the newspapers and TV stations were coming to Trixie’s house and wanting to photograph and make videos of the strange colored and spotted puppy.
Dottie was famous all over the city and even one national news team came to see her and Trixie and featured the amazing story on the Evening News.
Soon, Dottie was getting old enough to notice how different she was, and a single goal became her most frequent thought. “I want to be just like all of my brothers and sisters and just like Mommy.”
Trixie’s owners Marge and Herbert Smith tried fitting a brown and white doggie sweater on Dottie but those pink purple polka legs and head just looked even more…well…pink and purple and polka’d!
But as Dottie became six months old and all of her brothers and sisters had been adopted to very good and happy homes she decided to accept that she was different and maybe the only Pink/purple/polka puppy in the whole world.
Mr. and Mrs. Smith took Trixie and Dottie to dog shows all over the country and Dottie always won “Most Unusual Puppy” ribbons and after winning that catagory at seven straight shows, a national toy company made a best selling stuffed toy puppy that was the exact size and colors and pattern of Dottie and she quickly became world famous!
Dottie even had her own reality show each week on a cable channel and hundreds of thousands of people(and presumably dogs too)watched every week and even wrote fan mail to her.
Dottie was giving “Pawtographs” to admirers but she didn’t like dipping her left paw into pink ink and her right paw into purple ink and then pressing them both on the paper so it looked like…you guessed it…pink and purple polka dots. Plus the ink stayed on for a long time and needed to be scrubbed off.
But Dottie wasn’t truly happy.
Even though she had all the fame of a National celebrity there was a deep feeling inside of her that just wanted to be…well…normal.
The Smith’s were making so much money on Dottie’s notoriety that they built her a new two story dog house (Pinky purply and polka dotted of course)and it was the only one like it in the whole world.
That is until the toy company that made the Dottie Stuffed Dogs started selling replicas of the unique dog house which became more popular that the Barbie Playhouse!
Well…my story is getting rather long now so I’ll just skip to the part where Dottie is a fully grown mature dog and tell you about something that I bet you won’t believe.
Of course, if you believe everything about Dottie so far, you just might believe this too.
There was a National Kennel Club Dog Show at a very large northern city and the producers of the show were flying Dottie and the Smith’s in so that the world famous dog could make a personal appearance.
When the spotlight finally went off of her and Dottie’s sight was returning to normal …THERE HE WAS…standing right in front of her… the handsomest spaniel she’d ever seen. He was smiling at her and told her that his name was “Striper” and he had the most astounding green and yellow striped fur that she’d ever imagined.
And yes…of course…they both knew that they were meant for each other and also of course…they lived happily ever after.

Filbert the squirrel made a big mistake when he went to watch the local baseball team play their biggest rivals. Instead of climbing up to his usual viewing spot at the top rail of the highest row of the bleachers he had to keep avoiding the ushers that were in charge of each row of seats. Filbert guessed that they didn’t realize what a big fan he was of the Mud Hens because they kept shouting uncomplimentary remarks like…”Catch that pesky rodent!” and the most hurtful…”I HATE squirrels!”
Filbert was relegated to watch from ground level under the box seats along the first base line.
But by the second inning Filbert realized that there was one big benefit to being at ground level…lots of popcorn kernals were landing all about him being dropped by the fans in the lower deck. This was great even though he couldn’t see the game as well as he did from the bleachers.
But…Then, suddenly A DOG! Barking and chasing Filbert out from under the cover of the stands and yes…right out onto the field. The game immediately stopped and all the players and umpires started shouting and running after Filbert. They chased him down the first base line then jumped in front of him and made him turn left and head for second base where the shortstop actually threw his glove at Filbert.
The poor chased squirrel running for his life turned and headed for third base when he heard the fans yelling…”Go Squirrel Go!” That’s when Filbert realized that he was actually fulfilling a dream by “running the bases” at Cityville Park!
But as Filbert looked past third base he saw about a dozen players waiting for him , a few holding baseball bats. Oh My!
Filbert turned an immediate right and headed for the stands again and then along the edge of the stands and reached a small hole in the corner of the left field fence just as a baseball banged into it just behind him.
“That was close!” gasped Filbert as he kept running and running as fast as his feet could go all the way to his oak tree where he was finally “Safe At Home!”

His name is Alouishious Watson. His friends call him Al. That is if “AL” had any friends. And therein lies the problem. Alouishious had NO friends. Not one! Nada. Zip point ZERO! Well, you get the idea…NONE!
In fact, Al didn’t even have any non friends, or even enemies. Not having enemies is a good thing that we all should strive to achieve, but there were those lonely days when Al would go to the local sandlot with a bat, ball and glove and couldn’t find a single kid to play ball or even have just a catch with him.
Alouishious had seen the movie “Field Of Dreams” where it said “…if you build it they will come” and he always hoped that kids would magically show up and play with him. That never worked.
Then Al had an idea. “I’ll just make up, pretend, create my own friends in my mind and then I can have my “imaginary” friends to play with any time I wish.”
So that afternoon in the quiet of his room he conjured up his first friend…JOE!
Joe was a lot like Al and loved all the things that Al loved. Baseball, sports cars, computer games, and Joe disliked all the things that Al didn’t like also, such as baths, homework and being punished for breaking stuff.
Then one day Joe suggested that he and Al add another friend or two to their “Boys Only Club” and after lengthy discussion Al and Joe invited Ken and Mike to join.
Now Ken was a great ballplayer and wanted to play for the Orioles when he grew up and Mike was a wiz at math and wanted to be a scientist when he became an adult.
Over the course of the next few weeks, Ken taught Al how to play better baseball and Mike helped him with math so that his homework was lots easier.
Joe encouraged Al all along the way and kept telling Al…”Way to go”…”That’s great”….and “You’re doing a terrific job.”
Alouishious was quickly a changed young boy. He was better at almost everything and hadn’t even been punished for breaking stuff in weeks.
Then, on a sunny afternoon in summer Al went to the sandlot and there were a few kids there playing ball. Seeing Al with his ball, bat and glove, the biggest kid yelled…”Hey Al…wanna play?”
“I sure do!” Al yelled back and went out into the outfield with his glove.
After the game, as it was getting dark, the other boys introduced themselves to their new friend…”I’m Mike…I’m Joe… and he’s Ken and hey Al, you’re a pretty good ballplayer! See ya tomorrow.”

“Did you see that?…LOOK…he did it again!”
“What?…did I see what?…sorry I wasn’t looking just then Sam.”
“That human…there…see? Don’t tell me your eyesight is failing. All those carrots…IMPOSSIBLE!”
“Sorry Sam.what’s he doing?”
“He’s spraying something on OUR vegetable garden…THE NERVE!”
“Ah well…isn’t that HIS ..ah…garden …ah Sam?”
“Don’t get technical on me Clyde. He provides for us. Certainly WE can’t farm a garden.That’s what humans are for. That’s why God put them on earth!”
“Oh yes…well… I’m not sure the human sees it in just that way Sam.”
“Yeah. You’re probably right. They are such thick headed beings…humans.”
“Oh there he goes…now he’s getting the sprinkler, what an idiot! Doesn’t he know that’s gonna dilute the bug spray that he just sprayed on there?”
“Ah…well…isn’t that good for us Sam…that he’s washing our vegetables off?”
“Yeah…Clyde…good point! Oh …I can’t watch anymore. Let’s go over to Mr. Murphy’s garden while Dumkoff here squirts off our veggies!”
The two bunny pals hopped off behind the bramble bushes down to the next house which was 97 hops away.
“Keep your ears down Clyde. I don’t feel much like runnin’ right now…and I’m hungry. How ’bout you?”
“Yeah I could eat a whole row of lettuce…ummm yeah I could!”
When Sam and Clyde reached the edge of the Murphy garden, they looked and waited for two whole minutes…not moving.
Meanwhile, Mr. Murphy said to Marge his wife…”Look at this…there they are…see them on the edge of the garden over by the Johnson house?”
“Oh they’re so cute aren’t they? I just LOVE bunnies!” said Mrs. Murphy.
“Yeah well me too, but I do have to control how much of my garden that I let them eat. But it’s not too tough…they scare pretty easily!” commented Mr. Murphy.
After another minute or so Clyde nudged Sam…”Let’s go…nobody’s around!”
The two hungry rabbits moved into the last row of the Murphy garden where the Bibb lettuce was growing.
“Now remember Sam…just a few leaves from each head as we move along. We’ve gotta be stealthy and outsmart the old guy, otherwise he’ll get wise to our visits!”
“Gotcha!” Sam said with two green Bibb lettuce leaves already sticking out of his mouth. “Yum…I LOVE lettuce and of course carrots…oh yeah, and cabbage…and…”
“C’mon already…shut up and eat…we don’t wanna be here too long!”
The bunny buddies made their way down the row and when they got to the end…”OK…back to the hutch! Can’t take a chance of being seen. We’ll get back later for lunch.”
“Right!”
“Keep your ears down!”
“I know…I know.”
After they left, Mr. Murphy came out and walked down to the edge of his garden and looked over his Bibb lettuce.
“Amazing! Those rabbits helped themselves to my lettuce and I can’t even see any evidence that they were even here!”
Then Mr. Murphy’s neighbor Mr. Johnson called over. “Hey Ed. I saw some varment rabbits in your garden. They’ll eat every vegetable you’ve got if you let ’em!”
“Oh I don’t mind. In fact, I grow extra lettuce and carrots for ’em…Marge thinks they’re cute!”
“Man…not me! They’ll destroy the whole place if you let ’em!” grumped Mr. Johnson.
“Well…you can send them over here if you want to!” smiled Mr. Murphy.
“I’ll send ’em to bunny heaven if I ever see ’em in my garden again!” promised Mr. Johnson shaking his fist in the air.
Fortunately Clyde and Sam had not reached their hutches and heard what Mr. Johnson said and never EVER went to his garden again and lived a very long and happy vegetarian bunny life.

“EIGHT…Where is EIGHT?. This is getting to be too much of a habit with him!” exclaimed NINE.
“I am ONE that agrees TWO!”
“That’s spelled Too ONE!”
“This is the FIFTH or SIXTH time he’s either been out of order or not here at all!” said FOUR!
“That makes THREE of us that agree TWO!”
“EIGHT! EIGHT! EIGHT! EIGHT! EIGHT! EIGHT!” That’s the SEVENTH time I’ve called him with NO ANSWER!” Grumbled NINE.
“Hey…is anyone lookin’ for me?” asked EIGHT.
A number of numbers all yelled “NOOOOOO!!!”
So EIGHT left and all the numbers that were trying to line up accomplished exactly ZERO!

“Look at them down there Leon…they look like ants.”
“Ha ha…yeah…they do….they really do…Al”
“Wouldn’t they be amazed at how insignificant they are in the…well…universe? And they don’t even know we’re here…or that we even exist Leon.”
“You’re right…they are totally clueless. And it doesn’t even seem like they are very happy Al. Too many “ants”.
“Well…it doesn’t take very long to realize that this is no place for us or even anyone we care for Leon.”
“Yeah…shame really…I had such high hopes for the place…so pretty….such a perfect neighborhood and all.”
“Yeah…location, location, location…eh…too bad.”
“Do you think we’ve gained enough info to report back with our decision Al?”
“I guess so….but now we’ll have to look for a totally new place…start over!”
“Crank her up and let’s get goin’ Al.”
“Roger….there…now I’ll tap the hyperspeed bar and we’ll be headed for the outer galaxy Zurion……..”

“Strategic Air Command Grid Four reporting blip disappearing at hyperspeed….it’s already off the screens Sir.”
“Well….file the customary report…it was probably just Al and Leon snooping around again!”

Everybody wants to live at the beach. Well, except for those who want to live in the mountains or in the dessert or in big cities…well, anyhow…I want to live at the beach and I do.
I must admit that it gets a tad lonely in the freezing cold of winter…especially at night.
Lots of my friends only come around in late Spring and Summer but it does tend to get somewhat crowded then.
What? Who am I?
Maybe I’ll let you guess. I’ll give you a few clues.
I can’t fly, although I would LOVE to be able to.
I’m actually not even very good at swimming. Silly huh, living and loving the beach and all that.
I also love to play hide and seek but NEVER want to get caught.
Have you guessed what I am yet? Well, have you guessed what I’m NOT yet?
Right! I’m not a fish or a bird.
And I’m not a tourist because I live here and even though some tourists can actually swim none can fly, by themselves that is.
Another hint: I’m not a grain of sand…EVERYBODY knows that sand can’t talk!
And I’m not a pebble which have the same silent problem of sand.
I do like to play with the tide and the waves as them come into the beach and then go back out.
GOOD GUESS! When you hear the term “Happy As A Clam”…THAT’S ME!
Opps…gotta go and dig fast and deep…someone’s coming down the beach.
Next time you are here…look for a tiny hole and maybe a bubble near the water’s edge and say “HI” but no digging please!

“Hi! The keys on my keyboard are helping me give a shout out to you today. Normally I’m not a very popular key because you see I’m the DELETE button.”
“Oh, I do have a few close friends like the space bar (who never says much but is a great listener) and the backspace arrow, who kinda does the same job as me, so we have something in common.”
“The most popular keys like E and ENTER never want to chat. I’ve never shared a single word with CTRL…EVER.”
“I can’t actually figure out why I’m so unpopular with almost all of the other keys, after all I give them another chance to be used over again later. But I’m content with my role on the keyboard and actually I believe that I’m one of the most popular keys. Why do I think that you ask? Because my writer Russ makes so many mistakes, he actually uses me more than any other key.”
“I was going to chat longer but I’m an expert about knowing when to delete.”

Have you ever heard
Of the elephant bird?
It’s a wonder that it can fly
The fist time I heard
I thought it absurd
In fact I thought it a lie

But after some trying
A birdbook I was eyeing
Said “Exist? They really do!”
But don’t worry they’re rare
And you don’t need to care
Unless one flies over you