Nativity Challenge

I can't believe it's nearly Christmas time again! Long-term Bobby fans may remember last year when the whole school dressed up and put on a Nativity Play. Well, we're doing the same this year. Everything was fine last time, except for a little trouble with some of the actors - the woolly sort! One of the sheep tried to eat the music off the piano, and, as I was the shepherd, I was not the most popular pup in town. So this year, I was absolutely determined there would be no repeat of the problem. I was so keen to prove myself, that when, Mrs Ewe asked for a volunteer to look after a new animal, I stuck my paw up straight away. She didn't say what sort of animal, but I assumed it might be some more sheep, or maybe a donkey. Either way, I have plenty of experience and there shouldn't be any surprises.

Oh how wrong I was! Imagine my surprise when Colin the Camel walked into the school hall! Not only is he just about the most exotic creature you can imagine, but he's also absolutely enormous! For a few moments, I couldn't think what to say - but fortunately Colin is a friendly camel and in no time at all we were getting on really well. The best news is, because I'm looking after Colin, I get to be one of the wise men in the play. I hope I get real gold to carry!

Rocketry is harder than I thought

Well I climbed to the top of the ladder, and then clambered into the cabin. I strapped myself into the special padded basket (it was my usual basket I use for naps, but I put an extra blanket in just in case of excessive G-Forces) and then I reached up to press the red button. I pressed it and then did a countdown..10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, 0....er -1?

Nothing! Not a sausage. I climbed back out of the capsule and down the ladder and went off to find someone to ask what had gone wrong. After a while I found Grandpa Rabbit. He came and looked at my rocket, and after a few moments, he started to chuckle.

"What's Up?", I asked.

"Well, young pup", he replied "it is normal for a space ship to include a rocket motor, or some sort of means of propulsion!". I looked at the bottom of the space ship, and it was true. There was a big gap where the smoke and flames normally come roaring out. "But it's made of cardboard", I explained "it would be dangerous to have a fire!". Grandpa just shook his head and smiled. "Perhaps you'd better wait until you're a bit bigger, and you can find a real space ship".

I suppose he's right. But, I ask you where on earth would I ever see a real space ship around here?

Up, up and away!

I'm on my way. I can't pretend that I wasn't a little bit nervous as I climbed up the ladder to the hatchway. After all, even the famous American astronauts didn't go into orbit in a space ship they'd built themselves! Never mind, I'm confident in the combination of Canadian know how and Sylvanian technology. I just hope I've packed enough treats for the trip - I wouldn't want to run out of dog biscuits before coming home!

I bet you're as excited as I am, but you'll just have to wait until next time to find out how I get on.

To boldly go where no dog has woofed before

Using that telescope has certainly inspired me! I have decided that viewing the stars from a distance is just not enough - I'm going to visit them in person! The first thing a pup needs when venturing outside the earth's atmosphere is a space suit, so I buckled down to the job, and I think you have to agree I've done a pretty good job. OK, it's not yet entirely airtight, and my tail still sticks out of the back, but these are surely minor details.

Next I've got to make myself a spaceship, but we've got the cardboard, we've got the sticky tape and we have the technology, so there's no stopping us now. After all, there was a dog in space long before a human made it!

The Sky at Night's the place for a Pup

Look what I found at the back of the attic! It's a beautiful old telescope. When I found it, I tried setting it up to look out of the little window at the back of the attic. When I looked through the telescope, I was amazed - everything I could see was upside down! I trotted downstairs to ask Grandpa Rabbit about it, and he explained that it is an astronomical telescope, and it's for looking at the stars. Apparently all astronomical telescopes work like that - don't ask me why. I tried hanging upside down to look through the eyepiece, but it was very tiring, and in the end, I decided a star probably looks the same both ways up anyway. I couldn't wait for it to go dark enough to go outside and try spotting some stars. Grandpa Rabbit found an old astronomy book I can borrow, and he helped me find some of important stars. Did you know the brightest star of all is in a part of the sky called "The Big Dog"? Not only that, but there's also a constellation called "Little Dog" and even one called Puppis! There's no doubt about it, this has been a giant leap for dogkind!

Never tell a grownup that you're bored!

Well I certainly learned a lesson today. Now we're moving from Autumn into Winter, the nights are getting dark very early - in fact by the time I've got home from school and had a glass of milk, it's already too dark to play outside. I thought it was very boring - and I made the mistake of saying so to Grandpa Rabbit. He chuckled in a rather worrying way, and said "I've got just the thing for you, my lad. (By the way, "My Lad" is never a good sign when a grownup says it to you - it's almost a bad as being called "Robert Labrador").

We went upstairs, and then upstairs again, until we reached the attic. It's a dusty dark room full of boxes and old junk. There isn't a normal ceiling, just the inside of the roof, so it's like being inside a sort of wooden tent.

"Right" said Grandpa Rabbit, "Here's a whole world of lost treasure for you to explore! If you tidy it up nicely, then you can have anything you find, that you fancy playing with". Grandpa Rabbit went back down the stairs, and I stared a the mountain of old junk. "Treasures indeed!" I thought, "I'll never find anything worth playing with in this lot". Well, I was wrong about that - and you'll see why next time!

Another Fine Mess

Well, things just went from bad to worse! As Little Tail tried to pull me in over the side of the boat, the whole thing started to tip over. I slipped out of his paws, and before we knew what was happening, I went back into the water one way, he went the other way, and the boat rolled right over. For a few moments we were both a bit scared, but then we realised that our paws had touched the bottom. Little Tail's daddy is very sensible, and he had only let us go out on a lake that is just a few paw's lengths deep.

We tipped all the water out of the boat (or as much as we could) and then pulled it to the side of the lake. Then we both trudged back to the village to own up to what had happened. Little Tail was rather worried that his father would be very cross - after all he is the Chief and they can be very fierce! But it was all right, and anyway Little Tail's mummy wouldn't let anyone be cross with us - she wrapped us both up in towels to make sure we got warm and dry as soon as possible, and gave us a nice mug of hot chocolate to drink. I was most worried about losing my lovely green wellies, but Little Tail's daddy said that we will most probably be find them in the dry season when the lake's level goes down. Even better - they said that I can borrow some moccasins to wear until then. What a great souvenir from my holiday in Labrador!