Once upon a critter time at the World Headquarters of greenlightWRITE.com / GraciousJaneMarie.com in Oklahoma, Mr. E. A. (Eat Anything) Whickers, the proprietor mouse of MarthaBear.com's Old Fashioned Online Emporium was nowhere to be found. 

"I thought he might be hunting for overlooked potatoes or corn so I checked for him in the abandoned farmer's field next door," said a winded Teddy O™, the rascally teddy bear and Senior Ursine Editor of the work force. 

"I've sniffed all the furniture for him," seconded Haggis, Junior Senior Canine Editor.  "He's not looking for coins in the sofa springs." 

"I checked behind, beside, under and in front of the refrigerator, and he's not searching for crumbs.  He's got the area pretty well cleaned up back there anyway," reported Elmo, the hamster and honorary Wedding Planner for the company.

"Well now," worried Taffy Whickers, Mr. Whickers' beloved wife, "I can't imagine where he's gone ..."

"Howdy all," came the voice of the missing mouse from down the dark hall.  As the rotund mouse entered the lighted living room, he was a sight to behold.  Usually, Mr. Whickers' full-length work apron was pristine white due to Taffy's heroic efforts in the laundry.  Now, his apron was smeared with black and his furry face was grimy.

Hands on hips, Taffy scolded her husband.  "Have you been shredding newspaper again?  Why must you wear your best white apron when you do that, dear?  You know how I have to go to the extra effort of laying out your clean wet clothes on the grass for Mr. Sunshine to bleach them.  Then I have to worry about some marauding dog," she looked at Haggis, "or stray cat coming in the yard and taking our things just for sport.  I don't like to complain, but ..."

Taffy was usually the sweetest wouse, female married mouse.  Mr. Whickers decided his wife must have had a particularly difficult day and didn't remind her that shredding newspaper and using it for everything from stuffing their mattress to merchandise packing material was her recycling / cost saving idea to begin with.  "I know I should have waited a day or two until the ink set on the paper.  Then it wouldn't have smeared.  It's just that I'm so efficient sometimes, I get ahead of myself.  I'll help you lay the clothes out on the grass in the morning, Taffy."

Teddy O™ offered his services.  "I'll stand guard over the clothes till they bleach and dry, so don't worry."

Feeling foolish at having made a fuss, Mother Whickers thanked everyone and said, "Why not call it a night, dear.  Wash up and I'll have dinner ready in a jiffy."  She saw the expectant faces of Teddy O™, Haggis and Elmo.  "Yes, boys, I'll save some toasted sunflower seeds for you all. "  Now while sunflower seeds were not the first food choice for most dogs, Haggis had often sampled the cooking of Mother Whickers, so she wagged her tail in anticipation, if for no other reason than FOOD was coming.   With that, the matronly wouse went outside to call her three teenage mouselings into supper.  (They  were playing Kick the Hazel Nut with the neighboring squirrel on the stepping-stone beneath the porch light in the back yard.)

At 5 a.m. next morning, Mr. Whickers was working in his corner office mouse hole in the storeroom located in Nancy's garage.  Teddy O™ wandered past, explaining his impatience.  "Will Nancy ever roll out of bed and fix me my favorite breakfast of homemade Monkey Bread Sweet Rolls?  She's such a slug-a-bed, ya know."

Mr. Whickers continued drawing lines with a ruler across a plain piece of paper.

Teddy continued, "I'll give her till 5:15.  If I don't hear Nancy's feet hit the floor by then, it's time to start rearranging her pots and pans.  That little bit of noise usually rouses her."

Mr. Whickers had advised Nancy on several occasions to wear earplugs to prevent just this thing, but she hadn't as yet purchased any.  Hmm, he thought.  Perhaps that would make the perfect gift for his kind boss and friend.

"Hey, what cha doin', Mr. Lickers?" asked Teddy O™, so used to calling the mouse the silly name that he didn't even remember it had initially been meant as an insult.  

Likewise used to it and over any hurt feelings by this time, Mr. Whickers replied as he put away his ruler, "Let's see.  Next thing on my list is to reroll the fax cartridge carbon insert, shake the toner cartridge on the printer to try and get more use out of everything, bend more paperclips to use as hangers for incoming merchandise orders - particularly Jane Marie's new original designed Tumbling Teddies T shirts and lunchboxes.  They're a quite a hit with children and the adult office crowd as well.  The bottom line is I could use a hand with some of those things.  How's about it?" 

"Sure thing.  I'll do my part.  After all, we need to insure that greenlightWrite and GraciousJaneMarie are successful because I, for one, like where we live, like what we eat around here and, oh yeah, I like Nancy and Jane Marie.  They really need us." 

While Mr. Whickers considered Teddy O's words less than eloquent, his sentiments were identical. 

As they did the chores together, the bear's always ravenous appetite was temporarily displaced by his sudden understanding of all the recycling done by Mr. Whickers.  "Do you run sheets of paper through the printer twice so the blank back side isn't wasted?" 

"Right you are, Ted.  There's no sense tossing a perfectly good piece of paper in the trash if the letter or memo or whatever I'm printing isn't seen by anyone outside our offices.  I believe in recycling.  I like to think that by doing so, I'm saving a tree or at least a branch or two." 

Teddy O™ pondered this, deciding it was a good idea.   Then he thought of Thundering Teddies, his club for bears with good intentions - though sometimes those good intentions didn't work out.  Since their motto was Bear with It, he tried to think of an idea to earn credit toward his Good Deed Badge and help the environment by recycling at the same time.  If Mr. Lickers could save money for the business, so could he. 

Teddy O™ did just that.  After a full day of critiquing Nancy's editing of Jane Marie's latest articles, Nancy was most pleased when the little fellow went outside to help the children down the road sell Beary Juice.  It was made according to his special friend Martha Bear's personal recipe, so he could confidently assure everyone they would raise enough money to go to unicycle camp.  And while he poured the beverage for the kids' customers, he came up with a winner of a recycling idea. 

After several weeks, Teddy O's plans were complete.  Bright and early the next morning, actually brighter and earlier than most mornings, Teddy O™ roused everyone in the house at 4 a.m.  Through slitted eyes, the whole family trudged from their beds, wondering what the commotion was this time and certain of one thing.  Teddy O™ was the cause. 

"Don't you guys have anything better to do than just sleep?  Look, you could be helping our office, our business, our whole plant even, by recycling!"  Their eyes widened as they viewed the rascally bear sitting on the floor proudly surrounded by piles of colorful postage stamps! 

Speaking for everyone, including her husband, who had originally found Teddy O™ and brought him into the family, Nancy asked rather calmly, considering she'd only had four hours of sleep,  "Where on earth did you get all those stamps?"  

It was a proud moment for the little bear.  "Why recycling, naturally." 

"Huh?" said the other critters and humans in unison. 

"Do I have to explain everything?"  When he recognized the vacant look on their faces that so often presented itself whenever he came up with a doozy of a plan, he said, "I guess I do.  Man oh man, some of you, and I'm not naming names, mind you, can be extremely dense.  I'll cut you some slack because you haven't had your breakfast yet."  He was waiting for a thank you and when he didn't receive it, he shook his head at their lack of manners and continued.  "To answer your questions, Nance, I've been culling through old snail mail envelopes every night looking for stamps that haven't been cancelled by the post office.  I then put a teacup of water in the microwave, get it hot and holding the stamp over the steam, peel it off.  Next I go to the enormous trouble of ironing each and every stamp so they look like new.  I've singed my fur in a few spots."  He showed them a bare patch on his elbow and one on his tummy.  When no one reacted, he concluded, "The plan is to glue a recycled stamp on each piece of outgoing mail so it won't cost us a cent.  How's that for recycling?"

By this time, everyone was wide awake and whispering.  "That's a great idea."  "What a lot of trouble."  "Why didn't somebody think of this before?" 

Nancy, the arbiter of much knowledge spoke.  "Teddy, Teddy.  You dear, dear bear.  I will personally write a note to your Thundering Teddies group telling them of your efforts at recycling because I assume your motivation, beside saving the earth one stamp at a time, is to earn points for your Good Deeds Badge, is it not?"

"You got that right, sister."

"Fine.  If I may speak for all of us, we are very proud of you and your, your, your ... creativity."  She studied her little bear sitting among his stamps and wanted to cry because he tried so hard, but she had to tell him the truth.  "You're one determined bear. We all know that.  Sometimes, though, our best efforts don't always work out like we think or hope they will."

Teddy O™ cocked his head, not understanding her meaning.

"I'm sorry, son, but reusing postage stamps is a violation of the law."

The bear was on his feet.  "Are you sure, Nancy?  Why would the government object to recycling?"

"It's not that they don't like recycling.  It's that stamps are meant to be used one time and one time only.  If the postal authorities wanted stamps to be used over and over, they'd probably put a different kind of glue on them so you could restick them." 

"Yeah?  Maybe.  It was a real bother to steam 'um off like I did."

"Selling stamps is one way our government pays for the upkeep of our postal system.  You know, the buildings, the machinery and its maintenance, salaries for the postal workers like Mr. Wooley who delivers our mail.  So if we reuse stamps, it cuts down on all those necessary revenues." 

"Ohhhhh," Teddy replied and everyone could see that the cogs in his bear brain were meshing.   He sighed once.  Undaunted, he asked,   "OK, the next question is what should I do with all these stamps?  I could make place mats and have them laminated so those of you with holes in your chins wouldn't ruin them or, or," he was excited now, "Or I could give them to Mother Whickers and she could carpet the floor in her mouse hole bed chamber with them." 

Mr. Whickers spoke up.  "Although my wife would love such a colorful rug as your stamps would make, may I suggest we paper the area over your desk in the storeroom with them or better yet, why not make a framed collage for that spot, Teddy O™?" 

"My desk?  But I don't have a desk." 

"You will by tomorrow," the tiny mouse with the decisive mind and big heart told him.

Nancy smiled, especially pleased with Mr. Whickers' kindness and equally happy that Teddy O™ would be spending more of his time in the storeroom and not harassing her.  

"Great!  That's settled.  Heck, don't you people need some beauty sleep?  You're all lookin' a little peaked.  I know I'm beat!"  As he left to find the basket of clean clothes to be folded on which he preferred to sleep, he called out over his shoulder, "Don't worry Nance, I'll still be around plenty to help you, too."

On that note, everyone retuned to bed.  Nancy fell asleep to the anticipated antics of her favorite bear, Teddy O™. 

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