The Spectacular Adventures of Noggin & Izzy

Noggin & Izzy meet the evil Doctor Alexi

It started out like any normal Saturday.  Noggin slept late, until his annoying little sister, Muffin, woke him up by jumping on the bed.  Noggin, being a bit grumpy, but not unkind, played with Muffin in the garden for a bit, then set off to meet Izzy at the science museum.  They'd been planning it for weeks, because there was a new time-travel exhibit, and Noggin thought it might help them with their own plans to build a time machine so they could travel to the old west and be cowboys.

So Izzy bought their tickets, and they waited in the queue, which was very long. 

"What are you eating?" asked Izzy, when she noticed Noggin chewing.

"Just a Crunchy Bite," said Noggin.  Crunchy Bites are his very favorite snacks, and he always packs them in his knapsack for just such an occasion.  "I'd offer you one, but I know you don't like them," he said, secretly a little glad of that, because he only had one left.

"It's ok," said Izzy, "I'm not hungry.  Anyway, it looks like the line is moving now." 

So in they went, through the big glass doors and into the Future section of the museum.  As they approached the gleaming Time Machine at the centre of the exhibit, Noggin noticed a very tall, very peculiar looking person hovering near the door of the spectacular machine.  It wasn't so much that he looked peculiar, but he was acting peculiar, at least to Noggin.  His eyes were darting to and fro, like he was watching everyone.  And he seemed to be trying to hide behind people, which was especially difficult, since he was practically a giant.  Noggin didn't like to stare, because it's impolite, but he couldn't take his eyes off him. 

Suddenly, this peculiar person did a most peculiar thing.  He climbed over the velvet rope and opened the door of the Time Machine and hopped in.  Noggin, who was still watching, got so excited that without even thinking about it, he followed him, sneaking under the velvet rope and jumping inside just before the big shiny door of the Time Machine closed with a loud clang.  The man was so busy pushing buttons, he didn't seem to notice Noggin had joined him.  Lights were lighting up, and buzzers were sounding, and people outside were yelling and pounding on the door.  And then suddenly, they weren't.  Because they weren't there anymore.  They'd all disappeared.  The Time Machine was now in a different place entirely.

"Uhm, excuse me," said Noggin.  "I'm sorry to bother you, but I'd like to go back to my friend now." said Noggin, quite politely. 

The peculiar, giant person turned around in surprise.  "How did you get here?" he demanded.  "This is all wrong!"

"I only wanted to see the inside of the Time Machine," said Noggin.

"Well, never mind, you'll have to come along now," he said with a frown, as he threw open the door and dashed out.

"Where are we, and if you don't mind my asking, who are you?" asked Noggin.

"Ten minutes ago, and I'm Doctor Alexi.  Hurry up, we don't have long."

"To do what?"

"To stop the museum from opening!" said Doctor Alexi.  "They're going to steal my Time Machine and take it into the future and stop my evil plan to take over the world!"

"Who is?" asked Noggin. 

"All I know is their names.  Someone called Noggin & Izzy.  I can't let them foil my plans.  It would mean the end of everything, including my Crunchy Bites factory, which is how I make money to fund my evil work."

"No more Crunchy Bites?" said Noggin.  "I think its ok, we can go back now.  I'll take care of it, but if it's ok, I'd like to make one more stop first."

Five minutes later (or was it earlier, I'm getting a bit confused), Noggin and Izzy were standing in the queue, waiting to go inside the museum, when they heard the announcement that the new Future exhibit was unexpectedly closed for the day.

"What are you eating?" asked Izzy.

"Crunchy Bites," said Noggin with a smile.  "I've got bags and bags of them."

Noggin Gets a Little Sister

"I don't like this at all," said Noggin to Izzy in a huff.  "She makes so much noise.  And she keeps taking my toys.  Without asking.  As if she doesn't even know they're my toys and not hers.  I don't like this at all."

"But she's so cute!" said Izzy.  "How could you not like her?"

Noggin looked at Izzy in shock.  Best friends are not supposed to think that things you don't like are cute.  "That's another thing," he said.  "Everybody keeps saying how cute she is.  Just because she's little.  I don't care how little you are, it isn't right to steal someone's toys.  What kind of name is Muffin, anyway?  And why did they bring her home?  We were perfectly fine without her.  Now everything is loud and messy and no one has time for me."  Even as he was saying these things, Noggin knew they weren't completely true, but he couldn't help it, he was feeling really cross.

"I know how you feel," said Izzy, patting Noggin on the back in sympathy, "but that's just what it's like to have a little sister.  There are advantages to being the big brother, though."

Noggin had been so busy thinking about the disadvantages, he hadn't thought there might be a good side of things.  "Like what?" he asked.

"Well, for one thing, you'll have someone to play with even when I have to go home to my tea.  She won't always be so little, you know.  And you'll always be bigger than her, so you can boss her about.  Even her littleness becomes an advantage, because compared to her, you're really grown up.  You'll get to stay up later than her, and go places she's not allowed to go.  And it'll be your job to protect her if anyone tries to hurt her."

"Hurt her?  Who would try to hurt her?" said Noggin in alarm.  After all, even if she was a nuisance, she was his little sister, and no one better hurt her if they know what's good for them. 

Just then, they heard a tiny squeal followed by lot of very loud barking coming from the garden next door, where Alfie, the scary German Shepherd lives.

"Hep me!" came the squeal again, from the other side of the fence, and Noggin realized it was Muffin.  "Oh pease hep me!" 

Noggin and Izzy ran to the fence where the cries seemed to be coming from, and Noggin realised with dismay that Muffin had wiggled through the small hole he had dug, and now she was in Alfie's garden.  Noggin knew he had to get her back before she got hurt.  But the hole wasn't big enough for him to get through.  Luckily, Noggin is very good at digging, so he set to work making the hole bigger as fast as he could.

"It's ok Muffin, I'm coming," shouted Noggin as he squeezed himself under the fence.  Just as he came out the other side, Alfie came running up, barking really loudly.  Normally, Noggin would have been scared, because Alfie is about ten times as big as he is, and he's a trained killer-attack-watchdog (or at least that's what the other dogs in the neighborhood said).  But now Noggin could only think about protecting Muffin.  So he stood up to Alfie, looked him right in the eye and barked his most ferocious bark.  And miraculously, Alfie stopped barking. 

"Sorry," said Alfie.  "Just doing my job.  If you get her out of here now, I'll look the other way."

Noggin was so surprised, he didn't know what to say, so he just nudged Muffin back through the hole, crawled through himself, and collapsed with relief against the fence.

"Yip!" said Muffin.

"You're welcome," said Noggin.

Noggin & Izzy and the Lost Kite

By Izzy and her dad

‘Whooo!’ said the chimney. ‘Whooooo-ooo, whoooooooo’.

‘I didn’t know chimneys could talk’, said Noggin.

‘They can’t’, said Izzy, ‘It’s just the wind making a noise, like when you blow across the top of an empty bottle, or play the flute’.

Now Noggin had done lots of things in his life, but he was only two; and although that means he was fourteen in dog years, he had never blown across the top of an empty bottle; and he hadn’t played the flute, either.

‘It means it’s a windy day’, said Izzy, ‘and that means one thing: kite flying!’.

‘What’s a kite?’ asked Noggin. He was beginning to feel like a little puppy again, there were so many new things to find out about.

‘Come with me and I’ll show you’, said Izzy.  They went into the garage, and, hanging on a nail was a yellow diamond shape with a long red tail.  ‘That’, said Izzy, ‘is a kite. My kite’, she added, proudly. ‘But we can share it. It’s a bit old, but it is a really good flier’.

Izzy took the kite down and went indoors to get her coat. While she was doing that, Noggin went out to sniff the air, which was one of his favourite things to do. It was very windy indeed outside, but Noggin isn’t one of those silly dogs who, when the wind blows, thinks someone is pulling their tail and then spins round and round until they get all giddy. No; being a West Highland Terrier he knows a thing or two about windy weather, and so he turned his face to the wind like an old sea-dog, and sniffed all the different scents that were rushing on the breeze until Izzy came out again.

Together Noggin and Izzy walked down the path to the common, and then up the hill to get the best of the wind. Noggin held the kite while Izzy unwound the string, and then, when everything was ready, he let go of the kite and Izzy ran as fast as she could. The kite caught the wind and it shot up into the sky, so Izzy stopped running and unwound lots more string until the kite fluttered way up above their heads.

‘Do you want to hold the string, Noggin?’ Izzy asked.

‘Yes please’, said Noggin. Izzy carefully put the reel of string in Noggin’s mouth.

‘Hold tight, it’s really pulling hard’, she warned him. How the kite pulled! But Noggin held on, growling at the wind and pulling on the string as it tugged and the kite danced amongst the clouds. One time a strong gust of wind dragged him across the grass, while another lifted him off the ground so that he floated for several metres before coming down again. ‘Gheeee’, said Noggin (which is what ‘Wheee’ sounds like when you’re holding something between your teeth –try it).

‘Can I have a go, now?’ asked Izzy, hopping from one foot to another with excitement.

‘Es’, said Noggin, which was the nearest he got to saying ‘Yes’. So Izzy took the string, and pulled on it. It was as if the kite was a fishhook and had caught the sky; the wind tugged at the kite, and twisted it, and jerked and shivered it, but still Izzy held on. The string sang in the wind as the kite cut to the left, then to the right, twirled and fell, soared and dipped, until Izzy’s hands began to hurt a little. Then, without warning, the handle stopped pulling and the string fell slack; the kite, rather than pulling at the air, floated on it, getting further and further away, it’s long tail sliding sideways through the air. For a moment, Izzy didn’t know what had happened; and then she realised –the string had snapped! She felt a hard lump rise in her throat, and her eyes went prickly and warm.

‘The string’s snapped, Noggin!’ she cried. ‘What are we going to do?’

Now you may not know this: but Noggin never gets flustered. He always keeps calm whatever happens, except when the postman pushes too many letters through the letterbox at once. So he tilted his head, cocked his ears and put on his ‘don’t talk to me, I’m thinking’ face. ‘We’ll go and look for it’, he said. ‘Keep an eye on where it goes!’.

Noggin and Izzy stood and watched the kite as it drifted high over the common, across the road and above the trees on the other side, before it fell slowly somewhere in the distance. ‘Let’s go!’ shouted Noggin, racing across the common. Izzy ran after him. ‘What an adventure’, Noggin called back over his shoulder, ‘Keep up!’

Izzy ran as fast as she could across the grass. Very sensibly they both stopped at the road and crossed carefully, because as Noggin said, it’s better to take care and lose a kite than to get run over. Soon Izzy and Noggin were slithering along muddy paths and splashing through puddles in the wood. ‘This is fun’ Izzy shouted, nearly forgetting about the lost kite.

Suddenly Noggin dived off the path into the bushes. ‘He must have seen the kite’ thought Izzy. She tried to follow, but there were lots of brambles and she couldn’t get through, so she went back to the path. ‘Noggin’, she shouted. There was no answer, so Izzy walked along the path for a while. ‘Noggin’, she called again: still no reply. Izzy knew that Noggin knew the way home from the common just as well as she did, so she wasn’t worried, even if it was beginning to get a little bit dark. ‘Noggin’, she called one last time. This time there was a bark in the distance, so Izzy hurried on along the path; she called again, and heard Noggin barking, much closer now. It was getting quite dark, but suddenly Izzy saw him, his white coat standing out through the trees. He was standing under a tree in the middle of a clearing.

‘Have you found the kite, Noggin?’ Izzy called.

‘Ah, er, no, not exactly’, Noggin said, as Izzy caught up with him. ‘I, er, forgot about the kite, you see. I’ve been chasing this squirrel, and I think I’ve got him cornered in this tree’. Izzy looked up, and saw a squirrel sitting above them on a branch.

‘But what about the kite?’ said Izzy, sadly.

‘Oh, I expect that’s gone’, said Noggin, looking at her. As he did so, the squirrel saw its chance and raced down the trunk of the tree, across the ground and leapt up another tree.

Noggin raced after it, with Izzy running behind. ‘Noggin’s probably right’, she thought, ‘I don’t suppose I’ll ever see my lovely kite again’. And although she felt a little bit sad, she soon cheered up: because squirrel chasing seemed quite fun, too. Suddenly Noggin stopped. ‘Oh bother!’ he said, loudly.

‘What’s the matter?’ asked Izzy.

‘That squirrel’s got away: I can’t see him anywhere, can you?’ said Noggin. Izzy looked up into the branches and twigs overhead. She couldn’t see a squirrel; but… what was that? It looked like…

‘Noggin’, she said, ‘I don’t know about the squirrel, but I think you have found something –look!’ And there, hanging in a tree was Izzy’s kite. Izzy tried to grab it, but it was just out of reach.

‘If you hold me above your head, I might just be able to get it’, suggested Noggin. So that’s what they did: Izzy reached up, holding Noggin round his tummy, and Noggin gently gripped the kite in his teeth.

‘Oh, thank you, Noggin’, said Izzy, when the kite was safely down; and she gave him the biggest hug ever.

‘Oh, it’s nothing’, said Noggin. ‘After all, what are friends for?’

Noggin & Izzy Meet a Princess & a Leprechaun

Sometimes you meet the most interesting people.

One day, a friend of Noggin's mummy, named Glenda, came to visit.  Glenda lives in Texas, which is a very big place in America, where they have real-life cowboys, not just the kind on television.  While she was visiting, Glenda wanted to take a trip to Ireland, so she asked Noggin and Izzy if they'd like to come along, and of course, being adventurers, they did.

Ireland is a magical country, with many places to explore, so at the first chance they got, Noggin and Izzy set off on their own.  They hadn't gone far when they came to a lovely green meadow full of flowers.  On the other side of the meadow, there were trees, and Noggin naturally headed for the woods, because that is always one of his favorite places to play.  As he got near to the edge of the woods, he heard a very tiny voice, which sounded like it was crying. 

"Hello," said Noggin, "is someone there?  Do you need help?"

The tiny, sad voice said, "Aye, here I be and I need help, so I do."

Noggin still couldn't see anybody there.  "I'm terribly sorry, but I can't seem to see you," he said.

"Who are you talking to?" asked Izzy, who had just caught up.

"Arg!  That'll be me!" came the voice, which seemed to be coming from underneath Izzy's left shoe.

Izzy jumped back, to find a tiny little person, about four inches tall, dressed all in green, including a tall green hat, picking himself up and dusting off his tiny trousers. 

"Pardon me," said Izzy.  "I'm so sorry, I didn't see you there."

"Ah, don't worry yourself, me darlin'," said the tiny person.  "I'm just a wee leprechaun.  It happens all the time."

"I've never met a leprechaun before," said Izzy.

"Then you're new to Ireland, are ye?" said the leprechaun.

"Yes, we're just visiting," said Noggin.  "Excuse me, but before Izzy stepped on you, you said you you needed help.  Is something wrong?"

"Aye," said the leprechaun, hanging his head in sadness.  "I've failed in my noble task to escort the wee Princess Madison to safety.  I dozed off for just a minute, and when I woke up, she had vanished."

"You were escorting a princess?" asked Izzy.

"Aye.  Little Madison, the faerie princess.  She's in grave danger from a very bad ogre, and she needs to find a new place to live far away from these woods.  But I've lost her, and I fear the worst."

"Noggin's very good at finding lost things," said Izzy.  "Do you have anything of Princess Madison's that he can smell?"

"Just this handkerchief," said the leprechaun, handing it over to Noggin.

Noggin took one good sniff, then began sniffing about in circles until he picked up a scent and ran off into the trees, with his nose close to the ground.  In no time at all, he was back, but not alone.  With him was the most beautiful little girl, with long flowing hair and a tiny crown. 

"May I introduce Her Royal Highness, Princess Madison?" said Noggin.  Izzy made a proper curtsy, as you do when you meet a princess.

"You're a hero, so you are," said the leprechaun.  "But we've no time to lose, she's still in danger, and she must go far from here."

"I can think of a place that is very far from here," said Noggin, "and we know someone who would take you there and take care of you.  Princess Madison, have you ever met a cowboy?"

So Noggin and Izzy said goodbye to the leprechaun, and took Princess Madison with them back to meet Glenda.  And Glenda loved the little princess so much, that she took her home with her, and Princess Madison lived happily ever after in Texas.

Noggin & Izzy go up a Mountain

Dominic & Michael at the top of the Mountain

One day, while Noggin and Izzy were still in South Africa on a trip with Noggin's mummy, they met two brothers named Dominic, who is five, and Michael, who is two, who both live in South Africa in a place called Capetown. Noggin thought Capetown was the most beautiful place he had ever been (even though he is only two, and hasn't been that many places yet), because it has all the kind of places he likes best, including beaches and water to play in and mountains and lots of places to meet wild animals.

Since Dominic was in charge of the adventure that day, he decided that they should all go to the top of Table Mountain, so that Noggin and Izzy would be able to see all of Capetown from up high.

It was a long way up, and Noggin was a bit worried that it might be too far to climb, because his legs are not very long. "Don't worry," said Dominic, "we can ride up in a cable car."

So they all bought tickets and when the next cable car came, they got inside. The cable car was like a big glass room, that you could see out in every direction, and it hangs on a cable that stretches all the way from the bottom to the top of the mountain. Noggin was having such a good time looking down at the town below, that he didn't even notice that the cable car had stopped, about half-way up. The cable car operator was pushing buttons and talking into his radio, but nothing was happening.

"I don't like this one bit," said Izzy, getting nervous. "What if we're stuck and we can't get back down!"

Michael agreed. We was hungry and thirsty already, and he wanted to go to the cafe at the top of the mountain for a snack. He tried very hard to be brave, but he was starting to think he might have to cry.

Some of the other people in the car were even more afraid, and one lady had her eyes shut very tight and was breathing funny.

But Dominic, who is very good with mechanical things, especially things that involve pushing buttons and opening and closing things, was calm as anything. Although he is only five, he is quite smart, and very sensible, so he decided to take charge.

"Noggin," said Dominic, "your job is to help the people who are afraid, by letting them stroke your head, because that is very calming. Izzy, can you find something in your backpack for Michael to eat or drink? I'll see if I can help get us moving again."

Then Dominic climbed up into the cable car operator's box in the center of the car and began very carefully to press buttons, until he pressed just the right one, and with a little bump, the cable car began moving up and up again.

When they got to the top, everyone cheered, and they thanked Dominic and said he was a hero.

Then they went to the cafe to get a snack, and they drank green Slushpuppies until their tongues turned green, and they climbed up on rocks and looked down at all of Capetown and had wonderful fun together until it was time to ride the cable car back down the mountain. This time, everything worked perfectly and it didn't stop until it was at the bottom, safe and sound.

Noggin & Izzy Meet a Cheetah

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Sometimes it is more important than others to know how to read.  Noggin, who is a two-year-old West Highland Terrier, can only read a little, because he doesn't go to school.  But Izzy has been going to school for ever so long, and she can read quite well.  Unfortunately, she didn't see the sign that said "Do not feed the cheetahs" because she was busy reading a brochure that said that cheetahs have more than 2000 spots.  So they walked right by the sign, and nobody read it.

Still, that might not have been a problem, if it wasn't for the Crunchy Bites in Noggin's backpack.  You might already remember that Crunchy Bites are Noggin's favorite snack, and that even though he loves them, he is always willing to share them.  So when he turned a corner and came upon three baby cheetahs lying next to old bits of tree, he thought it only polite to offer them each a Crunchy Bite.  Now here's the real problem:  cheetahs can run very fast, and when you give them Crunchy Bites, it makes them run even faster, and they started running around and chasing everyone in sight, including Noggin and Izzy.  Now Noggin can run faster than almost any dog at the Rec, which is the park where he plays back home, but he can't even come close to running as fast as a cheetah, and he was starting to become very tired and wondering what would happen if he stopped running.

Luckily, just then three girls came along, Anna, Alexandra and Katerine, and even more luckily, Katerine has experience with cheetahs, because one came in her garden when she was only a tiny baby.  So Katerine knew the secret to calming down a cheetah: you must confuse it. 

"You might be fast," shouted Katerine to the cheetahs, "but can you whirl and twirl around like this?"  And she spun about to show them.  The cheetahs all tried to whirl and twirl, but they got all dizzy and fell down. 

Then Anna joined the game by walking about upside down, so that the dizzy cheetahs did not know which was was up.  Now that the cheetahs were calmer, Alexandra sang them a song, so they'd get sleepy. 

Thanks to the clever and talented girls, everyone could now rest easy, which was especially important because it was almost naptime, and Noggin was very tired from all the running.

"Next time," said Noggin, "I'm going to make sure and read the signs."