Tricksie and Snuffy

‘Snuf!’

No answer.

‘Snuf, Snuf, Snuuuuuuuuuuuffy!’

No answer.

Annoyed by the rudeness of the dog, Triksie climbs down from the kitchen table and starts looking around for Snuffy. She goes to the dog’s basket only to find no trace of the beast. She runs further to the saloon and she trips on a peeping hedgehog and ends up widened on the tile floor.

‘Comme on, Snuf, this is not fair!’ she cries as loud as she can hoping that the dog would finally respond. In vain, Snuffy, the white- woolen-ball-on-legs-with-sharp-ears-and-invisible=eyes, would not answer.

‘You know what, have it your way! Triksie purses her lips unhappy while standing up. ‘I am hungry and I’ll make myself pancakes but you’re not getting any! I’ll make real ones, you know, she continued on a soft voice, with lots of butter and brown sugar. No’, she suddenly changes her mind, ‘chocolate and cream and strawberry syrup. Or even better’… Triksie takes her time to find another irresistible recipe that would make Snuffy come out of her hiding place. But there’s no sign from Snuffy to be seen.

‘You’re hiding in the saloon, under the sofa, I bet my button collection that you’re there’, she shouts instantly revived. She jumps on her feet and starts walking rapidly to the living room. ‘Gotcha!’, Triksie lifts the red covers adorning the armchair and takes a look into the dark spot underneath it.

Snuffy yawns and hides her nose between her paws. She curls up tighter and ignores Triksie.

‘Leave me alone, I want to sleep. It’s cold and I am tired.’ Triksie crawls towards Snuffy. She stands firmly in front of the dog, she grabs her whiskers with full fists and pulls them firmly.

‘You, lazy dog! I don’t want you to sleep! I am hungry! I want pancakes, fat, juicy and totally healthy pancakes! I want Bio pancakes!’ and with a large gesture she releases the dog’s feelers. She bends, puts one hand on her waist, tilts her head slightly sideways and on a secret-like questioning voice she exclaims:

‘Pancakes with cheese and raisins! Are you coming? She gives a twitch to the dog’s nose with one hand and forces its eye open with the other one. ‘Hello, anybody in there?’ She takes a deep look into the dog’s eye.

By now Snuffy has lost her mood for sleeping and starts to become hungry herself. She already knows that the pancakes story will end wild, just like any other adventure Triksie comes up with when they are left alone at home. Riding on the back of Snuffy and holding tight to the collar, the little girl cheers and encourages her friend to move to the kitchen.

‘There, thank you for the ride’, Triksie makes a generous bow from her impressive height of 5 cm and rushes to her special steps, which the kids made for her, so that she can sit decently at the table when the whole family has breakfast and dinner together.

‘It is very important to eat at the table’, the children taught her, ‘and to eat healthy! You need to eat vegetables and fibers!’ – Triksie makes funny faces while imitating the kids and their mom.

‘Well Snuffy, let’s eat healthy! and Bio!’ The dog barks with approval, half convinced that cooking pancakes is a good idea.

‘Who will clean afterwards? mutters the dog to herself. She watches the tiny creature spring, hop, bounce, open cupboards, searching inside, coming out with flour all over her face, then going back inside.

‘Shush!’ Triksie hurts her head as she carries 2 eggs in her hands down of a shelf. ‘Here dog, catch!’ The egg splashes on the ground almost hitting Snuffy. ‘Sorry, girl, next time better’, launches Triksie and the second egg flies over the table and menaces to become an omlette on the floor. Snuffy is a hunt dog, she raises her ears, she sees where the egg would land, she takes a huge leap and catches the egg gently between her teeth.

‘Good girl! Triksie cheers and dances the winners’ dance on the kitchen counter. Snuffy rolls the egg on the table and the stops it at the other end feeling proud of herself.

“Yeah, I’m quite good. I almost forgot that I have it in my ancestors’, she brushes her fur on her forepaws.

‘You have it from your ancestors, or in your genes, simply decide which is it?”

‘Whatever’, snarls Snuffy. Why do we need the eggs for?

‘We’ll make the filling for the pancakes. I’ll show you, but I need your help. You have to open the fridge for me, and fetch me the cheese box, the white one on the second shelf. Here’, she pushes her ladder towards the fridge, ‘this will make it easier for you. Then’, she continues with the voice of an expert, hardly ever looking at Snuffy, ‘you also take the pancakes pack  from the third shelf’, she points to the already open fridge.

‘There, no, a bit to the left. No! Use your nose! You’re a hunt dog, remember? It should smell like plastic wrapping with pancake flavor.’

Snuffy finds the longed for treasure and puts it on the table.

‘Now’, Triksie continues her research fervently, ‘here are the raisins: Bio raisins, certified, Belgian quality! Hopefully delicious. Sugar, lemon juice’ – she reads on the label of the bottle – ‘pure juice with fruit’ – this will make our pancakes really healthy!’ She expertly unwraps the golden discs of dough, places them on a plate, swings them all towards the microwave. Then she seizes a bowl, empties the cheese inside, adds the raisins, a tea spoon of lemon juice, sugar by the eye , the eggs and then jumps inside it all and starts to run and run and run.

‘Messy!’ she cries out joyfully.

‘Can you stop, please? You make me dizzy, barks Snuffy.

‘I’m done, look! Isn’t it beautiful?’ Triksie is smiling satisfied with the result of her race. She is covered in cheese.

‘Hey, stop it! Stop, stop, stoooooop! But Snuffy finds that Triksie tastes deliciously so she continues licking the pancake filling of her face until she looses balance and almost falls back into the bowl.

‘Warm or cold?’ inquires Triksie. Snuffy is confused. She had never had pancakes before. She finds the filling sweet enough for her taste, but how generally people or little girls, very little girls, eat pancakes is a mystery for  her.

‘Ok, warm it is’, announces Triksie pushing the on button of the microwave. ‘Count to ten in your head and then we pull them out from the oven. Ready? 3, 2, 1 Pull!’

‘Snuffy, there are 9 pancakes in total, how many can we have?’ Snuffy thinks deeply, counts on her nails and then decides:

‘One for you, one for me, one for dad, one for mom, one for J, one for S and one for B! We have enough, right?’

‘I’d say 2 for each and 1 for the rest. We have worked hard to make them’.

Triksie spreads the filling on the pancakes and rolls them carefully. She serves Snuffy one piece and leaves the rest aside for the family. They both climb in Snuffy’s basket and rejoice at the taste of their adventure: they ate a well deserved healthy lunch with fibers and Bio fruit.

Triksie takes a nap on Snuffy’s neck. Snuffy sighs happy that she has a friend.

Moral:

Where’s a will, there’s always a way. Small or big, master or disaster, all you need to succeed lies deep inside you. You sometimes need to be reminded how great you are. And sometimes you need to help others in order to realize how blessed you are to be able to be a friend to someone.