Minnie Moo's story: It's never ok bully

Previously Minnie Moo was left frozen with fear anytime anyone mentioned the H word. Hawk's turned him into wobbly jelly. In these stories Minnie Moo, Mr T and loads of other little anipals cross pathways with the big meanie Mr Hawk. In his quest to overcome his fear, Minnie Moo finds inner strength within himself and from his new found friends to stand up to Mr Hawk and his bullying ways. This is about friendship, strength, facing fear and it's never ok to bully.

Chapter 1: Adventures with Mr T

Chapter 2: Meeting with the Mayor of Little Village
Chapter 3: The Little Anipals from Little Village
Chapter 4: Brave Cat Brave Heart
Chapter 5: Fearless Leader of the Anipals
Chapter 6: Oh No! Minnie Moo tastes delicious!
Chapter 7: Mr Hawk pecks Minnie Moo
Chapter 8: Minnie Moo Our Hero!
Chapter 9: Hawk's and Anipals Unite
And finally.....

The sun was shining and the air filled with the excited chat of lots of little anipals helping the pawty planning committee set up for the afternoon festivities. Happy and red faced many soon ran out of puff from trying to blow up balloons and talk at the same time! Everyone was having fun and soon all the balloons were tied to the back of the little chairs and together they floated up, higher and higher like huge bright spring flowers just like the big yellow sunflowers printed on all the table coverings.

There were boxes and boxes of playful coloured fairy lights to be strung between the trees creating a dazzling happy glow around our little pawty spot. Looking over my shoulder, I could see progress was very slow as all the kittens thought it was great fun to play hide and seek while getting all tangled in the miles and miles of lights.

Just behind the tables and chairs was a little white pavilion surrounded by a cute white picket fence. Inside it was a big white kitchen with a little white and ginger cat wearing a big white Chef’s hat and keeping calm while cooking up a storm of friskie and birdseed delights along with dishes of Pet Milk surprise and Rabbit Food Burgers. Expertly whisking up a bowl of cream, Chef meeoow'd orders for the helpers to follow, all that could be heard was a steady stream of “Yes Chef, I’m on to it Chef, It’s done Chef, Ok Chef and oddly, you want me to do what Chef?”

I couldn’t wait to bite into a friskie delight.

Over yonder and a few giant steps from the outdoor furniture an orchestra of do-it-yourself tones floated along the early afternoon breeze. Hammers and nails, saws and paint slosh sounded as the working crew all raced against the pavilion clock to have the stage painted and set up complete with the two murals hanging proudly across the back wall. 

Curious as to what was written on the murals I was a little surprised to read on one “Peach and Hare-money” and on the other “Little Village well comes the Hawk is”

Apparently I wasn’t the only one checking the progress of the signs as a flustered Bunny Rabbit crossed my path calling out crossly to the paw-writers, "No, no you’ve got it all wrong! You’ll have to start again, please read your briefing sheets! It's Peace and Harmony and Little Village welcomes The Hawk's. Come on, we don’t have much time but I have faith in you all! Just concentrate and try not to get too distracted by the yummy smells wafting over from the kitchen."

Heads down and tails up with a paintbrush in paw they painted over the mistakes to start again. 

Time tick-tocked and before long with the little hand on 3 and the big hand on 12, Mayor Thumper tested the sounded system “testing, testing, 1-2-3, can you hear me?” A chorus of YES LOUD AND CLEAR rang out. “Ok little anipals we’ve only got one hour to go until pawty time. Let the countdown begin.”

Those who had finished their jobs hurried home to change into their fancy pawty dress with some even managing a quick trip to the local hair salon. The others stayed behind working right up until the last call….”only 15 minutes to go, it’s time to finish your jobs, tidy up and for the band to come to the stage for a quick sound check.”

The big band was made up of 18 little anipals; 5 cats on the saxophone and clarinet, 4 bunny rabbits blowing trumpets, 4 hares on the trombones and the rhythm section; a beagle played piano, one chipmunk on bass and the other on guitar, a proud yet slightly mad rooster on vocals and finally a Chihuahua on drums. And, like a bag of liquorice allsorts the combination worked really well together.

As the clock chimed, it’s 4 o’clock! A flock of seagulls, oops sorry I mean Hawk’s flapped their way across the sky before swooping down to land softly on the Village Green cricket pitch temporarily re-named Big Bird Airport. Trying to do a Hawk-head-count I lost count at 50, trying again I got to 87, so I guess it was safe say at least a hundred birds flew in for the occasion.

Not being shy Mr Hawk led his family, extended family, friends and friends of friends to the front of the stage where the welcoming group made up of me, Mr T and Mayor Thumper were already behind the microphone. All our serious talking had been done and without wasting any time we beamed our mega-watt smiles before screaming out an enthusiastic “Welcome to Little Village, let the pawty begin!” and the big band struck up the first chords to what would become our signature Little Village song (thanks to Mr L Ritchie)…….

Da, Da oh oh oh oh

Well my friends the time has come

To raise the roof and have some fun

Throw away the work to be done

Let the music play on, play on, play,

Everybody sing, everybody dance......

We're going to party, karamoo, fiesta, forever

Come on and sing along! 

And finally we all screeched, squawked, chirped, meeoowed, howled, hooted and hollered in harmony….

All night long, all night, all night, all night long

With non-stop hit and after hits of music playing well into the night, yummy food and drinks and new friends to make it was a perfect pawty celebrated by all in the spirit of peace and harmony.

As daylight hours dimmed the night sky twinkled brightly with millions of magical stars and even the tired old man in the moon rose to join in the fun. Saying our goodbyes to Mr and Mrs Hawk and Mayor Thumper, we felt a little sad to be leaving our Little Village friends but trying to leave on a happy note we shared "it's not goodbye it's until we meet again." 

Leaving the pawty Mr T and I walked along in perfect step by step harmony with the starry sky lighting our pathway. Soon Little Village faded in the distance as we continued up and over hills while cat-chatting about the time we all had together. It was then I shared with Mr T, “you know what I’ve learnt from Mr Hawk and his old bully ways? Despite our differences we're all unique, special and deserving of bucket loads of love. And, at the end of the day it doesn't matter what we look like from the outside we’re just about all the same on the inside!

Yours in friskies chock-a-block with love, Minnie Moo
To read the complete story of Minnie Moo and the Hawk click here

Minnie Moo Hawk's Unite

To catch up on the fun but brave story of Minnie Moo and Mr Hawk click here

     

Waking up refreshed and invigorated, I did a little cat stretch to make sure everything was still in its proper place before heading out to join Mayor Thumper and Mr T for a spot of breakfast.  I felt terrific! A brand new day had dawned and it was now time for all of us to turn over a new leaf and welcome the Hawk's and their extended family into our Little Village community.

Over a yummy, healthy breakfast of a ‘little bit of this and a bit of that’, we cat-chatted about how excited we were to finally meet Mr Hawk here, in our own backyard. I think Mayor Thumper had a few last minute jitters thinking that Mr Hawk would change his mind and put his old bully suit back on. Like quicksand those thoughts were quickly sunk, after-all we reminded Mayor Thumper of our secret weapon, Mrs Hawk and her mission to encourage Mr Hawk to become a better bird for his own sake and for his family too.

As we were tidying up our breakfast dishes, a shadow passed overhead and a chilling breeze cut through the warm early morning air. Looking up we saw Mr Hawk and his posse of 3 birds begin making their descent down to join us at our makeshift table.

Anticipating a lot of whipped up landing dust we all covered our eyes with our paws but we didn't need to do this as surprisingly they glided in peace and harmony before making a complete stop at the head of the table. We took this as a good omen for our scheduled meeting. 

‘Good Morning Mayor Thumper, Mr T and my old sparring partner, Minnie Moo, how are you all this fine morning?’

In harmony we chorused, ‘We're just terrific Mr Hawk, after the excitement of yesterday we all slept the sleep of tiny little anipals!’

‘I’d like introduce you all to some of my family, this is my Aunty and Uncle Hawk and also my first cousin Hawk.’

After an exchange of 'hi ya', 'how you doing?' Mr Hawk continued, ‘as I promised our meeting was held last night and I'm really pleased to say every single one of the Hawk’s attended. I have to admit I thought it would be really difficult to convince them of our desire to live in peace and harmony, but they just cheered loudly. Hooray! Little did I know they were all stressed out from always having to be the big bad birds.’

‘But they do have one concern. You see our Hawk family is happy to change but their question is; what about the other Hawk’s in the world? What if they come to visit, see one of the little anipals and not aware we live in peace and harmony swoop on down for a mid-afternoon snack?' 

Mrs Hawk and I answered as honestly as we could, ‘well we're going to send out a message via the bird telegraph that we've changed and how we'd like all visitors to respect our choice. We'll all try our hardest but, at the end of the day we can only truly be responsible for our own behaviour. We'll see and hear things we don't like or agree with and, if that's the case, it's ok to simply say, hey I'm not ok with that.'

Speaking for the first time in quite a long time, Mr T wisely said ‘no matter where we live or what we do danger will always be close by. But, if we use a little common sense and talk together we’ll all be as safe as we can be.’

Hoarse from all of my recent yelling and screeching I croaked, ‘yes that's right and I whole-heartedly agree. Besides let me say this, Mr Hawk if you can change your behaviour, I’m ever-so-sure other’s can too. No offence, but you’re one tough old bird!’

Laughter rang out and spread its way around Little Village waking all the anipals from their sleepy beds. Soon and with some still in their PJ's, they all gathered to join in the fun and meet their new feathered beaky neighbours.

As the clock struck just before morning tea time the birds flew off back to their 3^rd tree on the left, the rest of us formed another happy congo line and followed the pawty planning committee to help them set up our first ever Little Village fête to be held later that afternoon in the centre of the Village green.

I made a mental note to ask the caterer to make sure there was plenty of birdseed on the menu.

Yours in Friskies Minnie Moo

Missed the Hawk Story. Catch up here