Eddy the dormouse, the dance instructor who helped out at the daycare three mornings a week, had been greeted by enthusiastic hugs from half a dozen toddlers as she came in, and was now in the process of setting up her musical backing for the day’s dance session by choosing the right cub-friendly CDs from her big bag. She paused, looking around the busy playroom, and raised an eyebrow to Warren, who’d come away from the front desk now that the morning rush was over. “Is that Zee-Zee sitting quietly and not causing trouble?” she asked with a smile. “How did that happen?”
Warren grinned. “It’s a combination of a challenging puzzle and not enough sleep last night, apparently,” he explained. “He may even take a nap today without putting up a fight! If we’re real lucky, anyway...”
“Well, let’s just see if this wakes him up,” Eddy laughed, and started her nursery rhyme medley playing over the sound system. “Gather round, cubs! It’s dancing time!” she called out, loudly enough for the whole daycare to hear.
Zee-Zee hopped to his feet immediately. He loved dancing! Especially if it was a clever and complicated kind of dance that only the cleverest little cubs could get right. He was extra good at those. But then he turned back to the puzzle, which was tantalisingly nearly complete. “Awww, I wanna do two things at once!” he whined, indecisively, as most of the cubs in the playroom stampeded past his table and towards the middle of the room.
“I’ll make sure nobody touches the puzzle until you’re ready to come back to it,” Xenon smiled, patting Zee-Zee’s head.
Zee-Zee smiled up at Xenon with admiration. He always knew the best solution to any problem. “Okay!” he chirped, and hurried away to dance before the others could start without him.
Eddy was just asking everyone to choose a partner. “We’re going to do a holding-hands dance first today!” she enthused. “Find a friend who you want to dance with!”
There was a great commotion as all the cubs grabbed a friend, and several little fights and squabbles broke out, which Eddy and Warren had to sort out. Zee-Zee started to move towards Prav, then remembered what a big meanie he’d been earlier, and changed his mind. He thought up a clever way to get revenge, and loudly called out “I’m gonna dance with Sierra! Because she’s the cutest kitten in the whole daycare!”
The baby kitten sitting on a cushion to the side of the older cubs looked up with delight, squeaked “Ooooh!” and clapped her paws happily. She didn’t even notice Prav yelling “She is not! You... baby squirrel!” and stamping away to pair off with Kaffre, the tabby kitten who was also looking a little hurt by Zee-Zee’s proclamation.
“I think Sierra’s maybe still too little for this dance, Zee-Zee,” Eddy said, coming up behind him and patting his head. Sierra looked sad, and Zee-Zee felt moved to defend her.
“No she’s not! She’s really really clever for her age, just like me, and she’s gonna be a great dancer! And I can help her, because I’m really really good at dancing!” he chirped, holding Sierra by both front paws and helping her waddle over to the middle of the room.
“Well, I guess I was wrong!” Eddy smiled at the two of them and went back to her position in the middle of the room to show everyone their new dance moves.
It turned out that Sierra wasn’t such a great dance partner after all. She was still learning to walk, and so even though she picked up the principles of dancing faster than some of the much bigger cubs in the room, she still fell down a lot. But she and Zee-Zee both had a lot of fun anyway, and ended up giggling happily and creating their own dance routine. They even got a big round of applause at the end!
“Wow, you’re all such good little dancers!” Eddy beamed, looking around at the cubs as they giggled and panted from the exertion. Sierra plopped down on her padded bottom with a little squishing sound and mewed with delight. “Okay, just rest for one minute, and then we’ll do a dance that you can do sitting down!” Eddy continued, smiling at the little kitten.
Zee-Zee giggled and bounced around, still skipping in time to the dance music even though it had stopped playing, while all the toddlers chatted and played among themselves. Jerry the little red chipmunk suddenly dashed away in the direction of the bathroom, squeaking “Potty break!” and Zee-Zee giggled some more at the sight. He remembered what a big boy he was, and patted his own still-dry pull-up with pride as he held his stomach with his other paw. The unusual pose and thoughtful look attracted the attention of Warren, who knelt down in front of him and asked “Do you need the potty too, Zee-Zee? We’ll wait for you before we start dancing again.”
Zee-Zee shook his head with a little frown. “Uh-uh, I don’t hafta!” he said, rubbing his stomach a little uncomfortably. All the dancing around and picking Sierra up seemed to have turned the over-full feeling he’d had since breakfast into a little tummy-ache, but he was a clever squirrel and he knew the difference between that and a potty feeling. “And you don’t hafta ask me,” he chided Warren, waggling a finger, “cause I’m a big squirrel and I know when to go potty and I stayed dry all night and I can go by myself and you don’t hafta ask!”
Warren chuckled at the indignant speech and gave Zee-Zee a hug before standing up again. “Sorry, big squirrel,” he said. “My mistake. I’ll let you handle your own potty needs, just like a grown-up, okay?”
“Okay!” Zee-Zee chirped, swelling with pride. “Dry all day!” he cheered, clapping his paws as the nursery rhyme music started up again, the couple of cubs who’d gone potty returned and everybody clustered in a circle around Eddy to learn the new dance moves. Zee-Zee sat next to Jerry, who had the happy smile of someone who’s narrowly avoided an accident, and they showed each other their dry pull-ups and giggled while they listened to the big dormouse’s sing-song voice.
At the end of the dance, which involved everyone flopping down on their backs and kicking their legs in the air with a giggle, Zee-Zee sat up again and looked around the room. “Diaper checks and then snacktime!” Warren called, picking up Lig in one paw and Ozzie the skunk in another and wrinkling up his nose. “Come on, you little stinkers!” The little cubs who still wore diapers either clustered around the caretakers or toddled away giggling, depending on temperament, and Zee-Zee smiled happily. Diaper check time always reminded him how clever he was for not needing his diaper checked. Well, except for those times when the grown-ups checked his pull-up anyway, and especially the times when they found it was wet or messy.
But that wasn’t going to happen today! He stood up, and suddenly remembered his nearly-finished jigsaw puzzle! “Ooh!” he squeaked, happily, toddling towards it. Then, “ooooh!” he gasped, clutching his tummy again. The hurty feeling was stronger now, and it was starting to feel like something even more nasty. “Xenon!” he squealed, switching his paws to the back of his shorts and swishing his tail urgently. “Poopies!”
Xenon, who had been walking past on his way to the bathroom with Cuddy the fox holding his paw and sniffling sadly, saw the situation, took Zee-Zee’s paw in his free hand and said “Let’s go!”, jogging quickly over to the bathroom door and pushing it open with his foot.
Inside the boys’ room, Xenon left Cuddy waiting and hustled Zee-Zee into one of the three stalls, pulling down his shorts and pull-up and sitting him on the toddler-sized toilet. “Ohhhh...” Zee-Zee sighed with relief as a series of heavy splashes echoed around the tiled walls. Xenon smiled sympathetically. “Feel better now?” he asked, patting Zee-Zee’s head. Zee-Zee nodded and smiled back. “I think that big breakfast gave you an upset stomach,” Xenon explained. “Good boy for getting here in time!”
Zee-Zee giggled happily as Xenon left him for a moment to attend to Cuddy. Just like he’d said, Xenon liked him for not pooping his pants! Just wait till he told Prav! He remained on the toilet to make sure he’d finished, and watched through the open door as Xenon took off Cuddy’s shorts and wet cloth training pants.
“Let’s go back to the pull-ups just for now, shall we?” Xenon said, stroking Cuddy’s headfur and wiping his face clean. Cuddy nodded and blushed shyly, not crying any more. His mommy had just started letting him wear the cloth undies, and he liked them, but not when they leaked after a heavy wetting. Xenon opened a cupboard door and took out a pull-up in the appropriate size and species-fitting from the many different packs in there, helping the little fox step into it and pull it up. He checked Cuddy’s discarded shorts, saw the big wet patch on the seat (Cuddy went pee-pee by accident while they were sitting-down-dancing, Detective Zee-Zee deduced from his potty vantage point) and reached up to a higher shelf in the cupboard to take down a cardboard box labelled ‘spare clothes’.
“I think these will look good on you,” Xenon laughed, pulling a pair of red shorts from the box and showing them to Cuddy. “They match your fur!” The little fox nodded and smiled too. “Me like red!” he lisped, swishing his tail. Cuddy eagerly put the new shorts on and gave Xenon a hug, saying “Fankyoo!”
“You’re welcome, big guy,” Xenon said, patting Cuddy’s bottom and sending him scampering back out of the bathroom into the playroom. He nodded with satisfaction, replaced the pack of pull-ups and was bending down to pick up the clothes box, when he heard an impatient squeak coming from the stall.
“I’m finished going poopies, Xenon!” Zee-Zee called. Now that the live theatre had finished, he’d noticed that his surrounding were a little stinky and he was keen to get back to his puzzle. He hopped off the toilet and let Xenon wipe his bottom carefully.
“That’s a good big squirrel,” Xenon praised him. “Let’s hope that’s got it all out of your system, eh? Okay, go ahead and flush.” Zee-Zee did, while Xenon pulled up his pull-up and shorts, and turned to run back to the playroom too. He’d got all the way to the door before Xenon had time to blink, and was half-way through it before he heard “Don’t forget to wash your paws, Zee-Zee! That’s very important!”
Zee-Zee pouted and scampered back over to the sinks on the far wall of the bathroom. He knew washing paws was important, because it stops germs making little cubs sick, he’d just forgotten it for a moment. And he’d heard the familiar sounds of crying, yelling and giggling and wanted to go and see what was happening without him! He splashed water and soap on his paws quickly and squished them together.
“Good boy, Zee-Zee,” Xenon said, on the way to the door himself. “Better go sort that out...” he muttered to himself, obviously seeing something that needed a caretaker’s attention through the swinging door, and exited.
Zee-Zee washed and dried his paws without even needing a grown-up to help him – what a big squirrel! – and was about to go back into the playroom too, when he noticed something. The spare clothes box was still lying on the floor! Like any curious little cub would when presented with something that’s normally kept out of his reach, he examined it closely, rummaging through the various clothing inside, when suddenly he picked something out with a chirp of delight.
It was a pair of grown-up underpants! And not just any underpants, but ones with a picture of a superhero squirrel on them! The clever little cub could tell from the size and shape of the tail-hole that they were made for bushy-tailed squirrels, and as he held them against his waist he could see that they were very nearly the right size for him! A look of sneaky cunning crossed Zee-Zee’s face.
Two minutes later, Zee-Zee strode proudly out of the boys’ bathroom, snickering like a super-genius. If anyone had looked through the clothes box now, they might find a night-time pull-up with acorn designs, buried carefully underneath all the other clothes, but they wouldn’t find a pair of superhero squirrel underoos! It had been tricky undressing and dressing again, especially pulling the new undies over his shoes, but it had been worth it! They felt silky and smooth against Zee-Zee’s furry bottom, not at all like pull-ups or diapers. Just a little bit too big for him, but not so much that they wouldn’t stay around his waist as long as he kept his shorts on. He enjoyed the feeling and the clever secret that nobody could possibly have suspected! He stood still for a moment, daydreaming pleasurably about the second part of the plan – at hometime, or maybe just a little bit before so that all the cubs could see it, he’d pull down his shorts and announce that he’d been wearing big boy undies all day! And everyone would see he didn’t need any kind of padding any more! They’d tell him he was the cleverest, grown-uppest, biggest big squirrel in the whole wide world, maybe throw a party in his honour! Maybe even give him a cookie!
“Want a cookie, Zee-Zee?” Warren asked, snapping Zee-Zee out of his dream. Confused for just a second by the blurring of fantasy and reality, Zee-Zee blinked and then giggled, seeing the big liger kneeling in front of him and offering a chocolate chip cookie and a sippy cup of apple juice.
“Heehee, yes please, Warren!” Zee-Zee chirped, taking the snack and skipping over to the cushions where his friends were sitting and eating and drinking their own tasty treats.
Home 
Thu May 07, 2009 2:36 pm
