It was a gentle early Summer day in the forest.  Scrappy Raccoon was playing along the side of the road with his brothers and sisters.  Scrappy was called Scrappy because he was known to get into little fights with others at the least provocation.  Scrappy’s mother had scolded him so many times about his temper and how badly it made her feel to know he would fight with anyone.   What would happen this Summer day would make Scrappy’s mother think differently about her fighting youngster.

  Mrs. Craig, who lived across the road, decided that afternoon to take her dog, Belle, for a walk.  They walked across the road and since there were no cars on this road on the weekend, Mrs. Craig removed the leash from Belle and allowed her to run free.  Belle loved running and sniffing in the woods, but this day she smelled a different smell than any she had ever smelled before.  She snorted and snuffed and suddenly she came upon a strange creature.  Something she had never seen before.  It was Scrappy and he had not seen the big brown dog coming along in the weeds.  The dog was upon him before he could make a run for it.  Belle began barking and Scrappy fluffed up his fur to make himself look bigger and began to hiss. 

  Around and around Scrappy Belle circled, barking and snapping at him all the time.  Scrappy hissed and lunged at the big brown dog, baring his sharp little teeth, but it kept barking at him and trying to bite him.  Meanwhile, Mrs. Craig was screaming and yelling at Belle to stop.  She grabbed Belle’s collar and Belle jerked and pulled until she got herself free of the collar and went back to attacking the little raccoon.  Mrs. Craig grabbed Belle’s tail and pulled and still Belle kept barking and snapping at Scrappy.  This went on for fifteen minutes.  Suddenly, it became very quiet and Mrs. Craig thought that either the raccoon or Belle was dead.  She had heard that raccoons can kill a dog and that is what she feared had happened.  Then the hissing and barking and snapping began again and she knew the dog and raccoon had just paused to catch their breath. 

  Unable to get Belle away from the little raccoon and afraid Belle would kill it, Mrs. Craig knew she needed help.  She walked back to her house and called Mr. Craig and said, “Get the truck and come quickly.”  Mr. and Mrs. Craig rode in the truck to the place where Scrappy and Belle were in the fight of their lives.  Mr. Craig walked right into the middle of the hissing raccoon and the barking dog and grabbed the scruff of Belle’s neck and pulled her out of the brush.  Mrs. Craig opened the truck door and Belle willingly jumped in and they all headed back to the house.  Belle was covered in mud and the truck and Mrs. Craig were also by the time they got home.  Belle, looking a little chastened, went and got a long drink of water and collapsed on the deck panting heavily.

  Back in the forest Scrappy dragged himself home.  He was mangled a little, wet from dog saliva and completely worn out from the ordeal he had gone through.  His mother saw him walk in the door and said, “What happened to you?”  “I fought a dog and the dog lost,” bragged Scrappy. “Hmmm,” Scrappy’s mother was not sure she was hearing the whole story, but she was happy her little raccoon was home safe.  Belle told her sister, Bonnie, how she fought a raccoon and lived to tell about it.  Scrappy, on the other hand, stayed away from the road from that day forward.

  This is a true story except for the parts I made up.

  It was a beautiful Spring day.  The flowers were blooming, the sun was shining, the white fluffy clouds were  skittering across the sky.  Buddy sparrow rode the air currents up and down, stretching his wings wide and gliding back and forth in the breeze.  Buddy had not a care in the world other than he was supposed to be looking for a new house for his wife so that she could build her nest.

  Buddy didn’t take many things seriously, so house hunting was not at the top of his to do list for the day.  He searched for fat worms in the warm soil, took a dirt bath in the shade of the old elm tree and spent the greater part of the morning trying to keep out of the way of Mrs. Craig who was busy planting flowers in her flower beds.

    He landed on a tree branch and who should land right next to him but his wife, Betsy.  “Have you found us a house yet?” asked Betsy looking at Buddy suspiciously.  “Uh, I’ve sure been trying, but all the good houses are taken.”   “Well, said his wife, ” You better find one soon because I feel an egg coming on.”  “Oops,” said Buddy and flew off on a mission.

   Around and around the yard he flew stopping at each house where an angry sparrow would say,”Get out of here!”  He was beginning to give up hope when he spotted a cute little house that looked like a cabin.  “Betsy would love this,” he said to himself.  He flew down to take a look. 

  Now Buddy was a sparrow and this house was built for a wren so he didn’t realize he might be just a little too big to fit in the house, but he was going to try.  He stuck in his head.  Oh, oh, the rest of his body would not go inside.  Then he tried to pull his head out. It was stuck!  Oh, no.  Twist and turn as much as he could, he still could not get his head out of the house.  “I’m done for,” Buddy thought.  Then his beak got caught on the wood and he really was stuck.  He hung there, head in and body out of the wren house thinking this was the end of him.

  In the house Mr. and Mrs. Craig were talking about getting some food for the chickens.  Mrs. Craig wanted to show Mr. Craig the flower beds she had been planting that morning.  As they started to go out the back door, Mr. Craig said, “Is that  bird trying to get into that bird house?”  Mrs. Craig looked and saw the backend of a bird with its wings flapping crazily seeming to try to get into the birdhouse.  “That sparrow is too fat to get into that little wren house hole,” said Mr. Craig.  Then they both realized the bird was stuck.  Now Mrs. Craig cannot stand to see anything suffer and she pleaded with Mr. Craig to try to get the bird unstuck.  “Oh, don’t pull his head off,” she cried as Mr. Craig began to pull and twist Buddy’s head around to try to get him loose.  Then he stuck his finger inside the hole and felt around and realized Buddy’s beak was wedged into the wood.  He popped it out and out popped Buddy.   Buddy flew to the ground and suddenly two big dogs were running after him. Would his troubles never end?

  Mr. and Mrs. Craig got the dogs under control and then tried to get Buddy to move where the dogs could not reach him.  He was too dazed yet to fly and felt kind of woozy, but he hopped like mad under the rhubarb leaves and sat there catching his breath.  Mrs. Craig was so happy he was okay.

  After he sat for a while, Buddy tried his wings and soon he was flying again.  He flew to find Betsy to tell her of his adventure and how he was saved by the humans.  But Betsy was not impressed.  “Where am I going to lay my eggs?” she cried.  Buddy spent the rest of the day searching for a home and at last he found the perfect little house and he and Betsy set up housekeeping in it and raised a family of four little chicks.  Also, Buddy went on a diet.

 True story except for the parts I made up.  The end.