Cozy' Regret

Cozy’s Regret

        Cozy Coyote,  by far the hero of the town and a really fine-looking fellow with thick golden hair, held the trophy from the Mars Mountain Triathlon two years in a row.  But this hot August afternoon  he was anything but somebody’s hero.  You see, last night had been a long one and the big celebration after his latest win lasted until dawn. Food ran out long before the crowd did, and now he was really hungry.  Almost back to his house,  he passed the familiar farm where Mrs. Puddleduck had her nest in the bow of the old weathered, gray rowboat whose frame rested upside down. The two saw-horses which supported each end had been made by Cozy’s uncle over a decade ago. 

      If he just hadn’t been so hungry, this next part would never have happened. Because Mrs. Puddleduck was back laying her eggs again, he could see three big ones laying  inside the old boat just inside her fence.  And before he could think straight, he burrowed under the thick cassia bushes and grabbed the closest egg and  swallowed its contents.   “Oh my, what have I done? Maybe she won’t miss just one.”

      But that one had tasted so good, he reached for a second one. Two cracked shells now lay on the ground at his feet. He thought he’d bury those back under the bush, but when he turned to see the one egg left in the nest, he couldn’t stop himself and he ate that one, too. ”Maybe she won’t remember where she laid her eggs,” he said out loud, as he buried the last evidence alongside the other two. He looked to the right and to the left before he left Mrs. Puddleduck’s yard. No one anywhere.  No one would suspect him even if the case came to light.

    After arriving home, he felt really bad. “What did I just do? I’m a thief,” he said to himself. “Those eggs were someone else’s property—they were Mrs. Puddleduck’s.” He felt ill.

        Since nothing like this ever happened in Cornersville,  Mrs. Puddleduck knew she must report the missing eggs and straight she went to the Sheriff’s office the next morning.  Sheriff Dandy Dan listened a minute, and the next minute he was on the scene.

    He might have missed the evidence if he hadn’t felt an indention right under his foot. Holding his magnifying mirror close to the ground, he found what must belong to one of the Coyote families.  Cozy Coyote would never have been considered a suspect except for the strange configuration Sheriff Dan saw in the dirt—the footprint. Only one of that family had a missing pad on his left back foot— Cozy!

      As soon as he saw Sheriff Dandy Dan coming up the road, Cozy knew he knew. He confessed before Dandy said a word. “Cozy, what were you thinking? This sort of thing never happens in our town!” Cozy hung his head.

    Had it not been for all the considerations of his past, and the pleas and promises Cozy made to Mrs. Puddleduck, and the pressure Sheriff Dan received from the rest of the town to “let Cozy make restitution and give him another chance,” he would have been hauled away to jail that morning.

     After admitting the theft, Cozy went right over to Mrs. Puddleduck and apologized. He promised his “sorry” was the most sincere he had ever been. And Cozy lived up to his word. He rebuilt a part of the boat stern that had rotted and filled in the hole where he dug under the bushes. He did Mrs. Puddleduck’s grocery shopping and any other errands whenever she or any of her family needed something from town. He was good as his word and lived to be the most trusted citizen in Cornersville the rest of his life.

  “My son, do not forget my teaching, but keep my commands in your heart, for they will prolong your life many years and bring you prosperity.” Proverbs 1,2.