Sniffy’s Birthday Tail

 

Sniffy skipped a smooth stone across the stream. “One, two, three, four! Wow! That’s a record!” he congratulated himself.

All of a sudden he heard a loud rumble. He turned around and saw a large rock hurtling down the hill toward him. He tried to jump out of the way, but it was too late. It landed smack dab on his tail.

“Ow! My tail! My tail is stuck!” Sniffy yelled. He tugged and pulled to loosen it, but the more he pulled, the worse it hurt. Finally he gave up. “I hope someone comes to help me,” he whimpered.

In the meantime, his friends Nibbles and Twitch and the Cheeser family prepared a surprise birthday party for Sniffy. They didn’t know his tail was stuck under a rock.
Mr. Cheeser went to the Mouse-Mart to buy decorations, snacks, and gifts for Sniffy.

Mrs. Cheeser baked a cheesecake in her Cheesy-Bake oven. She slathered it with gooey blue icing. Squeaky Cheeser poked his paw into the cake and licked it off. “Hey, out of the cake, you little pipsqueak,” his mother said.

When Mr. Cheeser returned with the decorations, Squeaky blew up so many balloons his head felt dizzy. Mr. Cheeser put up the “Pin the Tail on the Cat” poster. Mama wrapped the gifts.

Soon Nibbles and Twitch knocked on Mr. and Mrs. Cheeser’s door. “Hurry, come in and hide,” they said.

“Did you find a way to get Sniffy to come without telling him about the party?” Mrs. Cheeser asked.

“Yes, I told him you had some leftover cheese curls,” Nibbles said.

“Great!” Mrs. Cheeser said. “Now go and hide.”

The mice scurried to their hiding places. They tried hard not to giggle or make any noise. They waited . . . waited . . . and waited.

“Where’s Sniffy?” Nibbles asked.

“I saw him playing down by the stream,” Twitch said.

“I’d better go look for him,” Mr. Cheeser said. He quickly left and searched all along the stream. “Sniffy, where are you?” he yelled. He started to head back to the house with a sad feeling in his heart when he heard someone crying.

Yes, it was Sniffy!

“What happened?” Mr. Cheeser asked.

“A big rock tumbled down the hill,” Sniffy said. “It landed on my tail. Oh, it hurts!”

Mr. Cheeser pushed on the rock as hard as he could until Sniffy pulled his tail free.

“That’s a nasty gash,” Mr. Cheeser said. “We’ll see if Mrs. Cheeser has a Band-Aid for it.”

When Mrs. Cheeser and the other mice heard Mr. Cheeser and Sniffy coming, they quickly hid. When the door opened, everyone jumped out and screamed, “Happy Birthday, Sniffy!”

“Wow, what a great surprise!” Sniffy said, “But take it easy on my tail. A big rock landed on it.”

“We’d better get that bandaged,” Mrs. Cheeser said.

When she had finished wrapping Sniffy’s tail with a Speedy Gonzalez Band-Aid, she asked, “Who wants to party?”

“We do! We do!” all the mice shouted.

“Let’s play ‘Pin the Tail on the Cat,’” Nibbles said.

“Me first!” Squeaky squeaked.

Mr. Cheeser gave him a black fuzzy cat tail, blindfolded him, and directed him toward the picture of the cat. Since he was so short, he pinned the tail on one of the cat’s paws. Twitch attached his to the cat’s body. Nibbles pinned hers almost on the cat’s nose. “You’ve got it on the wrong end of the cat!” Twitch giggled.

Sniffy pinned his on last. It dangled behind the cat, but not where a tail is usually connected. “Look at that!” Squeaky squealed. “A cat with four tails, and none of them are in the right spot!”

For the next game, Mr. Cheeser tied a balloon on each mouse’s tail. He told them to break each other’s balloons by stepping on them. Pop! Pop! Pop! But no one could smash Sniffy’s. All the mice chased him, jumping and stomping until someone accidentally crunched his tail while popping his balloon. “Ow! You stepped on my sore tail!” Sniffy howled.

“Sorry, Sniffy,” they all said, even though they didn’t know exactly who had done it.

Mrs. Cheeser found a Super Mouse Band-Aid and wound it around his bleeding tail.
“Please be more careful,” she said.

Mr. Cheeser lit all eight candles and set the cheesecake in front of Sniffy. They all sang, “Happy Birthday,” to him. Mrs. Cheeser cut huge pieces of cake for each of the mice. She added a dollop of whipped cream on top. They stuffed themselves until their tummies hurt.

“You can open your presents now,” Mrs. Cheeser said.

“Presents?” Sniffy asked. “Whoopee!” Sniffy started to rip off the paper.

“A package of Pokey Mouse cards! Thanks, Twitch,” Sniffy said.

Next, he opened a gift with a book. “Hey, ‘Diary of a Wimpy Mouse!’ Thanks, Nibbles. I love reading those stories.”

Squeaky gave Sniffy two chocolate bars –– one Kit-Kat and one Mouseketeers. “Thanks, Squeaky.”

Mrs. Cheeser made him a cape with a big “S” on it. “Hey, now I’m Super Sniffy! Thanks, Mrs. Cheeser. That is way too cool!” He wrapped it around his shoulders and whipped around the room a couple of times.

Finally, Mr. Cheeser brought in a huge box. “I wonder what’s in here,” Sniffy said, as he ripped off the paper. “A skate board! Wow! I’ve always wanted one of these.”

He set it down and scooted away. He hadn’t gone far when he accidentally ran over his tail. “Ow! My tail! My tail!” Sniffy cried.

Mrs. Cheeser found a Mickey Mouse Band-Aid and wrapped it around his tail. “I’m sorry you had so much trouble on your birthday, Sniffy.”

“It’s OK,” Sniffy said. “Other than the mishaps with my tail, this was an awesome birthday party! Thank you, everyone!”

Then he hopped on his new skateboard and headed home with his happy friends skipping along behind him. This time he grabbed his bandaged tail with his paw and held it up so he wouldn’t run over it again.