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Woody the Owl and Molly the Mole by Foutoux
All Rights Reserved Copyright 2013 |
Prince Volovski was fed up. His kuppies Portia and Penelope, the offspring of his Dalmation Lenin and Ming the Siamese cat, were causing havoc in his chateau. All his curtains were torn, and there were puddles all over the floor.
The Prince went outside to get a bit of peace and quiet in the still cold air. He sat down on a bench and noticed that the daffodils were in bud and that the willow tree's branches were no longer brown - but somewhere between brown and green. The ducks bobbed up and down on his lake and turning his eyes to admire his lawn he noticed with some horror that there were at least fifty molehills. He got up and trampled the earth back into the ground cursing under his breath. As if the Kuppies weren't enough to give him indigestion.
Suddenly the Prince had an idea - if moles weren't blind they would be able to see where they were going and not have to poke their noses into aristocratic lawns. And then he thought of owls who can see at night. He thought it would be a wonderful thing to cross a mole with an owl. So he got to work in his laboratory in the delapidated glasshouse in a corner of the Rose Garden.
The next Spring, sure enough, the Prince had his first Mowls - they still had the short front fllippers but instead of blind slitty eyes they had green eyes three times the usual size - just like their father Woody the Owl. They suckled the breast of their still blind mother Molly and when the first Spring day came the Prince put them on the lawn. It was then it became clear to him that there was a fly in the proverbial ointment. The Mowls with their large seeing eyes liked to look at the world so much that they no longer wanted to go underground. Rather they yearned to climb trees like their father. However, still having mole-like flippers they were marooned and wandered aimlessly around finding the base of trees and looking up at the branches and the birds with tears in their eyes.
The Prince was greatly discouraged by this second failure, although his two Kuppies found the Mowls very interesting and liked to sniff them and play with them. Nevertheless, the Prince found cosolation in philosophy and realised that there was a good reason by moles couldn't see.
FOUTOUX
FIRST ILLUSTRATIONS OF MOWLS NEXT WEEK.
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED COPYRIGHT L. IVISON 2013