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"Catch the ball!" Cockles shouted to
Mussels as he tossed his blue rubber ball high into the air.
Mussels ran, mouth open, towards it.
"I’ve got it," he called back and caught the ball in his mouth. Instead of
throwing it back though, the mutt ran away with it, heading towards the
wildflower-covered hills.
"Bring it back," Cockles yelled.
"Mussels, bring back my ball!"
Mussels, of course, didn’t listen
and ran up the hill. He could run much faster than the dachshund, Cockles.
When he reached the top of the hill, Mussels looked down at the bottom of
the hill. There were sheep grazing one half of the hillside, nibbling on
the grass and heather. Mussels snickered as he watched Cockles struggling
up to the top of the hill. Just before he got there, Mussels ran back
down, heading for the sheep. "Can’t catch me," he laughed.
Cockles was panting. That was hard
work getting to the top. "Mussels!"
It was too late. Mussels was tossing
the ball high into the air and running to catch it, having a grand time.
Up, up, up it went, but this time when it came down, it landed right in
the middle of the grazing sheep. One of them quickly stood on the ball.
"BAA! BAA! BAA!"
"Now you’ve done it, Mussels. The
sheep have my ball!" Cockles shouted, running down the hill towards his
friend.
Mussels walked up to the sheep. "Can
I have the ball back?" he asked.
Soon all the sheep surrounded
Mussels. "BAA! BAA! BAA! Go away. No, you can’t have the ball. It’s mine
now," snarled the biggest sheep, picking it up in his mouth. "I dare you
to try to take it." Mussels looked at the angry sheep. "Now, go away and
leave us alone," a sheep said and they started to butt Mussels with their
heads.
"I’m leaving. I’m leaving," he said
and ran over to Cockles. "Uh, Cockles, we’ve got a problem. The sheep have
your ball and they’re not going to give it back to you."
"What? It’s my ball. Why did you
throw it to them? You’d better get it back for me," Cockles said angrily.
"I’ve got a plan. I’ll ran around
the sheep in a circle and confuse them and distract them and you sneak in
and grab the ball," Mussels suggested.
"Right, Mussels. What makes you
think he’s going to drop it? Just because you’re running around doesn’t
make any difference," Cockles sighed.
"Let’s give it a try at least,"
Mussels said. "All right? Here I go." He ran around the sheep barking
loudly. "ARF! ARF! ARF!" The sheep stopped grazing and looked up at
Mussels. They started to laugh.
Mussels was getting dizzy from
running around in circles. "Hey, the sheep aren’t afraid of me, they’re
laughing at me," he said. He stopped running, but was so dizzy that he
fell to the ground and his four legs stood up in the air.
"Look at the dog. BAA! BAA! BAA!
He’s made himself dizzy! Ha ha ha. You’re not having the ball back, no
matter what you do," one of them shouted and the rest of the sheep began
to laugh out loud at Mussels.
Cockles walked over to him. "Well,
that went well," he mocked. "Got any other big plans?"
Mussels stood up, though he still
wobbled back and forth a bit. "That didn’t go as well as I’d planned. Time
for plan number two," he said.
"Oh? And what is plan number two?"
Cockles asked.
"I’m going to run back to the house
and get some other things, like a tin can, a piece of rope and one of our
bones," Mussels said.
"Make that one of your bones,"
Cockles replied.
"And I’ll bring a pile of our dog
food too. They might like that," Mussels said and then he ran towards the
house. He showed up a while later with the items. "Here, put the rope over
there and the tin over there," he said, pointing with his tail.
"I’ll take the bone and food and put
it over this way," Mussels said, walking toward the sheep.
Cockles did as instructed. Mussels
shouted to the sheep, "Hey, sheep. I’ve brought you some things to trade
for the ball. Come and see."
The sheep walked towards the tin
can. "What do we want with this? It’s empty. BAA!" shouted one of them.
"Rope? What good is rope to a
sheep?" chuckled another.
"We don’t eat bones and we don’t eat
dog food. We eat grass," another sheep said.
Cockles could see the sheep standing
with the ball in his mouth.
"Take your things and go home.
You’re not having the ball back," yet another sheep shouted. "BAA! BAA!
BAA!"
"So much for plan number two,"
Cockles said.
"Plan number three is the best, but
we’ll have to wait until night time, when they are asleep. We’ll sneak up
on them while they’re snoozing and take the ball back," Mussels suggested.
"You mean you’ll sneak up, don’t
you?" Cockles reminded.
"Right. I’ll sneak up," Mussels
agreed.
The dogs headed home and napped
until darkness fell. "Come on, Cockles. Come with me. I’ll get your ball,"
Mussels said, shaking his friend.
Cockles woke up and the two dogs
headed for the flock of sheep. "They’re sleeping," Mussels said. The dogs
hid behind a mulberry bush. "You stay here and I’ll sneak up." Mussels
crept slowly into the flock of sheep. He could hear them snoring. "Aha,
there he is," he whispered, seeing the big sheep with the ball under his
wooly leg. Slowly, slowly, he crawled, on his tummy, inching his way
through the tall grass towards the sleeping sheep. He was just about to
grab the ball when he heard an ACHOOOO coming from the mulberry bush. All
the sheep woke up.
"BAA! BAA! BAA! It’s the dog!"
shouted the sheep. The others all came running.
"Run, Mussels. Run," called Cockles.
The dog, unable to reach the ball, jumped up and ran as fast as he could
toward the bush.
The sheep began to laugh at him.
"Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha."
"Why did you have to sneeze? I
almost had the ball in my hands," he said angrily at Cockles.
"Sorry. Couldn’t help it. I’m
allergic to mulberries, remember?"
"We’d better get home. We’ll think
of something in the morning," Mussels whined and the dogs ran home.
When the sun came up, Cockles woke
up first. "I’ve got an idea. Why don’t we offer to tell the sheep where
the best grasses on the island are? They’d surely trade for that," he
suggested, shaking Mussels.
"We can sure try," Mussels yawned,
completely out of ideas.
They ran over to the sheep. This
time Cockles did the talking. "Uh, excuse me sheep," he called to the
sheep, which were hungrily eating the purple heather. "If you’ll give me
back my blue ball, I’ll tell you where the tastiest grass is in all of
Barra."
The sheep huddled together and
talked. "All right. It’s a deal. Here’s your ball," the big sheep said,
running up and dropping it near Cockles feet.
Cockles made sure he had it tightly
in his paw. "The best, tastiest, most delicious grass on the whole island
of Barra is right here, where you are," Cockles said, laughing. He grabbed
the ball in his mouth and ran off towards the house, with Mussels
following. "Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha," Cockles giggled. "I tricked them."
"Very good, Cockles. You got your
ball back," Mussels said.
"Next time you steal my ball, stay
away from the sheep. We’ll not get away with anything so easily next
time," Cockles warned.
He ran around the back garden
playing with his ball. He was so happy to have it back. One time when he
tossed it high into the air, Mussels was waiting for it. He grabbed it in
his mouth. "Got it," he shouted and ran away with the ball, heading toward
the hill again.
"Och, no; not again," Cockles sighed
and ran after Mussels. |
