November 2020
Monday, November 2, 2020 - Edition #122
Mr. Masamoto: The Little Takayama Seaweed Café (1/3)
Mr. Masamoto, a roborovski dwarf hamster from Japan and owner of the Little Takayama Seaweed Cafe, recently ran into trouble with the New Guinea Pig City authorities.
Mr. Masamoto has a property by the New Guinea Pig City waterfront, by Hamster Bay. The entrance to his Café was a Pagoda, it is two stories high, the bottom story/ground floor is his personal and café kitchen. The second floor is very small and is his meditation and sleeping room. His large garden, patio, and koi pond serve as his café eating area. Mr. Masamoto recently decided to start take out, since his café is so popular and often crowded
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Mr. Masamoto started his cafe 4 months ago, it was an instant hit, as rodents had never had anything like his dishes before. In his cafe he serves Seaweed nutrition drinks (room temperature, but for lemmings also available with glacier ice cubes), and seaweed salad (see image). He is also thinking about doing soups, but his kitchen is a bit small.
Tuesday, November 3, 2020 - Edition #123
Mr. Masamoto: The Little Takayama Seaweed Cafe (2/3)
Today we again re-visit Mr. Masamoto, a roborovski dwarf hamster from Japan, and owner of the Little Takayama Seaweed Cafe recently ran into trouble with the New Guinea Pig City authorities.
Mr. Masamoto, decided to start doing take-out in September after he noticed that his café was getting very crowded, he didn’t want to add too many tables into his garden, so he hired Ms. Zana Sea, a gerbil, to take care of the take-out booth at the corner of his property. In the beginning, rodents would form an orderly line to wait for their take-out or to wait for a seat in the garden/patio. However, after about a month rodents started to sit on the sidewalk to wait. This was when Mr. Masamoto got his first letter from the New Guinea Pig Authorities, they wanted him to keep the rodents waiting for his café under control, because this was a public walkway and the rodents were blocking it. He got several suggestions from the rodents going to the café regularly, here is one of them (we will be showing more tomorrow).
Put up cones on half of the walkway and the rodents would have to stand on the half closer to the cafe.
Problem: When he did this he got his second letter saying he was not allowed to put things (such as a rope or cones) onto the sidewalk, it also blocked it. The other problem being the rodents waiting were waiting for two different things, take-out or seating. So he would need two “lines”.
Wednesday, November 4, 2020 - Edition #124
Mr. Masamoto: The Little Takayama Seaweed Café (3/3)
Today we again (and for the last time) re-visit Mr. Masamoto, a roborovski dwarf hamster from Japan, and owner of the Little Takayama Seaweed Café recently ran into trouble with the New Guinea Pig City authorities.
After getting two letters from the Authorities, Mr. Masamoto realized he had two problems, the first being seating, rodents were waiting to get a seat. And since Mr. Masamoto had a rule stating “If you get take-out, you cannot sit in the café garden or patio”. So rodents wanted to wait for a seat, so they could eat in the garden. If he could fix this problem he could also solve his second problem - take-out. His first idea was to build a spiral like figure eight out onto the water of Hamster Bay (also where his seaweed farm was located), but his idea was rejected by the authorities as it cost too much money. The second idea came from Ms. Guinea, owner of Café Guinea (Café Guinea is next to the Little Takayama Seaweed Café) she said that she would share part of her seating area, if he would allow her to serve his seaweed salad, as well as her stove if he was interested in still doing seaweed soup.
Thursday, November 5, 2020 - Edition #125
We received this letter some time ago and wanted to share it with the Rodent public.
Dear the Daily Squeaker and towns in Hamstington,
My name is Samantha Squeakita, I’m a squirrel from Squirrel Village. I wanted to write to you about Squirrel Villages Nut Train and why I would recommend it to other cities.
The Nut Train is a train that runs within Squirrel Village. Squirrel Village, for people unaware, is made up of different trees each with a different “meaning”. We have a library tree and a Bakery Tree. The trees are all hollow and the library tree is filled with books. Each tree has a landing or a piece of wood that juts out, these are the landings for the Nut Train.
The Nut Train itself looks like the half of a walnut, you sit in the bottom half and then there is a railing and free air. It looks a bit like the humans “tea cup ride” and their fairs. In winter, or bad weather, a glass half folds up, but you can still look outside. There are 10 “cups” where 2 rodents can fit into.
The train connects together via a wire, the train “tracks” lead to each tree, except the 3 “home” trees, where rodents live. There is a pole with a platform on it, where the Nut Train lets passengers to their home tree, from the platform there are zip-lines, and rodents just zip line to their home tree. The zip lines are quiet and don’t disturb residents.
For the reasons stated above, I think that more cities should make a “train” their mode of transportation.
Sincerely,
Samantha Z. Squeakita
Head Librarian of the Squirrel Village Library Tree
Friday, November 6, 2020 - Edition #126
The Happy Pomegranate winter program (1/2)
The Happy Pomegranate is a Kindergarten in New Prairie Town, Hamstington. New Prairie Town is near Gerbil Town and also borders the Carrot River. The Happy Pomegranate is run by Mrs. Von der Weide and her husband, Elvine Von der Weide. There are 15 students in her “class” and rodents go to her kindergarten for one year.
Mrs. Von der Weide’s class days are divided into 3 periods, movement, math, and art. Mrs. Von der Weide is a Greater Egyptian jerboa, and teaches her students how to do long and high jump, as well as swimming.
When parents drop their children off at The Happy Pomegranate, Mrs. Von der Weide has the children run 400 meters (437.445 yards). She has three “paths” leading through New Prairie Town that are each a loop trail and 400 meters. They kids get to decide which path to take every morning. Then, the group splits, the rodents that can do long and high jump go to Mrs. Von der Weide, and the others go with Elvin to get on the hamster wheels. Students get report cards every month, and students on wheels must do a minimum of at least 20,000 turns in 30 minutes. Elvin is there to make sure that rodents really run and don’t just turn the wheels. Students with Mrs. Von der Weide must achieve a certain height and jumping length.
More on November 9, 2020 (Monday) if no other urgent news is to report. We hope to get an interview with Mrs. Von der Weide and Elvine Von der Weide.
Monday, November 9, 2020 - Edition #127
The Happy Pomegranate winter program (2/2)
Mrs. Von der Weide's math program is very strict. Students will learn how to write their numbers in the first week, as well as how to say them. After that, they learn about a new area of math every week.
After the math period, students will have lunch (more in next paragraph) and then art. Every week is a new area of art, they do paw painting some weeks, drip paintings, perspective drawing, creative scribbles, and more!
Rodents must provide their own snack (snack time is after the morning movement), and Mrs. Von der Weide makes a healthy, vegetarian, lunch.
The Happy Pomegranate is in Mrs. and Elvin Von der Wiede’s backyard. They have a property that borders the Carrot River, they have a large garden with a big tree in the middle. The tree is hollow and divided into two stories. The bottom story is a play area, where the kids go when the weather isn’t nice. The top story is the Von der Weide’s bedroom and kitchen.
In winter, Mrs. Von der Weide does all the activities inside the tree, instead of her usual long jump and hamster wheel program she does skiing. She doesn’t have 15 skis, so half the class does skiing while the others do art, both do math together, and in the art period the rodents that did art in the morning do skiing while the others do art.
Many parents are very happy with the Happy Pomegranate and there is often a long waiting list.
Tuesday, November 10, 2020 - Edition #128
Volentina Von Pleateeth takes a trip to Planet Earth and explains the progress (1/2)
Mrs. Volentina Von Pleateeth recently took a two week vacation to Sonoma County, California, USA, Planet Earth. After her two week trip, we decided to ask her to give us an account of how the entire “earth to Rodentus (the rodent planet)” worked.
The nearest rodent airport was in Sonoma, in Sonoma County. I had already printed my flight ticket, and was entering the Presidio of Sonoma’s courtyard. I had been told that there would be a big tree in the middle of the courtyard. I was to ask for “Flight to Hamstington, tree in courtyard. Airport Hamsterville” They would then put me on the flight to the Hamsterville (I could also have said “Flight to Hamstington, tree in courtyard. Airport New Guinea Pig City”) airport.
Be warned! Because Sonoma is a minor airport (not like New York, or Berlin) shuttles to Hamstington can only hold 14 passengers, and if 7 rodents don’t sign up, there can be up to a 14 day delay until you can get to Hamstington. After 14 days, they will fly you to Hamstington regardless of if there are less than 7 passengers. If flights are fully booked, this airport will send a shuttle to Hamstington up to 4 times a week.
More on November 11, 2020.
Volentina Von Pleateeth
Wednesday, November 11, 2020 - Edition #129
Volentina Von Pleateeth takes a trip to Planet Earth and explains the progress (2/2)
My flight was unfortunately not full and 7 rodents had not signed up. So I was forced to find a place to stay. Sonoma has 3 good hotels, and the airport does have its own overnight stay place, but most rodents don’t advise staying there. It's rumored to have bed bugs and the walls are very thin. The other hotels are:
The Rose Garden Inn
The Hedge Hotel
Tree Root Inn
The Rose Garden Inn is located in the Sonoma Plaza rose garden, I chose to stay at this inn. It has good food and comfy beds, luckily for me, 2 more rodents signed up for the flight, making us 8 rodents.
The flight to Hamstington was nice and only took 5 hours. We landed in the Hamsterville airport at around 3:30 pm. I had an hour at the airport while my baggage was checked to make sure I was smuggling anything into the country (by the way, colorful carrots are illegal!), I wasn’t and so I proceeded to the immigration. I gave the officer my passport, rodent badge, and flight ticket. I was then all clear to go and pick up my luggage.
I took one of the local busses to where I lived in Volington. The entire trip from the airport in Sonoma to Volington only took about 7 hours.
A final fun fact! It is illegal to take gummy-bears to Hamstington from Earth, and you can only sell them on the black market. When some do turn up, you know that someone from immigration has turned a blind eye, and the entire airport goes into a panic to find who did it this time. Officers who do that are always fired, as it is illegal.
Thursday, November 12, 2020 - Edition #130
The Happy Reader, a bookstore in Gerbil Town recently ran into problems with storage of books. The Happy Reader has been run by the Carrota family for over 120 years. The Happy Reader is an old fashioned house, 2 stories, with a sloping roof. The bottom story is full of books, the left half of the top story is a café, but after you go to the café you can’t go back to the book section, as it serves sticky things. The right half of the top story is filled with more books.
The Happy Reader found a couple solutions to their book problem and also a couple that didn’t work:
The first idea was to add a story to the building, but that wouldn’t work because of the sloped roof.
The next idea was to stop doing the café, and just to do “all books”, but it was nice to have a place to read after you bought a book, so that idea was discarded.
Someone suggested adding a basement, but there is already a basement and it was packed with books.
Another suggestion was to have a table in the front of the store with all the books regarding a subject (e.g. Gerbil history, or astronomy), and the books from last week, would go into the spot that the books from this week had cleared. This suggestion was accepted.
The Carrota family has a very large house and a big attic, and you could maybe store some of the books there. Idea rejected because the house and attic were already full.
A rodent pointed out that Gerbil Town doesn’t have a library, this was the best idea. The Carrota family decided to rent one of the 4 towers in the Gerbil Town city wall and make a library out of it. The Gerbil Town city wall is historical property so there are certain regulations. There is a library organization in Hamstington, Library Rodents Association (LRA), and the Carrota family decided to join. However, if you check out a book in Lemmingvill you can return it to any LRA library, if you check a book out from Gerbil Town, you also have to return it there.
From the 6 suggestions that rodents gave the Happy Reader, 2 were used. The Happy Reader has now expanded to include a library.
Friday, November 13, 2020 - Edition #131
The Gerbil Town Waterfront (1/4)
Ms. Candy-Stripe, a skunk living in Gerbil Town gives us a tour of the Gerbil Town waterfront.
Gerbil Town is built into the sloping side of the Carrot River. Most of the housing is still in underground burrows. The waterfront is divided into 3 parts, or stories.
The bottom story is shops, the next one is housing, and the third story is a mix of both.
Story #1 (part A) The bottom story is made of shops, going from Left to Right: There is the duck landing area, ducks are a main mode of transportation. Ducks can take up to 5 passengers and are very skilled in water landing. It is also a main tourist attraction as only Gerbil Town does this. Also, ducks enjoy doing it as they get free food from the customs officials and lodging. There is always an official on duty, making sure that the ducks are all taken care of. Behind the duck landing there is the first story of the Gerbil Town school (1-8). There is also my own store, The Salty Taffy, I sell Salt Water taffy in many different flavors including, rose, lavender, citrus, and mint. I also do Salt Water taffy cakes.
Monday, November 16, 2020 - Edition #132
The Gerbil Town Waterfront (2/4)
Ms. Candy-Stripe, a skunk living in Gerbil Town gives us a tour of the Gerbil Town waterfront.
Story #1 (PART B) Next to my shop is a second-hand book store called “The Bookish Bookworm” . It's the second bookstore in Gerbil Town. It's quite dusty and is run by Leslie Lem, a 98 year old lemming. Her eyesight is quite bad, but she has a great taste in books, not only for content, but also for how good the ink and paper is. This is vital as she can judge how long a book can last. She lives above her store in an apartment. Her helper is Jon Lem, her nephew.
Next to The Bookish Bookworm is the Sea Trade Market, it's a market for selling fish and seaweed, it's open every day and very popular. You just lay out your wares on a bench, table, or rug. It also has little worm doors, if worms ever want to stop by for a bit of seaweed.
Then, there's the Sushi Cavern, it's a small restaurant run by Mr. Masamoto’s brother, Jim Masamoto. It serves mostly sashimi, as avocados are rare and have to be imported from the island of Froggy-World. Jim gets most of his fish from the Sea Trade Market, but does fish sometimes as well.
Tuesday, November 17, 2020 - Edition #133
Interview with Sanddra Blauzahn
You are a silk pocket mouse, correct? How do you view other rodent species?
I don’t actually think about it that much, I view every rodent as an equal.
You work in New Guinea Pig City, as a professor at the New Guinea Pig City University, how do you get to work?
Well, I take the bus service that goes to the university most of the time.
You live in New Guinea Pig City, have you heard about The Little Takayama Seaweed Café?
Yes, I haven’t gone to that place, but I have heard of it.
Do you know Mr. Masamoto?
Not personally, but I have a few friends that know him though.
Can you describe a day in your rodent life?
Yes, in the morning I wake up at around 7 am and for breakfast I usually have a cheese croissant on the way to work. Sometimes, I’ll go to some schools to teach about oceanology. When I do stay at the university I’m usually teaching classes there and looking at samples from some of my co-workers. At around 8 pm, I go home, I usually have a take-out dinner. I eat a lot of different foods, so I can’t specify what I usually eat, then at around 9:30 pm I go to sleep.
Who in the rodent world do you look up to? And why?
Susie Fern, she was a rodent conservationist, a silk pocket mouse like me, and the first female in the area. She was a pretty big hero, she worked all her life on protecting all kinds of animals, she’s also a rodents rights activist. Thanks to her, one of the biggest rodent pandemics stopped, she stopped what had caused it and rounded up all the affected so they could be treated. Thanks to her, not many rodents got affected and the illness stayed among humans, and she found the human cure as well!
A while ago, a decree was made that all cats/coyotes/polar foxes had to have a travel permit to travel within Hamstington. Do you support that?
Yes, I do because I do like that we give them a chance to travel, I support a permit because then some rodent terrorists have to have a permit, or can’t travel at all.
There was a storm in Hamstington some weeks ago, did that affect your work schedule? If yes, how?
Well, it didn’t affect my personal work schedule, but the rodents who supply my samples weren’t able to do so. So I had a bit less to do, it didn’t really affect it though.
What inspired you to study Oceanology?
I always loved the ocean, I’m not a good swimmer, but I always enjoyed looking at the tide pools. I also like wading in the shallows, but I prefer the facts and I’ve always been interested in how pollution affects the ocean. One of my parents worked in the wildlife area, I like animals too, but my heart is in the ocean and its animals.
What do you do in your free time?
Well, I go to the beach most of the time. I also have a friend who's a professional swimmer so I often go see her competitions. And other times, I just like to read.
Wednesday, November 18, 2020 - Edition #134
The Gerbil Town Waterfront (3/4)
Ms. Candy-Stripe, a skunk living in Gerbil Town gives us a tour of the Gerbil Town waterfront.
Story #1 (PART C) Next on our tour is The Chinchilla Tavern, it is run by Ms. Guinea’s sister, Cassidy, it was founded by their uncle who was a chinchilla and Cassidy didn’t want to rename it to “The Guinea Tavern”. It is very clean, with pale blue walls and many pictures. There are a row of high chairs facing the bar (the tavern doesn’t serve alcoholic beverages though). And one corner is reserved as the “Homework corner”, however, from what I’ve heard it's more of a “kids corner” where rodents meet to chat, than used for homework. The Chinchilla Tavern is the last store/building on the first story of the Gerbil Town waterfront. However, the walkway goes on, normally there is the “Gerbil History Boat” moored to the end of the walkway. However, the boat is a historical one, and has historical objects on board. It can also actually still sail! There is a replica of the boat that is used for field trips, but that will be explained in a later Daily Squeaker.
Story #2 The second story is all apartment homes, and at the end is the second story of the school. We will make an edition regarding the school later.
Thursday, November 19, 2020 - Edition #135
The Gerbil Town Waterfront (4/4)
Ms. Candy-Stripe, a skunk living in Gerbil Town gives us a tour of the Gerbil Town waterfront.
Story #3 The top story of the waterfront is made up of stores and homes. The left side of the story is made up of homes and the right side is made up of shops. The first shop on the left is The Weavers Looms, run by the fishermices wives. They make the best quality clothes in the area.
Next to that is a ship model shop called “Carved by Hand”, the ship models are all carved by hand. It's run by a gentleman rat named Stanley, he also does wood carving classes.
Then the last shop is called “Willow’s Cotton Candy” it's a cotton candy shop run by 5 rather chubby gerbils called Mari, Elliana, Jackson, Mike, and Louisa. It's called “Willow’s Cotton Candy” because Willow is their last name.
We hope that Ms. Candy-Stripe may be able to show us the Gerbil Town plaza some time soon.
Friday, November 20, 2020 - Edition #136
The Kindergarden Triathlon!
The kindergarten triathlon is a sports events organized by Mrs. Von der Weide (Mrs. Von der Weide is the owner and runner of the Happy Pomegranate Kindergarten). “Tri” means three, and in the triathlon there are 3 events, swimming, running, and high jump.
Mrs. Von der Weide and two other kindergartens organize this “competition” once a year. The two other schools are the Orange Blossom Garden, run by Ms. Natawabi (she is conducting her choir in the image) in New Prairie Town, and The Little Chopstick, run by Mr. Masamoto’s other brother, Kai Masamoto (he is having his break in the picture) in New Guinea pig City.
There are 15 students in each class of the 3 schools. The classes are divided into 3 “teams”, for example there is a Little Chopstick Long Jump team, a Little Chopstick swim team, and a running team.
Students are put into teams according to skill level. For example, a guinea pig or a skunk might not be able to do high jump, so it could be put into the swim team.
The schools meet once a year, at one of the schools training areas. They rotate every year.
This year they are meeting on May 26, 2021 at the Orange Blossom Garden training area.
We hope to do some reporting about The Orange Blossom Garden and The Little Chopstick, as well as a report on the Kindergarten Triathlon on May 26, 2021.
Monday, November 23, 2020 - Edition #137
The Capybara Islands:
Schools & General News
SCHOOL
The Capybara Islands are made up of around 20 islands, and more are found every year. However, only 3 of these islands are actually inhabited. There is one school in the area (1st - 8th), it is on a small island off the coast of “Big Island”. Students come from all over the three main islands, and get to school via a raft. There is at least one teacher living on an island that can organize the raft. The raft leaves at 8:00 am, and will not return for any late comers. There are 15 capybaras in a class, and one teacher. The extra subjects (not taught by the class teacher) are history of the capybara islands, swimming (movement), fur cleaning, gardening, and island survival.
Classes go until 1:30pm and the capybaras take the raft back to their islands. Teachers may give up to 3 hours of homework! A teacher goes with his/her class from 1st through 3rd grade, then another teacher has them for 4th through 6th grade, and there is a 7th grade teacher and an 8th grade teacher.
In 3rd grade, capybaras take a field trip to the Gerbil History Boat in Gerbil town. In 7th grade, they take a week-long field trip on the replica and tour around the Capybara Islands.
CLOTHING & WEATHER
There is an area of ocean between the Capybara Islands and New Guinea Pig City where there is a lot of wind and bad weather. Due to this, the Capybara Islands are often cut off from the rest of Hamstington. Most things are made by hand. There is one general store on the main island. It sells food, clothes, and nick-knacks. Because all residents get their things from this one store, they are all wearing the same things. In 2019, the sweaters all had a purple-green-silver-blue pattern. In 2018, it was gradient green to metallic green.
GENERAL
❖ There is a knitting club in the main city, Cape Town, that meets twice a week. There are currently 25 members, all lady capybaras. They work on different projects every month, October 2020’s was a seaweed quilt for the mayor of Cape Town.
❖ There is one general store in Cape Town, but there are also small seaweed and vegetable stands in almost all cities. There is also an eyeglass store on the second largest island, Oceaniana, run by Larry Forestia.
❖ You can find a library in the heart of Cape Town, as well as a high school. Capybaras must travel to the Hamstington mainland for university.
Tuesday, November 24, 2020 - Edition #138
Mrs. Cassy Chocolatia loses eyeglasses!
Mrs. Cassy Chocolatia, a 72 year old capybara in the Capybara Island Knitting Club, recently stepped on her 1968, royal blue, old fashioned, antique, eyeglasses that all of her friends in the knitting club have. This was a major drama for the knitting club - or all the members that met in the 1950s.
The club members have been searching for a new eyeglass for her - from the same time period of course! There are very few glasses left of the type and even fewer antique stores in Hamstington.
A relative of Mrs. Chocolatia, Ms. Lizza Chocolatia, saw one of these glasses in the window of ‘Antiques Rodentia’ , however, Mr. Ratti had a notice on the door ‘on vacation, be back December 6, 2020’. Unfortunately, Ms. Lizza Chocolatia was only on vacation in New Guinea Pig City and would leave on November 27, 2020. Also, Mr. Ratti was very well known for getting dates incorrect. He might be back and running his shop on November 25, or a week too late.
The Chocolatia family has been trying to contact ‘Antiques Rodentis’, but have not yet received an answer. Roberto Salt, a capybara in Cape Town, is very good in metal work and is trying to recreate the glasses. Though it is unclear if it will work.
Wednesday, November 25, 2020 - Edition #139
The Gerbil Town Plaza
Ms. Candy-Stripe, a skunk living in Gerbil Town gives us a tour of the Gerbil Town plaza. She gave us a tour of the waterfront some time ago.
We start the tour at the middle of the plaza, there is a fountain with a statue of Gerbelia Von Acorn, the gerbil who founded Gerbil Town. We next go to the first right turret on the city wall. There is ‘Café Reed’ an ice cream and cake café, the next turret is empty, the back turret on the left side is also empty. The front turret on the left side is filled with the Gerbil Town Library (COMING SOON!😃). On the left side of the plaza is Tante Emma General Store, it is the Gerbil Town everything general store, it is run by Emma Feldur, a Icelandic lemming. Next to that is Mrs. Sweet Tooth’s Jam & Marmalade store. It sells all kinds of jams and marmalades, from tea jams (for the Russian rodents, they put jam in their tea instead of honey!) to jams with cheese. Then we have the Red Leaf Park, a beautiful park with maple trees and a lake in the right half. In the middle is the Gerbil Town Town Hall and mayor's office. Down the right side of the city is Mr. Giuseppe’s Pasta Shop, it is run by an Italian rat and has the best pasta in all of Hamstington. Then we have the Happy Reader bookstore (info November 12, 2020), and the Chinchilla Cinema, it is a small, outdoor cinema that shows mostly old/older black-and-white movies.
Thursday, November 26, 2020 - Edition #140
Hamstington Light Festival - the history behind it
Every year on the last Thursday of November we celebrate the Light Festival for three days by putting a candle in the window. This signals the start of the holidays. Yet, many rodents don’t know what the story is behind this yearly festival.
Mr. Conor Beacon, an Irish wood mouse, invented the candle sometime in winter. He had bees and was always experimenting with the wax. One day he noticed that wax didn’t burn, it just melted. It took him three days to perfect the candle - so that's why we celebrate it for three days.
He sold his invention to some rodents, and to honor his invention and to spread the squeak (word) they put a candle in their window.
When Mr. Beacon died, rodents honored his invention by putting a candle in their window for three days.
Every year, we drink either tea, hot cocoa, or apple/pear cider to celebrate this time. You might have noticed that every year the drink has a new twist. Every year, around November 10, there is an annual cider competition. Rodents send in their recipes for either apple or pear cider with a twist (for example: apple cider with honey, lemon, and rosemary). This year's winner was Derek Wood, a Scottish mouse, with the idea of apple cider, sunflower honey, lemon, and raspberry. Congratulations!
Friday, November 27, 2020 - Edition #141
Furball Ratty Eaten by Cat!
Furball Ratty, most wanted criminal in Hamstington, was recently eaten by Ms. Gayla Overmeer’s cat, Lizzy.
Ms. Gayla has 4 cats, one in particular loves hunting rodents (YIKES!), her name is Gracie. She doesn’t eat them herself, but lays them in front of Lizzie, which is one of the reasons it's impossible to put her on a diet.
Anyway, one day Gracie layed Furball Ratty in front of Lizzy, not knowing that this was one of the fiercest criminals, Lizzy ate him!
Furball Ratty has been eaten! This day has been made a national Holiday in Hamstington. Who knew that we would have to thank a CAT for clearing up this mess with Furball Ratty?
Monday, November 30, 2020 - Edition #142
Beaver accused of killing 5,800 fish?
A Beaver in Germany was accused of killing 5800 fish? The beaver in questions was Ms. Madeline Wood. Ms. Wood lives in Passau, Germany, a while ago Ms. Wood built a dam under a bridge, there was a road on the bridge (the Bundesstraße 12). The area was notified that there was an active beaver in the area and they were scared that if it were to rain that nearby houses would be swamped. So, the area said the beaver dam needed to be removed. They removed the dam, but the water that had been building up behind the dam swamped over into nearby fish ponds. The water was dirty and therefore killed the 5,800 fish.
We interview Ms. Wood to here her side of the story:
Reporter: Hello, Ms. Wood! We recently heard about your dam being destroyed! Tragic! How do you feel about it?
Ms. Wood: By the end of my whiskers, I’m offended! Destroying such a nice dam and my sister was going to stop by to admire it a week after they removed it!
Reporter: Where did you live after the dam was removed?
Ms. Wood: Well, I moved in with my sister for a couple weeks and I have my eye on the Altmühl river in Germany.
Reporter: Thank you for this short interview, Ms. Wood! If you are interested in reading this story from another perspective click: Ein Biber soll 5800 Fische auf dem Gewissen haben? You can translate the article into English, if you aren’t a german rodent.
