Riley the Rhino

We had a bit of a fright yesterday.

Everything started off well. Some of us gathered around to watch Riley the Rhino's uncle on TV.

As you may remember, Riley himself was a TV presenter and came to live in the Fluffy Hair house last year. Riley is still taking a career break (although still talks a lot).



Even Zippy came out of his cave to join us - although he did keep shouting "Where's Jeffrey?" throughout the programme.

Unfortunately, as Riley does not really know Zippy that well, he started to wonder where Jeffrey was. We only found this out later, however.

Apparently Riley wandered off into the kitchen to look for Jeffrey. Of course, Jeffrey is an old work colleague of Zippy and does not live in the Fluffy Hair house. But Riley did not know this.



It seems that Riley wandered into the washing machine. Of course, at the time, none of us knew where Riley had got to. We looked all over the Fluffy Hair house. Eventually Simon the Sloth found him in amongst the clean washing! He looked a bit bewildered, as you can see.





Fortunately, I had my special Gorilla matches in my MAD detective bag. I was able to light a small fire to help get Riley warm and dry.


So all is fine now. Riley is dry, but still a little shaken (not stirred). This (fortunately) has had the effect of him being less of a chatterbox. Zippy is back in his cave and (unfortunately) having psychotherapy again. And Nora and I are resting this evening over a glass of milk and some cake.

Lots of fluffy thoughts

Lewis MAD xx

PS I sometimes wonder if the Fluffy Hair could cope without me as I always seem to be the one to sort out the mess!

peace and quiet

lewis has been very busy since he got back from africa.  indeed, he's off on a stakeout right now.  i don't really know what that means and i'm sure its some kind of take-away food, but lewis said he is carrying out a surveillance.  anyway.  i, on the other paw, have been relaxing.

yesterday, i went on a walk with dolly the sheep to see some of her friends.

it was a little bit nippy (not zippy) so i had to take shelter in a hole in the wall.  a black horse in the field told me i could get some money from a hole in the wall, but i didn't find any here.  luckily, i did find a woolly hat (that i think some of the sheep made), so that made me feel much warmer, as you can see.

when i got back to the fluffy-hair house, all the other animals were out (i found out later that they had gone to see a white horse or talk to some fox and hounds or something something).  i took the opportunity to have some peace and quiet and to do two of my eight favourite things.

lewis is back now from his fish and chip shop survey, or whatever it is he was doing, takeaway or something something.  (i hope some fish haven't got battered again).

anyway.  i'm going to go now as i hear that simon the sloth has made some tea!

lots of love

nora the panda xxx

Rothschild Giraffe

As promised, I am showing you some more pictures from my visit to Africa.




As I said, along with seeing my cousins, I was doing some detective work for the giraffes. They were fed up of the other animals saying that they only have long necks because their feet smell. I agreed to investigate who had been spreading these vicious rumours. Those poor giraffes, they get a raw deal. Very few of the other animals invite them to parties as they think they are a pain in the neck!

First of all, I interviewed the elephants. I deduced that due to their long noses, they may be picking up on some smells. They had just finished playing squash when I saw them. I found them to be very friendly.





I then spent a very long time looking for the lions. Eventually I spotted Mrs Main from my window. I was a little concerned that she might be hungry - with me having a bit more of a pot belly from being so well fed when I went to see my cousins. Anyway, it turned out that because it wasn't Tuesday (or chewsday as Nora calls it) then i was OK.






I talked to the lions about the giraffes. They told me that when the giraffes first came to live near them, they wore socks. Nobody knew why. The lions said that they never took their socks off, so the animals started saying that they must have smelly feet.



However, after consulting my APE (Animal Pictures Encyclopedia) I found out that these were a very special kind of giraffe called Rothschild. They do not wear socks, they just look like they do because their lower legs are white!



Because the animals were afraid of smelly feet, they never got close enough to the giraffes to actually see that they were not wearing socks at all!





I asked the lions to have a chat with the giraffes and the other animals about the no-socks-but-look-like-socks madness, and all is sorted out now. Apparently the zebras are organising a party and the giraffes will be invited. And all agreed that none of the animals have smelly feet.



In celebration of sorting out this misunderstanding, I took a trip to Tanzania. Here I am on the border of Tanzania and Kenya. That's what the T and the K stand for (and not Tea cakes and Kiwi fruit as Nora thought).

I enjoyed my trip and was glad to be doing my MAD job. I hope my cousins keep in contact with me.

Lots of fluffy love and clean fluffy socks, Lewis xx

My Gorilla Cousins!

I expect you are all wondering where I have been. Even if you haven't, I'll tell you anyway. I went on a holiday to see my cousins in Africa. Here I am in the van on the way there. I don't mean that I travelled in a van all the way from the Fluffy-Hair house, as that would have taken weeks and I didn't pack enough bananas for that. No, I went in a plane (but had to share a seat with a rabbit from Italy) and then got in a van.

Anyway. As you can see from the video, I got on very well. My cousins shared their bamboo with me and I gave them some bananas in return.

They treated me very well and told me that I was a very hansom blackback.

.

I am now back in the Fluffy-Hair house. Nora was very jealous as she said that a panda should go to Rwanda and that a gorilla should go to Manila . I haven't told her yet that I also went to see some other animals. Riley the Rhino knows, because I saw his aunt and uncle. I'll put the pictures of that on here soon, when Nora isn't looking. I was invited to see some giraffes as they had heard I am MAD (Master of Animal Detective) and needed some help from me. But as I said, more on that another time.

Here I am with one of my relatives - we think he may be my uncle. He's looking quite grumpy as he wanted my red tie, but I wouldn't give it to him as I needed it to keep warm in the cold nights, and, of course, to maintain my high standards of appearance.

I will keep in touch with them.

Off to catch up on my sleep.

Lots of love, Lewis MAD xx

Nose Job

I am just about able to write this as I lie in my hospital bed. Don't panic! I just needed a routine operation on my nose. Not for cosmetic reasons, of course - although as you know, I take pride in my appearance. No. My nose has been very sore for a long time. It's much better now, though.




This was me just about to 'go under' and you can see the poor state of my nose.



As you can see, Nurse Nora assisted in my operation. Thank goodness I was not conscious for it as she can often get confused and I had fears about her dropping crumbs on my face, or being 'slippery' with the needle, or simply just leaving me half way through for a 'sweetie' break. Fortuantely, all went well (although when I woke up the pillow felt a little sticky).

This photo was taken a few minutes ago. As you can see, I am still very weak, but I am being cared for.

Because I have been in hospital, I missed out on a short break with some of the lads (Monkey). It looks like he had a great time - living in a castle!

He even managed to drive a boat! I am so jealous. Anyway. I shall be going to see my relatives in Africa soon, so I hope my nose will be better by then.

Anyway, Monkey obviously made an impression on holiday. They even provided him with his own salad!

Righty-ho. I am very tired, so am going to stop writing. Thanks to Nurse Nora. And thanks to all the amimals who have sent kind messages.

Lewis the Gorilla MAD

xx

Finally, I am MAD!

Wow!  What a busy week I have had!  I finally finished my detective exams!  Nora helped out with one of the modules (above).  As you can see, I won handsomely (below).

My deductive skills and reasoning in Cluedo helped me to get the credits I needed to become MAD.  Nora keeps laughing at this.  It does not mean in the mind-slipping-from-my-skull-non-sanity sense.  It actually stands for "Master of Animal Detective."

I am very proud of myself.  

Lewis the Gorilla MAD

xxx

strawberries!

after watching our favourite film on the tv,  i could hear dolly the sheeping baaing very loudly in the garden.  it was not her normal baaaaaaa, but more of a baaaaaaa-naaaaaaa-naaaaaaa type of baa.  last time she made that sound was when she discovered maltesers in the garden which unfortunately turned out to be rabbit droppings.  oops!  that got me into a bit of a jam.  but anyway.  i heard her make the same baa (naa-naa), so i rushed out to the garden (via the sweet cupboard).

dolly said that mr robin the robin had told her that he had found some strawberries.  strawberries!  one of my favourite things (defo in my top 5 along with chocolate, biscuits, ice cream and sweeties).

and here i am nibbling away.  they were special panda sized strawberries.  i hope they grow back again tomorrow, but dolly said they need more straw to help them grow and we haven't got any straw. 

oh, hang on.  i can hear lewis calling me.  he wants to do judo or play ludo or cluedo or something something.

better go.  on my way i'll make a strawberry shake (and take it to a scary film!)

lots of panda love and strawberries, nora xxx