Animal Faire Day

 

It was a sunshine and blossoms type of day in Happy Valley.   Spring was in the air, and Miss Prudence couldn't have been more pleased, for today was Animal Faire Day at The Little Red Schoolhouse.  Smiling with anticipation, Miss Prudence gently shook the cage of the young rat Rudy. He and his new brother, Buckingham, were cuddled together in a soft fur heap of black and brown when the cheery voice of their mistress called out, "Time to wake up boys!  It's Animal Faire Day.  Mustn't disappoint the children."  Rudy gave his mistress a dazed look.  He stretched and yawned.  "Squeak," said Rudy, as he tramped his way through the paper bedding to the door of his cage.  Enthusiastically, Buckingham jumped on Rudys shoulders and playfully nipped at the ear of his new brother. "Squeak squeak!" Rudy scolded.

Miss Prudence opened the door of the cage, allowing Rudy to jump out. "Now now Buckingham," she said in her best schoolteacher voice.  "We must play nicely."  Buckingham poked his nose through the bars of the cage, his whiskers twitching with mischief.  "I think we'll let your brother stay home and mind the house today Rudy," Miss Prudence stated with discernment.  Rudy's head bobbed up and down in agreement as the chuckling first grade teacher reached down and picked the happy creature up with her pudgy hand.  Reaching into the coat closet, Miss Prudence pulled out a small traveling cage and placed Rudy into it.  He settled into the soft blue towel at the bottom of the cage.

Miss Prudence headed for the door, and then stopped short.  "Oh my!  Mustn't forget the presents for the babies!" she stated.

Rudy looked puzzled as he watched his mistress grab a box of soap and a faded pink bed sheet that had been neatly pressed.  She carefully placed them in a fancy purple paper bag and, grabbing Rudy's cage by its wooden handle, she toddled out the door and down the sidewalk to the bus stop.

Rudy loved going out of doors.  There was so much to see and smell.  He'd been to The Little Red Schoolhouse once before for Show and Tell, but today would be very special, because other pets would be at school also.  Miss Prudence had baked chocolate chip cookies for the children.  Rudy's eyes became dreamy as he thought of the wonderful taste of cookies and the heavenly smells of them hot from the oven in the kitchen of the cozy little cottage on Maple Lane the night before.  Both Buckingham and Rudy were unable to stop their whiskers from twitching with the delight from the fragrance.  Just before she went to bed, Miss Prudence had broken a warm cookie in half and placed it inside the cage.  It was only then that the twitching had stopped, and both Buckingham and Rudy began to make "crunching munching" noises of delight.

The roar of the big yellow bus approaching distracted Rudy from his daydream.  Mr. Cortez, the bus driver, waved a big hello to Miss Prudence. 

"My my, we have an extra passenger today!" he smiled. 

"Yes we do Mr. Cortez!  It looks as though we have many extra passengers today!"  Miss Prudence stated.

Seated on the bus was Jerry with his bird Joey.  Johnny had his Australian Shepherd Yankee on a leash, and Ann had her black lab, Oso, on the seat next to her.  Emily had her white albino rat Ratticus in a tiny cage on her lap.  Miss Prudence looked down at Rudy and said, "Shall we go sit with Emily and Ratticus, Rudy?" 

"Squeak!" cried Rudy.  "Squeak squeak", which meant "yes" Miss Prudence was quite sure.

From his little cage, Rudy saw that the children all had pretty packages with them.  He began to clean his whiskers.  Rudy always cleaned his whiskers when he wasn't sure what was happening.  The presents made him very curious.  He wondered whom they were for.  Ratticus stuck his pink nose out of the cage.  His pink eyes watched Rudy closely.  Miss Prudence and Emily looked at the two rats, then at each other and laughed.

The bus took off with a roar and found its way to Happy Valley Road, arriving at The Little Red Schoolhouse just as the bell began to clang.

Miss Prudence and the children got off the bus, waving good-bye to Mr. Cortez.  Mommies and Daddies were waiting by the door of the first grade class with their children and their pets.  Zeke had his Ferret Freddie around his neck like a warm scarf.  All the boys and girls laughed at Freddie and wanted to hold him.  Zeke smiled and allowed the long furry creature to crawl down his arm and cuddled him close to his red jacket.

Miss Prudence unlocked the door of her classroom and said in her cheery voice, "Hold onto your pets now children.  Let's walk in single file.  Take your seats please.  Those of you with doggies, please keep them a safe distance from the kitties in their carriers.  Easy does it!" 

She placed Rudy's tiny cage on the large oak desk overlooking the classroom.  Rudy pressed his nose to the wire as he watched the children taking their seats.

Miss Prudence stood by her desk with her hands folded and smiled at the children.

"I want to thank the mommies and daddies that have come this morning to make our Animal Faire Day a happy time.  Our pets are very special.  They are our special friends and deserve to have a special day of appreciation." 

Miss Prudence looked down at Rudy, then continued, "Many of you remember our friend Rodney Riley who left Rudy in my care when he moved to his grandmothers farm.  He is my pet and my special friend." 

Just then Rudy sneezed, then squeaked.  The children laughed.  Oso began to bark.  Then Yankee joined in.  The children laughed some more, and this time the mommies and daddies did too.  Freddie tried to crawl inside Zeke's coat.

"O.K. boys and girls.  We will begin our special program now.  Those of you with pets on leashes, please secure them to the back of your desk chairs.  If you've brought presents for the babies, please bring them to the table by the drinking fountain in the back of the room.  Hurry-scurry!"  Miss Prudence picked up the tiny bell from her desk and jingled it softly.  As she did, Rudy hid his head under the blue towel at the bottom of the cage. 

Soon the table was stacked with brightly colored paper parcels.  Miss Prudence put her purple bag with the mysterious present on the table as well.

Looking at the collection of goods, the round face of the pudgy old schoolteacher glowed a rosy red.  "Splendid", she smiled.  "Just splendid.  Our special guest will be so pleased.  What a wonderful collection of surprises we have!"

Just then, there was a knock on the door. 

"Lisa, would you and Sugar please open the door.  I believe it is our special guest."

"Yes Miss Prudence," Lisa smiled.  She and her lovely white dog scampered together to the door.  Lisa turned the knob and let in a tall stranger with a large cage.  Behind him was Mr. Billingsley, the principal, carrying yet another cage.  Behind Mr. Billingsley was his dog Jack.  Jack often came to school with Mr. Billingsley and slept in front of the wood burning stove in the small room with shelves of splendid books that served as an office.  Here Mr. Billingsley made wonderful lesson plans for the children at The Little Red Schoolhouse, and very rarely, but on occasion, monitored a child as he or she wrote special sentences concerning kindness and behavior.

Miss Prudence, who had just taken a seat at her desk,  pushed herself up from her chair and lifted her hands for the children to stand as well.

"Good morning Mr. Billingsley," the children called out together. 

Jack barked.

"Shhhhh Jack." Mr. Billingsley said, looking down at the dog over the side of the cage. "Good morning children.  Hello Miss Prudence.  Everyone sit down.  We have some very special guests here."

As the children sat down, Mr. Billingsley and the tall man carrying the covered cage walked to the front of the classroom.

"This is Mr. Johnson, boys and girls," stated the principal, his blue eyes twinkling.  "He is our special guest for Animal Faire Day, and he has brought two more special guests as well from the Animal Wildlife Center.  Mr. Johnson.  Please introduce your friends," Mr. Billingsley smiled.

The children stirred in their seats with anticipation.  Rudy crept out from under his towel and began making chattering noises with his teeth.

"Yes indeed, I do have some very special animals this morning," stated Mr. Johnson lifting the towel from the cage.  "Please meet Freckles the owl."

The boys and girls began to chatter among themselves as the large owl flapped its wings and looked around the room, it's catlike eyes wide with wonder.

"Freckles came to us with an injured wing," said Mr. Johnson.  "He fell from a tree during the bad thunderstorm we had last Christmas.  A lady called the Wildlife Center when she found Freckles caught under a branch of a tree in her yard. She wrapped him up in a towel and brought him to us so we could take care of him and help him get well.  When he is well again, we will take him back to the place we found him, and let him go so he can find his family and friends.  The Wildlife Center is a special hospital for small animals and birds," Mr. Johnson explained.

By this time, Mr. Billingsley had placed the cage he was carrying on a table by the chalkboard.  As he lifted it's cover, Jack and several other dogs began to bark.  Peeking out at the children from behind the bars of the cage was a gray raccoon.

"Quiet Jack.  Down boy," stated Mr. Billingsley.

"And who have we here," asked Miss Prudence.

Inside his cage, Rudy began to clean his whiskers as well as his ears.

"This is Dewey.  A car hit him, and as you can see, he has a cast on his leg.  We also have ducks and rabbits, and even a turtle at our Wildlife Center.  Recently we built a small pond for the ducks to swim in.  They need to feel at home while they are with us. People like myself help feed the animals and keep the center clean.  It takes lots of work."

Miss Prudence cleared her throat as if to make a special announcement.  "Mr. Johnson," she smiled, "because you and the other wonderful people at the Wildlife Center do such a splendid job of caring for animals, we have a surprise for you to celebrate Animal Faire Day.  We have a table of gifts for your animal babies.  Please peek at them in the back of the room."

"Why thank-you boys and girls," Mr. Johnson exclaimed.  "May I open them now?"

"Of course you may," stated Miss Prudence proudly.

Mr. Johnson began opening the gifts.

Sugar and Lisa had given bandages.  Emily and Ratticus had brought homemade salve made by Emily's mother from herbs in her garden.  John and Yankee had brought a bag of dry pet food.  Zeke and Freddie had brought paper towels.  Of course, there were sheets and soap from Rudy and Miss Prudence, and many other wonderful things yet to be opened.

Mr. Billingsley got a large cardboard box from the cloakroom and began placing the supplies into it that the children had brought.  As he did, Freckles began to make loud hooting sounds, as if to say "thank you" to the children.  Mr. Johnson laughed and thanked everyone.

Everyone clapped, and thanked Mr. Johnson for coming to class. 

One by one, the children walked up to the front of the room and looked at the animals.  After he answered all the questions the children and mommies and daddies presented to him, Mr. Johnson took Freckles and Dewey and left with his big box of supplies. 

With Mr. Billingsley and Jack leading the way, Miss Prudence and the children proceeded outside for the Animal Faire Day festivities.  First there was a pet parade around the 110 trees in the orchard behind the school.  Next there was cookies and lemonade under the Magic Oak Tree.  The best part was the pet show.  Each boy and girl got to share about his or her animal.  By this time Rudy was riding on the shoulder of the pudgy first grade schoolteacher enjoying the attention of the boys and girls.  Miss Prudence took a picture of each child with their pet for an Animal Faire Day tee shirt project as a special surprise for the children.

As Miss Prudence watched the children chasing with the dogs in a game of tag among the trees she whispered to Rudy on her shoulder, "Pets make the world such a wonderful place.  Don't you agree Rudy?"

Rudy made little chattering noises with his teeth and the tiny brown fur head bobbed up and down enthusiastically.

"Squeak," he said.  "Squeak&squeak!"

"Well said young man," she smiled.

It was definitely a happy memory kind of day at The Little Red Schoolhouse on Happy Valley Road.

 

jennifer grant