But Spring White didn't know the balls had been poisoned!

And, after chewing one, she fell down in a dead faint!




The pups came home and found her lying there, when they couldn't wake her up they cried and they cried!

Suddenly!..... there was a cloud of bubbles and slowly but surely

A beautiful Fairy Dogmother began to appear!

She was a little hazy at first,




but soon came into focus properly and began trying to wake Spring White up.


Sadly, the Wicked Queen's magic was too powerful. The Fairy Dogmother only managed to turn Spring White's faint into a deep, deep sleep. She explained to the pups that Spring White could only be woken by a Handsome Prince who finds her by chance.

The pups curled Spring White up onto a special bed and carried her out to her favourite spot in the woods. They also decided that one of them should always be with her...... just in case a Handsome Prince came riding past one day!




So Spring White slept dreamlessly, and the pups took it in turns every day to watch over her.

They brought her flowers everyday and a fresh bowl of water.

Just in case she could hear and was afraid, the pups would talk to the sleeping Spring White when they were with her.



On his days, Cuddles would describe the colours of leaves and grasses and the changing seasons.

Of course, Bouncy took his turn too.



He would while away the hours talking to Spring White about Bouncing!



He would show off his best techniques





and the rest of the day was spent trying to develop a foolproof method of finally catching a squirrel!

Muddy spent his days weighing up the pros and cons of all the very bes-*test*-('") muddy puddles to be found in the woods.



Of course, he had to go and refresh his memory once or twice!

Smelly chose to contemplate the merits of rolling, how to get even cover and what the very stinkiest material to roll in would be!

He took his "job" seriously though, he even got cleaned up for his days looking after the sleeping Spring White.....




....... although he was tempted to have a little sniff around when no-one was looking!

Try as he might, Sleepy couldn't quite stay awake for his whole shift and would intermittantly doze off then wake up and tell Spring White all about his dream!

While Soggy loved to daydream out loud about the fun to be had in the pond, the lake and the river!






He even manage to find a nice big puddle close by.

Even Wilful chatted to the sleeping Snow White, But only so that when she woke up he could ignore her again, he made that very clear!!

One day, a long while later, a Handsome Prince came running through the forest ........




.... he was running so fast that he was a blur!

But he saw Muddy, whose day it was, and stopped to ask whereabouts he was.

However, he spotted the beautiful Spring White in her slumber and was bewitched by her. So instead of asking for directions he asked all about the beautiful girl asleep in the forest!

He listened intently as Muddy told him the sorry tale of Spring White and the Wicked Queen.



The Prince was very sad, he said that he came from the next kingdom and if only Spring White had run a few fields further she would have crossed the border and been safe forever!

The Handsome Prince came back everyday for a whole week and sat with whichever pup was there.

On one particular day, it was Sleepy's turn and he had dozed off mid sentence, the Prince, not wanting to wake Sleepy by speaking .....





..... looked around then leant forward and gave Spring White a gentle kiss.

The Wicked Queen's spell was broken!

Spring White awoke instantly!

They talked and laughed and giggled and played hide and seek!




Eventually all the noise woke Sleepy who ran off back to the house to tell his brothers the good news!