|
Granny Ada looked out the back door window and to her surprise, saw dandelions had begun growing in her garden. Boo, the backyard bunny, always ate all of Granny Ada's dandelions, but the dandelions' yellow heads were showing and Boo was nowhere to be seen.
"Where's Boo?" asked Granny Ada.
All the cats in Cat Tails Cottage gathered at the kitchen window and switched their tails as they looked outside. Peepers, the little yellow bird who lives in Granny Ada's kitchen, peeked out of his cage. Sky, the medium-sized fuzzy dog, looked up at Granny Ada and wagged his tail.
"Something has happened to Boo," said Granny Ada. "I better go look for him."
Granny Ada took off her apron and hung it on the hook beside the door. She and Sky hurried into the backyard and looked in the bushes, under the porch, and behind the mulberry tree where Boo always liked to lie in the shade. But no Boo. No sign of him anywhere.
A curiously small squeaking sound came from somewhere over the back fence from the direction of Captain Horatio Flapjack's workshop. Captain Flapjack was an army captain who now lived in the house behind Granny Ada's cottage. He was no longer an army captain, but no one dared call Captain Flapjack anything but captain. He always wore combat boots and walked about with stiff knees. "An old war injury," he would say. All the children and pets in the neighborhood stayed away from Captain Flapjack's yard.
Granny Ada peered over the back fence and saw the captain oiling the hinges on the squeaky door of a metal trap. He looked up just in time to see Granny Ada's gray head looking his way.
"The critters are eating my garden," he grumbled loudly. "Look at my carrots. Just wait until I catch that bunny."
Granny Ada looked at Captain Flapjack's garden. The carrots were chewed, and she could see bunny tracks all around. She looked down at the fence near her feet and spied a hole just the size of a Boo bunny. Oh, no!, she thought. Then just beyond where Captain Flapjack worked on his trap, she could see a pair of little eyes peering out from under his workshop.
Boo!
Captain Flapjack was going to catch Boo!
"We have to rescue him, Sky," said Granny Ada. Sky had his nose stuck through the fence sniffing in Boo's direction. "I know. Aunt Poppy is a good bunny catcher. We'll call her to help."
That night, Aunt Poppy, Granny Ada, and Sky, the medium-sized fuzzy dog, stood at the back fence in the dark, thinking about how to rescue Boo.
"He's under the workshop, just over there," said Granny Ada, pointing to the small shed in Captain Flapjack's yard.
They could see a trap set up beside the workshop ready to catch Boo.
Aunt Poppy gathered her polka-dot dress around her and climbed over the fence first. Granny Ada lifted Sky over to Aunt Poppy, then she climbed over, taking care not to get tangled in the wire. Granny Ada carried a large bundle in the pocket of her apron.
"OK, Sky . . .search and rescue," whispered Aunt Poppy. She put Sky down, and he raced off into the dark toward the workshop, sniffing the ground. Granny Ada and Aunt Poppy followed him to one side where Sky had stuck his head under the edge of the workshop.
"He's under there," said Granny Ada.
Aunt Poppy took out a flashlight and found Boo standing in the corner blinking when the light shone on him. "I've got him," she whispered, and tucked Boo inside her sweater.
Granny Ada stopped at Captain Flapjack's garden, bent down and took out the bundle from her apron. She worked for a few minutes before joining Aunt Poppy, Boo, and Sky at the fence. Together, they all climbed back.
Aunt Poppy fastened a board over the hole in the fence, then put Boo behind the Mulberry tree.
"There are some places, Boo, that you cannot go," said Granny Ada. "You always have to stay where you belong and never take anything that doesn't belong to you."
Granny Ada smiled and scratched his ears. She was so happy Boo was safe, but wondered what Captain Flapjack would think when he saw all the carrots were back in his garden.
|