That’s What Friends Are For

It was nearly dinner time in the Leopard’s lair, and her cubs were getting hungry.

Mummy Leopard went to the cupboard for her cooking pots. To her surprise, the pots were not there. She looked everywhere, but the pots had gone.

“But Mummy,” said one of the cubs. “A leopard never loses its pots!”

“It gets worse,” said Mummy Leopard. “There’s no food to eat either.”

Knowing that a hungry cub is not a happy cub, Mummy Leopard had to act fast.

She leapt from the lair to see if her friends could help.

“Don’t worry?” said HippoPOTamus. “I’ve got a POT you can have.” And it was pretty big.

“We can each give you a PAN,” said PANda and ChimPANzee.

“That’s great,” said Mummy Leopard. But what can we eat?”

“I have HAM,” squeaked HAMster.

“We can offer OATS,” whispered the little stOATS.

“I will send over my CHICK to bring you some eggs,” crowed the CHICKen.

“And I’ve heard you can get CORN from the UniCORN.” Not that anybody had seen the Unicorn for a long time.

“You’ll need something to cook with. You can use my BUTTER,” said a BUTTERfly as it fluttered by.

Very soon, they also got LARD from a passing MalLARD and WOOD from the WOODpecker for a cooking fire.

“I wish I could give you something,” said the sad giraffe. “But all I have is GIR or AFFE. I don’t suppose that’s what you need.”

“What we do need is a to get all this food and pots and pans back to my lair,” said Mummy Leopard.

“Aha! How about using my CAR?” said the CARibou.

So they carried everything to the car using the BRAS of the ZeBRAS.

Then all of a sudden, BANG! They got a puncture, and they were stuck.

“We need to get this old tyre off and get a new one on,” said Caribou.

“That’s ok, matey. I have a JACK you can use,” said the JACKal. “It will be fun being called Al for a while!”

“Mmm, we are not too safe here. I will keep my EAR our for dangers!” said the EARwig.

So the tyre was quickly changed, and on they went. When they all arrived at Mummy Leopard’s lair, there was another problem.

“Oh no! I left in such a hurry; I locked myself out,” she roared.

“That’s ok, we’ve each got a KEY,” said DonKEY and MonKEY. Luckily, one of the keys fitted, and all the food and pots and pans were taken inside.

“You’ve all been so kind,” said Mummy Leopard. “I’d like to cook you all some dinner too. Who can help me?”

In no time at all, the LlaMA offered his MA, and the BiSON offered her SON to come and help.

“I’ll do my BIT as well,” said the rabBIT.

‘Perhaps my ANTE could help too,” said the ANTElope. Being bad at spelling, he didn’t realise that he didn’t actually have an Auntie after all. So he sent his Uncle instead.

“I’ll use my PUFF to get the fire going,” said the PUFFin. “And we’ll provide the CANS to serve the food in,” said PeliCAN and TouCAN.

“Anything I can do?” said the sad giraffe, but nobody could name a thing.

So they all sat in Mummy Leopard’s lair and had the best meal ever.

“I think we should give you something for the lovely meal,” they all said, their tummies tight with food.

“I know! I’ll provide a BILL,” said Duck BILLed Platypus. “And we’ll use my PEN to write it out!” squawked the PENguin.

“I’ll put in a QUID,” said the sQUID. “I’ll give you a GUINEA,” said the GUINEA pig.

“And we have some GOLD here,” said the GOLDfinches.

So by coming altogether and each giving a little bit of themselves, all the animals had saved the day. Which is why they say a Leopard never loses its pots. Because its friends wouldn’t ever let that happen.

And just to cheer up the sad GIRAFfe – they all lived happily ever GIRAFFter.