The Lost Socks

One day Tiger was walking through the neighborhood. Tiger walked by the laundromat and saw something inside it. There was a huge pile of socks on a table. Tiger went inside the laundromat and asked the worker why there were so many socks there. The laundromat worker said that those were all the socks that had gotten lost in the dryers that others had never found. 

Tiger had an idea and asked if he could take all the socks. The laundromat worker said yes. Tiger ran home and got a cart. Then he brought the cart back to the laundromat. Tiger put all the mismatched socks into the cart. At the same time Zebra was walking by and saw Tiger. She stopped and asked Tiger what he was doing. Tiger said he had an idea of what to do with all the lost socks. 

He told Zebra that they could get some balloons and tie a sock to each balloon. Then they could walk around the neighborhood with the balloons and see if any of their neighbors recognized the missing socks. Zebra thought that was a good idea and said she could help. The two of them went to the store, and got a lot of balloons that would float. 

Then they put a sock on each balloon, and all those balloons were tied to the cart and floating over their heads. They walked around the neighborhood, and asked everybody passing by if any of the socks were their missing socks. But everybody said that they had thrown away their other sock, and didn't need a single sock by itself anymore. 

Now Tiger and Zebra didn't know what to do. They walked to the park to sit down and think. While they were at the park, Squirrel came walking by and saw them. Squirrel asked Tiger and Zebra what they were doing. They explained that they were trying to return the missing socks to the owners, but nobody wanted the socks anymore. 

Then Squirrel said he had an idea for the socks. Squirrel ran home and got some sewing needles and thread. Then Squirrel came back. Squirrel said that there were two trees that were too far apart to jump from one to the other. But they could use all the socks, and sew each together. And then they would have one super long sock bridge. And it would stretch from one tree to the other. 

And Squirrel could walk across the sock bridge, without having to climb down and up the two trees. Tiger and Zebra said they would be happy to help. Zebra and Tiger took all the socks off the balloons. And the three of them sewed all the socks together. After they were done, all the mismatched socks became one long piece. 

Zebra held one end and stood by the first tree. And Tiger held the other end, and stood by the second tree. They both tied their end of the long piece of sock bridge to branches in the tree they were standing next to. Then Squirrel walked onto the hanging sock bridge. 

But when Squirrel reached the middle of the sock bridge, it was getting pulled down by Squirrel standing on it. Zebra had an idea to use the balloons. Zebra said that she and Tiger could tie the balloons to the sock bridge, to help it stay up above the ground between the two trees. Squirrel said that sounded great. 

Then Tiger and Zebra tied all the balloons to the middle of the sock bridge, and that helped it stay afloat in the air. Now Squirrel tried walking from one tree to the other again, across the long sock bridge, and this time the middle stayed up with the balloons. Squirrel thanked Tiger and Zebra. Tiger invited Squirrel and Zebra to come have dinner at his place. They said yes and the three of them went over to Tiger's place. 

Tiger got dinner ready and the three of them ate together. Then after dinner was finished, Squirrel and Zebra helped clean up. Then Squirrel and Zebra were ready to leave. They thanked Tiger and said goodbye, then they went back to their own homes. Tiger was tired and ready for bed. He changed into his pajamas, and brushed his teeth. Then he laid down, and went to sleep, slowly slowly slowly.