Once upon a time there lived a very kindhearted but not overly bright woman. She was sort of like that old lady who lived in a shoe that had so many animals, she didn’t know what to do. Except this lady did know, but sometimes she forgot.
One night in the cold of winter, she went to the magic barn where on crystal clear and icy nights, the animals could talk, but she did not know this….until… she opened the doors and made a big mistake. the horses rushed past her, the sheep came in under the horses legs, the donkeys pushed by her and the llama watched the stampede from the door.
Spritely Sprocket Spirit Train went into her stall and turned around and came right back out, straight into the donkeys stall stating ” there is a pig in my room”
Winston flew out of the donkey stall and over to Gideons stall grumbling “get that big red headed mare out of my house!”
Gideon left his stall and went into Spritely’s stall and said, “don’t worry little pig, I will keep you safe”
Swinger was already locked in his stall so he started kicking the walls and yelling “what the heck is the hold up, I am hungry”.
Jenny began screaming “Winston! help me! there is a great big red horse in here stealing our hay”
And the three little sheep ran into the pig’s stall looking for their dinner.
The woman was frantically shutting and locking stall doors to keep everyone in and the little pig safe. Finally, everyone was shut in somewhere except Gideon because he was not leaving the frightened little piggy’s side.
The woman went to the pig and said, “it is ok Petunia, you are safe and can come out now.”
Petunia stood frozen.
The woman tried again “come on Tunie-fish, let’s go back to your room.
Tunie whispered “shhh, I am being quiet so they can’t see me”
Gideon bent down and wuffled her back and said “I can see you little pig”
Winston started screaming and kicking the crap out of Gideon’s stall cuz he wanted to save his and Jenny’s hay from Spritely.
The woman roared at him, “WINSTON, SHUT UP NOW!” and he did.
Silence settled into the magic barn. The woman went and got a cookie, “come on Tunie, let’s go now….”
Petunia very quietly said “no”…
“come on tunie-fish, come have your dinner” sang the woman in her best sing song voice.
 Petunia looked the other way.
Gideon asked the little pig, “why don’t you go back to your bed?” and she whispered ” if I don’t move, they can’t see me”
Gideon shook his head and said, “I will go and stand in the hallway so no one can see you while you go back to your bed” and that is just what he did.
It took Petunia a couple of minutes to believe him but finally, ever so slowly, she followed the woman back to her bed. The woman gave her dinner, and moved all the other animals back into their right places. Then she fed all of them too.
As she locked up the barn and looked up to the millions of stars above her, she said, “thank you” and went home to have a drink of bailey’s and hot chocolate because she suddenly felt very weak.