The Meeting

          “Sumatra you dope,” she said jumping off the tree and disappearing before Tippy could meow anything indignant.

          Tippy’s eyes popped out of his head.  Well, not really, but you can picture what I’m talking about.  Sumatra???  He heard all about Sumatra from Fuzzy, who heard about it from Casey and Barney.  This was the place with all kinds of interesting animals.  The only thing Tippy could remember for sure was that there were tigers and elephants there.  Holy meows- he was in big trouble and he knew it.  What was he supposed to do?  The gang wouldn’t know how to find him would they?  He would’ve started to cry but that’s when he felt a huge burst of wind on his back!  It felt like he was being sucked by a vacuum cleaner.  The next thing you know he was on the ground, flat on his belly right in front of rhino!

          It wasn’t exactly a big rhino either.  He might’ve been about a year old.  Remember, in terms of cat years, Tippy was still a kid really.  A rhino was a rhino in his eyes but for you humans, you guessed it- it was a rare Sumatran Rhino who looked just as scared as Tippy.  As a matter of fact, both made crazy noises at each other and ran the opposite directions.  Finally, the rhino came out again and Tippy made his way back too.  Maybe this wasn’t as bad as he thought.

          “Who-who are you?”  the rhino asked.

          “Tippy,” he answered. “Who are you?”