Climbing with Freddie: Picture Book Adventures

Freddie and Bennie take a stroll with a sniff here, there, and everywhere. Bennie stumbles on a new hole with the smell of a WHAT down there.

Bennie’s whirling paws are digging chasing the WHAT in the hole hiding below the flowers growing in the Neighbor Lady’s garden.

Garden flowers all fall over. Yellow and white petals land in the clover. Freddie whoofs, “Hey little Rover. Are you a Doodle bulldozer?”

Then a yell takes flight like a goose in fright from the Neighbor Lady, Miss Kitty Knight bellowing her alarm at the sight.

Freddie whoofs, “Ok little Rover your digging is over. Miss Kitty Knight is irate that her garden is in a sorry state.

“You silly little Doodle lout!” comes the loud tumbling shout from Kitty Knight’s mouth. “My garden is a mess! What is this about?”

Bennie bounds from the hole as the shout comes from Kitty Knight’s mouth. He starts to scoot and skedaddle about with Freddie to their next hideout.

Around the corner they trot fast. Realizing she stopped chasing them at last they stroll to their favorite perch where they can see anyone on the search.

Up on Brookview Rock the Doodles stop. The sun feels good after their run. They climb to the top and there they plop stretched out with eyes closed in the sun.

Freddie whoofs in a sleepy daze. “What was in the hole? Bennie my friend”. “A WHAT,” Benny barks in his sleepy haze. “I see,” Freddie pretends to comprehend.

“What is a WHAT?” Freddie whoofs. Bennie barks, “What you want to find, that hides and goes poof. What you don’t want to leave behind.”

“And What is a What that is found?” Freddie barks to his friend the hound.

Bennie whoofs, “Something full of fun galore.” A bone, a stone, anything to own for ever more.

“I see,” says Freddie up on Brookview Rock as he falls asleep in the sun.

Bennie wakes up after a doggy nap. Sounds of bird tweets in the air mingle with chirps as bird wings flap in the sun’s warm afternoon glare.

In the distance there are voices and sounds of cars from afar. The Doodles wake up to the noises ready to stroll to where the bones are.

Down from Brookview Rock they climb. Through the grass they prance sniffing as they pass the time wanting to find a bone by chance.

The Doodles know that finding a bone Is not a job for a lazy Doodle Noodleybob. To own the bone and take it home Is a Doodle’s full time job.

As they look about for the bones a rumble in the air gives them a scare. A motor growls with low groans and sounds that make them beware.

A white van is coming slow with two dog catchers in tow. An unfriendly looking fellow makes the Doodle’s fear grow.

The Doodles move through the grass where they crawl low on tip toe. They wait for the white van to pass and plan where to go.

The van stops short! Out jump men with a net! Up Brookview Rock they spurt, because Kitty Knight was upset.

But the Doodles had left Brookview Rock and are trotting to their next hideout. The Dog Catchers look like Grouchytocks pouting that the Doodles are not about.

Their favorite trees are around the bend as Freddie and Bennie come trotting along. They jump up to the branches and ascend with leaps that seem a wee bit wrong.

The dog catchers search like Grouchytocks. The Doodles hug the branches under the sun in the leafy treetops. Silver dog tags sparkle with flashes.

The sun’s flashes will betray the Doodles hiding in the leafy tree. They would not be on branches that sway if Bennie stayed out of Miss Kitty’s garden today.