A Sheepy and Bunny Are Friends Story
The wheelbarrow lay on its side surrounded by tall brown grass right where Bad Farmer dropped it and walked away. In the springtime, the wheelbarrow lay partly submerged in the water of the sheep’s pond, rusting its metal sides and rotting the wooden handles. In the summer, the water retreated and tall grass grew around it creating a nice hiding place for one of the industrious little Silkies to lay her eggs.
The summer heat turned the tall grasses brown. The miserable sheep lay panting in the shade. Even with their wool sheared wool they still sweltered in the heat. It was late summer and it was hot.
The heat didn’t detour Sheepy from his sheep play. He stuck his head between the grass stalks and made happy bleating sounds and kissey faces with his lips at the baby chicks inside. Sheepy waggled his tail and dropped an occasional poop in the dried grass.
Bunny stretched out on Sheepy’s back. Bunny was shedding. His fur came out in big handfuls leaving clumps all over Sheepy’s neck and back.
“Look how cute the baby chicks are!” said Sheepy.
Bunny giggled and said, “Sheepy loves those baby chicks.”
Sheepy made more bleating sounds and waggled his rump. Sheepy loved all the little Silkie chickens. He thought they were all so sweet and pretty, and he told them that all the time. When the Silkies heard, they would preen and strut with happiness.
The white baby chicks would raise their heads and cheep at Sheepy and flap their little wings in the straw nest their Mama Silkie built for them. Mama Silkie was off gathering some seeds to feed her babies, and Sheepy was keeping them company.
The Silkies came to live with the other animals in the barn after Housewife banished them from her garden. Housewife wanted some small fancy chickens for her garden, and the Silkies were perfect. They had dark purple skin under their fluffy white feathers. Their legs and feet were also covered with feathers, and they had five toes instead of the usual four. With fluffy crests on their heads and turquoise blue earlobes, they were just the most adorable little things.
She kept them in the garden and fed them table scraps. The other animals where jealous of the special treatment they got. They did look so adorably cute wandering among the green vines of the cucumbers and the greens of the carrots, leaving their little eggs scattered in the garden, where they would happily set on them. But then they started taking bites out of Housewife’s ripening tomatoes, scratching up radishes with their chicken feet, and pecking holes in her squash with their sharp chicken beaks. Housewife banished then from her garden and made Bad Farmer put up a fence to keep them out. That is how the Silkies came to live in the barn with the Sheep.
“Here comes Bessie,” Bunny said. Sheepy pulled his head out of the grassy nest to greet her with a happy bleat.
“Whew,” said Bessie. “It’s so hot. No matter how much water I drink, I just can’t make as much milk as usual.”
She bent her head to take a long drink of water from the nearby pond. It would have been nice if the water was cooler, but with the summer heat, the water flow had been significantly reduced and the water was warm and tepid. The edges around the pond, instead of being soft and green, had turned hard and brown. In the summer heat, the meadow had also dried up and turned brown. The poor sheep has to eat the dried hay that Bad Farmer brought. There was no yummy grass left to munch on from the meadow.
The animals suffered in the heat.
“I worry that Bad Farmer will find this nest. I don’t know what he will do if he finds the baby Silkies,” said Bessie.
“What?” said Sheepy. “Why would he want to hurt them?”
“He complains about them all the time,” said Bessie.
“How do you know?” asked Bunny.
“When he comes to milk me, he is always complaining about something,” said Bessie. “I just nod my head and moo.”
“What does he say?” asked Sheepy.
“Oh, he grumbles about how little the Silkies are, and they look stupid, not like real chickens,” said Bessie.
“That’s mean,” said Sheepy.
“He says their eggs are too small to eat, and the Silkies don’t have much meat on them, but he collects the eggs anyway because he doesn’t want baby Silkies running around all over the place.”
Sheep made a sad face. “I don’t like him taking the little eggs.”
“He bickers with Housewife over them,” said Bessie. “He says they get broody and lay eggs where he can’t find them.”
“What does broody mean?” asked Sheepy.
“It means they want to be mamas and sit on their eggs and hatch babies,” said Bessie.
“Oh,” said Sheepy, “like the Silkie Mama that hatched these chicks!”
“Yes, Sheepy.”
“We won’t let Bad Farmer find the baby chicks,” said Sheepy, making a stern look on his face.
Bessie laughed. “Now don’t tell the Silkies what I said about their eggs being too small. That’s what Bad Farmer said not me. They don’t need to hear it because it might hurt their feelings and we don’t want that.”
“Bessie, you are such a gossip,” said Bunny.
“But what I say is true.”
“Hush now,” said Bunny. “Here comes the Silkie Mama.”
A white Silkie Mama came strutting up, her head moving forward and back, so proud of her baby chicks and all the attention they were getting.
“Silkie Mama, your babies are waiting for you!” said Sheepy. “They will be so happy to see you.”
The Silkie Mama answered with a “mur mur mummm mum.” Her mouth and beak were full of chicken feed for her babies.
She pushed through the tall brown grass into her nest. She opened her mouth and spilled out all the seeds for her baby chicks to peck and eat. Once her mouth was empty, she was able to speak.
“Thank you Sheepy for watching the chicks for me.”
Sheepy smiled and nodded and wagged his tail.
“I could take them with me, they can eat on their own, but I don’t want Bad Farmer to find them until they are big enough to run away from him on their own,” said the Mama Silkie.
“That’s a good idea,” said Bunny.
“I couldn’t lay my eggs in the nesting boxes in the barn. He would come and steal my eggs. I had to find a secret place to hide them, where he wouldn’t look.”
Sheepy let out a happy giggle. “We won’t let him find out. We will keep your secret.”
“Bad Farmer will just do something bad,” said Bunny.
“What’s that fool doing now?” said Bessie.
The other animals looked at her. She tossed her head and pointed with her nose toward the farmhouse. Sheepy and Bunny turned to look.
Down by the farmhouse, on the other side of the garden, Bad Farmer had a burn pile where he burned trash from the house. The animals watch him throw bags of kitchen waste and other refuge from the farm on the pile.
“He’s not going to burn now is he? It’s too dry,” said Bessie.
Bessie let out a big moo at Bad Farmer hoping he would hear her warning, but he didn’t even look.
Housewife brought out cardboard boxes and threw them on the pile. Bad Farmer added scraps of lumber.
The animals watched as he picked up a dented red gasoline can and douse the pile.
“That’s not a good idea!” Bessie mooed more insistently. “Don’t do that!” but Bad Farmer paid her no attention.
Bad Farmer pulled a box of kitchen matches from his pocket. He struck one and lit a balled up wad of paper and tossed it on the pile. The burn pile went up in flames.
When the cardboard and wood caught fire, the flames reached several feet above the farm couple’s heads. Housewife retreated to the garden. Bad Farmer seemed pleased and raised his arms over his head to mimic the flames.
Smoldering embers of the burning cardboard flew into the air, landing all around the pile in the dry brown grass. It only took a moment for the grass to ignite as well. A wave of flames raced outward as the grass caught fire. The fire traveled across the ground toward the house and garden.
Housewife helplessly flailed around with a dishtowel in her hands. She yelled derisive comments at him and demanded he put out the fire. Bad Farmer let loose a torrent of foul language that stung Sheepy and Bunny’s ears and made Bessie blush. They could all see the fire was out of control.
Bad Farmer ran to the back of the house and grabbed the watering hose for the garden. After fumbling with the handle he got the water flowing. He drenched the ground around the side of the house and garden threatened by the fire. He doused the burn pile with water to reduce the fire. On the far side of the garden a wave of fire spread beyond the reach of the hose.
Bunny jumped up from Sheepy’s back and stood with his front paws on Sheepy’s head.
“He’s not going to get it all,” said Bunny. “It’s burning toward us and all the animals in the barn!”
“What are we going to do?” cried Sheepy.
“There’s another hose outside the barn, right?” said Bunny. “We need to turn it on.”
“Right!” said Sheepy. He dashed around the pond and toward the barn where the hose was with Bunny holding onto his back.
When they got to the spigot that rose out of the ground on a pipe, Bunny jumped off Sheepy’s back and turned the handle with his paws to let the water flow into the hose laying on the ground.
“Go get the rams and spray the fire and wet the ground,” said Bunny.
Sheepy ran into the barn bleating frantically for the rams to come and help. Bessie mooed to all the sheep napping in the shade to come too.
As Bunny adjusted the nozzle on the hose to spray, he muttered to himself: “Bad Farmer is so stupid,” and shook his Bunny head.
The flames raced along the ground. The rams lined up, lead by Sheepy, and each took a segment of the hose in their mouths and charged toward the flames.
The rams worked to extinguish the front that threatened the barn, but the width of the fire grew and crept toward the pond and the little grove of birch trees that grew nearby.
Bunny found a bucket and grabbed it in his mouth. He called for the ewes to find any pan they could and wet the dry grass. Bunny and the ewes dipped water out of the low flowing stream and soaked the ground ahead of the fire to protect the birch grove.
It wasn’t enough. A tongue of flame shot forward around the ewes and set fire to the tall brown grass around the pond.
The Silkie Mama, who had remained huddled in her nest with her babies, was now surrounded by fire. In an effort to save her chicks, she braved the fire and jumped on top of the wheelbarrow frantically calling out: “my babies, my little chicks, someone please help them!”
Bunny saw the Mama Silkie standing on the old wheelbarrow surrounded by flames that threatened to singe her feathers calling for help.
Bunny took a big running start and leaped into the air using his strong back legs. He flew over the fire with his floppy ears flapping behind him and landed right on top of the wheelbarrow next to the Silkie Mama.
“Save my babies, Bunny, get them to safety,” called the Silkie Mama. “Don’t worry about me, save my chicks!”
Bunny hopped down into the nest and gathered the baby chicks in his arms. He held them close to his chest and wrapped his ears around them to hold them tighter.
He hopped back on top of the wheelbarrow with his back legs. The nest inside caught fire, and the wheelbarrow got hot.
“Go Bunny, get the chick to safety. Leave me here,” said the Silkie Mama.
“I can’t leave you here,” said Bunny.
“Go, go hurry.”
“I’ll come back for you,” said Bunny. He made a big leap to a wet spot on the ground holding the baby chicks tightly with his ears. He took the silkie babies to a safe place with the other silkies in the barn.
Sheepy saw Bunny jump away with the baby chicks leaving the Mama Silkie behind.
Sheepy dropped the nozzle of the hose from his mouth, leaving it for the next ram to take up, and called: “Mama Silkie, Mama Silkie, Sheepy will come and get you.”
Sheepy put his head down and dashed into the flames.
“Mama Silkie,” Sheepy called to her, “jump on my back, just like Bunny, jump on my back.”
The hot flaming grass burnt Sheepy’s hooves and singed some of his wool.
Sheepy ran up next to the wheelbarrow and bleated “get on, get on.”
The Silkie Mama jumped on Sheepy’s back grabbing a hold of his wool with her feet and beak.
The whole pond was surrounded by flames. Sheepy rushed into the water, even though he was afraid of water, but they were safe from the fire.
Sheepy stood in the water up to his belly, with a Silkie chicken on his back, bleating for help while the flames burned all around.
When the rams saw what Sheepy had done, they dragged the heavy hose to the pond extinguished the flames.
The rams worked hard putting out the fire and grew tired. One elder rams couldn’t keep up. He became dizzy from the heat and exhaustion and passed out collapsing to the ground.
When Sheepy saw the ram go down, he ran from the pond crying: “Grampa, Grampa.”
The Mama Silkie on Sheepy’s back flapped her wings and clucked doing a back flip over Sheepy’s rump as he suddenly ran out from under her. She safely landed with her feet on soggy grass and scurried inside the barn to check on her baby chicks. Bunny had them securely tucked away inside a nesting box.
When Sheepy got to the fallen ram, he threw his front legs around his elder.
“Are you OK, Grampa? Sheepy asked.
The elder ram nodded his head but continued to breathe heavily.
“Bring Grampa some water,” Sheepy called.
One of the ewes brought him a pan of cold water from the hose. Sheepy held the older ram’s head while he drank.
The fire was finally out. Bunny turned off the hose.
It wasn’t until then that Sheepy realized he had burned the bottom of his hooves. He helped the elder ram to his feet, and limping along assisted his elder to the barn.
The sheep laid the elder ram on a nice soft bed of straw and brought him lots of cool water to drink. He had gotten overheated. After a while he felt better and the temperature of this nose cooled.
Sheepy was relieved. That’s when he started to feel the pain of the burns on his hooves.
Bunny told Sheepy to lie down on some soft hay and stick his hooves out.
Bunny licked the soft painful places between Sheepy’s hooves.
“That feels so good, Bunny,” Sheepy said. “I really love my special friend Bunny.”
“I love my special friend Sheepy too, said Bunny. “Sheepy was so heroic today saving Silkie Mama.”
Sheepy blushed. The inside of his ears turned red.
“Bunny can help Sheepy’s burns heal,” Bunny said.
Bunny’s saliva was a magic salve that soothed Sheepy’s pain.
While Sheepy was lying there with Bunny licking his burns, all the Silkies gathered around them and began to sing them a little song about their heroism.
The Silkies had the sweetest little voices that made Sheepy so happy to listen too. He wanted to kiss each and every one of the fluffy little birds and say: “You’re Welcome, You’re Welcome, You’re Welcome.”
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.