Chewie Was Hungry

Chewie was hungry. Of course, that was nothing new. Chewie was always hungry. Chewie woke up hungry and wouldn’t rest without something to eat. She didn’t really care what she found; she ate almost anything. Sometimes she ate small frogs or snails or little earwigs. Other times she ate mushrooms or flowers and nectar. One of her favorite foods was honeybees, but they were hard to catch.

She was born far away, in a place full of food. She remembered how wonderful it was the first time her mother led her away from the nest. Food was everywhere, and there were dozens of other baby rats to play with.

Two days later something big began digging near her home. She ran into the cushions of an overstuffed chair. The chair shook for a long time. Finally, it was quiet. Chewie left the chair and began to explore. She was near the edge of a large lake. It wasn’t as nice as her first home, but she found many tasty things to eat. Cattails grew tall and many tasty things hid in the plants. Other tasty things hid in the shallow water under the plants.

Chewie was a good hunter. She had a sensitive nose and could smell food as soon as she was anywhere near it. One place she always smelled food was by the duck nest. Se never got a chance to eat it because the ducks always chased her away

One day Chewie found a good hiding place near the duck nest. She waited for the ducks to go for their daily swim. She wanted to eat the tasty food she could smell in the nest while they were gone.

Everything went according to plan, and the ducks never saw Chewie. They went swimming and didn’t know she was waiting to attack their nest.

Chewie jumped right into the nest. She could smell food all around her. She knew it was hidden in the large white things in the nest. She didn’t know what they were called, and she didn’t really care. She opened her mouth and tried to bite them.

Chewie’s teeth were sharp, but they were no help. The white things were smooth and glabrous. There was nothing for her teeth to catch on. They just slid off the smooth, slick surface. She opened her mouth and tried to bite the white glabrous things again. The same thing happened. She tried standing on one and biting it; that didn’t work. She tried to turn one over, looking for an opening, but she couldn’t get her teeth into it anywhere. They slid right off.

Poor Chewie. She was so hungry, and her teeth kept sliding off the duck eggs. She heard Mother and Father Duck coming back, and she tried harder, but nothing worked. The eggs were just too smooth.

Mother Duck saw Chewie and rushed back to the nest. She hit Chewie hard on the head with her beak, and she bit Chewie on the foot. Chewie cried and ran away from Mother Duck as fast as she could. The only thing she got that day was a headache from where Mother Duck hit her.

Chewie learned a good lesson that day. She has never tried to eat duck eggs since.