Gifts 2022

The Big Day | A Gift from Chapter XXI of Miss Missy’s School

AS SOON AS JOHN turned on the kitchen lights Bebe came bounding through the back door with Tommy at her heels.

“Merry Christmas! Merry Christmas! Merry Christmas!” shouted Bebe.

“Merry Christmas, Mr. John,” shouted Tommy.

“Merry Christmas to you, too!” John smiled and scratched them behind their ears.

“Did Santa come? Did I get a present? Did I? Did I?” Bebe was running around the kitchen table in circles and jumping up and down and chasing her tail and she slipped on the floor and fell right into the table leg!

“Owww,” she said rubbing her head.

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Gifts 2022

“It’s Parliamentary, Sir” | A Gift from Chapter XII of Miss Missy’s School

“WELL, WOULD YOU look at this! Hey John! Come and look at this!” Marica shouted as she opened the door to the shuttered back porch. “Look, John! It’s a meeting of the canine minds— the ca-minds!” she said pointing at the gathering of the Big Dogs— including Tiger the Cat— who were situated among piles of books and other reference materials.

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Gifts 2022

“Recess? Never Heard of It” | A Gift from Chapter XIII of Miss Missy’s School

AS YOU CAN IMAGINE, Bebe was none too keen on the idea of a school. “I don’t want to go to school,” she cried. “School’s no fun! School takes all the fun out of learning. I don’t want to go to school,” she stomped her paw. “Why do we have to have a school anyway? I can learn things on my own. I don’t need a dumb school to learn things. I can count, you know— zero-one-two. I don’t…”

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Kid Blog

Animal Stories

Now, as you know, most dogs don’t usually wear reading glasses and Homburg hats unless their people dress them up (as Beatrix Potter did her pets). Most animals don’t write in shorthand like Missy, or read British detective stories as Rocky likes to do. And most animals don’t talk in real life! To give human characteristics to nonhuman creatures and things is to anthropomorphize them.

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