A Sheepy and Bunny Are Friends Story
The Sheep races were underway. Sheepy was determined to win with his special friend Bunny riding on his back. The sun shone bright and warm in the cool blue sky. The meadow was lush green and clumps of wildflowers grew here and there, decorating the fresh grass with clusters of blue phlox and bright yellow dandelions. Even some white Easter daisies nestled in the field.
Bunny rode on Sheepy’s back giving him lots of encouragement.
“My friend Sheepy is the best and fastest of all the sheep!” Bunny would say.
Sheepy would blush. The pink skin inside his white ears would turn redder. “My friend Bunny is the sweetest and best friend in the whole world!” Sheepy would respond.
Sheepy pawed the ground with his hooves. He shook his head and rump getting ready to run. Bunny would put his paws around Sheepy’s neck and hold on tight while Sheepy raced.
The racecourse started by the barn, near the old broken down fence over grown with bushes and trees that was the boundary between the scary outside world and the safe meadow, where the sheep played their sheep games and sang sheep songs.
The Sheep would sing: “bah bah bah, run run sheep, bah bah bah, happy happy sheep,” as they cheered the competitors.
The racing sheep trotted across the meadow, gaining speed with every stride as they headed for the sycamore tree. Each sheep would charge momentarily into the front, then fall back as another sheep took the lead. The pace picked up as they rounded the hill with the rock on top, where the bees kept their hive in the sycamore tree. The racing sheep jostled each other to get into the lead when they made the turn.
As the races progressed, other animals from the farm came out to watch. The silkie chickens clustered around the edge of the field, staying close to the barn, to avoid being trampled by the sheep’s hooves. They cheered the sheep debating who the likely winner would be. When the sheep rounded the hill with the sycamore tree on top, some of the silkies would pass out from excitement.
Kitty came out from the farmhouse and hopped on top the rock, staying clear of the bees and sunned herself. She occasionally groomed herself with long licks with her tongue, as she watched the outcome of each heat.
After the sheep rounded the hill, there was a long sprint beside the stream that runs along the edge of the meadow, where mama ducks oversaw their broods of ducklings that paddled and quacked in the clear pool fed by the stream.
In this stretch, Bunny, and the other animals that rode on their favorite sheep’s’ backs, had to hold on tight or risk being knocked off their sprinting sheep. All they could do was hold tight to the wool with their front paws and let their feet and tails fly behind them.
The final leg of the race brought them back to the barn. When the sheep approached the end, they would go bouncie bouncie bouncie on their front and back legs across the finish line.
Bessie the cow came out to look, mooing and nodding her head in approval. Sheepdog, on the other hand, showed little interest, laying on the back stoop of the farmhouse. Many wild animals came to look. Songbirds tweeted for their favorites. For the sheep that didn’t have a rider, friendly chipmunks and squirrels were delighted to take a mount.
Bunny and Mr. Squirrel were great competitors and friends. They made it into the final round, along with Chippy and Chilly, the chipmunks who rode as a couple. It’s amazing they made it so far, since they were constantly preoccupied with their non-ending game of nose/tail, but they were mounted on one of the fastest sheep, Sheepy’s main rival.
At the starting line for the final round, Bunny and Mr. Squirrel bantered with each other.
“My Sheepy is faster than your sheep!”
“Nun-hu, my sheep can outrun all the sheep!”
Sheepy and his sheep mates pawed the ground and bleated ready to go.
Over on the third sheep, Chippy and Chilly giggled, bonking each other on the nose with their tails. “I bonk you on the nose with my tail!” “Well I bonk you back on the nose with my tail.” Then they would fall into each other’s arms giggling.
Miss Chicky-Chicky gave the signal for them to start, and they were off racing. At first, Sheepy matched the pace of the other two sheep, trotting along with them, but not getting ahead. Bunny helped Sheepy keep an even pace by lightly tapping on Sheepy’s head with his two big floppy ears. Bunny’s friend Mr. Squirrel helped his sheep stay on pace by patting his sheep on the rump with his big bushy tail. Chippy and Chilly kept bonking each other on the nose with their tails. Soon their sheep charged ahead.
“Those Chipmunks are so silly,” said Bunny, whispering into Sheepy’s ear, “but they sure do love each other.”
“They sure do,” Sheepy giggled, “just like Sheepy loves his Bunny.”
“Oh, no, they are charging ahead. We have to keep up,” said Bunny speeding up his head tapping with his floppy ears.
Sheepy ran faster. Both sheep went into the turn around the hill with the rock on top where Kitty was sunning herself at the same time.
Sheepy cut to the inside, making the other sheep go long. Mr. Squirrel and his sheep fell behind. The Chipmunks’ sheep sped up going through the turn, leaning sideways barely keeping his feet on the ground. Poor Chilly lost his balance for a moment and almost fell off his sheep, but he was able to grab hold of Chippy’s tail, bury his nose in it and hang on tight with his little front paws. Chilly flew along in the air, his back legs trying to find some wool to grasp on to.
Sheepy and Bunny took the lead, pulling away from the other sheep as they dashed along the stream heading into the final turn toward the barn. Sheep and Bunny were going to win. Sheepy began to do his bouncie bouncie bouncies as he bounded for the finish line when something struck him on his side. Startled, Sheepy stopped to look at what hit him. It was brown and stinky and splattered all over his nice white wool.
“Oh, my pretty fleece!” Sheepy cried out.
Right then the other sheep over took him and charged across the finish line, with Mr. Squirrel smacking the rump of his sheep with his fluffy tail, and poor Chilly still flying behind grasping Chippy’s tail.
Sheepy and Bunny heard a crazy laugh coming from the fence that marks the edge of the safe meadow, beyond which is the scary outside world.
It was a monkey, with a big grin on its face screaming: “raah raah raah.” It made such an awful sound that both Sheepy and Bunny were afraid. The other animals fled for cover. The silkies scurried back the barn, and the songbirds flew away. Mr. Squirrel and the chipmunks scurried up into the branches of the Mulberry tree that grew behind the barn.
The chattering monkey made more screeching noises, and reached behind to his rump and pooped in his paw. That grubby monkey flung more poop at Sheepy and Bunny!
“That Monkey is getting stinky poop on me! Sheepy don’t like that!” cried Sheepy.
The other sheep ran into the meadow to escape the flying poop.
“Make it stop throwing poopie,” bleated Sheepy, as he ran to take cover behind the barn with Bunny on his back.
“I’ll stop that bad monkey from throwing poopie on my dear friend’s pretty wool!” cried Bunny.
“But how will we stop him?” bleated Sheepy.
They heard the chattering monkey jump on the roof of the barn heading in their direction.
“I know what we can do,” said Bunny. He leaned over and whispered it into Sheepy’s ear, so the monkey couldn’t hear.
When the monkey climbed over the peak of the barn’s roof with more poop in its paw, ready to throw, Sheepy and Bunny had a clear view of him, and they put their plan into action.
The monkey climbed down to the eave of the roof with his tail sticking up in the air and flung the poop.
Sheepy and Bunny were ready and jumped out of the way. While the monkey reloaded, Sheepy took up his pooping stance, and Bunny leaped to the ground behind him and cocked his ears by bending the tips. Sheepy squatted a little on his back legs and pushed a round sheep ball from his rump. As it fell, Bunny stretched one of his big floppy ears and smacked the ball as hard as he could shooting it toward the monkey.
Bunny had a good aim and hit the monkey right under his chin. The monkey was stunned for a moment. Sheepy let another poop ball drop, and Bunny hit this one right into the monkey’s belly.
The monkey threw more poop hitting Sheepy’s pretty wool again. This upset Bunny who called out to Sheepy: “Fire your poop!”
Sheepy dropped poops one after another, and Bunny, with his big floppy ears, batted each one at the monkey. Sheep poop splattered on the roof of the barn, sometimes missing, but often hitting the monkey in the face and chest. The monkey had to hold up his paws to protect himself from the flying poop bombs. Bunny didn’t let up even though his ears got splattered with sheep poop. The monkey finally fled off the barn roof and back to the old broken down fence.
Bunny intended to drive that rude poop-throwing monkey back into the outside world and out of the safe meadow of the sheep. Bunny had the monkey on the fence when Sheepy cried out: “I’m almost empty. I don’t have many more to fire!”
“Just a few more Sheepy,” called Bunny. “I’ve got him on the run.”
With the last poops, Bunny carefully aimed and shot the monkey right in the face, filling its mouth with sheep poop.
The monkey made that angry “raah raah raah” noise and fled back into the under growth of the wilderness covered in Sheepy’s poop.
The sheep flock out in the meadow bleated in joy at Sheepy and Bunny’s victory. They danced and pooped. The silkies came out of the barn with astonished glee over the battle that took place over their heads. The songbirds returned to the trees to sing songs of victory.
Sheepy and Bunny were relieved to have driven the monkey away, but they were covered in stinky poop. Poor Sheepy had monkey poop splattered on his pretty white fleece and Bunny’s ears with smeared with Sheepy’s poop!
“We’re all covered with poop! What are we going to do now?” cried Sheepy.
Bunny hopped onto Sheepy’s back avoiding the monkey poop. “We’ll wash off in the pond. Bunny will wash Sheepy’s pretty fleece” he said.
Sheep trotted down to the clear pool with bunny on his back, right up to the water’s edge then stopped.
“What’s wrong Sheepy?” asked Bunny.
“Sheepy is afraid of water. Being in water makes Sheepy sad and wants to cry.”
“Bunny will be right here on your back the whole time, washing your pretty fleece.” Bunny patted Sheepy on the sides of his neck to reassure him.
Sheepy stepped into the cool water and shivered a little. Bunny coxed Sheepy in further. Sheep waded into the water until it was up to his belly and his tummy wool was getting wet, but he wouldn’t go any further. Sheepy wanted to cry.
“Sheepy doesn’t like this.”
“Just a little bit further, so I can wash Sheepy’s fleece. Trust your good friend Bunny, who won’t let anything bad happen to his special friend Sheepy.”
“Bahhhh!” cried Sheepy, as he stepped further into the water, until it was half way up his sides.
Bunny bent over Sheepy’s side trying to splash fresh water on Sheepy’s fleece to clean away the monkey poop, but he couldn’t reach far enough.
Bunny could feel Sheepy shaking in the cool water, his wool soaking up the water turning him into a soggy wool ball.
“I have an idea,” said Bunny.
Bunny bent over as far as he could and swished his ears in the water to wash away Sheepy’s poop. When his ears were clean, he splashed water in Sheepy’s wool to wash the monkey poop away. But Bunny couldn’t get enough water on Sheepy without falling into the pond himself, and the poop wasn’t coming off very well.
The Mama ducks and their ducklings paddled around in the water watching Bunny and Sheepy carefully. When they understood what Bunny was trying to do, the Mama ducks paddled over.
“Can we help you? We know how to get the poop off,” said one of the Mama ducks. “We’ll splash water with our flat beaks and water resistant wings onto Sheepy’s wool while you scrub the poop off.
“Thank you Mama ducks! That’s such a good idea,” said Bunny.
The Mama ducks splashed water on Sheepy with their beaks and wings, even the baby ducklings joined in, until there was so much water splashing around that Bunny got soaked as well. Bunny used his paws and ears to scrub Sheepy’s wool. The ducklings quacked with joy, since it was so much fun for them and stirred up the water with their little webbed feet. The water that rained down bounced off their feathers and dripped back into the pool.
“All the Poop is washing off!” Bunny told Sheepy.
Sheepy began to do his little sheep dance in the water because it made him feel happy and less afraid.
When the poop was finally washed off, Sheepy carefully waded out of the water, soaking wet. Sheepy shook himself, starting at the head, then down the neck and back all the way to his rump throwing water everywhere. Bunny had to hold on tight to Sheepy’s neck to keep from being thrown off. Bunny tried to dry himself on Sheepy’s wool, but they were both still too wet.
“Sheepy, Sheepy,” said Bunny, “let’s go out into the meadow where we can dry off in the sunshine.”
Sheepy with Bunny on his back pranced into the sunlight to get warm and dry and show off his nice clean fleece.
When they got to the meadow where the sheep flock had gathered, the sheep congratulated Sheepy and Bunny on their great win over the horrible monkey. Even Mr. Squirrel and Chippy and Chilly came into the meadow and hopped back on their mounts to applaud Sheepy and Bunny.
“Sheepy and Bunny are heroes,” exclaimed the sheep flock.
One of the little lambs came dancing and hopping in the grass to Sheepy with a little round wreath in her mouth that she and her momma made with some grass and vines to put on Sheepy’s head. One of the elder sheep, a big ram with horns on his head, stepped forward and said to Sheepy and Bunny: “Because of your heroism in defending the sheep flock, we decided to declare Sheepy and Bunny the winners of today’s sheep race.”
The elder ram took the wreath from the lamb and placed it on Sheepy’s head and gave Bunny a kiss on the ears. All the other sheep began to bleat and cheer. They all did a little dance on their front hooves and dropped poop balls behind them.
“You got to fight poop with poop!” declared Mr. Squirrel.
Sheepy and Bunny were very happy, but Sheepy was still shivering and his wool dripped water. The other sheep wanted to help Sheepy get dry and warm, so they rubbed their warm dry fleece against Sheepy’s wet wool help soak up the water. Sheepy felt so happy with his special friend Bunny on his back and the other sheep taking care of him that he couldn’t help doing his own sheep dance on his front hooves even though he was empty and couldn’t drop any poop balls in the meadow.
Note: This is the original version of the story.
A revised and illustrated edition will replace it soon.
Meadow Whisper:
Journeys do not wander lost.
The Meadow keeps them,
and hush rests in laughter and care.