Charlie’s Birthday Party

It was Charlie’s birthday today! He was four years old! Charlie’s Mummy, Mrs. Cat had decided to make a birthday party for Charlie. He was doing well at school, although he sometimes misbehaved, but if Charlie did not misbehave he wouldn't be a cute little pussycat! Anyway, Mrs. Cat thought that Charlie deserved a party for his birthday so she sent out invitations to all of Charlie’s school friends. She baked him a huge birthday cake in the shape of a butterfly. Charlie seemed to be very fond of butterflies! She decorated the butterfly cake with different coloured icing, pink, yellow and blue and placed four candles on the cake as well. Mrs. Cat also baked lots of good things for all the children to eat: cup-cakes topped with different coloured icing and hundreds and thousands and also cherries; and green jelly, red jelly and yellow jelly; gingerbread men and sandwiches, carrot sticks and toffee apples and nuts and berries so that each and every animal had a choice of their favourite food. She also made delicious chocolate ice cream which was Charlie’s favourite! 

Charlie was so excited! He could hardly wait for his friends to arrive at three o clock! “Be patient!” Exclaimed Charlie’s Mummy as she rushed around the kitchen trying to make ends meet, but Charlie kept on getting in her way.

“Why don’t you play with your ball outside, that way you will be able to see your friends coming down the path to your party!”

“That’s a good idea!” purred Charlie,

And off he went leaving his Mummy in peace and quiet to her blow up the balloons and put up the colourful streamers. 

Finally, it was three o’clock and the children started arriving; one by one or in twos and threes. Tickles his best friend arrived first with a ball as a present for Charlie, Sammy the squirrel came next with a blue ribbon to tie around Charlie’s neck, Lucy the duck and Gilly the gander came with a bag of feathers for his bed! Penny the mouse and her little brother came and brought Charlie some cheese, but Charlie said that they could eat it as he was not fond of cheese. Penny and her brother were delighted and ate the cheese up before they entered the house! Harry the hamster brought Charlie a lovely red and green kite. The kite had a very long tail at the end of it and the tail was full of brightly coloured bows. Charlie was delighted with the kite and all his other presents as well. 

Charlie’s Mummy invited them all inside for sandwiches and cakes and jellies. The animals were amazed at the lovely display of goodies on the table for them to eat. They gathered round the table and ate and ate till they were so full their little tummies nearly burst!

Charlie had three helpings of his favourite ice cream.  His Mummy said that he should have been born a pig and not a cat!  Everyone laughed! They were having so much fun! When the children had had enough to eat they played a game of pass the parcel, Penny the mouse won the present.  It was a lovely pink ribbon to tie around her tail.  Tickles said it was just as well that a girl won the present; he wasn’t very keen on pink ribbons!  They also played musical chairs and sang some songs together, and then Mrs. Cat suggested that they go outside and play in the sunshine.  So off they went outside in Charlie’s front garden.

Tickles, who was one of the eldest was asked to invent a game for them to play, he thought of “hide-and-seek” and everyone said that it was a smashing idea.  Tickles said “I will count to twenty, you all must go and hide, but hide outside and not inside the house!”  All the animals scampered off as quickly as they could to find a good  hiding place whilst Tickles counted to twenty.  Sammy squirrel climbed up a tree and hid behind the leafy branches.  Penny and her brother hid behind a flowerbed.  Lucy the duck waded in the pond and hid behind a lily pad and Gilly gander kept ducking his head under the water hoping that Tickles would not recognize the rest of his body! Silly Gilly!  The rest of the animals found suitable hiding places.

Now we all know what a sweet pussycat Charlie was, but we also know that he was a bit naughty as well, so what did charlie do? Instead of hiding in the garden like the rest of his friends, he decided to hide in the house.  “Tickles will never find me in here!” he said to himself as he hid in his mother’s kitchen cupboard full of pots and pans.

Meanwhile Tickles had stopped counting and went in search of all of the animals.  He found Sammy the squirrel in the tree, Lucy the duck behind the lily pads and of course Gilly the gander who still had his head under water!  He found the rest of the animals, except for Charlie the cat.  All the other animals helped Tickles to find Charlie.  They looked in the trees, behind the bushes and the flowerbeds; they looked under the front stairs and behind the shed and the gate and everywhere else!  Except in the pond, because Charlie hated water!

Whilst the animals were busy outside looking for Charlie. Charlie was in the cupboard hiding.  After ten minutes, Charlie started feeling sleepy and decided to have a quick nap! Finally, his friends gave up looking for the naughty cat and went inside to tell Charlie’s Mummy that her son was missing.  It never occurred to the animals that Charlie would be hiding inside the house! “I saw him pass through here but a while ago, maybe he has gone upstairs?” said Mrs. Cat. She started calling his name “Charlie! Charlie!! Where are you?”.  Soon all the animals started calling for the naughty pussycat!  “CHARLIE CHARLIE WHERE ARE YOU!!!”

Charlie suddenly woke up with a start, and he could not remember where he was.  It was quite dark in the cupboard and he could not see a thing He started to panic and move around and all the pots and pans started clanging and banging and falling over on top of Charlie! What a noise he was making inside the cupboard! He was making such a clatter that all the animals and Mrs. Cat stopped calling his name and listened to the banging and clanging.  “What’s that noise?” asked Penny the mouse, a little frightened.  “It’s coming from the kitchen! Let’s all go and have

a look!” said Tickles trying to be brave.  They all rushed into the kitchen to see what was causing the racket and as soon as they entered, the cupboard door flung open and out rushed charlie, pots and all! Charlie leaped onto the floor with a pot stuck on to his head and a milk jug stuck on his foot! Bang Bang!  He clattered and banged and jumped up and down and hit his head on the wall as he could not see where he was going!  All the children laughed and laughed! They thought he looked very silly indeed!  Mrs. Cat wasn't very amused though!

Mrs. Cat finally got hold of Charlie and rescued him from the pots and pans stuck on his body!  She then told him that he was a naughty pussycat and he must behave himself for the rest of the party.  Charlie was very sorry and hoped that his friends would still play with him, even though he had cheated at hide-and-seek.  The animals all forgave him; after all it was his birthday!

It was time to cut the birthday cake!  When the animals had settled down Mrs. Cat lit the four candles and they all sang ‘Happy Birthday to Charlie!”  Charlie made a wish and blew out the candles.  Mrs. Cat made a wish too: that her little Charlie would behave himself in the future.  We hope her wish comes true!

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CHARLIE GOES TO SCHOOL

Charlie was a fluffy, orange and brown, striped pussycat.  He was nearly three years old and his Mummy explained to him that he was to start school very soon.  Charlie had a very good friend who came to play with him nearly every day.  Charlie’s friend was a young tiger.  He was five years old and also went to school.  His name was Tickles, everyone called him tickles because he was so ticklish, and whenever someone touched him he would jump up and down crying and laughing, "Stop, Stop!  You're tickling me!"

Tickles came over to Charlie's place one bright day early in the morning to walk Charlie to school.  It was Charlie's first day at school!  Mummy had woken Charlie up very early that morning to prepare him for his big day.  Charlie wasn't too pleased about that!  He loved sleeping in!  Charlie's Mummy packed his lunch case full of good things to eat and when 

Tickles came round she gave Charlie a fond kiss and told him to behave at school.  Charlie did not like that either!  "Oh no Mum!  Do I have to behave at school as well!"  Charlie’s Mummy laughed as she ushered the two friends out of the house.

Off they went up a winding path that lead them towards the little school on the top of Granger Hill.  On their way to school they met more animals walking towards the school.  They met Sammy squirrel, "Hello", said Sammy as he hopped about from branch to branch through the trees that lined the path they were following.  "Hello Sammy", said Tickles "I'm taking Charlie to school today, it is his first day".  Charlie walked beside Tickles not saying anything.  He was thinking.  "I would like to know what school is like if I have to behave myself, it must be pretty boring, no at all exciting and fun."  Charlie was a very sweet-natured, cuddly pussycat but he was also a bit naughty and was always up to mischief!

“Come on! Charlie!” shouted Tickles, as they approached the school gates. “Hurry up or we'll be late!” Charlie had wandered off whilst Tickles and Sammy were discussing something rather important together, Charlie had been bored and spied a butterfly near some flowers, so he had gone off chasing it!

The classroom was full of little animals when Charlie and Tickles entered. There was Sammy the squirrel;  Betty and Bobby the twin bear cubs, Lucy the duck and Gilly the gander.  Penny the piglet and Dinky the dog, and a lot more!  Charlie had never seen so many children together at one time!

Miss Hazel the schoolteacher introduced Charlie to the rest of the children, "please say hello to our newcomer Charlie Cat and please make him feel welcome, you all know what the first day of school is like."  Everyone said a big hello to Charlie, which pleased him very much!  "Now Charlie please take a seat near the window, that's right, sit down now, and we will begin the first lesson for today” Miss Hazel got out her reading glasses and started reading from the book she had on the table beside her, the children were all seated quietly listening to her story.

At first Charlie listened to the story as well, but soon enough he got bored and his eyes were drawn to the open window right near him.  He could feel and see the lovely warm sun outside!  "If only I was out there instead of in here!"  He thought to himself.  He tried concentrating very hard to what Miss Hazel was reading but his whiskers kept on twitching and his ears kept on pricking to go out!  He couldn't stay in a second longer!  With one long look at Miss Hazel, who was engrossed in the book, he jumped up on the windowsill and in a flash he was outside!  All he could think of was the freedom he felt at being outside in the warm sunshine, bounding about from tree to bench to flower beds, he saw another butterfly and chased it with such enthusiasm that he nearly caught it!  "This is better than being indoors!"

Meanwhile, in the classroom, Miss Hazel was not aware that Charlie had escaped outside although most of the children had seen him jump out, but they knew better than to tell their teacher.  When Miss Hazel stopped reading she asked the children to draw a picture of whatever scene they had like best from the story she had read, then she noticed that Charlie was missing!  "Where is Charlie?"  She demanded.  All the children looked around the classroom for Charlie, even though they knew where he was! They looked under chairs and tables and behind cupboards and even behind Miss Hazel's desk.  Finally Miss Hazel caught sight of an orange stripped cat bounding in the air outside the window.  "Charlie!" shouted Miss Hazel looking out from the window "Charlie!  Please come inside this instant!"  Charlie stopped in this tracks and turned around, he saw all the animals including Tickles and Miss Hazel watching him from the classroom window.  "Oh Oh!" said Charlie "Looks like I've done it again!"

When Charlie was back inside the classroom, Miss Hazel told him to sit down and stay put for the rest of the day.  All the other children were allowed out to play in the garden during break time but Charlie had to stay in side!

On their way home Tickles told his best friend "Charlie, you must learn to behave yourself and stop being a naughty pussycat!  Especially when you are at school!"  Charlie promised that next time he would try harder not to be naughty.  But he didn't succeed!  Poor Charlie!