If at first you don't succeed...

....give up! Just look what happened when I tried to reverse the spell that changed the chicks to a different colour. Only another dinosaur! What am I supposed to do with this one? Actually he's quite a friendly little chap. He says his name is Mini Steg, which is quite an odd name. I wonder what the "mini" bit means?

I was so surprised that my magician's hat fell off. When I turned round to pick it up, Steg wandered off, saying something about finding some ferns to eat.

Oh well, I suppose it's all part of learning to be a great entertainer. I wonder if David Blaine ever has problems with extinct reptiles?

Happy Easter everybody!

Always read the small print!

I said that I would practice my magic tricks, and I am a pup who keeps his word. I asked two of the chicks to help me and went outside into the school playground. It was Saturday so there was nobody else around - I think peace and quiet is very important when one has to concentrate. Anyway, I intended to try out a trick from the book I'd got from the library. It was called "Every Boy's Bumper Book of Magic Tricks" and seemed to be very comprehensive - over 1000 tricks ranging from the very easy to sawing your teacher in half. I decided that I should probably start at the easier end of the range, and so I decided on trick No. 85 - Making a friend disappear. The explanation of how to do the trick was very long and boring, so I just skipped to the end bit, where it gave you the magic words to use. I read them out very carefully, there was a big "kerplunk" noise and a puff of smoke, and I looked down to see - not two missing chicks, but one pink chick and one blue one! It was only then that I decided to read the rest of the instructions.

"May lead to unpredictable results if used with non-mammal subjects out of doors" it said. Fine time to tell me that! Anyway, in the "What to do if things get out of hand section at the back of the book, it said "To reverse the effects of tricks just look in our companion volume "Tips and Tricks for Plucky Young Chaps in Trouble". The problem is, the library wasn't open again until Monday, so it was multi-coloured poultry for rest of the weekend!

And the winner is...

The excitement was intense as Policeman Badger stepped forward to announce the results. He started off by saying how excellent he thought all the entries were and how hard it had been for the judges to reach the decision. He then continued by talking about each of the entries in turn. This may have been a mistake, as the chicks started to get severely impatient and started to take matters into their own beaks. One of them was even on the table and approaching the cup, when PC Badger realised the situation and hurriedly got to the point. "And the Winner is the Amazing Bongo!". Everyone cheered, and even though I was a bit disappointed, I had to admit that the best animal had won. Anyway, any feelings of jealousy soon wore off as we had an amazing after-show party with cakes and jellies (bone flavour for me) and a lot of seed on the floor for you-know-who.

I'm going to go back to the drawing board and improve my act. I clearly need something even more spectacular. I wonder who will let me saw them in half?

A talented Monkey

The next competitor to reach the final of the Grand Talent Competition was "Bongo the Monkey and his Beautiful Assistant Amanda". Actually, Bongo's not his real name, but Amanda Lamb did look very nice in her new dress, and there's no denying that he's a very clever monkey indeed. He can do amazing balances and acrobatic moves and he was definitely the crowd's favourite, especially when he claimed that he could do magic tricks as well. I don't think that making bananas disappear by eating them is really magic, but the audience thought it was hysterical.

Of course, I know who won the Grand Prize, but you're just going to have to wait until Friday, because I've got too much homework to do!

Through to the final!

Well, all that practice paid off! After a slightly nervous start, when I dropped an entire pack of cards while trying to do a trick, everything went pretty well, and I made it through to the final three acts in the Grand Talent Competition.

Frankly, I can't believe one of the acts we're up against. It's (take a deep breath) Kevin the Chicken's All-Poultry Bell Ringing Troupe. Basically, it's Kevin and two of his mates with bells tied round their necks. They jump up and down to make a jingling noise while four of the smaller chicks cheep along to make what they allege is a musical sound. I'm not at all impressed - but the judges seem to think they're cute. I suppose with Easter getting close, fluffy chicks are fashionable. Maybe I should have tried harder to make an Easter Bunny fit in my hat after all.

The third act in the final is really good, though. I'll show you that one next time.

Practice makes Perfect...I hope!

In the end I had to run auditions to find the right animal to "appear" from my hat. To be honest it was a right performance!
Bunny - ears too long to fit in the hat
Otter - far too wriggly to stay hidden
Chicks - too noisy (and too many - they insist in going around in a big group)
Beaver - won't stop chewing the hat
Kitten - Kept scratching my paw when I tried to lift her out
Mouse - kept falling asleep and refusing to come out at all

In the end the only creature who fitted, behaved himself and kept quiet enough was the little baby guinea pig. So we've practiced and practiced together and I hope it'll be alright on the night. I just hope the competition isn't too fierce!

It's time for magic!

I've decided what my act will be for the Grand Talent Show. I'm going to be a magician! Having made up my mind, my next task was to work on a special trick to be the climax of the show. I managed to borrow a top hat as part of my outfit, so the obvious thing was to pull a rabbit out of it. That's when my problems began - a hat that's the right size for a puppy's head is a bit small for most creatures to hide in. First I tried one of the baby bunnies, but he couldn't fit in - or when he did his ears just showed over the top of the hat. Then Bucky had a go - but I'm going to have a look at his diet as he was a very tight fit indeed - and anyway I strongly suspect he would chew his way out of it in no time. The strangest thing was that one of the chicks did appear to fit - but I didn't even put him in there! So my hunt goes on - which animal is going to have the winning combination of cuteness and compact proportions?