Girard loved the little pats and soft slaps of the gentle rain in the morning. Phi knew that this was the end of the spun sugar garden statues, but he didn't have the heart to mention it.

Sparkly Jim felt like nothing could go wrong. He had his new shirt, his newly cleaned teeth and eyes, and a shiny new commemorative 75 cent piece. Roger, however, knew exactly what all those things had cost and realized that this one wave of giddy spending had threatened to bankrupt the home for abandoned porcupines.

Gary was offended by the sound his wet wingtips made with every step, but it only reminded Michael of home and his mother.

The Hirsute brothers were aghast that the store was out of batteries. Without the precious battery acid, how would they make the formula? But they knew they had to keep their voices down, or Baby Joey would stir and then they would have a real problem.

Sylvester could barely stay awake. All week he had to contend with Hank trying to finish his project for the home marble sculpting class.

Filbert had his nose bent out of shape all week, but Hazel wasn't about to apologize for what he encouraged the Pecan twins to do. The parrot needed to have something other than obscenities in its vocabulary.

A strange peace descended on the group. None of them were willing to admit it just yet, but the idea had struck them that this time they had gone too far. Serving paint instead of soup was going to infuriate many people, whether they called it art or not.

Everyone had their own idea about how the profiteroles should be made, and no one was willing to budge. No one realized it at the time, but this was the beginning of the end for their confectionary confederacy.

Though Curly saw only brushes with bristles of gold, the rest of them were highly doubtful of the "toilet cleaner to the stars" scheme.

Alex hadn't slept a wink while considering Jim's proposal, though in the end, he would refuse. The prospect of a lifetime supply of jujubees was more than he could imagine.

Hippo once again felt the urge to return, though he knew full well Hank was the only one who knew the secret of the lobster mine.

The gang knew that they had a long road ahead of them. The Lucky Dandies would no longer give them quarter. The Painted Moths were openly hostile and the Bruised Peaches were keeping their distance. It would be a long road to reclaim their glorious dominance of the East Valley Mall.

Arthur was determined to bring the first line of mummified hot dogs to market, though Phil secretly vowed to never stop eating the prototypes.

Chicken Joe knew where this path would lead, metaphorically, but only Beaver knew where it was going to lead, literally.

Harold just wanted to go back to bed, even though it was not so much a bed as a dense collection of millipedes, and even though it certainly had smelled a lot fresher when he first bought it. Still, that's where he wanted to be, but Clammy kept dragging him along. There was something important happening at the soda ash plant.

Clem felt drowsy all day, as though his body and mind were miles apart and communicating through a frayed wire. Clancey way well aware of this and wasn't about to tell him the new secret ingredient in the coffee.

Alyosha patiently waited for his star to return. He knew, even through his darkest times, that is was just a matter of patience. His life would once again be a glorious, beautiful thing. Rex was just content that it wasn't raining.

Stretch was just about finished with the mango farm. Year after year, and no matter what the weather, the trees consistently refused to grow mangoes and instead produced piles and piles of something approximating a radish. Scratch just looked on it all and wondered why he ever gave up his job in the mines.

Frank couldn't believe that John wasn't as angry as he was about how nonplussed Harry and James were that their zeppelin burned down again.

The twins were worried that old Junior knew what they had done. But they were still committed to the case of rabbit liberation, no matter what the cost.