The Overweight Hippo

This is the story of Henrietta Hippo.  She is overweight and has a blind date in 
less than a week.  She has been using the Weight Watchers program for excessively large 
animals but it hasn't been helping at all.  Henrietta was desperate.  She decided that she 
would try to go on a long walk for the whole week.  Maybe she could lose a few pounds 
and be fit for her date.

Once she started on her first walk, she remembered she was baking brownies in 
the oven and she had forgotten all about them.  Henrietta hurried inside and grabbed the 
brownies out of the oven.  Luckily they weren't burnt.  That would have been the worst 
thing in the world for Henrietta!  In all of her excitement Henrietta realized that she 
needed to go to the bathroom.  Henrietta opened the door to the basement, hurried down 
the stairs and rushed into the bathroom.  When Henrietta was done, Henrietta thought that 
she would just do some exercises instead of walking... just in case she had another 
emergency.  Henrietta when to open the door going out of the basement, when she found 
it locked!  She was so stupid!  She had locked herself in the basement and her brownies 
were waiting for her.  Then she thought, 

"What about going through a window to get out?"  She decided that she would get 
a latter to get out of the basement.  She would climb out of the only window in the 
basement.  Once she found a latter, went to the window, and set up the latter, Henrietta 
felt tired.  Henrietta sat for a while.  Then she thought about her brownies and got a burst 
of energy to get out of the basement.  As she climbed up the latter she realized that she 
was too big to get through the window.  But she didn't realize this until she was stuck 
right in the window.  Henrietta was mad at herself.  She wished that she had been using a 
better weight program.  Then she wouldn't be stuck in the window and would be ready 
for her blind date.  As she was trying to get out of the window her mother came by.  
Henrietta didn't hear her mother because the door to her house was on the opposite side 
of the house that Henrietta was stuck on.  But Henrietta did hear the doorbell, and yelled 
at the top of her lungs.  Sadly Henrietta's mother was old and going deaf and Henrietta's 
mother didn't hear her.  Henrietta was so upset that she started to cry.  Slowly the day 
passed and it was getting cold and dark outside.  Henrietta was hungry and the half of her 
that was outside was really cold.  Henrietta's voice was almost gone from yelling for 
help.  But even though Henrietta yelled and yelled no one could hear her.  Henrietta lived 
in the country and was now seriously thinking about moving to town where at least 
someone would hear her.  Soon she fell asleep with thoughts of food in her mind.

The next day came very quickly for Henrietta.  When she woke up she would 
smell the brownies that she had set by the window to cool.  Even though the smell wasn't 
strong Henrietta could still smell the brownies.  Henrietta's stomach growled in hunger.  
She guessed the time to be 8 o'clock in the morning.  Henrietta's voice was still gone 
from before but she must have lost a few pounds because she could move around more in 
the window.  Then Henrietta had to go to the bathroom... BAD! She suddenly tried to 
frantically move out of the window.  She finally quit moving around after about a half an 
hour.  She felt miserable and was cursing her weight problem.  Almost half the day 
passed and Henrietta felt horrible.  She had to go to the bathroom and wondered if she 
would ever get out.  The rest of the day passes extremely slowly.  Henrietta had to go to 
the bathroom NOW!  Henrietta tried once more to force herself free and amazingly she 
got free!  Even though she fell to the floor, she was very happy.  She ran off to the 
bathroom.  After she was done, she weighed herself.  She had lost sixty-five founds!  
Henrietta was tried and fell asleep with pleasant thoughts in her mind.

The next day came and Henrietta tried to break down the door.  Henrietta ran against the 
door with all of her might and before she knew it she had the door knocked down!  She 
ran upstairs to get out of that horrible basement.  Henrietta was so happy that she nearly 
forgot about her date.  Henrietta looked at the calendar and her date was today.  Henrietta 
looked at the clock and the time was three o'clock.  Her date was at five and she didn't 
want to be late, so Henrietta got cleaned up.  Soon it was four and Henrietta left for her 
date and she felt good about all of the weight that she lost.