Nightfall Bedtime Story-The Adventures of Omar and Oddy

I'm over 70 years now and I still love bedtime stories, specially the stories that have great illustrations.

My Dad, who was an artist, used to write little illustrated books for my sisters and me when we were little. Of course they're written in Dutch, so I took the pictures and translated the original text my dad wrote.

I especially loved this one below, the story about our dog Omar, when he was a little puppy. They would cut the story in pieces and told us one piece a day.

When my mom and dad got married, my dad gave a little Scottish Terrier dog to my mom, so he was there when we were born. We've always had dogs in our lives and Omar was a special one, he survived WW2.

Copyright text and photos, if not mentioned otherwise: Titia Geertman

When Omar was still a little puppy, he lived with his mom and his mom was called Samba. Omar had two little siblings, Oddy and Iris.

Their home was a really nice doghouse on the lawn and when the sun was shining the puppies were allowed to play on the grass. The lawn was fenced so the little dogs couldn't run away.

Iris and Oddy behave very well and are playing in the grass, but Omar is exploring his surroundings and looking if he could jump over the fence. Omar didn't like to be locked in.

Mom Samba saw what Omar was trying to do and she ran over looking very angry. She got hold of Omar's tail and pulled him back from the fence.

But then Mom Samba had to run to the other side of the lawn again, because puppy Iris had a little peeing accident on the grass. Moms of little doggies are very busy Moms you know.

In the meantime little bad Omar managed to jump over the fence.

When Mom Samba takes Iris into the doghouse to give her a cleaning up, it's Oddy who stays behind inside the fence all by herself. She's trying to jump the fence too, but she can't jump high enough.

So Omar is digging a big hole under the fence and Oddy is crawling out through the hole.

Omar and Oddy are now outside the fence and are walking through the garden. "Oh look Oddy", Omar says, "the garden gate is open, let's go on the street and see what's happening there".

And Omar takes the lead and Oddy follows. She is a bit frightened though, but she's curious too, so she follows Omar to the gate and into the street.

When Omar and Oddy are walking down the street, they come across a little bird. Omar like the bird and he asks: "Do you want to play with us?".

"Ok", the bird says, "try to catch me if you can", and he flies away into the sky across the street. However how fast Omar and Oddy try to run, they can't catch the bird. It's flying real high. While running after the bird, they're not paying attention and Omar runs into a tree and Oddy is falling off the sidewalk. Ouch, that hurts and Oddy starts to cry.

After a while Oddy and Omar walk into a wood and holy cow, what is that?? "What a strange looking beast you are", Omar says, "and you're walking very slowly". "I'm a maybeetle", the animal says. "I can't walk fast, but I can fly".

Omar is laughing. "How can you fly, you don't even have wings", he says. "Yes I do, the maybeetle says, "just look" and he lifts his back and out come a pair of beautiful wings.

"Climb on my back, then I'll take you both on a flight", the Maybeetle says. Omar and Oddy are really enjoying their flight, when suddenly Oddy screams: "Oh Maybeetle, what kind of creepy creature is flying there towards us?"

"Oh HELP", the maybeetle screams. "That's a big bad Bat and if I don't fly away very very quickly, it will catch me and then it will eat me".

So the maybeetle takes a deep dive fast, but Omar and Oddy couldn't hold on and are falling off the beetles back. What will happen to them now!! When they fall to the ground it will hurt them terribly and maybe they will be even dead.

It just so happens that Little Red Riding Hood is walking in the wood too on her way to Grandma and she had watched the fall of Omar and Oddy. Very quickly she puts down her basket and lift up her skirt and both doggies fall right in her skirt and are not hurt at all.

"I'm on my way to Grandma", she says, "and I can't take you with me, because we might come across a Big Bad Wolf. You two really should go home now".

Omar and Oddy want to go home, but they don't know which way to take. They're lost in the woods and it's getting darker and darker. Oddy is a bit scared and keeps close to Omar.

Suddenly they see a dark figure aproching and Omar screams: "Oh a wicked witch! Come Oddy let's hide behind that tree", and so they did.

But then the Moon appears and she shines on the land and then Omar and Oddy discover that the wicked witch isn't a wicked witch but simply a tree with branches that look like arms and legs. They are so relieved and not scared anymore.

They walk along in hope to find the right path home. Suddenly they see a little light shining through the trees. "Let's go there", Omar says, "perhaps there will be people who can show us the way home and maybe we can have something to eat, because I'm getting hungry".

When they aproach the house, it appears that the walls were made from cookies and cocolate and as they are both so hungry they immediately start to eat.

Suddenly they hear a voice saying: "Watch out you two, get out of here while you still can, because there is this wicked witch roaming around". It's Hansel who's locked in a cage.

Oddy is scared and starts running away, but Omar says: "I think you're mistaken, we thought we saw a wicked witch too, but it appeared to be just another tree".

Oddy who was running away, stopped to see where Omar was and then she saw the wicked witch.

"Omar, run as fast as you can, because Hansel is right, there really is a wicked witch living here". Now Omar got scared too and both puppies ran and ran.

Lucky for them that the witch couldn't run as fast as they could and she was throwing stones, but she wasn't good at that either because not a single stone hit the two little puppies.

Omar and Oddy ran and ran and then they stopped for a while to catch their breath. What is that??

The ground is trembling, someone is coming their way. The puppies get scared and crawl behind a big rock. You know who's passing them? The big big Giant who's chasing Tom Thumb.

Lucky for Omar and Oddy that this Giant is so tall that he can't even see the doggies hiding behind the rock.

Omar and Oddy are still walking through the woods, not knowing which way to go home. "Listen", Oddy says, "Do you hear someone singing too Omar?" and through the woods they heard this lovely voice singing a song and they can actually understand the words too.

Getting married, getting married,

Ribbons on my underwear,

Ribbons on my sleeves, Whoop!

Tomorrow we'll eat green pea soup!

Omar and Oddy got very curious as to who was singing this odd song so they walked into the direction the sound came from. There was this little house and in the open doorway a beautiful young lady stands. "I'm Snowwhite", she says, "come into the house, because it's too cold and dark outside for little dogs like you two".

Once inside the dogs get a nice meal to eat and the stove is burning and it's warm inside. But Oddy starts to cry: "I want to go to my Mommy", she sobs.

Snowwhite says: "Just wait until the dwarfs come home, I'm sure one of them will bring you to your house".

She was right, finally Grumpy took a lantern and put a leash on the dogs, so they wouldn't get lost again and he walked them home.

When Omar and Oddy entered the doghouse again, their Mom Samba is very very angry with them.

"If you want to run away, then maybe it's time we find a new home for you!"

And you know what? She did find a new home for them with people who would love them and taking care of them.

Oddy was send to the house of Mieke and Rosefientje's Grandma all the way up in a town called Zeist and Omar was send to Mommy Muys and Daddy Synco who later on got three little girls: Wiea, Marijke and Titia and they lived in the city of Dordrecht in the Netherlands.