Joey the Motor Home Mouse
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About this ebook
Do you speak mouse? Well, you may want to learn after reading this tale of narrow escapes, excitement, and discovery.
Joey is born an ordinary little mousethe eighth of nine ordinary little micein an old barn on a dark and stormy night. Lightning struck and thunder bellows as Joey came into the world. Only a few feet away were fi ve cats, and on the other side of the barn was a huge dog. Poor Joey was surrounded by terrors. Little did the frightened little mouse know as he huddled with his brothers and sisters for warmth that he was destined to become something more than ordinary; that he was going to become something great.
In a series of adventures and misadventures, Joey meets an interesting and unlikely cast of friends who help him on his journey to fame. Learn the true meaning of friendship as Joey uses love, courage, and common sense to win the respect of those around him, even in the face of unthinkable odds.
Jack E. Tetirick
Jack E. Tetirick graduated with honor from Harvard Medical School. He later trained in surgery at the Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts. He currently lives, works, and writes in rural Ohio.
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Joey the Motor Home Mouse - Jack E. Tetirick
Copyright © 2012 by Jack E. Tetirick
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the publisher except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.
This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, names, incidents, organizations, and dialogue in this novel are either the products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.
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Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.
Certain stock imagery © Thinkstock.
ISBN: 978-1-4759-3703-9 (sc)
ISBN: 978-1-4759-3702-2 (hc)
ISBN: 978-1-4759-3704-6 (e)
Library of Congress Control Number: 2012912195
iUniverse rev. date: 07/20/2012
Contents
Foreword: Instructions for the Use of This Book
Adventure Number 1: Joey Is Born
Adventure Number 2: Joey Meets (Some of) His Extended Family
Adventure Number 3: Joey Is Caught by Billie Joe
Adventure Number 4: Joey Goes to Disney World!
Adventure Number 5: Billie Joe’s Story
Adventure Number 6: Joey Goes for a Ride in a Police Cruiser
Adventure Number 7: Joey Visits a Prairie Dog Town
Adventure Number 8: Miss Sara Kirby’s Visit
Adventure Number 9: Joey Travels Deep into the Bob Marshall Wilderness
Adventure Number 10: Joey Makes Headlines in The San Francisco Examiner
Adventure Number 11: Joey Travels to the End of the Earth
Adventure Number 12: Joey Decides It is Time to Start a Family
This book is dedicated to Jesse. After all, it was his idea.
Image%20001.tifForeword:
Instructions for the Use of This Book
Young children are not permitted to read this book by themselves. There are too many big words and too many situations that will need to be explained.
This book is to be read by adults and teenagers to very smart younger children only. Every difficult word must be defined, and every situation must be explained to the satisfaction of the child.
The only exception to this rule is that a child may read this book aloud in a classroom setting, where other children may comment, ask about unfamiliar words, and explain situations. In these settings, the teacher shall remain silent unless a disagreement arises about the meaning of something, in which case the teacher shall act as the final authority.
Under no circumstances are adults or teenagers permitted to read this book to themselves. This is simply for their own benefit; if another person is watching an adult or teen read this book from a distance and the reader is giggling or moving his or her lips silently or attempting to speak mouse, then the observer will think the reader is quite dippy, if you know what I mean.
The Author
Image%20002.tifHey! Who are you?
How did you get in here?
What’s your name?
Do you speak mouse?
Image%20003.tifMeet a few of Joey’s special friends.
Adventure Number 1:
Joey Is Born
It was a dark and stormy night when Joey was born. Thunderclouds billowed in the blackness, and jagged streaks of lightning ignited; then the roar of thunder was heard, followed by silence—except for the swishing of windswept rain. Joey was the eighth little mouse out of a litter of nine, so you see, he very nearly missed being born at all—or at least not until the next time.
The thunder was so loud it could be heard inside the ball of paper and feathers that served as the mouse family’s nest. The ball lay deep underneath a pile of loose straw that had been left, forgotten, in the corner of the barn.
The thunder actually shook the little ball with every blast, but Joey’s mother only moved softly to make room for her newest baby. Little did she realize that this tiny little fellow was destined to be one of the greatest mice that ever lived: widely traveled, well educated, and as famous as any mouse could ever hope to be … but that is information for further on in the story. For right now, he was just a little mouse, hungry and frightened. He didn’t know it, but he was very happy that he didn’t have to be famous or brave yet; all he had to do was wriggle in among his brothers and sisters to keep warm and to get something to eat. Which he did.
The storm raged on; the huge bolts of lightning raced across the sky and were quickly swallowed by huge claps of thunder. The rain continued in wavering sheets, smashing against the aged wood of the old barn, spraying through tiny cracks and clattering against the rusty metal roof.
At the far end of the barn, old Buck, a huge golden retriever, stood up and shook himself thoroughly. All of the noise irritated him. It was tough to be on guard duty with all of that noise! Anything could be going on! He shook again briefly and lay back down, but he kept an eye open, watching the flashes of lightning through the cracks in the sagging doors.
In the manger to the side, a feed trough was filled with stale hay, ignored now that there were no horses. In it was a much larger nest, one that would have filled a market basket—and it was filled with cats! Even in the very dim light, there peered five pairs of softly glowing orange-yellow eyes.
L.tifBillie Joe
This was Billie Joe’s family: her daughter, Charlie, and her three grand-kittens, King, Fred, and Ruby.
Right now they weren’t thinking about their names at all. They had missed their supper up at the farmhouse because of the rainstorm. They had had a dousing before they could scramble back to the nest, and after they crawled in, the hay had become all damp and sticky. They were, to be blunt about it, beginning to get into a bad mood.
Fred, the middle cat in the litter of Charlie’s kittens, was the most adventurous. Even when he was in a bad mood, as he now was, he was very rarely mean about it; mostly he was just ornery, as he was about to be now.
Peering down through the dimness from the food trough, Fred could barely see Buck’s big tail lying on the barn floor. It was a huge tail, about the size of a baseball bat, except that it narrowed to a point at the end. Buck was very proud of his tail; he had seen it admired often and been told how beautiful it was. As a result, he waved it around a lot. Right now, though, the tail was lying quietly on the dusty floor and barely moving, except at the precious tip.
K.tifKing
All in all, this was just too much for Fred to resist. He eased over the rough wooden edge of the food trough and coiled into a crouch. Then, in a great arching leap, he stretched across the gloom, landing squarely on the tail, giving it a quick nip and two lightning-fast raps with the claws of his left paw (Fred is left-handed). He then darted off to the side.
"Arrough! went Buck, loud enough to shake the barn—if it had not already been shaking from the rainstorm. Buck leaped to his feet and spun around twice in a tight circle.
Rrough! he said again, but not quite as loud because he had just seen Fred crouched in the corner. Buck took a big breath, almost like a sigh.
Doggone it, Fred, I wish you wouldn’t jump on my tail like that, particularly when there is all of this noise outside, and I’m supposed to be guarding this barn!"
Buck
From what?
asked Fred. He was still in a bad mood.
Well,
replied Buck, slightly puzzled, from someone stealing something!