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Herba Hoota Hound Dog Bird
By Mike Tate, Jacquie Tate, Stephen Adams AuthorHouse
Copyright © 2014 Mike and Jacquie Tate
All rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-4918-9974-8
CHAPTER 1
Sitting on the banks of the Pamlico River was a cute, little red cottage. Behind the cottage was a doghouse with a hound dog, named Herba, lying at the entrance. Herba had a happy face, black nose, and large, floppy ears. He liked to lie in his doghouse and dream of playing with his friends at the local trash dump, where there were so many fun things to explore. When Herba woke up, he stood, stretched, and looked around the yard and the river to see if any humans were swimming or sailing their boats. He also looked to see if any of his animal friends, the butterflies or squirrels, were out playing.
Herba loved to run and play along the riverbank. Sometimes he ran out to the end of the family's pier and jumped into the river. He ran as fast as he could to see how far off the end of the pier he could jump, before he belly flopped into the water. After he landed in the water, Herba would start paddling with his front paws and swim back to the shore. When he got out of the water, Herba would shake his body from the tip of his nose to the end of his tail. He would run and jump off the end of the pier many times during the day. It was great fun to play in the river!
Living in one of the trees along the Pamlico River was an eagle named Hoota. He was a large bird, with very sharp claws and a hooked, yellow beak. Hoota would often sit on one of the tree branches and watch the people walking around, the boats sailing along the river, and the animals running here and there.
Hoota also loved to fly along the shore and watch the children playing and the animals chasing one another. Sometimes when Hoota was flying along the river, the children on the ground stopped playing and pointed or waved to him. He would glide around in a circle and tilt his large wings to say hi to the children.
One morning, Hoota looked down from his tree branch and saw Herba running around and jumping off the pier. He chuckled to himself. "You know what I could do? I could swoop down and tag that hound dog. Boy, would that surprise him!"
Hoota waited until Herba stopped to smell some flowers, and he flew down to the ground as fast as he could. All of a sudden—whoosh!—Hoota hit Herba with his wing and knocked Herba into the honeysuckle bush. Hoota yelled, "Tag, you're it," and flapped his large wings to get enough speed to fly back up into the sky. Once in the sky, he laughed, opened his wings, glided around in a circle, and got ready to fly down and tag Herba again.
Herba was so upset about being knocked over, when Hoota flew down again, the hound dog jumped in the air and tried to bite Hoota and hit him with his paw. Hoota avoided Herba's attack and flew back up to his tree branch. Herba yelled up to Hoota, "What's wrong with you? Why don't you stay up in the sky where you belong?"
Hoota laughed loudly and yelled back, "It's more fun to fly down to the ground and tag you." Herba was so upset that he flopped down to the ground with his paws out in front of him and his head on the ground between them. He had a very sad face.
Hoota looked down from above and saw how Herba was acting. He slowly flew back down to the ground and landed beside Herba. "Sorry, I didn't mean to hurt your feelings. I was just playing a game," he said.
Herba replied, "Oh, it's okay. You just surprised me and made me mad." He stood up and said, "Let's try the game again. This time, watch out, buddy. I'll be ready for you."
Over time, Hoota flying down to tag Herba became a fun game, and they became great friends. Now when they played the game, Herba hid behind a tree and dashed out into the open. He would yell up to Hoota, "Awooooooo! Catch me if you can," and dart back behind the tree or run across the yard from one hiding place to another.
Hoota would watch Herba running around below, swoop down, and yell, "Cawww, cawww! Here I come." They both would laugh, and they played the game for hours. Each morning, when Herba woke up, he stretched and ran around the trees, looking for his buddy, Hoota.
One night when it was raining and cold, Herba looked up from his doghouse and saw his good friend, Hoota, perched in the tree, shivering and trying to stay warm. Herba yelled up to him, "Hoota, why don't you come down and share my doghouse? It's warm inside, and I have a blanket."
Hoota swooped down and landed just outside the opening to the doghouse. He said, "Thanks, Herba. It's very cold up there in the trees."
Herba said, "No problem, man. That's what friends do for each other." They walked inside. Hoota was very happy because the doghouse was dry and warm. Herba tilted his head and pointed his nose to the blanket. They each chose a corner and curled up together for a warm night's sleep.
The next morning, Herba and Hoota were playing their usual game of tag. As Hoota was swooping down to tag Herba, he yelled, "Thanks for sharing your blanket with me last night."
At the moment, Hoota was just above Herba and about to tag him. Herba turned and jumped up to give Hoota a high-five, and they collided—Bang! Whop! It sounded like someone had shot off a cannon. There was a huge dust cloud, with feathers and fur flying everywhere.
When the dust finally settled, Herba and Hoota were lying on the ground, knocked out. But there was something very different about them. Their two heads lay next to each other on the ground, but attached to only one body! The front legs were Herba's and the rear legs were Hoota's. It was a hound dog body with fur, feathers, and large wings. There were two heads on the one body. One was Herba's, with his floppy, hound dog ears and hound dog nose; the other was Hoota's, with his white eagle feathers and yellow beak.
(Continues...)
Excerpted from Herba Hoota Hound Dog Bird by Mike Tate, Jacquie Tate, Stephen Adams. Copyright © 2014 Mike and Jacquie Tate. Excerpted by permission of AuthorHouse.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
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