Suzy's Zoo: A Day With Witzy

Witzy takes his teddy bear Boof outdoors to play. But when Zoom Zoom the grasshopper soars overhead, Witzy chases after it. Zoom Zoom hops here and there, always out of reach. Then he lands on Boof’s nose, causing the teddy bear to sneeze. Suddenly, Boof comes alive! What a surprise to both Witzy and Boof!

Witzy is busy planting corn kernels in the vegetable garden. Lulla hops up, and happily starts to eat the corn because it “her favorite.” But Witzy stops her, and explains that planting just one kernel of corn, instead of eating it, will make more and more corn to grow. “More and More?” Wonderful! So Lulla plants toys, thinking it will make many, many more toys to grow!

Patches, Witzy’s calico giraffe, comes alive one night when Witzy hugs onto him because he was frightened by the nighttime shadows and breezes. But Patches reassures Witzy and the others that it is just the curtain blowing and to not be afraid. Soon, they can see for themselves, and make a game of it.

Witzy makes a pretend-camera with crayons and paper one day, and “takes pictures” of the flowers and bugs. Along comes Lulla, and then Boof, who think it is for real, so they pose for their pictures to be taken, too. So Witzy, who doesn’t want to disappoint them, has to hurry up and draw their portraits while they wait.

As Patches counts, the friends scamper off, finding their separate hiding places. Witzy is distracted by a butterfly and chases after it. Lulla’s twitching ears gives her away, then Boof accidentally gives himself away. But where is Witzy? –There he is – hiding in plain sight, asleep among the yellow dandelions. It seems he found the BEST hiding place!

Boof makes a very, very tall sandwich tower for the picnic. But after it is tied up in the cloth, only Patches, with his long, long neck, is able to carry it outside. Then when they realize they forgot to pack a dessert, Patches saves the picnic once again by holding down the branch of a nearby blueberry bush so they can reach the sweet, ripe blueberries.

Witzy’s scooter becomes a delivery truck one day, and Boof comes along for the ride. They watch as PeekaBoo the snail makes a delivery. Lulla joins them and they watch ladybugs making deliveries . As they sit on the hill watching the clouds, the wind picks up Boof’s flower ‘hat.’ They beg the wind to not “deliver” it, but to bring it back!

Today, a new friend will come to meet the friends, and Witzy prepares a picnic. But when an overturned bucket suddenly wobbles into view all by itself, Lulla and Boof, frightened by the specter, run to hide behind Patches. But guess who is making the bucket move? The shy new friend – Ellie Funt!

Witzy , down on all fours, pretends to be like the twin turtles, Teeter and Totter. He crawls along behind them through the tall grass to see where they go, all the way to the pond. Next, Boof chases after a little sailboat, but it is just out of his reach. Then to his amazement, he watches it fall in line behind the two turtles and Witzy, as it “follows the leader” across the pond.

It is nighttime, but Witzy and Boof are jumping up and down on the bed, and cannot settle down. So Lulla sings them a sleeping song. But it doesn’t work. Then she does a little sleepy-time dance. She is so entertaining, that the friends cannot fall asleep because of her singing, even though by now they have become quite sleepy!

Lulla is in the meadow, making a bee-you-ti-ful flower crown. Boof wants one too, and so does Witzy. They dance joyfully in the meadow with their flower crowns. But here come the bees after the flowers, causing a panic! They run around like mad. So Patches tells them to throw off their crowns, then he catches them all on his long neck. He flings them away, bees and all,—and saves the day!

Witzy gets an idea from watching a butterfly’s shadow against the bed sheet. With Boof’s help, the two concoct a shadow act. But Lulla and Patches are not very impressed with their acting until Witzy’s shadow suddenly grows into a scary monster-shape. So Patches crashes through the sheet to attack the monster – only to find that it was just Witzy, holding a branch! Those two were pretty good at acting, after all!

Witzy is pushing his toy train around a track in the sand—“toot-toot!” When Boof asks if he can have a turn, Witzy tells him, ”Not now.” Boof can only watch. Meanwhile, along come the twin turtles Teeter and Totter with Peekaboo the snail. They see the sand mountain, and try to climb atop it, but end up tunneling through it instead. Witzy and Boof are so surprised by the turtle “train” that tunneled through the mountain!

Watching Zoom Zoom, Witzy gets the idea that it must be fun to hop like a grasshopper, so off he hops after Zoom Zoom. Seeing Witzy, Patches tries hopping, too. What fun! He hops over to Ellie, and she tries hopping, too – yes, what fun! Next, Lulla joins in—“hopping is what I do best!”-- and then here comes Boof, carrying the tea tray – and if hopping is what everyone is doing, then Boof hops too, tea tray and all. When Witzy joins up with the friends, he is so surprised to see them all hopping, just like Zoom Zoom!

Witzy wonders, what is Ellie doing, looking up at the sky? “Watching the picture book in the clouds,” she explains, and begins to tell the story of a little lamb who has lost its mother – but then here comes Boof – and a whale –and a dog, and…oh, no! the dog is now a wolf – Watch out, Boof! Ohhh, good! Now it’s a birthday cake! Meanwhile, Boof, sound asleep in the laundry basket, wakes up. Did someone say, “cake”? Ellie laughs, “Even up in the sky, Boof gets hungry!”

It’s raining in the garden, much to Witzy’s enjoyment. Lulla likes the sound it makes, but doesn’t like to get wet. So she invites Witzy to stand quietly with her under the eaves of the garden shed, and listen to the music being made… on the rake, on the pail, on the gardening gloves, even on the water as it spills from one tulip to the other. Soon, the two are rocking gently to the melodies being made, and now Witzy has even more to enjoy about the rain.

Boof and Witzy are playing with the little boat in the pond by the fern glen. But when the little boat slips under the footbridge and heads down the stream to the hole in the fence, Boof cannot catch it in time, and it gets away. Oh, he feels so bad! But what’s this? The boat is magically coming back through the hole, and upstream?? The turtles Teeter and Totter have ‘rescued’ the boat, and are nudging it back to the pond in the garden!

Witzy lazily rolls over onto some blueberries, getting a funny stain on the back of his head. It gives Ellie a jolt, because it looks like Witzy has another face! This gives Witzy an idea—he will play a joke on his friends. He startles each of them in turn with his blueberry face—causing Patches to step on the train, Boof to drop the donut, and Lulla to get the sock dirty. Instead of thinking it was funny, the friends apologize to Witzy. Oh, no! It made Witzy sad to think his joke caused them unhappiness. So to cheer everyone up, they all enjoy eating blueberries together.

It is naptime in the garden, and Witzy has fallen asleep right where he was painting with his colors. Peekaboo the snail creeps into the scene. She falls into the paints, and creeps through the colors. Then she begins a snail’s journey, leaving a long, colorful trail. Witzy wakes up and begins to follow the trail, first to Boof, then to Lulla – laughing as they go, because of the funny marks Peekaboo has left on each of their faces!

Ellie has found a dandelion and shows the “wishing puff” to the friends. They each want make a wish, of course. Witzy knows where there are many more and takes them to a field of dandelions. There are wishing puffs everywhere! It makes Ellie sneeze – which blows away all the wishing puffs! But wait – there is one left! So they all gather around it and make a wish together. What do you suppose they wished for?

Witzy and Boof get very dirty playing in the mud, making “mud angels.” “Let’s take a bath!” shouts Witzy, and off he goes to start the bubblebath. But Boof won’t get into the tub because he does not want to get waterlogged. But there are soapy suds everywhere, and soon, they are slipping and sliding across the bathroom floor. Witzy makes a game of it – and Boof gets clean after all!

It is time for bed, and Lulla and Boof are already sound asleep. But Witzy tells Patches that not everyone is asleep. “Peekaboo is not sleeping,” he says. So Patches tells him, sure he is, and is having a wonderful dream. Patches tells a story of what the dream is about. Next, Patches tells about the turtles who are also asleep, andmakes up a story about their dream, too. Witzy, sleepy at last, finally slips under the covers. Then Patches says good night to the moon, too, as it slips under its cloud blanket.

Witzy and Lulla are playing that they are on an expedition in the jungle. Lulla giggles, and goes along with it, as long as she doesn’t have to get her feet muddy. They climb “the tallest mountain in the world” and watch out for wild animals. But suddenly, wild beasts really DO rise up – one with a striped snake-y nose, and the other with finger-like antlers---and then, right in their path, something ROARS! Oh! It’s just Boof and the others, in made-up costumes!

It is springtime, and up in the tree is a nest with three eggs. The friends gather around, wishing they could get high enough to see in. Then Witzy brings a basket with a handle, and Patches lifts Lulla up in it. She coos as the eggs hatch one by one. The others can’t wait any longer! When Patches lowers the basket, Witzy and Boof crowd in with Lulla, each chattering and chirping about how they all want a turn to see. They are just like the nest of baby birds!

The friends are lookng up at the, red apple, wondering how to get them to fall. So Boof boasts that he can do it. He runs at the tree fast, slamming into its trunk. One apple falls – right on Boof’s head –but dozens of tree caterpillars drop down, too! EEEEK! The friends all run away. Embarrassed, Boof turns his back, and won’t join in their picnic. Witzy, wanting to cheer up Boof, gets the idea to form a musical parade. They march by Boof, each with their noise-making thing, and Boof cannot resist joining the parade.

Witzy wants to see what Patches and Ellie are doing. But they tell him, “we can’t tell you, it’s a secret,” and turn back to their task. Then Lulla, too, cannot tell Witzy what she is doing because “it’s a secret.” Even Boof is busy with a secret, and Witzy is shut out. He is feeling left out as he sits on the grassy hill. But what’s this? Here comes a parade of big, decorated boxes, walking up the hill toward him – and then all his friends pop out! Surprise! It’s your birthday party, Witzy!