Gary and Morris and the 2nd Annual Woodland Valentine's Day Party

It was a warm February morning at the Hervey Foundation for Cats. Although Alberta had gone through a real cold snap earlier in the winter, things were now unseasonably warm! The snow was melting, the sun was out, and Gary and Morris couldn't get enough.

Lying on the back porch, feet tucked in all around, the two cats sat there like two bowling balls, letting the sun heat up their fur.

"This is great!" said Morris. "I can't believe it's so warm!"

Gary just smiled and squinted.

"If things keep up this way, our woodland friends are going to be out of hibernation sooner than later," Morris added.

"Oh right... Maybe they will…," muttered Gary, who was more focused on relaxing than having a meaningful conversation.

Morris realized Gary was falling asleep and decided to walk around the yard a bit. The ground was wet and earthy, which he really liked. It gave off that wet dirt smell you only really get in the springtime.

"Smells like rejuvenation!" Morris said aloud.

He jumped from pieces of ice to dry patches of grass, avoiding all the major puddles. Just as he leapt to another open spot, he noticed one of the bushes move out of the way.

"That's odd… Plants aren't supposed to move."

He immediately went into battle mode, getting low to the ground and slowly making his way closer to the spot where the bush had been. His ears were rotating like a pair of radar dishes on an old naval ship, picking up any and all noise surrounding him. Nothing was going to get past his line of detection.

Suddenly he got to the spot where he thought he saw the bushes move, but nothing was there! What could possibly be going on?

Suddenly a voice came from a distance, "Psst! Morris!"

Caught off guard, Morris jumped backwards and landed on his back. Once he rolled over, he locked eyes with a big moose who was ducking behind the nearby foliage, with his giant antlers sticking up in the air. It was Bullwinkle!

"Morris! Over here!"

Bullwinkle was trying to not draw attention to himself. His antlers must have 'the bush that moved' as seen by Morris just a moment earlier.

"What brings you by?" asked Morris. "The lovely weather?"

"It is beautiful outside, isn't it?" said Bullwinkle. "I was on my morning walk and remembered that today was Valentine's Day! Do you remember last year when we invited all our friends over to my cabin for a Valentine's Day party?"

"I do!" said Morris. "I had a blast!"

"Well, I wanted to come find you because I was thinking we should do it again," said Bullwinkle. "We should have another Valentine's Day party."

Morris thought that was a great idea. The two of them chatted for a bit and then Gary came over.

"Hey Bullwinkle!" he said with a big long stretch and a yawn the size of Manhattan.

"Hi Gary!" said the moose.

Bullwinkle and Morris got Gary all caught up on their idea for another Valentine's Day party and he loved it. They talked about who they would invite, the food they needed, and what they might do for fun. Gary had the suggestion of doing a game night.

"I say we get everyone together, eat some food, then have some fun playing games!" said Gary. "Things like hopscotch, tag, catch, and more!"

They all agreed this would be the most fun, but it was still early in the day, so Bullwinkle was going to go back to his cabin and get things ready as best he could. Gary and Morris agreed to gather up some food, as usual, then head over there later to help finish with setup.

Back at the shelter, the two cats weren't just thinking about food, they were thinking about games too. What could they all play together later? Their woodland friends all had unique builds making some games easier than others.

"Well, a raccoon could play checkers," said Gary.

"But not a moose, that's for sure," said Morris.

"Have we seen Marjorie play any games we could play there?"

After further deliberation and a quick raid of the storeroom for snacks, the two cats set off on the trail to Bullwinkle's place. They figured that once they got there, they'd help him with any of the setup that still needed to be done, then they'd go and invite people to come join them! Living in the forest, none of their friends had phones so they'd have to be invited in person.

Once Gary and Morris got to Bullwinkle's, they saw his immense antlers roaming around behind the place. After dropping their bag off, they went out back to see what he was up to.

"Boys! Glad to see you!" he said.

"Bullwinkle! We brought some food with us," said Gary.

"That's great!" said Bullwinkle.

"What you got going on here?" asked Morris.

"I'm making some hopscotch squares. It's easy. I just drag my hoof through the dirt and arrange them in ways I think make the most sense. I have one easy one, a medium one, and a very difficult one."

The cats were impressed with Bullwinkle's work.

"We thought of a couple of other games we might play as well!" said Gary. "We'll explain them after dinner."

Bullwinkle and the cats headed inside and finished setting everything up. Once done, the cats hopped on his back, and they strode off into the forest to invite their friends.

As predicted, lots of their friends were awake from their hibernations since the ground was starting to thaw. They managed to convince lots of people to come – Terrance the beaver, the raccoons, the bears, the squirrels, gophers and prairie dogs, as well as a few others!

"I think we're going to have some real great turnout this year!" said Bullwinkle.

Back at the cabin, Gary, Morris and Bullwinkle were sitting around telling jokes and enjoying each other's company until they heard a knock at the door. It was the raccoon family! They had come early, as requested by the cats, to help with a few final touches on the cabin. Since they were the only animals with thumbs in their friend group, they were needed to get the fireplace started and light a few candles.

"Thanks for coming by early you guys," said Bullwinkle. "I would do this stuff myself, but my feet are covered in hooves and the cats can only really push things with their paws and pick things up with their mouths."

"No problem," said Mama Raccoon. "We're just glad to get out of the house."

The young raccoon kids were busy playing with Gary and Morris while the parents took care of business.

Just then, there was another knock at the door. It was Joey the squirrel and his friends!

"Hey guys!" he said really quickly. "I'm so glad you invited us here because we had nothing else going on and with this warm weather you just want to get out more but sometimes it's hard to do and you don-"

Morris cut him off.

"Welcome Joey! Welcome everyone! Come on in! Happy Valentine's Day!"

The squirrels all ran inside and got comfortable by the warm fire. Joey had brought a small gift of nuts with him, so he put those in the kitchen as he came inside.

Then there was another knock at the door. It was the bears! They had brought a whole bunch of delicious dried berries to share and dropped those in the kitchen. Then another knock… and another! Soon the cabin was full of forest friends chatting up a storm and sitting by the warm fire, eating snacks and having a great time.

Bullwinkle stood up to make a toast.

"I want to thank everyone for coming to the second annual Bullwinkle Valentine's Day cabin party, as you know, I am your friend Bullwinkle."

"I'm not good at speeches," he continued. "But I want to just thank all of you for coming down and remind everyone to grab a bite to eat, something to drink, and to find a comfy spot. We have a bunch of fun stuff planned for tonight so get ready!"

The group gave him a round of applause.

"Gary and Morris, you want to say a few words?"

The cats got up in front of the folks in the cabin.

"Hello everyone!" said Gary. "We want to second the wise words of our friend Bullwinkle here, but we also want to say this is likely going to become an annual tradition!"

"That's right," said Morris. "Last year we had a party and this year we are having a game night. Next year? Who knows?"

"How knows indeed!" said Gary. "So set your calendars for next February 14th, because we are going to be having fun and we need you to make things even better!"

The animals all gave another round of applause, and then they all went back to eating, drinking, and laughing.

Soon it was time to start playing some games! Bullwinkle got back up in front of the group and let them know how everything worked.

"We've got lots of options for fun! We have three different hopscotch games set up outside, we have a checkers board left over here by the original owners, which the raccoons have graciously cleaned up and set up for us. We also have a number of other fun things planned in the main area of the cabin, starting with a game of musical chairs!"

The animals all got up and moved to the games they were interested in. Mama Raccoon was playing checkers against Joey the squirrel (who moved the pieces faster than anyone had ever seen before), the bears went out to try their best at hopscotch, and the rest of the gang stuck around for musical chairs.

Musical chairs was set up just as it would be at a human party. Chairs were collected from around the cabin and set up in the middle of the room, then the animals all made a circle around them. Bullwinkle would then stamp his hoof to a beat for an undetermined length of time, then when he'd stop, whoever couldn't find a seat was out!

To get things started, Bullwinkle cleared his throat, lifted his head up to the air, then bobbed his head with a big snorting sound and started to stamp his hoof. The animals all started to walk in circles.

Noticing Bullwinkle's impeccable rhythm, one of the groundhogs got up and started to chatter to the beat. Not to be outdone, Terrance the Beaver saddled up next to Bullwinkle and slapped his tail against the floor as well, while two little sparrows started to sing. They had a full band!

Since the name of the game was musical chairs, the music had to stop abruptly, over and over, and watching the band try to do this all at once was almost as fun as watching the players scramble for a seat. On and on the animals would march, then Bullwinkle would stop stamping his hoof, then the rest of the band animals would all stop once they eventually noticed he had, and then the chairs would fill and one more person would be out. Remove a chair, then repeat!

It all came down to a prairie dog, a wild turkey, and a baby raccoon. The turkey tried his best, but he couldn't keep up with the smaller animals and soon found himself out of the game. At the very end, the prairie dog, named Peter, and the little baby raccoon were circling the last chair. Perhaps because Peter was himself a father, or he just had a kind heart, he clearly let the little raccoon take the final chair and win the prize.

The little baby raccoon was so happy he almost passed out from the excitement. He won a little bag of assorted nuts and raced off to the fireplace to share them with his siblings.

Just then, the bears came back inside after a rousing hopscotch tournament, donning a jar of honey as a prize which Gary and Morris had 'borrowed' from Marjorie.

Things were starting to cool off as the sun had gone down a couple of hours ago, but the fireplace was still burning bright and hot. The animals played lots of games inside the cabin throughout the rest of the night and dined on their favourite foods.

Eventually, it was late, and Mama Raccoon approached Bullwinkle.

"Well, it's time we get the kids back home and into bed. Thank you so much for such a wonderful evening!"

Gary and Morris came over to say goodbye.

"Thanks for coming gang!" said Gary. "This was so much fun! And now it's a tradition!"

"So, I guess we will see you all next year?" asked Papa Raccoon.

"I think so!" said Bullwinkle. "I'd love that!"

As the raccoon family left, the other animals with young families followed in tow. It was time to get all those young ones home and into bed."

Gary, Morris and Bullwinkle stood by the door, saying goodbyes to everyone who attended. After a while, it was just the three of them left.

"Bullwinkle, I have to hand it to you," said Gary. "You have the best parties."

"I think I might be the only one having parties," he said. "I'm the only one with my own place big enough to fit us all! That said, you two really make the difference!"

The cats nodded and laughed then bid their adieus and trotted off back to the shelter. Bullwinkle put the fire out and settled in for the night.

Once back home, Gary and Morris curled up in their favourite spot by the window and started to nod off.

"Now that was a great Valentine's Day," said Morris.

"Absolutely… maybe… totally," said Gary, with a yawn.

Morris could tell Gary was falling asleep, and so was he, so he settled in for the night as well.