Once upon a time, a bunch of dogs with nothing better to do were
sitting around, boasting about their puppies. “My son is so
brave, he jumps through burning hoops every day!” claimed the poodle.
The German shepherd cut in with, “My puppies are so observant, they
both serve as the eyes and ears for needy humans.”
Fluffy Muffins, the mixed-breed, whose puppies had no special talent,
was feeling left out, and so she made something up. “My dogter is
so talented, she can spin straw into squeaky toys!”
“Oh, really!” said the king, who just happened to be chasing after a
chipmunk and had overheard her as he passed by. “That sounds like
an interesting talent your dogter has got. I would very much like
to have her over to my castle and see her in action. If she truly
can spin straw into squeaky toys, I will take her as my wife.”
“If not, you shall all suffer the consequences!,” he added as an
ominous afterthought.
Well, Fluffy Muffins certainly was in a quandary. Clearly her
dogter could not spin straw into gold; in fact, it was doubtful she
could spin anything into anything, considering she lacked opposable
thumbs. But then, disobeying the king was not something the
Fluffy Muffins was in the habit of doing, either. What choice did
she have but to agree? So her little daughter Fluffy Muffins the
Second had to leave her comfortable home and accompany the king to his
dark, unwelcoming castle in the dreary countryside. Turns out the
king’s castle was a dairy barn, and wherever there weren’t cows, there
were mounds and mounds of straw. “Spin this into squeaky toys by
tomorrow, or I will smack you with a rolled-up newspaper,” the king
threatened.
Poor Fluffy! She had never even seen a squeaky toy, let alone
made one from straw! She put her head in her paws and began to
whimper, and didn’t even notice the yellow kitten that fell through the
window and began rolling around on the floor. Finally the kitten
rolled right into Fluffy and they both came out of their stupor.
(Well, Fluffy did; the kitten was always in a stupor.)
“Snnt, snnt! Ffftt!” sneezed the kitten. “Blah!
I’m allergic to straw! I hope you don’t mind if I turn all your
straw into squeaky toys.” And so she did.
Fluffy sneezed. “I’m allergic to vinyl,” she complained, but it
was too late; the kitten had already rolled back out the window.
“Snnt! Snnntt!” Fluffy continued. Then she blew such a big
sneeze that she was propelled backward and out the hayloft door.
When the king came in that morning to see how Fluffy had done, he was
delighted to see mounds and mounds of squeaky toys everywhere.
Squeaky mice, squeaky Bugs Bunnies, squeaky bananas, squeaky sheep,
squeaky everything—Fluffy Muffins the Second really could spin straw
into squeaky toys! He would have to marry her posthaste!
But then he saw that there was no one in the room.
“Oh, blast,” he said. How could he marry Fluffy if she wasn’t
here? He got so flustered that he chased his tail around for a
while, and then he forgot about Fluffy Muffins the Second and played
with his squeaky toys happily ever after.
