THE MUDDY PUPPY
By: SHARRY REIGLE
Once upon a time in a rainy forest there were many different types of animals who loved to run and play together, some of them were sisters, some were brothers and some were the mommies and daddies, but it did not matter in this pretty forest who or what you were as long as you liked to play and be friends with all the other creatures.
Well, there was one poor lonely skunk who none of the other animals would play with, they had named him Stinky and every time he went near any of them, they would all yell, GO AWAY, YOU STINK!!!!!!
Poor Stinky felt so lonely, he had to play alone, eat alone, dig holes alone, and sleep alone, and sometimes nights in the forest are a little scary, there are many strange noises, the owls HOOT, the coyotes HOWL, and often it rains and thunders!
One morning after a very long night of rain and stormy weather, Stinky got up and decided to go for a walk to see if he could find some good berries for his breakfast, well, while he was walking he heard a HELP, HELP, HELP ME! He was frightened but he was also curious so he walked towards the sound, as he got closer he could see that something was stuck in the mud! It was PUPPY!!
You see Puppy is one of the animals that always yelled at Stinky to go away, so of course Stinky at first told Puppy, sorry you are stuck in the mud but you always tell me to go away, so Good Bye! Poor Puppy was so scared he said, Stinky if you help me I will always be your friend.
This was of course all that Stinky needed to hear, he pulled and pulled and pulled, he was so muddy now that he could not hold on to Puppy much longer just when he finally pulled one last time out came Puppy! Puppy was so happy he hugged the skunk and called him his forever friend.
After they started to walk and dry off Puppy said, hey! Lets go for a swim in the river and get this mud off, so they ran towards the river, jumped in, and played all day, they did a lot of swimming, they jumped off the bank, they hopped on rocks and soon they were so hungry and tired they got out and took a nap.
Soon after they woke up, Puppy said, this is the day that all of us animals in the forest have a picnic and I want you to come too Stinky! Stinky said no thanks, all those animals are mean to me and yell for me to go away! Puppy said if I bring you and tell them you saved my life they will not do that! Yes they will, Stinky thought to himself.
Puppy and Stinky were so busy running though the forest to get to the picnic that Puppy did not even realize that Stinky did not stink anymore! As they got to the clearing in the forest that all of the animals were Stinky got so scared he started to cry, please Puppy you go ahead and have fun, I am just going to go home, it hurts my feelings too much when the animals yell at me.
Puppy would not hear of it! You saved my life and you are my best friend now, come on! Soon all the animals looked up and yes, they did start yelling for Stinky to go home, but than Puppy told them the story of how Stinky saved his life and they all were happy and said he could stay for the picnic.
They were so busy eating beans, carrots, flowers and fish and those good berries that none of them noticed that Stinky did not stink! Soon it was Puppy as he was giving Stinky a hug good bye that noticed that he did not stink! He yelled, Stinky you do not even stink anymore! They both said at the same time, it must have been the river, they had played so long in the water, well it was just like taking a bath! Stinky said that if he would be able to play and eat with the other animals he would go to the river and play every day!
The owls, wild pigs, bears, coyotes, beavers, squirrels, cats, dogs and even the birds were so happy to have their new friend that no longer smelled so bad they all went with him to get his stuff from his home and helped carry it back to the village where they all lived and Stinky never had to be alone again!
