Charlie and Sasha moved to New Orleans during Christmas Vacation.They left the Cafe in Itchy`s paws.A week later, he heard the frightening howls in the swamp for the first time.
            Night after night, the howls made him sit up in bed. He would hold his breath and wrap his arms around himself to keep himself from shivering.
            He would stare out the bedroom window at the chalk-colored full moon. And he would listen.
            "What kind of creature makes such a cry?" he would ask himself.
            And how close is it? Why does it sound as if it`s right outside his window?
            The wails rose and fell like police car sirens. They weren`t sad or mournful. They were meanacing.
             Angry.
             They sounded to him like a warning. Stay out of the swamp. You do not belong here.
             When they first moved to New Orleans, to thier new house at the edge of a swamp, Charlie couldn`t wait to explore. He stood in the backyard with the binoculars he bought and gazed toward the swamp.
              Trees with Slender, white trunks tilted over each other. Thier flat, broad leaves appeared to form a roof, covering the swamp floor in blue shadow.
               Behind him, a deer paced uneasily in thier wire-mesh pen. He could hear them pawing the soft, sandy ground, rubbing thier antlers against the walls of the pen.
               Lowering his binoculars, he turned to look at them. The deer were the reason they had move to New Orleans.
               So, there they were, living in a little white house in a neighborhood of four or five other little white houses. They had six wierd looking red deer penned up behind the house. The hot New Orleans sun was beaming down. And an endless swamp stretched beyond thier flat, grassy backyard.
                He turned away from the deer and raised the binoculars to his face. "Oh," He cried as two dark eyes seemed to be staring back at him.
                He pulled the binoculars away and squinted toward the swamp. In the near distance he saw a large white bird on two long, spindly legs.
                "It`s a crane," Sasha said. He hadn`t realized Sasha had stepped up beside him. The bird turned and began high-stepping toward the swamp.
                 "Let`s follow it" Charlie said.
                 Sasha made her pouting face, an expression he`d all seen a lot of since moving down there. "No way. It`s too hot."
                 "Aw, come on." Charlie said as he tugged Sasha. "Let`s do some exploring, check out the swamp."
                  She shook her head. "I really don`t want to, Charlie." Sasha said as she adjusted her sunglasses on her nose. "I`m kinda waiting for the mail."
                 "Since we`re so far from the nearest post office, we only get mail two times a week." Sasha said. Sasha had spent most of her time waiting for the mail.
                 "It`s not like you`re waiting for a love letter or something, right?" Charlie said with a grin.
                 "Please?" Charlie pleaded. "Come on Sasha. Just  a short walk. Very short."
                 Sasha pushed the sunglasses up again. "Well..."
                  "Great!" Charlie cried. He was really exited. He `d never been in a real swamp before. "Let`s go!" he said as he grabbed Sasha`s paw and pulled.
                  Sasha reluctantly followed, a fretful expression on her face. "I have a bad feeling about this," she said.
                   His shadow slanting behind him, he hurried toward the low, tilting trees. "Sasha, what could go wrong?" Charlie asked.

                   It was hot and wet under the trees. The air felt sticky against Charlie`s face. The broad palm leaves were so low, Charlie could almost reach up and touch them. They nearly blocked out the sun, but shafts of yellow light broke through, beaming down on the swamp floor like spotlights.
Scratchy weeds and fern leaves brushed against Charlie`s bare legs. He kept close to Sasha as they made thier way along a narrow, winding trail.
"It`s  so noisy here," Sasha complained, stepping over a decaying log.
She was right. The most surprising thing about the swamp was all the sounds.
A bird trilled from somewhere above. Another bird replied with a shrill whistle. Insects chittered loudly all around them. Charlie heard a steady tap-tap-tap, like someone hammering on wood. A woodpecker? Palm leaves crackled as they swayed. Slender tree truncks creaked. Charlie`s paws made a thup thup sounds, sinking into the marshy ground as Charlie walked.