The Dog. The Duck And The Dormouse - Peter Papolczy

Fun animal stories set in a village. The endearing, yet quirky characters will entertain readers and listeners through twenty adventures. Witty dialogues, puns, and hidden trivia will amuse all children between ages 5 and 99.

Otto, the spider was crawling slowly across the front yard towards his home, the library window, leaving tiny white footsteps behind. His legs were heavy, and he had the air of a spider who for the first time in his life regretted that he was not poisonous. He hoped to reach the house where he could clean himself without meeting anybody he knew, but that turned out to be not more than wishful thinking.
"Hey Otto!" Edgar, the ginger tomcat greeted him. "You are covered with some gooey white stuff. What happened? Did you fall into the pancake batter?"
"Why would have I fallen into the pancake batter?" Otto asked bitterly. "And what are you doing here, anyway," he added, feeling that spontaneous neighbour visits should be prohibited.
"Who can claim that he has never fallen into the pancake batter? Even I did once," Edgar admitted. "I was scrutinizing the bowls in the kitchen, and plop! I disappeared in one of them. That was a long time ago, of course. I was knee-high to a grasshopper standing on a stool. But answering your far from hospitable question, I came to inspect Helmut's dog dish. Empty, do I need to say."
Otto was beginning to calm down. After all, he was a civilized and educated spider, and Edgar was his neighbour.
"It is not pancake batter," he said with a sigh. "It is curd and whey."
"Very sensible," Edgar nodded, pretending to understand. "Always take a refreshing dip in some curd and whey or the other."
"Do you know James Muffet?" Otto asked.
"The lorry driver?" Edgar asked, a bit surprised by the sudden change of topic. "Sure."
"He has a daughter of about five. Blond, curly hair, you might have met her as well."
"Yes, Eve. Delightful young lady. Offered me a cheese toast once," Edgar said. "I am not too fond of cheese toast, by the way, but it is the thought that counts. Although in the land of the pondering aristocrats, it was the counts that thought. Excuse me. A gag I picked up from Helmut."
"Well, her hamster had got a nasty cold, so she brought him over to the vet," Otto explained. "What I noticed was that when she entered the house, she also carried a yo-yo, which she did not have any more when she left."
"I see" Edgar said, "and an able mathematician like you figured out almost immediately, that she was one yo-yo short. But how was your dairy dip going to help that?"

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