Salty and Squidgy Salty's Waggy Tales

Ah, hello there. I'm Old Jack and this is Salty.

Salty loves living here with me, and she often has adventures of her own.

So, are you sitting comfortably? Good.

Then I'll tell you one of Salty's waggy tales.

Once upon a twinkly time, Salty had a toy rabbit called Squidgy.

It was a very special rabbit.

She paraded it all over Staithes,

holding it proudly in her mouth, the way dogs do.

One particular Sunday, Salty suddenly thought,

"I haven't seen Squidgy for a while. I wonder where he is."

So, she decided to go and look for him.

Squidgy wasn't by the lobster pots.

Squidgy wasn't at the top of the big steps.

And Squidgy wasn't on her favourite old rug outside Shelly's cafe.

And then Salty remembered.

She'd left Squidgy in one of the fishing boats.

So, Salty dashed along the harbour side

and over to where the boats lie waiting for the tide to come in.

And sure enough, there was Squidgy.

She carefully picked him up and had a little think.

A boat wasn't a very safe place to keep her favourite toy rabbit.

A fisherman could come along at any moment

and take the boat far, far out to sea,

and her lovely, squidgy rabbit could be lost for ever.

There was no time to lose.

Salty needed to find a safe place to keep Squidgy.

Ha-ha, and she already had a very clever plan.

She trotted further onto the beach.

She sniffed around for a while until she found a good spot.

And then she started to dig.

She dug a hole large enough to put Squidgy in.

Then, she popped the rabbit neatly in the hole

and carefully pushed the sand back.

The ears stuck out a tiny bit so that she would be able to find it again.

It was perfect!

Salty then went to have a nap outside the Mermaid Cafe.

And when she woke up, she heard a familiar sound.

It was the sound of the sea whispering against the harbour wall,

swish, swash, swish.

She liked that sound.

It made her want to jump around and play.

And she wanted to play with Squidgy.

But then Salty went down to the beach and made an awful discovery.

There was no beach!

The tide had come in and the mighty sea

lay like a huge, green blanket over the harbour.

Salty's rabbit was underneath the water somewhere, in a sandy hole.

Ha-ha!

And what did Salty do?

Bing! She had one of her bright ideas.

She decided she needed to have a word with the sea.

Now, Salty knew that you must always treat the sea

with a lot of respect, because it can change its mood very quickly.

So, she woofed one of her politest woofs.

Luckily for Salty, the sea was feeling in a good mood today

and it heard the polite woof.

And with a huge, lazy roll it reached down, picked out Squidgy,

and flopped him on the little piece of sand by the harbour wall.

Ha! Salty was thrilled.

She barked a happy, woofy "thank you"

and raced down to the water's edge to pick up her Squidgy.

Then, holding on to it tight, she dashed back up the steps

and all the way back home to The Rainbow.

And when Squidgy was washed and dried,

Salty carefully put him in the safest place she knew.

Her own basket.

Ha-ha!

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