Another New Challenge

Bucky spent most of this morning pestering me to take him for a ride, so after lunch we set off with me pulling our go-kart along and him standing with a couple of stray chicks in the kart. I know I'm a dog from Canada, but it's a bit undignified to have two chicks and a beaver shouting "mush, mush" at you as you tow them along. Anyway after a few minutes we ended up in front of the Village Hall, and outside there was a very exciting sign. It said "Grand Talent Contest" and said that there are great prizes to be won. Well surely a pup as versatile and adaptable as me can turn his paw to something entertaining? I just need to decide what my act should be - maybe a song and dance, or some acrobatics? Hmm, I'll have to give this some thought.

Another Fine Mess

Sometimes I really don't know why bother trying to bring innovative and creative thinking to Sylvania! I spent hours fastening the chicks up to their harnesses and attempting to explain their role in our grand experiment. Then when it was time to go, they discovered the bag of seed that Bucky had used to lay the trail. The dozy beaver had left it in the back of the cart! So all that happened was that they climbed on board, ate their fill and sat down for a rest. Just when I thought things could get no worse, the little ones decided to have a game of tag. I don't know if I'll ever manage to get those reins untangled again.
If I wasn't such an indomitable pup, I would just give up. But that's not the Labrador way - I am just going to have to come up with a new idea!

Poultry Power

Well, we managed to find a solution to our lack of horsepower - chicken power! Bucky was not at all convinced with my idea of harnessing a large number of our feathered chums to the cart, but I was determined. My idea was that, if we laid a trail of seed leading all the way to top of the hill, the chickens would follow it. Their natural hunger and concentration on the task of pecking at the ground would soon take their mind off the fact that they were attached to a cart by reins. I won't pretend that it was an easy job attaching all the lines to the chicks, and there was a lot of argument amongst the bigger ones about who would be "Leader of the Pack". In the end, the only way to settle it was to attach all the big ones, including Kevin closest to the cart so that it the little ones who were actually leading the way. So with that settled, and all the team raring to go, we were ready for what would surely prove to be a huge success, and, indeed a turning point in the whole history of poultry power...

First test run

Bucky and I finished our car and then we took it for our first test run. I sat at the front so that I could take charge of the rope that controls the steering - it does that waggling the bit of wood that the front wheels are attached to. We went to the top of the hill in the meadows just outside the village and positioned it carefully at a point where there is a long slope ending in a flat area with no trees to hit. Bucky tucked in behind me and we pushed off for our first run. I don't think I've ever been so fast! The grass rushed past us and all we could do was wave to a startled bunny who popped his head out of his burrow just as we hurtled by. As the slope finished we started to slow down, but I'm not sure how far we would have got it was not for the fact that a front wheel lodged in a mole hill. Just as Bucky and I were congratulating each other on a successful test, out popped a highly disgruntled mole. "Bo Urr, it took oi hours to build that gurrt hill" he said " and youm 'ave bashed in down in no toime at all. Oi 'ope as ow you've got insurance", he said with a cash-related gleam in his eye. I think that he was just being an opportunist, as moles don't really live in their hills anyway - it's just soil out of their tunnels - but Bucky decided to placate him with a couple of worms he'd "found" in his pocket. I'd wandered what that little beaver had been up to while I was setting the cart up at the top of the hill! A word of advice - never put your hand in a beaver's pocket without first checking its contents!

After this we had a couple more test runs, but it was very hard work pulling the cart back up the hill. We decided that we needed some other form of propulsion - but where could we find a suitable source of power when we don't know anything about engines?

A car of my own

Well, it was no use asking Mr Bear to teach me to drive. He just insisted that I am too small and will be for a few years yet. I tried to persuade him that, if it is just a matter of height, or shortness of legs, then I could easily tie some blocks of wood to my footpaws. I'm sure I could reach the pedals if I did that. But it was all to no avail, and for a while I was quite downcast. But you know me, I'm not the sort of Pup to take no for an answer, and so I decided to build my own car that's just the right size for me.

Bucky helped by gnawing the wood to the right size, and I "borrowed" some old wheels from an old supermarket trolley that someone had left lying around. By the time we had put the finishing touches by fixing on the last wheel, I don't mind saying that it looked pretty impressive. Now we just have to find a suitable place for a test run. It is powered by gravity, so we will need to find a slope somewhere on the edge of the village, but making sure that it's really safe and there's nothing to bump into. Safety first - I don't want to lose my driving licence before I'm even old enough to have one!

Rescued by a Big Bear!

Just when I thought we we were going to be stranded for the whole night, along came our salvation in a large and very furry form. We were standing at the side of the road on a little patch of grass with the chicks doing what chicks do (scratching around looking for something, probably disgusting, to eat). I had my hands full keeping them from straying onto the road, and keeping Bucky from chewing at the telephone poles (that would have been a disaster!). So I didn't notice a cheery grey van coming along the road with Mr Bear at the wheel. He could obviously tell that I was in difficulties, because he pulled in at the side of the road, and asked if he could help. I explained the situation, and he smiled and said that he would give us all a ride home in his lovely van. We all piled in - chicks in the back and Bucky and I in the front with Mr Bear. I was a bit worried about cart, but Mr Bear said that it would be safe there until the morning, when we could come back with Mr Blackberry to fix it.

We set off back to the village, and it was the most exciting ride I've ever had! You might think this is funny, but I've never been in a car before. Back in Labrador we mostly used canoes to get about on the lakes, and here in Sylvania there isn't much call for cars. But I thought it was wonderful. Mr Bear said that his van isn't a very new one - he called it Austin, but I don't know if that's the make or his pet name for it. Anyway I think it's great and now I want drive one! Mr Bear said that I am too small, and it's true that my paws don't quite reach the pedals. But once we'd got the chicks back safe and sound in their hen house, I started trying to think about how I can learn to drive.