Susie played most of the day and all at once a beautiful orange and black butterfly landed right on her finger. She was so amazed. Susie looked at the butterfly for the longest time and then it began to fly away. Susie could not let the butterfly get away so she followed the butterfly. She found that this butterfly was flying with hundreds of other butterflies just like the one that landed on her finger. They were flying together like that had a special place to go. She skipped along with them until she realized she did not know where she was and it was getting dark fast.

A little squirrel came along and asked if he could help Susie. He said, “you can come to my tree and spend the night with me”. Susie followed the little squirrel and whenever they arrived at his tree, Susie could not even put her foot in the door of the little squirrel’s house so they both knew that would not work. Susie said, “Little squirrel, what is your name”? Natty came along because he thought he might be some help to Susie.

Then Susie and Natty ran into her raccoon friend whose name was “Blackie” with the big black eyes and he said he would help her find her way because he had been to her house many times getting into the garbage can looking for scraps of food.

All at once Susie and her friend’s heard a long loud howl that sent shivers up Susie’s spine. “Natty”, the squirrel and “Blackie”, the raccoon came and got behind Susie. After all she was their combat leader. Susie told Natty and Blackie to not be afraid because that howl was from an old coyote that hangs out in these parts (Susie had heard her parents say that very thing). There were more howls like maybe there were more than one coyote. Susie told Natty and Blackie to go up the tree and be lookouts. Blackie peered through the darkness and could not see a critter in sight. Natty just hid his eyes so he was not much good at being a lookout.

Susie tried calling back to the coyote with all the gruffness she could muster with her little voice. Natty, Blackie and Susie all listened but never heard another howl. They all clapped with glee!

So now back to looking for home. The most amazing thing happened, there were fireflies everywhere and their light made everything like a fairly-land. They were so pretty flying here and there. Susie tried to catch a few but they were too fast. Blackie reminded Susie they needed to be on their way because he was getting hungry so off they went, the Natty the squirrel, Blackie the Raccoon, and Susie.

Blackie led the way since he said he knew how to get to Susie’s house. They were quite a troop, a squirrel, a raccoon, and a little girl. At least Susie was not alone now.

Blackie made them all stop and said, “Look, I see the lights of your home”. Sure enough, Blackie had brought Susie home safely. Susie’s mom had been looking everywhere for Susie and had called the neighbors to help. She was so happy to see her Susie. She hugged and hugged her. THEN, she gave Susie a LONG talk about doing what she was supposed to do and the dangers of leaving the yard. Susie told her mommy she was so sorry and told her all about the butterflies and how her animal friends helped her. Susie told her little animal friends goodnight because her mom said she had to get a bath right away because she looked liked she had been in a battle zone, whatever that means.

Janice's Story List and Biography

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