Chapter 1
Once there was a big Bullfrog, no, a huge Bullfrog, that lived down in the swamp. His name was Bob. Yep, Bob the Bullfrog.
Bob was from a long line of huge Bullfrogs, but Bob was a bit bigger than everyone in his family, the biggest as a matter of fact.
When he was just a tadpole, all the other tadpoles would laugh at him. Because he was so big, he couldn’t swim as fast as they could. But then they got jealous because he was the first one to get his legs and the first one to hop out of the watery swamp up onto solid land. He could jump higher and farther than all the others. Bob had the longest tongue and could snag those bugs from twice as far as the others could.
This made the other Bullfrogs even more jealous. They wouldn’t play with him, let him join in the nightly belch-off or even the hop-a-thon. This made Bob very sad, so one night he ran away from the swamp. He was going to find a better place to live, somewhere where they didn’t make fun of him, but this made Bob sad too, because there was one particular girl Bullfrog he hated to leave.
She was a real beauty, she was. Her name was Beatrice, yep, Beatrice the Bullfrog. She had the biggest bulging eyes, the nicest warty bumps on her back, big thick legs and a belly that hung all around her, a real beauty she was indeed. And her belch? Oh, now that was music to his ears, she had the sweetest belch of any Bullfrog around.
But Bob needed to get away, he couldn’t stand being made fun of any more, so off he went. Swimming and hopping his way through the thick mucky swamp.
He came to a part of the swamp that was dyer and less mucky, with plants galore drawing in plenty of tasty bugs to snag. But the sun could shine more here, and it was too hot on Bob’s tender warty skin. He had to spend most of the time in the water, clean up to his bulging eyeballs, and even then, he would have to dip them in the water to keep them from frying to a crisp. Even though there were some of the fattest and tastiest bugs around, he had to move on.
He took out looking for another home. This is when he noticed his butt was bumping harder than usual. Every leap he took, he would come down with a thump. It was uncomfortable, but he had to move on.
Bob found a watery part of the swamp. It had small patches of spongy land with canals cutting between them in every direction. There were also more gators in this part of the swamp, big gators! With long snouts full of long sharp teeth and jaws that snapped down hard on whatever it could catch.
There were also humans. Humans in low riding boats, slowly making their way through the canals, stopping every once in a while to hang bits of meat on a string over the water.
Bob thought this was most unusual. Why would they do that? As he watched the humans, he heard a twig break behind him. He jumped in fright and turned to see what it was. It was the biggest, nastiest, meanest looking gator he had ever had the chance to meet.
With its big high eyes, skin of iron and a big toothy smile, it started making its way straight for Bob! Bob jumped as high and as far as he could just as that toothy smile snapped right where he had been sitting.
Bob didn’t stop jumping until he was well away from that gator. Breathing hard and dry as a bone, he made his way to the water to cool off and rest. That was when he noticed his butt was hurting. He jumped so high and so far, his butt came down with a heavy thump each time.
The evening came, and Bob could hear water splashing and the gators cry out for help.
He opened his drowsy eyes and peered out through blades of grass he was resting in. For as far as he could see, he saw gators hanging from those bits of string that the humans had put meat on. What was happening?
Bob found out when the humans showed up again, with guns. They were shooting the gators and putting them in the boats! Bob was terrified to see such a sight.
“You there, Bullfrog, help me!” a loud raspy voice called out.
Bob jumped straight up, higher than he had ever before, coming down with a hard thump! He peeked out through the blades of grass and saw the big nasty gator that tried to eat him earlier.
“Why should I help you? You tried to eat me before?” Bob belched out.
“If you help me, I would never eat you and I will protect you from the others that would,” the gator says with a big toothy grin.
“How do I know you are telling the truth?” Bob asks.
“I noticed you hit with a hard thump when you jump. Here, take one of my plates of skin. It is hard and strong and you won’t hit the ground so hard,” the gator pulls one of his plates off and hands it to Bob.
“How can I help?” asked Bob, now curious.
“I am tangled in the string. If you can jump on the pole and lean it over, I can get to that sharp stone there and cut it loose,” the gator points to a sharp stone jutting up out of the water.
Bob thinks about it until he hears the boat getting closer.
“Do you promise not to eat me?”
“I promise.” The gator smiles.
Bob hops over to the pole holding the string, sizing it up. He jumps high into the air and lands right on the pole, bending it just enough for the gator to reach the sharp stone. The gator works quickly to free himself.
But to Bob’s surprise, when the string is cut, it frees the pole, slinging Bob high into the air and landing far from where he began. While flying through the air, Bob hears the gator laughing loudly.
Bob lands with a great splash, much to his relief. Popping up from the water, he sees more water and a little piece of land far away. He starts swimming, getting tired, he looks around for somewhere or something to help.
Suddenly he feels something under him, pushing him, not towards the land, but towards a boat, a boat much bigger than the boats in the swamp.
Bob sticks his big bulging eyes under the water, seeing a big grey dolphin, pushing him along. Bob starts swimming away as quickly as he can.
“Wait! Please, I need your help!” the dolphin bubbles out to him.
Bob keeps swimming.
“I will take you to land if you will free my calf!” it calls out again.
Bob stops and looks to the land, it is so far away, and his legs are tired and hurting.
“What do I have to do?” Bob belches out.
“See that boat? It has a net under the water catching fish. My calf is caught in that net. Please free him,” she bubbles out to Bob.
“How can I help?”
“On the top of the net there is a latch. All you have to do is press it down and it will free all the fish and my calf. Please, hurry. He can’t breathe under the water, he has to surface!”
Bob dives down and starts swimming for the net and finds the latch on top. He presses and presses, but the latch won’t open.
“I know this is going to hurt,” Bob says to himself.
He turns around and drops his butt on the latch as hard as he can.
The net opens with a rush of fish, and the baby dolphin races for his mother, while Bob rushes for the surface, where he is soon joined by mother and son.
“Thank you Mr Bullfrog, you have saved my calf. And as I promised, I will carry you to shore.” ticks and squeaks the mother Dolphin.
She scooped him up on her back and carried him to shore.
“Just call me Daisy. And this is my son, Donald. Thank you again."
“Bob, just call me Bob, and thank you for bringing me to shore,” he belches.
Bob butt thumps away, again looking for a place to call home. He soon learns that this is a place full of humans. This is not a place he wants to be.
Keeping to the edge of the woods, he comes up on a large beady eyed rat, with a long nose, tiny sharp teeth, long twitching whiskers, and big ears, who at the moment has his long thick tail caught in a trap.
“Sir! Sir! Yeah, you there! Sir, can you help me?” the rat calls out to Bob, in a fast nasally, squeaky voice.
“How did this happen? Bob belches out.
“The humans, they laid traps along the treeline to make me starve!” the rat says quickly.
“Make you starve?” Bob belches.
“Yes, yes. I get in their trash and pick out the goodies to take home to my family,” the rat rattles off.
Bob blinks his large bulging eyes.
“Please! If you help me, I can take you to my home and feed you! Oh please let me free!” the rat squeals.
“But how?”
“That small stick there, put it under the arm of the trap and push it down and I can pull my tail free,” the rat points to a small stick.
Bob picks up the stick in his mouth and hops over to the rat.
“Yeah, yeah, just like that! Now push down!”
Bob pushes and pushes, but he can not push the stick down far enough to lift the arm of the trap. He looks at the trap and knows what he has to do.
With a belchy sigh, he turns his back to the trap.
“This is going to hurt.” he bounces his butt down hard on the stick. The trap goes flying through the air and the rat squeaks in delight.
“As I said, I will take you to my home and feed you. Come along now,” and the rat scurries away, with Bob butt bumping along right behind him.
