Previously:
Bea and her new friends. Snakely and Spidie are crossing a brook to see the petroglyph with their likenesses on it.

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Both Snakely and Spidie were mesmerized by their likenesses on the boulder. Bea inquired if either knew who would have made them. They were magnificent. There in front of her were several drawings with her likeness.  

Snakely let herself slide down from Bea’s right shoulder to the rock surface. Spidie dropped down as on a rope. They felt better situated to be able to make conversation.  Moving toward the front, they would have puffed up with joyful pride if possible. There, on the face of the rock, were the distinct drawings of Snakely and Spidie. 

They even had Spidie’s beautiful web work featured. Although Bea once again asked if either had heard any stories of who could have drawn these, she did have her suspicions.

Her guesses were confirmed when Snakely mentioned she had heard it was longer ago than most could remember. Spidie announced she’d heard it was before the caves her parents' parents decorated.

Bea told them she called them stone pilers because where she and Doolie had their cave, there were many stones piled in a special pattern. Both Snakely and Spidie recalled playing around them. 

Chippies would play hide and seek in and out of the holes in the walls between the piled stones. Snakely would zip through them, unless Spidie had been doing her wonderful web work, covering the holes.

Both Chippie and Snakely would get a face full of webs. Spidie couldn’t help snickering a tiny bit at that description. Though they had a delightful day, Bea was aware it was time she continued her journey as the maker was directing her.

Neither Snakely nor Spidie had any further plans when Bea offered them a ride, so they accepted and resumed their previous position. 

Bea thanked them for being her new friends. She explained how her best friends had all gone to the bridge of rainbows, and they were the first true friends she’d met since then. She did of course add in about wonderful Willow.

Bea wondered why she heard a sizzing snicker coming from her right shoulder, and a tiny teehee coming from her left ear. She was brought back to her painful memories of the little mean bears who used to laugh at her.

This time, rather than feeling hurt and wanting to hide, she simply asked what they were laughing about. She was puzzled at their answer. They both claimed they found it difficult to make friends because so many were afraid of them and would hide under a rock or behind a tree.

It saddened Bea to hear them tell of times some animals would rather crash or splash into a deep, dangerous river than to stop to consider being friends.

Despite the noisy nonsensical bantering between Spidie and Snakely, Bea did her brain exercise. Occasionally tuning into what was going on with them, she caught Spidie claiming dibs on the highest point, Bea’s ears. 

The tickling sensation informed Bea, Spidie was hopping from one ear to the other. She laughed as she wondered what Spidie would capture in her ear web. Whatever it was, it would be more friends catching a ride.

Snakely reassured Spidie, there was no competition coming from her for any high spot. She spent her life on the ground and was not like her cousins who nonchalantly climbed trees. 

If we could see Bea, we’d notice a look of concern change to a wide smile as she overheard Snakely confess she felt quite comfortable on Bea’s shoulder. She judged it to be a fairly smooth ride, and appreciated  Bea’s assistance.

Silliness between Snakely and Spidie  did not prevent Bea doing her notice exercise. Just in time, she saw a puppy get thrown into a car. Due to its growling, Bea judged it didn’t know the person putting her in. Peering through the window with sad eyes, the abducted puppy yelped. 

On a vital mission, she cuts through the woods, following the car as it grows smaller. The trail ends near a gray house and unpainted barn, a dark blue car with many dents blocks her clear view to know for sure where the puppy is being kept.  

Bea asks Spidie and Snakely to listen to see if they can hear what she hears. It is muffled yet not an unfamiliar sound. She just can’t identify where it is coming from.

She is suddenly saddened and troubled to be reminded of the same frantic calling for help she heard when Sweet Puppy had fallen into a hole too deep to climb out of.

Having learned in the past, how to follow Sweet Puppy’s voice yelping, signaling she was trapped and in danger, Bea follows the howling they all are hearing, until she spots a wooden barn in the distance. That is the source of the begging for liberation.