This is the story of how Skip and Rolly became our Mascots.
I know the story is a little long, but you know how we get when we talk about our babies.
Skip was named Desmond Odie Howling when he was born in the deserts of west Texas. His nickname was Desi, for the desert that they lived in. He was the runt of a litter of 6 coyote puppies. At a very early age his bigger brothers and sisters teased him about his size. All the other coyotes could howl a tune around the campfire at night, but not Desi. It just sounded like a strange choking sound, and everyone would laugh at him, even his mother. Desi's brothers and sister's would not play with him and often left him behind. Desi tried as hard as he could to howl like the others, he practiced every chance he got. The whole family was embarrassed by him. At neighborhood gatherings they would push Desi to the back or make excuses about why he could not howl.

Well one day, in the middle of the summer, Desi's got lost in the desert. He ran as fast as he could in the direction he thought home was. He ran for a long time, thinking home would be just up ahead. Desi ran and ran through the desert. It was beginning to get dark. All Desi could see was the desert and the dark sky with millions of stars. "Howdy little one". Desi turned to see a young armadillo about his age, looking at him. Oh, great, Desi thought. His Mother had told him about armadillos before, she said they were mean. So Desi thought, I'll be nice to him and maybe he'll leave me alone. "Hi", Desi said, "my name is Desmond, what's yours?" "I'm Roland, but you can call me Rolly." "Rolly? Why are you called Rolly?" Desi asked. Rolly laughed and said "Watch". He tucked in his head and rolled into a ball. Desi laughed when Rolly stood back up. "Well Rolly, you can call me Desi, for the desert I come from" "Glad to meet you Desi" Rolly said. "Glad to meet you too, Rolly" Skip said. They both laughed. Desi asked Rolly to help him find his home.

They followed the road all night with no sign of Desi's home. No scent of his family. When the sun rose in front of them, Desi noticed the desert had changed. Desi could see movement everywhere. Rolly said the tall two-legged things were people. He warned Desi to be careful of the people. Sometimes people could hurt him. There was a wonderful smell in the air and it make them both hungry. The went to the back of a building and found food in a great big bucket. It tasted so good. Desi anted to go home, and this was no where near his home. He asked Rolly "how will ever find my home?" "Lets look around and see if we can find someone to help us." Together the walked all over looking for help. They didn't find anyone. As the sun started to set they found some food and got into the back of a truck to sleep. They slept all night and when they woke, the truck was moving. When the truck finally stopped, Desi and Rolly got out. They did not know where they were. They looked around. Nothing looked familiar to them. There were still building and cars everywhere, but no home. They started to walked across the street when a car came out of nowhere and almost hit them. They sat back and watched the cars go by. On the other side of the street Rolly saw a sign that said "Welcome to Live Oak". They could hear laughing in the distance. It sounded like children playing. They followed the sound. As they got closer they could smell the food. Oh, Boy, did it smell good. They kept going. They came to a sign that said "Live Oak Park". Rolly stuck his nose in the air and said "Barbecue, I love Barbecue. Lets go."

They entered the park and sat under a bush and watched the children playing in the grass. One of the smaller children came over to Desi and Rolly and reached out her hand to touch Desi's head. Desi pull back, very frightened, he had never been that close before. Just as the hand was about to touch Desi's head, someone said loudly "NO" and pushed the hand away. A bigger child said in a gentle voice "never touch a strange animal, it may hurt you!" "But Jennifer, look how cute the puppy is." Jennifer looked under the bush and laughed. She said "that's not a puppy, it's a Coyote and an Armadillo". She then turned around and called to the rest of the children to come and look. All the children sat on the grass and watched Desi and Rolly. The two oldest children, the one named Jennifer and one named Brittany, explained to the other children the safety rules about wild animals. The whole time they talked, Desi and Rolly just sat and listened. These girls were so smart and they knew so much, Desi just had to meet them. So slowly he crawled out from under the bush and sat between Brittany and Jennifer. He laid his head on Brittany's lap and looked up at her. Brittany put her hand out for Desi to smell and then pet his head. She scratched behind his ear, and this made Desi laugh. It tickled. Rolly came out from under the bush to see what Desi was laughing about. The girls giggled and started to rub Rolly's head too.

The two young animals told the girls about their journey and what had happened to them. Jennifer told Desi and Rolly that the girls were in the park for a picnic and were going to have a campfire later that evening. Maybe Desi and Rolly would like to stay and join them. Desi and Rolly were very excited, they wanted to stay and play with the girls. Brittany told them that they were Junior Girl Scout Troop 513. They were introduced to the rest of the girls of Troop 513, there was Jennifer and Brittany and Victoria and Lorin and Katie. The other girls in the park were from another troop and they had gone off to play. The rest of the afternoon was spent telling Desi and Rolly all about Girl Scout and Girl Guides and all the fun things the girls do together. A little later they meet the rest of the troops, the leaders and the parents of the girls. They also meet Junior Girl Scout Troop 238, their buddy troop. As the sun began to set in the west the girls and their leaders laid a big campfire in the fire-ring. They roasted marshmallows and put them with chocolate and graham crackers. The girls started singing. Some of the song were funny and some just made you feel good. Some of the girls did funny skits and some of them told stories. What a wonderful time they had together. When the fire was almost out, the leaders announced it was time to clean up and get ready to go home. The girls cleaned the campsite and the leaders put out the campfire. When everything was better than the way the troop found it they could go. The girls decided that Desi and Rolly should stay with one of them until they could figure out what to do. Desi would go home with Jennifer and Rolly would go home with Brittany. They would meet the next day at the same park and make a plan.

The next morning they all meet back in the park. Desi and Rolly told the girls how much they enjoyed being with them. Desi told them that he wanted to be a Girl Scout too! One of the leaders suggested that the two become Troop Mascots. They could come to all the meetings, help plan the events with the girls, and then go to the events with the girls. Desi and Rolly were so excited about being with the girls. They wanted to make new friends. The girls said they would teach them the Girls Scout Promise and the Girl Scout Law. That night Troop 513 had a meeting and Rolly and Desi became the official Mascots of the troop. The girls read letters from their pen-pals, Brownie Troop 452 in Palm Harbor, Florida. They also wrote letters back to their pen-pals. Desi wanted to know when he could meet the Brownies in Florida. The girls talked about it , then asked Rolly and Desi if they wanted to be a Traveling Mascots. They could go visit other Girl Scout Troops all over the country. They could learn new games and songs and bring them home and teach them to Troop 513. Brittany suggested they change Desi's nick name to "Skip". As a traveling mascot he will skip around the world visiting Girl Scouts. The troop took a vote. Everyone voted for Skip, even Desi. Miss Jan, e-mailed her friends, the leaders of Brownie Troop 452 and Junior Troop 238 and they set the date. The first week of April.

In the mean time, Skip and Rolly went to all the meetings and learned all they could about Girl Scouts. They helped the girls plan the Court of Award Ceremony. The ceremony was beautiful. The leaders read poems and lit candles. The girls received all the badges and patches that they had earned so far this year. Jennifer and Brittany received their leadership pins also. Miss Beverly introduced Skip and Rolly to the audience and told them all about the Mascot Exchange Program. Skip missed his mother very much, but his was also very happy being with the girls of Junior Troop 513. The girls and Rolly tried to teach Skip to sing many Girl Scout Songs. He can't sing any better now but a least he has fun trying. The girls kept Skip and Rolly very busy. January and February is Cookie time for the troop. The first weekend in February they went with Troop 238 to visit a horse farm. They learned all about horses. How to feed and water them. How to groom them. How and why to shoe them. They even learned how to saddle them.

At the meetings they worked on their Thinking Day project. They learned all about Puerto Rico. Miss Beverly taught them to Maringá. Then they hosted a Thinking Day Event with a whole bunch of other troops. The girls did a Flag Ceremony and a Senior Scout talked about what Thinking Day means to her. They saw a troop do a Mexican hat dance and another do the Chicken Dance. The Seniors taught them all how to do the polka. They saw a troop sing "It's a small world" in sign language. They tasted all different kinds of food, like sauerkraut, dumpling, pumpernickel bread, and the girls of Troop 513 served Flan with caramel sauce. They all got a passport and had it stamped at all the different countries they visited. It was a wonderful time, Rolly and Skip learned so much about the world we live in. And they made a lot of new friends.

The first Saturday of March the girls finished their Service Project "The Big Hug". They had been collecting stuffed animals to give to the Fire and Police departments. When the Firemen and Police have to go to a house with an emergency that has small children, then they can give a stuffed animal to the child. Sometimes it helps to have something to hold on to and hug. The troop collected over 2000 stuffed animals. They washed, mended, and sorted the animals. Brittany was afraid that Skip and Rolly would get lost in all the stuffed animals, so she kept a real close eye on them. They went to each of the local Fire and Police stations and delivered the stuffed animals. At the Fire stations, they got to climb onto the fire truck and had their picture taken with the Fire-fighters. The Police gave them a tour of the stations and they got to go into a jail cell. It was real scary inside so they didn't stay to long inside.

At the meetings in March, the girls made SWAPS for the Spring camp out. They planned the menus and made the Caper Charts. The played games about camping and the outdoors. They learned what to wear at camp and what not to take to camp. They had a Birthday party and sang Happy Birthday to Girl Scouts of the USA. The last weekend of March was Troop 513's Spring camp out. It was wonderful. Skip stayed in a cabin with the Huskies Patrol and Rolly stayed with the Pony Patrol. The Troop went on a hike and learned all about camp La Jita. We saw Dinosaur Tracks in the river bed, gathered at Storybook Tree where the Indian children hid during a fierce storm and flood. We saw Green Chapel, where in 1958 a group of CIT's made the camp's first chapel in the woods. A Cadette Troop taught fire safety and made samples of Peach and Cherry Cobbler. Boy, was that cobbler good. We went on a scavenger hunt. We learned to make a box oven and baked a cake. We had a campfire and Skip and Rolly had their first S'mores. We all told stories and sang songs. Miss Beverly knows a lot of songs from when she was a young Girl Scout and taught them to us. We laughed so much and so hard that by morning we were all hoarse. We traded SWAP's with all the other troops. We took pictures with everyone. We had so much fun we are planning another camp out in September.

Everyone had to say goodbye, Monday morning our two little critters had reservations with a Priority Mail box. The girls gave each Mascot a small clip-on stuffed animal to travel with. They said "after all Miss Jan and Miss Beverly, you always tell us to take a buddy."
(So they are listening!)