Dotty the Spotted Bird

There once was a bird named Dotty.  She was given that name because of the beautiful green spots she had on her body that looked like a knot.  Dotty made friends very easily and was kind to all that she met in the forest.  Dotty thought all you had to be was nice and kind and all of the other animals would like you.  And a lot of them did, the squirrels, the chipmunks all liked Dotty and even the Bear, Bernie liked her.

 

But even in a forest where almost everyone liked Dotty some of the animals were not so kind, the fox would steal the eggs from the bird’s nest and there was a pesky beaver or two that just did not like Dotty.  They thought she tweeted too much out there in the forest and they were trying to get some rest.  So Dotty let those animals make her change who she really was.  She hid her beauty, stopped singing her beautiful song and hoped that those animals that didn’t like her would be her friend.

One day while she was flying around the forest, she saw a man who looked like he was lost.  She flew up to him and wanted to help him.  The man wasn’t really lost but he was lonely and looking for a beautiful bird to bring home and put in a cage so that he could look at her every day.  He took one look at the beautiful Dotty and just had to have her.  He brought her home and put Dotty in a cage where he could look at her but she couldn’t fly away.

Dotty was very sad and lonely in the cage.  She did not sing her song for such a long time.  She  lost  hope and cried and cried and cried. She really didn’t know how long she had been in the cage, it could have been a day, it could have been a week or maybe even longer than that.   She was trapped in a sad house with sad people and she just lost track of the time.

One day while Dotty was trying to figure out a way out of the cage, she heard a roar.   Then she heard another roar telling her that there was a key to the cage.  The roar came from right outside the window.  The roar belonged to Leo the lion-hearted lion.  Leo had always thought  Dotty was beautiful and that she had the most beautiful song.  Leo walked around the house until he found an open door and what did he find but the key to the cage.  He carefully put the key into the cage and the door to the cage magically opened and Dotty was free.

The magical key was also the key that opened Dotty’s heart.  Leo saved himself and Dotty that day because Leo was so happy to have Dotty fly around with him all day and Dotty was so happy she became beautiful again.  Sometimes Leo would carry Dotty on his back and sometimes Dotty would sing her special song that warmed Leo’s lion-heart.  Soon even the beavers and the fox became her friends because they missed her so much while she was away that they all lived happily ever after.