The Figaddys and the Selfish Hare

by Rinya Singh

Woofarolowooowow!” “all right ,all right, I’m awake !” groaned Mr Figaddy ,pushing the STOP button on his alarm-clock. He quickly changed from his night suite and put on his shirt, pants and tie, dashed downstairs, grabbed one dogcake ,looked at his watch, sighed, glanced at his wife and said, “Phew! I thought we were late for Mr MacHare ’s party!”

Mr MacHare was the most selfish hare in whole of DomesAnima, where only the domestic animals and very few wild animals lived on the planet of Anima and the only planet in the Universe where the animals lived and ate just like the people on Earth.. Every day , all the adults and a few kids would wake up at 4:30 am precisely, run to MacHare’s mansion, then they would clip his nails, wash his fur, paint it with “Harry Hare’s special creme caramel non-toxic paint, everywhere except the white splotch on his tummy ,comb his ears and fluffy cottontail. This was an everyday routine. All detested him because of him being so mean to them. But Bronto, his son, loved his father. Bronto was just like his father in every aspect. Today ,however was Bronto’s Birthday . Everyone had to come. And if they didn’t , MacHare would kidnap all the family’s children and threatened them “If you want to see them again ,you have to give me free bacon and eggs for a month!” So they all had to come for the sake of their children.

“Oh dear! Relax!”said Mrs Figaddy cheerfully “Anyway, the party’s at 10:00 and it’s only 9:30!”she said.

“You’re right!”cried Mr Figaddy “I looked at my clock, and forgot it is 50 minutes fast .It showed me that it was 10:20!”, he said.

“Oh no !”said Mrs Figaddy. “I completely forgot! MacHare told us to be there 15 mins early to do …. well, you know what I mean.” She groaned “I meant to make lots of Browtreller cakes , Ben’s favourite and loads of Berrylicious cakes too. They‘re Bell’s favourite.” Ben was the boy of the twin pups . Bell was short for Bellinda! Bell was the girl. “Oh yes .it’s their birthday tomorrow!” cried Mr Figaddy.

“Oh no!” cried Mrs Figaddy.

“What is it?” cried Mr Figaddy in alarm. “Quick, it’s 9:40! It takes 10mins to get to the MacHare mansion. So get the car ready, I’ll call the kids, OK?”

“OK!”cried Mr Figaddy who was already outside and getting the car ready .Soon the pups and Mrs.Figaddy jumped into the car and sped off.

When they got to MacHare’s mansion,they rushed inside and saw that all the village residents were already doing all the things they did every morning,only much before the time as usual.The pups and Mr. and Mrs.Figaddy headed towards Bronto’s side and were met by a disapproving Mr. and Mrs. Swish and their ten cygnets and the frowning faces told them that they were not enjoying what they were doing.As they were not allowed to talk to anyone,they just nodded and got to work.They carefully smothered special Harry Hare’s Hair Shampoo.They washed his fluffy white tail and did the routine chores.When they had finished ,it was just five minutes left for the party to begin,so MacHare told them to go home to change into fancy clothes and accessories.

Ben,groaned as he had been saving his best clothes for his and his twin sister,Belinda’s birthday the next day.

“Anyway “, he thought, “I expect that Mom will wash it for me tomorrow”.

“Ben! Hurry up!” cried Mrs.Figaddy. “You’ll be left behind” Ben looked around him and found to his surprise that except Bronto and MacHare,no one was there.He ran to his family who was waiting at the door.At home, Belinda asked her mom if she could wash their party clothes after Bronto’s party.Mrs.Figaddy agreed.

After Bronto’s party ,Mr.Figaddy played with his five year old pups. Mrs.Figaddy joined them after she had made cakes for the pups birthday which and washed all of the family’s party clothes in the washing machine.They all played football,dodge ball,cricket,soccer and rugby.When they had finished playing all the games at least ten times it was very late at night so they all had a dogcake each and went to bed,all tired and happy.

It was a small village in which only ten families lived with some single animals as well.Everyone was invited but only two families could make it ,Mr. and Mrs.Swish and Mr.an Mrs.Wolf alongwith the singles- Miss Badger and Mr.Beaver.Mrs.Figaddy plans a surprise for the pups and requests her friends to give in their presents a day before so that she could put her plan into action.Everyone happily agreed.
The next day,Mr. and Mrs.Figaddy woke up at 02:00 am to put all the presents for their son and daughter around their beds as a birthday surprise in the morning.When they finished doing this,they went to bed .At day break,Mrs.Figaddy woke up Mr.Figaddy and told him to creep into the twins bedroom,stand in front of the pups bunk bed,tap them both on their shoulders and when they wake up, to shout , “SURPRISE” while she would switch on the lights.

“But what if they wake up before I tap them?” asked Mr.Figaddy.

“Oh, you needn’t worry about that,dear! You see,I put special sleeping pills in their dogcakes yesterday.The pills are modified to make them wake up only when a the pup is tapped on the shoulder.So you see how it works?” explained Mrs.Figaddy.

“Yes,I do” , said Mr.Figaddy.

“Now creep in their room and do what I told you to do” whispered Mrs.Figaddy gently.
So Mr.Figaddy creeped silently towards the twin’s bunk bed and tapped them on their shoulders and waited till their eyes opened ,then both Mr.and Mrs.Figaddy shouted , “SURPRISE” .

Mrs.Figaddy said , “Happy birthday,you little cutie pies!”

“Thanks,mom!” cried Belinda in delight.

”Come on Bell,lets open all our presents”,cried Ben.

So they opened five presents each.All together ,Ben and Bell had twenty presents each.Mr. and Mrs. Swish ,the swans,gave them two presents each, Miss Badger gave them one present apiece while Mr.Beaver had been the most generous one and gave them four apiece, Mr.and Mrs.Wolf gave them three presents apiece.Mr.Hare hadn’t given them any but they didn’t care a bit because they too detested him.After having an excellent breakfast of fried eggs and bacon,they invited their friends over except MacHare whom nobody liked or wanted over.

No one expected this to happen but half way through the party,MacHare came bashing in,demanding to be the centre of attention.Everyone just laughed and pushed him out.He tried five more times but every time got pushed out again.So the last time when he tried,he came back panting as he had tried to run at the door to try and break it down.The children,though they hated him,were horrified as their parents kept pushing Mr.Machare out so many times.

So the last time seeing him flop down in exhaustion,the children rushed out in alarm as they thought he was hurt and might need help.The children were very kind hearted.Once they got there,they crouched down beside him and surprised MacHare by asking him,” Oh Mr.Hare,Mr.Hare, are you allright?”

He said, “Why,little kids,little kids….Oh! I mean….” He was not finished when the kids interrupted him and said, “Wad’ya mean ‘Why little kids,little kids….’ ?”

“Oh,you caught me…” sighed MacHare, “You see, I actually don’t want you to be my slaves.I only wanted to be one of the celebrities”.

“What? You wanted to be a celebrity?” the pups,the cygnets and the cubs all shouted together.

“Yes, after reading some of those celebrity magazines,I thought wow,it must be so cool to be a celebrity! All the glamour,lights,glitter and the wonderful lifestyle they all had,made me think that I too could get all that by making the village people my slaves.Huh! I’ll threaten them with kidnap of their children.I was young ,silly and foolish.It did work for quite a while though”,he sighed.

“Oh ! please come in and enjoy the party” coursed the children.

“Thank you,kids.I will join you”, said MacHare.

“But come in only when you hear us shout ‘ We present … the NEW Mr.MacHare!’ ,okay? That’ll be when we do our Big Birthday Speech.” Said Bell and Ben together.

“Got all that,Mr.MacHare?” asked one of Mrs.Wolf’s cute little cub named Sasha,shyly.

“Yes,yes, I do” said Mr.MacHare “ Oh and please don’t call me ‘Mr.MacHare’,do just call me Hare”.

“O.k then” said Sasha and everyone nodded.

“So,see ya Mr. ,I mean… Hare”,said Sara and Sash, yet another two of Mrs.Wolf’s cub.

“Yeath,see ya lather “ lisped one of Mrs. Swish’s six month old cygnet.

“Yep, see you later ,Hare” ,they all cried together.

Then the children returned to the party and had lots of fun.Soon it was time for Bell and Ben’s Big Birthday Speech.They first said thankyou to everyone for coming and giving them presents.Then they said,” We present …. a NEW Hare!” On hearing his name , Hare sprinted over to the Figaddy’s house and calmly walked into the hall and walked onto the stage that Mr.Beaver and Miss Badger had set up for the party.While he was walking ,he noticed that everyone was booing and hissing ,all except the kids,who were clapping wildly.he waved at them and said,” Hiya kiddies!”
All the adults were alarmed and appalled at how Mr.MacHare was behaving.They all started muttering and murmuring till Ben went and tapped the microphone and said,” Ahem” and everyone fell silent and felt rather ashamed of themselves as they realized that it was bad manners to talk when someone was coming on stage.

When Mr.Hare started speaking ,he began by saying that he was sorry because he had practically made all of them slaves to his son as well.He also told them how he had become selfish and how the celebrity magazines affected him.

When his speech finished,everyone forgave him and the Mayor and Mayoress , who were Mr.and Mrs.Figaddy, banned the celebrity magazines from the village.

Now Hare made lots of friends but his best friends were always the children.Everyone stayed at the Figaddy house till 10:59 pm.They all had a wonderful time.
After few days,Hare organized a camp and invited all the children of the village.

They all got along very well and played together .As now it was nearly the end of the holidays,most of them had come back from wherever they had gone for vaccation,they could now talk about where they had gone or how it had been around the campfire.

The Curse of the Egyptian Mummy

By: Pat Hutchins

This mystery story takes place a few miles away from Middle Claydon, where the Hampsted Cub Scouts sometimes camp.Akela, which in Hindi means alone , Skip and all the fifteenth Cub Scouts hear on the radio that a dead man’s body has been found who appeared to be a victim of a deadly snake bite,and now people and police are searching for the snake. The Cubs ,as the boy Scouts are called ,persuade Akela ,the scout leader and Skip,his assistant , to stop at a village on their way to camp to use the public toilets there. When the boys were getting back on the bus, Sam, a Cub, found a black statue of an ibis. Since they had left their owl mascot at home, Akela allowed them to keep the statue as a substitute mascot. At the campsite, they met up with Victoria and her parents, Mr and Mrs Webb, who were to be the helpers at the campsite.

Once at the campsite,Sam put the ibis statue inside a hole in a tree. That night , around the campfire, Akela told everyone a ghost story and coincidently the first two sentences he said actually came alive.First,an owl hooted when Akela said so and secondly,a ghostly white figure flitted through the trees when he said so.Everyone gets scared.When Mrs. Webb went to get some marshmallows to toast,she came shouting ,” the tents have been ransacked!” Everyone in the camp gets very surprised after hearing this news.

The next day,Miss Hylyard,owner of the camp site and of the big house which she had turned into a guest house told them that she had to sell the house and the land as it was getting very expensive to keep them running.Akela promised Miss Hylyard that after supper they would do a sing-song for the guests and her.Then Victoria,Sam,Peter and Nathan ,all asked Miss Hylyard is she or her guests had been looking for the snake the past night near their tents but she denied it.

After Miss Hylyard went back to the house,Akela decided that they do their artist badges.Albert cheered as he already had his red and yellow artist badges and he would get his green one too.Akela found that there was clay in the river so they could make models if any of the Cubs wanted to.Albert made an excellent copy of the ibis which everyone had forgotten about.

Sam , Peter and Nathan did models of owls but they didn’t come out good as they kept on thinking about the intruder who messed up their tents.The twin brothers made egg shapes and said the baby birds were inside.It was very interesting as everyone did something different.

Akela suggested that while the models were drying,they could go for a nature ramble.On their return they found out that Albert’s marvelous statue of the ibis was broken.

The title has little mention in the story.I don’t think its appropriate.it should be something like ‘The Mystery of the Egyptian Ibis’.

Its not a high level mystery story as compared to ‘The Three Investigators’ and Sherlock Holmes but I still enjoyed reading it.

Alvin and the Chipmunks 2

The story has a hilarious start when Dave, the owner of the three chipmunk brothers , knocks over a huge cardboard photograph of Alvin ,one of the chipmunks,at a concert and has to go to hospital as he gets seriously injured.

Alvin ,Theodore and Simon ,the three cute chipmunks ,go to see Dave at the hospital to wish him a speedy recovery but instead cause mischief and trouble by jumping on the controls and making Dave’s bed go haywire! Alvin , who was causing most of the trouble ,finally gets a strong sedative injection by the nurse and goes to sleep. Dave informs the three chipmunks that his Aunt Jackie will come to take care of them while he is in the hospital and they will also be starting school. But another funny thing happens when Aunt Jackie arrives at the airport with her grandson Toby.She is in a wheelchair which rolls back onto a staircase.The moment she thinks she is fine ,she rolls back down another flight of steps and lands in hospital herself.So Toby has the responsibility to take care of the chipmunks.

Toby begins by taking them to school.The first day at school isn’t too good as the school boys get jealous of them because when chipmunks go to their class, all the girls surround them as they are famous rock stars and girls want to talk and hold them.At the cafeteria the boys tell the sweet chipmunks that,
“If you talk to the girls,you are dead; if you look at the girls,you are dead; and if you think about the girls,you are dead”.

Their school desperately needed to help the music department because it was falling apart and it needed money to save it.The only way was to win the music competition .Mr.Ian has three singing chipmunk sisters and he wants to use them to make money by their singing talent.He does publicity for them by getting them entered in the school music competition.

How the chipmunks finally enter the competition and save the three sisters from cruel Ian is very exciting and adventurous .

When Alvin joins the school’s football team and helps the boys win the game is another very amusing part of the movie.

The entire movie was entertaining.It was a cheerful end of the year kids movie.I missed out on watching “Alvin and the chipmunks 1 “ but Part 2 makes me imagine that it was sure a big hit as well.

Jackles,Hyenas and Honey Badgers

So our next Honey Badger Club took us to the Jackle and Honey Badger enclosures.We were lucky enough to have just met the Hyenas from the outside and not inside their enclosure!

Nicole, our group leader from the Zoo, told us that we will be visiting these carnivores and then do some interesting art and craft activities at the end of our five hour visit to the zoo.We were going to go to the jackle’s enclosure first.We took their meal with us.Some of the kids went inside the enclosure and some stayed outside.I went inside with about seven other kids and Nicole.The jackles were still inside!There were three of them,very sweet and cute.We put raw hide bones covered with salad,dog treats,both frozen and fresh and some frozen chicks.I held a chick.It felt very hard but not at all cold.

Next we went to the Striped Hyenas enclosure.There we just threw a little bit of salad,mince-meat and raw hide bones covered with mince meat over the walls of the enclosure.We didn’t enter the enclosure as the hyenas are very vicious.

Later, we went inside an empty honey badger enclosure to smear honey and put some eggs for them to eat.I guess the honey badgers were taken away from the enclosure as they are very ferocious animals. Nicloe told us that once a vet went inside the honey badger enclosure and landed in the hospital with a chunk out of her leg, taken out by one of the ferocious honey badgers.

Back at the Education Centre,we made paper dragonflies . We painted them with bright colours and laminated them as well.We also made wings and put cello tape to stick them on.

After a long and tiring day,we came back home,happy to have got the opportunity to see the animals so closely.

The Weaver Bird's Nest

Once upon a time there was a little girl named May Mc Fair.She had two friends, Amy Flewstock and Ann Mc Fish.She and her friends were eight years old , went to the same school and were in the same class as well.They all loved nature and animals.One day,they were at May’s house and were playing outside in the garden when Ann spotted a fallen weaver bird nest.

Amy picked it up and said,” What a cute nest Ann found!” Ann and May agreed.They all went inside to show to May’s Mom .May said,” Look Mom! What a cute nest Ann found in our own garden.” May’s Mom agreed that it was very sweet.They all wondered where to keep it.May then suggested that they could take it to school to show it to their class.Amy and Ann agreed.

The next day when they brought it to the class, Mrs.Tofeluck ,their teacher,kept it on the ‘ Amazing nature display ‘ table.It was a table where children could bring things related to nature to show to the class.Now,in their class,there was a boy named Giggy Eggstill,the class clown.Everybody called him Giggy Iggy.He nearly always got detention from Mrs.Tofeluck as he disturbed the class and seldom did his classwork or homework.He was particularly fond of birds.When he saw the weaver bird nest,he wanted it for himself but since he knew that things on the display table were only for display,he ,made a plan to steal it.

Giggy’s birthday was close and his Mom wanted to throw a surprise party for him.She sent out invitations for his birthday to all his friends.The invitation said:

“Come to my party!
Where : 32,Bleakenfeld House
When : 14th April, 2.00 pm
RSVP : My Mom.

Giggy then planned to sneak out the next day but when he was about to put his plan into action,he got detention for three hours ! He had to write a report about ‘ How to be kind’ with Ms.Kremshel .She was a very kind hearted teacher and also fond of Giggy.So Giggy found it safe to ask Ms.Kremshel if he could go outside and play instead of writing the report.She told him that he was under detention and so was not allowed to do that.He pleaded and pleaded till Ms.Kremshel said,”Naughty boy!Get back to your work!”

Giggy Iggy was very disappointed.He finished his report and checked his watch.There was still another one hour to go before his detention was over.He asked Ms.Kremshel “ What should I do now?May I go home?”
Ms.Kremshel said,” Do this test” .He was once again very disappointed but he went back to work.When he was done,he went home .
His mom then asked as to why he was so late.He then told her about his plan to steal the nest.His Mom said,” What? Naughty boy! Stealing is bad,you are not supposed to do that.You are grounded for two months but not on holidays and birthdays”.Giggy was horrified but said,”ok,I’ll go to my room .When his father came home ,Giggy told him the whole story from beginning to the end,Since Mr.Eggstill was not as strict as Mrs.Eggstill ,he managed to persuade Mrs.Eggstill to let Giggy be grounded for only one week.

One week passed and Giggy made another plan to get into trouble and stay in the school on detention.His plan was to say to his teacher that he forgot his bag in the class,then get permission to get it and when he gets there,he will do something mischevious .In the little time he has,he will steal the nest,put it in his bag so no one knows that its with him.

His plan worked.He triped John,a very cute,chubby and kind boy.John fell on his face and cut his left cheek ,very close to his eye.Mrs.Tofeluck got very worried for John and send him to First Aid Room with May.She then gave detention to Giggy who was actually very happy to get it.He got the opportunity to steal the pretty nest!

Giggy then came home with the nest in his bag and when he was taking it out,his father saw it.Mr.Eggstill then told Mrs.Eggstill about the nest.Mrs.Eggstill was shocked but then she said that they must take it from Giggy’s room at night when he is asleep and put it on ’ Take to school ‘ table.

Next morning,Giggy woke up to a surprise birthday song by his mom.After a special birthday breakfast,Giggy went to school.All the children exclaimed ,” Mrs.Tofeluck ! the weaver bird nest is missing!!” She then organized a search to find the missing nest.Of course they didn’t find it as it was on the ‘ Take to school table’ at Giggy’s house.Giggy didn’t know it was there.He thought it was in his bag and was very surprised when no one found it there !

After school he went home.Soon all his friends from school came to Giggy’s home as it was time for his birthday party.Giggy and his friends played hide and seek and had lots of fun.May,Ann and Amy wandered into the living room where the ‘Take to school’ table was kept.They were taken aback to see their nest there!

They then went to find Giggy to ask him to explain how the nest got there.When they found him,he told them everything about his plan.His parents also told that how they wanted Giggy to find the nest on the table and take it back to school.

Giggy felt very bad and made a promise that he would not be naughty again.Everyone was very happy.He then cut the birthday cake and all his friends wished him a very happy birthday.

My Honey Badger Club Experience

I have joined the Honey Badger Club at the Johannesburg Zoo as a birthday gift. I will now be able to visit the zoo once every month and do different activities along with Imelda , Themba and about 40 other children .

In this visit , we got to see a half a metre high pile of dead chicks and carcasses , which are dead animal remains. First ,we went to the seal enclosure to give a fish to the seal. The fish was enclosed in ice . The seal was swimming around but when the fish was dropped into the water, it flipped the fish over with it’s nose about five times before eating it. After that , we went into the caracals cage while the caracals were somewhere else , to hide meat in their enclosure for them to eat . I touched a piece of meat and it felt gooey .Then we went to the spotted ganet’s cage to put in crickets and meat for it . While a few children were in the cage I saw the ganet climbing onto the wire railing.It looked at the children nervously,like a very cute cuddly kitten.

Later we went on the ferry.While on the trip ,we got off and saw the lions and then we went on to see the tigers.I made a new friend,Miran.When she and I were done looking at the tigers,we went to see the camels.On the ground there was lots of camel fur.We both picked up some up to bring it home.After the ferry ride,we went home.

It was a very fun experience.

Beagle in a Basket

by Lucy Daniels

Animal Ark is the veterinary practice at the back of Mandy Hope and her parents Emily and Adam Hope’s house .In all the Animal Ark stories , the story always revolves around Mandy and her best friend James Hunter.Geraldine O ’Mera ,a newspaper reporter for all country newspapers ,has two pets who are best friends .A beagle named Robbie and an old cat named Martha. One day, Martha fell ill with F.I.V -Feline Immunodeficiency Virus and died the next day. Robbie is very sad of losing his friend. Mandy and her best friend James Hunter try to cheer Robbie up.

Mandy brings a duck to Wood Vale, Geraldine’s home ,whose leg has been tangled in a nylon fishing line so that the duck can stay in the pond there.Mrs.Hope takes out the line out of the duck’s leg.Mandy asked Geraldine if she would help her with a biology project at school,to which Geraldine agreed.Geraldine provided lots of information about bees.The next day at school Mandy forgot to hand in her project and so she got a detention for a day from Mr.Marsh,the substitute biology teacher.But later next day when he sees the project,he is very impressed by it.

Its very funny when at Mandy’s detention,Mandy sees a tiny white head poking out of Mr.Marsh’s pocket and then another tiny black head out of another pocket.Rats.She gets speechless and points to Mr.Marsh towards his pockets.They are Eenie and Meenie.Mr.Marsh gives Eenie to Mandy to hold but she wraps herself around Mandy’s neck.Then they take both Eenie and Meenie to Animal Ark to get them checked over by Mrs.Hope as they both were sneezing and wheezing.

After her detention when Mandy goes home ,her dad ,Adam,shows Mandy a Burmese cat with her litter.She has three big males and one tiny female who seemed to be the runt of the litter and needed to be kept an eye on.The next morning,Mandy went around the residential unit and found that her dad was feeding the little female cat as her mother had rejected her.

After school,James comes to see the kittens and their mom.Mandy and James name the rejected kitten as Kitty.They fed her with some milk.When they went inside ,they saw Robbie and Geraldine in the waiting room.Geraldine told them that how Robbie was not as lively as before and was staying in the basket all the time.Mrs.Hope saw Robbie and promised to test his blood for F.I.V.

Then Mandy thought that maybe Geraldine could raise Kitty ,to which Geraldine refused.But the idea of adopting Kitty sat in her mind and Mandy hoped that she would take Kitty home one day.

It was a very good idea at last for which Geraldine thanked Mandy later.What made Geraldine change her mind and how did little Kitty help Geraldine is the mystery of the story.

It is a very nice addition to the Animal Ark series.I still have some more to read and write about.