Spotty through the secret passageway

Spotty waited till Med Tiger was snoring nicely, then he wriggled out of his paws and pushed the new lepudd toy into the space where he himseff had been lying.

Out the entrance ... the night was dark but his vision was superb. He made his way to the Open Sesame rock. "Om!" he said into the night.

Lord Ganesha appeared instantly, this time on his mouse (earlier, he had come to the birthday on an elephant so young creatures could have rides on his elephant, but usually he rode his mouse). He looked lovingly at the baby Meditator Lepudd and pressed his trunk on just the right spot to make the rock swivel.



Purring a quick thanks -- grateful but not wanting to linger for even a moment -- Spotty jumped in, just as Arunacub had instructed. And as promised, his paw hit the on-switch of the flashlight, and the passageway was suddenly lit. He saw it was clean and smooth-walled, smaller than he had thought. He tip-clawed along softly, not wanting to awaken any sleeping spiders, and as he came to the other side he could hear the laughter of his brudders and smell the popcorn. He remembered to leave the flashlight just inside the passageway and called out, "I am here!"



"Spotty!" his brudders shouted in joy, rushing out into the night to greet him. Tirucub piggybacked him into the lion cave.



He heard the rapid pop pop pop sound.

"Take off the lid, Mummy Lioness!" said Tirucub, showing off a bit for Spotty. Human mothers usually insist on popping popcorn with the lid on, but Mother Lionesses are freer and wilder. Mummy Lioness immediately removed the lid and the pop corn began flying all over the cave. The cubses taught Spotty how to tip back his head and open his mouth wide to catch the hot popcorn before it hit the cave floor. Spotty thought this a great game!

"OK, that's enough or there will be none left to make all buttery and peppery said Mummy Lioness, clamping the lid back on. When the popping sounds dwindled she tipped the popcorn into a big bowl, melted butter, poured it on and shook on lots of pepper and some salt too.

"Now that we have this, what shall we do?" she asked.

"The Mahabharata!" shouted the three lion cubses in unison. "But we will need icecream cones as well."

"Oh, okay, in honour of Spotty's special visit."

Spotty piped up. "This is not a SPESHUL visit .. i am planning to come EVERY night, Auntie Lioness."

She gave him a fake stern look and said, "Now Spotty, play along, we are just looking for an excuse to have popcorn AND icecream cones."

"Oh ... oh, right ... my speshul and unusual, er, RARE visit."

Mum Lioness winked at him and made up the chocolate cones. Then they all lay down on the cave blanket for the Mahabharata.

"Stop wiping those buttery paws into my fur!" admonished Mummy Lioness. "Use the napkins."

"Your fur is so much softer!"

"Oh, well then," said Mummy Lioness, seeing the sense in this.

She read until all 4 cubses dropped off in a warm heap of Divine Entanglement. Then she licked each of their still quite buttery paws and fell asleep herself.