Salty and the Bouncy Ball Salty's Waggy Tales

Woof woof!

Woof woof!

Woof woof!

Woof woof!

Woof!

Hello, there. I'm old Jack and this is Salty.

Salty loves living here with me

and she often has adventures of her own.

Are you sitting comfortably? Good.

Then I'll tell you one of Salty's Waggy Tales.

Once upon a twinkly time, Salty found a ball.

It was hidden in a crumbly corner underneath some rocks.

The ball that Salty found was small, it was a little squishy,

and it was stuck.

She pushed it with her nose and she rolled it with her paw,

but she couldn't get it out.

So she woofed. And the ball popped out of the crumbly corner

and rolled off down the street.

Now, Salty likes to chase balls and she was pretty sure that this

ball wanted to play, so like a streak of lightning, she dashed after it.

The ball rolled off between the lobster pots and Salty chased it.

The ball rolled across the bridge and Salty chased it.

The ball rolled down some wobbly, cobbly old steps -

and there are a lot of steps in Staithes - and Salty chased it.

The ball carried on rolling over the big steps and onto the beach.

Salty came to a slithery stop

and peeked over the edge of the harbour wall.

And that's when she discovered something else about the ball.

It was very, very bouncy.

BOING!

The ball was bouncing around from rock to rock. It wouldn't sit still.

"Boing", it went. "Boing."

Now you may remember that Salty was almost a biscuit-catching

champion and she thought to herself,

"If I can catch a biscuit whizzing through the air

"I should be able to catch a silly old bouncy ball."

So she raced down the big steps and onto the beach

and there in the distance was the ball bouncing on the rocks and

boinging on the boulders.

Salty dashed over to catch the bouncy ball.

She tried and tried and tried and tried, but that cheeky ball, it kept

bouncing high in the air and whizzing past her nose.

Eventually with a mighty boing the ball bounced

so high in the air that Salty lost sight of it.

She heard a distant splash.

And then nothing.

The ball was gone.

Salty looked around but she couldn't see it anywhere.

It had disappeared into one of the many,

many rock pools that you can find on the beach in Staithes.

Now, rock pools are funny things.

Half the day they sit doing nothing

and half the day the sea comes in and completely covers them.

Salty realised that her bouncy ball

might soon be covered up by the mighty sea.

But if that happened, it would disappear for ever.

But which rock pool was the bouncy ball in?

There must be hundreds and hundreds of rock pools on the beach.

She'd never find it. And then Salty had one of her bright ideas.

She gave a quick "woof" just as she had done in the crumbly corner.

Ha-ha-ha!

What do you think happened?

Yes, there was a distant boing

and the ball popped up from behind a rock.

Salty's woof had given it back its bounce.

Salty skipped over the rocks and the barnacles

and rescued the little ball before it could disappear again.

And then she carried it proudly back across the beach

so that everyone could see how clever she had been.

She took the ball back to the crumbly corner where

she knew it would be safe.

And whenever they want to play together again

she knows exactly where to find it.

Clever Salty. She's the best dog in the world.