Go Go Power Pack

Clucky and Rosie are still struggling to find a good balance with Link.  They love seeing the joy Link brings to Xander but are trying to come to grips with sharing his attention.  They meet a pack of new dogs on this adventure.  Are they friend or foe?  Tune in to find out!

 New words/phrases in this episode: 

• Overshadowed 
• Casting
• Achieve
• Accomplish
• Diversion
• Masterful
• Coiled
• Analyzing
• Inspire
• Inquire
• Boy Howdy (Cowboy for Oh my) 
• loanwords
• Foster Dog

Spanish Words & Phrases: 

• ¡buenísimo! - Great!
• pobrecita - poor thing
• es mi lugar favorito - It’s my favorite place!
• ¡Ayuda! - Help
• ¡Sáquenme de aquí!  - Get me out of here!
• pero tienes que dejar de moverte - but you have to stop moving!
• hermana - Sister 
• ¡Soy libre! - I’m free! 
• ¡Vamos! - Come on
•  ¡Sí se puede! - Yes I can
• ¡qué descarado! - How cheeky!
• No dinero involved! - No Money Involved
• ¡Así soy! - Of course
• “¿Sabes qué, nené?  - You know what, baby?
• Juntos - Together

Quechuan Words: Quechua - language of the indigenous people of Peru, Bolivia, Colombia… parts of Chile too.  And of course Ecuador! 

• Yaku - Water
• Choclo - Corn 
• Cuy - Guinea pig

Themes: 

• Challenges of Siblings 
• Sharing
• Power of Teamwork 
• Family dynamics

Songs:  

• Lonely By Clucky

Questions to ask your Listener:

• Can you share a time when you have felt left out? 
• Have you every had a challenging time with a brother or sister? 
• What did Sugar get stuck in? 
• What did Clucky and Rosie learn from the Go Go Power Pack? 

Transcript

EPISODE #2: GO GO POWER PACK 

KITTEN

How are you today?

CLUCKY:

I don't know.

SIGH

I'm feeling a little left out.

KITTEN:

Left out? Left out of what?

CLUCKY:

It's Xander in this new puppy... don't get me wrong. I think Link is great. He's so cute and fluffy and he just loves everybody, but Xander doesn't come down here as much anymore. He seems to be getting down here later in the morning and we don't do our exercises like we did all the time. I miss our taekwondo and scouting of the perimeter. Now he's taking Link on those scouts and not me.

ROSIE:

Preach it Clucky!  I just wish he would go back to where he came from! 

CLUCKY:

Really? You too Rosie? But you love everybody and are always so excited about everything. It’s nice to see you down at the coop.  You don’t normally accompany Kitten down here. 

KITTEN:

It seems like both you and Rosie are feeling a bit overshadowed by Link. 

ROSIE:

He’s not so big yet that he is casting shadows over us.  Will that happen? 

KITTEN:

No he is not really casting a shadow over you, overshadow can also mean that you are feeling less important compared to someone.  

BRIGITTA:

I always learn something new every time you visit Kitten! 

CLUCKY:

What can we do? I don't wish the little guy ill but I do kind of wish things were back the way they were... 

BELLA:

How can you say that Clucky?  Link is so sweet!  I like how he calls us all Boss.  He also makes Xander so happy.  

CLUCKY:

I know he does, but we used to be the ones that made Xander happy.  Don’t you miss that?  

BELLA:

We still make him happy but Link can do things with Xander that we can’t.  

CLUCKY:

What can he do?  

BRIDGET:

He can wrestle with him.  Did you see them rolling around in the grass yesterday?  It was adorable.  Link is still so clumsy he kept jumping on Xander then toppling off.  

CLUCKY:

I could do that... well kind of.  I could not really jump on Xander as I might accidentally scratch him with my claw.  I can’t play tug-of-war with the rope toy either because my beak can’t hold it in my mouth.  

OVERDRAMATIC 

OHHH I’m not good for anything anymore!  

MUSIC STARTS R

Lonely. I’m so Lonely with you by my side.  

KITTEN:

Stop it Clucky! 

RECORD SCRATCH

You are not lonely, you have all of us! 

BRIGITTA: 

Kitten is right Clucky. 

CLUCKY:

But Kitten, I’m not needed!  

STARTS TO CRY

ROSIE:

Neither am I

STARTS TO CRY TOO

KITTEN:

Oh please, you too...

YAKU:

HOWL AND SOME BARKING

CLUCKY:

What was that? 

KITTEN:

Look there through the bushes I see 3 dogs.  

ROSIE:

Do you think I should raise the alarm and scare them off? 

BELLA:

Do you think they are dangerous? 

BRIGITTA:

Hush now maybe we can hear what they are saying.

YAKU:

Auuuuu! We did it! That was a great diversion — ¡buenísimo! — if I do say so myself.

OBEE:

Yes, masterful distraction.  You are really have a knack for creating just enough chaos to let us escape. Now we must not dally.  We want to make the most of these couple of hours.  We can’t be gone too long or the house sitter will call Mom.  We can’t have that.  She has enough to worry about these days taking care of Dad. 

SUGAR:

How long do you think we can be gone Obee?  I love being out but agree we can’t worry Mom... pobrecita, she already does so much.

OBEE:

By my calculations, I’d say 3 hours.  

YAKU:  

Wait - How do you know? Can you tell time?  

OBEE:

Not exactly. I do not know how to read those things the humans call clocks but I do know our daily schedule.  We have already had our breakfast and now its our exercise time.  We need to be back before the sun is all the way up in the center of the sky.  That’s midday and our nap time.  

SUGAR:

Ooof, I hate missing nap time.  I like it better when Mom’s home because I can curl up at her feet..es mi lugar favorito.

YAKU:

I miss Mom and Dad when they are gone.  Where do you think they go?  

OBEE:

I heard them talking and they were going with friends on something called a cruise.  

SUGAR:

Ay, I wish we could have gone.  I don’t like it when they leave.  The house sitter doesn’t know how to scratch behind my ears... just pats my head like boop boop. She’s nice, but... not the same.

OBEE:

Are you two done complaining?  We have exploring to do.  

YAKU:

¡Sí! Let’s go, let’s go! Time’s tickin’. 

OBEE:

I smell something new... something very interesting over that way. 

YAKU:

Ooh, I smell it too! What do you think it is?

BRIDGET:

They are headed this way.  Should we try to hide? 

SUGAR:

Oh no! ¡Ayuda! Obee, Yaku — I’m caught! 

OBEE:

What?  

YAKU:

How did you get stuck in that bramble?  

ROSIE:

(WHISPERS) 

Oh no! Should we go lend a hand?  

CLUCKY:

Let’s just wait and see what happens first.  We don’t want to go rushing into a potentially dangerous situation.  

BRIGITTA:

Really? You think they could be dangerous? 

BRIDGET:

They are 3 rather large dogs that we don’t know.  If they turned out to be unfriendly we could be in serious trouble.  

KITTEN:

Shhh. I want to hear what is happening.  I agree with Clucky, we should not rush in but if they need our help we should be ready to assist them.  

SUGAR:

Ruff!  I don’t know what happened! I just stepped on what I thought was a low bramble and then — bam — I fell in! Now I’m tangled and stuck and... Ruff Ruff! ¡Sáquenme de aquí!   Now I am stuck in this hole and all tangled.  Ruff Ruff!  Help me! 

 SFX: BRUSHES AND STRUGGLING MAYBE SOME GRUNTING NOISES

OBEE:

Stop struggling, Sugar. Hold still.  Yaku and I are coming - What is it that you say? — pero tienes que dejar de moverte - you have to stop moving. 

YAKU:

I’m analyzing the situation. Yes, it appears there are blackberry vines, thistles and stinging nettles.  Wow, hermana, what a mess!  

SUGAR:

That is NOT helpful!  

OBEE:

Actually, it is. Knowing what’s tangled around you helps us figure out how to get you out. I see it’s mostly wrapped around your front right paw and back left paw. Yaku — I think if we bite through these vines together, Sugar can get free.

YAKU:

Sounds like a plan. But Sugar, you gotta jump backward when we say go. If you go forward, you’ll get stuck again.

SUGAR:

Okay, okay... I can do this. Just tell me when. 

OBEE:

Alright Team,  Go go power pack!  

YAKU AND SUGAR:

Go go Power Pack! 

SFX CHOMP NOISES FROM YAKU AND OBEE.  HUH - JUMPING/GRUNTING NOISE FROM SUGAR.  

SUGAR:

¡Soy libre! I’m free! Thank you, thank you both!  

OBEE:

That is the power of working together, amiga. 

CLUCKY: 

Wow!  Did you see that?!  

WHISTLES - CHEERING FORM ALL THE ANIMALS AT THE COOP

OBEE:

Huh?  Who is there?  

YAKU:

It’s coming from just over that fallen tree.  Looks like a clearing... with a little coop in the center.  

SUGAR:

They’re cheering for us! Aww, how sweet! Should we go say hi? ¡Vamos! 

BRANCHES RUSTLING

OBEE:

Greetings, my two- and four-legged friends. May we inquire what has caused all the cheering? 

CLUCKY:

Inspire is right!  Your team work was amazing! 

KITTEN:

Clucky he said inquire not inspire.  Inquire means to question... he wanted to know why we were cheering.  

ROSIE:

You all worked together so well and solved the problem.  There was not arguing or anything.  

YAKU:

Oh well we believe that Team work makes the Dream work!  ¡Sí se puede!

OBEE/SUGAR/YAKU:

Go Go Power Pack!

BRIGITTA:

And you even have a cool catch phrase!  Are you some sort of super pack?  

CLUCKY:

Oh yeah, like the super hero in the movies?!  Are you all super heroes with super powers? 

OBEE:

It’s kind of you to ask, but no, we don’t have superpowers...

YAKU:

Well... not exactly. But teamwork is a kind of superpower.

SUGAR:

You’re right, Yaku, but I don’t think that’s what they meant.

CLUCKY:

You are right, I wanted to know if you could fly or shoot lasers out of your eyes.  

OBEE:  

Ah, no, nothing like that.  

ROSIE:

How did you all learn to work together so well?  

SUGAR:

Well... it wasn’t always like this.

YAKU:

Pfff, definitely not. When Sugar first came to live with us... whew. We kinda wanted her to go back to where she came from. 

BELLA:

What?!  No!  You are all such a great team.  How could that be true?  

SUGAR:

Oh, it’s true. The first month I was at the house... Obee didn’t even speak to me. Yaku kept distracting me and sneaking bites of my kibble — ¡qué descarado!

They would both growl if I got near their pillows. I felt so alone. The only one who was nice was the Mom person. She let me sleep at the end of the bed and gave me my own toys. She made me feel... like I belonged.  

ROSIE:

What?  How did you all make such a change? 

YAKU:

She’s telling the truth. Obee and I had been together for so long, we didn’t want to change. We liked our routine. Sugar felt like... an intruder. And you know... I wasn’t exactly nice.  

CLUCKY:

Boy Howdy, can I relate!  Our brought home a new puppy a month ago.  Rosie and I are struggling with feelings of being left out. 

ROSIE:

And he is taking my toys and following me everywhere!  I had to escape down here with Kitten just to get a break.  

KITTEN:

I’m sorry to interrupt, but can we take a quick pause and will you tell us who you are?  

ROSIE:

Kitten haven’t you been paying attention, they are the Go Go Power Pack!  

OBEE:

Well that is what we call the group of us but we do have our own names.  You are right, Kitten is it?

KITTEN:

Yes

OBEE:

We should introduce ourselves.  I am Old Blue Eyes, but everyone calls me Obee for short.  

BRIGITTA:

Well that makes sense your have the bluest eyes I’ve ever seen.  They are very dashing. I’m Brigitta by the way. 

OBEE:

Thank you, nice to meet you Brigitta. 

CLEARS THROAT AS HE IS TAKEN ABACK BY BRIGITTA’S FLIRTING

I’m the alpha of the Power Pack. I keep us on schedule and make sure we stay on track. I belong mainly to the Dad person... but of course, I look after everyone.

YAKU:

I’m Yaku. My name comes from Quechua — it means “water.”

I got it because even when I was a tiny pup, I was always slipping out of places. Like water — I always find a way out! I came into the family to be a companion for Mom, but I like checking on everyone. ¡Así soy!

ROSIE:

What is Quechua? 

YAKU:

It’s a language our Mom person knows a little about — she’s from Quito, Ecuador.

Quechua is one of the Indigenous languages spoken in Peru, Bolivia, Colombia… parts of Chile too. ¡Y claro, Ecuador!.  

ROSIE:

Oh mi familia was from Puerto Rico, We speak a lot of Spanish there.  Is Quechua similar to Spanish?  

YAKU:

Not really! They're totally different — different roots, different sounds, different everything.

But they do share a few words. We call those “loanwords.”

I only know a couple myself — like “choclo” for corn, or “cuy”… which is, uh, kind of like a guinea pig.

CLUCKY:

What do you mean by a loan word? Is there some sort of financial transaction involved with these languages?

YAKU:

LAUGH

No dinero involved! It just means that sometimes, languages borrow a word when they don’t have their own. It happens in every language.

BELLA:

I’ve never heard of that language before.  Thank you for telling us about it! 

SUGAR:

And I’m Sugar the sweet one.  I joined the pack most recently.  Our mom person brought me home as a foster dog.  

BRIDGET:

What’s a foster dog? 

SUGAR:

It means I was only supposed to stay for a short time with the family until I was adopted by my forever family.  You see, I was in the pound and they don’t like to keep us there too long. It’s much easier on dogs if we get to go stay with a family instead of in the cold cages at the pound.  

KITTEN:

Oh Sugar, I understand.  I was in a pound for a week before my person Maddox came to adopted me.  I sometimes have bad dreams about that place.  

SUGAR:

Me too. But I got lucky. Mom brought me home, and even though I was supposed to leave... she looked at me one day and said:

“¿Sabes qué, nené? You’re staying.”

So now I’m part of the family. 

CLUCKY:

Well thank you for telling us a so much about yourselves.  It is a pleasure to meet all of you! I’ll introduce everyone real quick so that way you can get back to telling us about how you all managed to become such a great team.  I’m Sir Cluckington 

SFX FANFAIR

But everyone just calls me Clucky. This is Bella. 

BELLA:

Hi!  I’m the nice one. 

CLUCKY:

This is Bridget

BRIDGET:

Hey.  I’m the sarcastic one

CLUCKY:

This is Brigitta.

BRIGITTA:

Cherrio! I’m the fabulous hen.  All us chickens belong to Xander, he is our person and takes care of us.  

CLUCKY:

This over here is Kitten, she reads all the time with Maddox and can answer almost any question we have.  

KITTEN:

Oh Clucky, you are right. I do read a lot with Maddox.  It’s so fascinating to find out about the world around us. 

CLUCKY:

And Finally, this is Rosie.  We used to be afraid of her and call her the little beast but then we all became friends as we learned we all want the best for the family.  

ROSIE:

Ha!  Yeah that’s right, when we first met, it was a little tense because I thought they were going to hurt Maddox and Xander.  I belong to the Mom person in our family but just like you, it is also my job to lookout for everyone.  I had to give them each a through sniffing to make sure they passed inspection.  

KITTEN:

That is true she did!  I remember your little nose twitching and your whiskers tickling behind my ear, but once you smelled the citrus scents of an orange Maddox had eaten earlier behind my ears, you knew that I was telling the truth that Maddox was my person and we care about each other.  

ROSIE:

Exactly, once I knew we all wanted to protect the family, it was easy go get along with Kitten and Clucky.  

OBEE:

Well there you have it.

CLUCKY:

What?  What do we have? 

OBEE:

The secret to how we all get along so well.  We all want the best for our people.  That unites our pack and makes us stronger.  

SUGAR:

As you’ve heard, we all have different skills, but that’s what makes us stronger — juntos.

We’ve learned to work as a team, and we’ve been able to do so much more together than we ever could on our own.  

ROSIE:

You mean we have to add the large fluff ball to our team? But he is so clumsy! 

CLUCKY:

I have not seen him show any skills yet... I don’t know that he would be a very valuable member of out team. 

ROSIE:

Can’t we just send him back?  

KITTEN:

Rosie of course you can’t! Xander loves Link and it would make him so sad if you sent him away. 

CLUCKY:

She’s right Rosie, I could never make Xander that sad.  

ROSIE:

SIGH

Fine.  But he’s not really useful.  Look at all of you and your skills and how well you work together.  This puppy is very clumsy and just gets in the way.  Not to mention he takes my toys.  

YAKU:

Learning to share toys is hard. I have got some special ones I do not let Obee or Sugar touch — no way. 

OBEE:

He is a puppy still, correct? 

CLUCKY:

Yeah he’s a puppy but he’s already a whole head taller than Rosie and growing fast. He also has huge paws!

SUGAR:

Oh my, then he will probably get super big.  

KITTEN:

Xander thinks he will be as big as a small pony.  

YAKU:

That would be a very big dog!  Having a friend that big could be useful.  I am guessing you get many different kinds of animals up here in the woods. 

CLUCKY:

You got that right!  We’ve met all kinds of creatures!  

OBEE:

Have all of them been nice?  

BRIGITTA:

Most of them but there was that Raccoon Red, he turned out to be a dodgy character. 

BRIDGET:

Dodgy? That means potentially dangerous.   He was defiantly dangerous he tried to eat us! 

BELLA:

Thank goodness our dear friend Tatum showed up to save the day!  

CLUCKY:

I think you are right Yaku having a big guy around might be helpful.  

OBEE:

Exactly. Big or small, fast or slow — everyone can play a role on a team.

It took time for us three to find our rhythm, too. 

SUGAR:

And now we make beautiful music 

SINGING

Bom Bidid Bom Bom... 

OBEE/YAKU/SUGAR:

Go Go Power Pack! 

THEY ALL LAUGH

OBEE:

Well, it’s time for us to head out. We’ve got some exploring to do before we need to be home.

I have to keep us on schedule. ¡Fue un gusto conocerlos! 

CHROUS OF AFFIRMATIONS AND GOODBYES FROM ALL

CLUCKY:

Wow they were so cool!  I wonder if we can learn to be like them? 

ROSIE:

You are right.  I’m not sure we can be like them but I can certainly try harder to be nice to Link and include him in things.  Who knows maybe he will turn out to be useful.  

KITTEN:

I’m glad to hear you are both going to try.  I think Link has been feeling a bit left out by the two of you as well.  Rosie, how about we go find him and see if he wants to play? 

ROSIE:

Right now?  But...

CLUCKY:

Go on Rosie.  You can do it!  If the two of us can be friends, I’m sure you and Link can be too.  

ROSIE:

Alright, I’ll try.  See you later.

END CREDITS.