Charlie Crow lives with Mummy Crow and Gemima Crow his younger sister, in a tree house over looking a pond in the middle of a clearing in the middle of a wood in the middle of England.

The tree is a tall scots pine. It is so tall that it towers above the other trees in the wood.

One day Charlie woke up and didn't feel very well at all. His head hurt, his wings ached, and he had pins and needles in his toes. He really didn't feel well at all.

He climbed out of bed very slowly and then he spotted the spots in the mirror. He was covered in spots, lots and lots of bright red spots. He called urgently to Mummy Crow, who carefully looked at his spots. "Mummy what is wrong with me?" asked Charlie. Mummy Crow looked at carefully at his face, under his wings, at his legs, tongue and tummy.

"You have a virus Charlie Crow" Mummy said caringly, "you must stay in bed and rest and you will be well soon enough."

She then gave him a big hug, fluffed up his pillows and tucked him into bed. Charlie would have thought this was paradise, but today he was too poorly to enjoy it.

When Charlie was poorly Mummy made his favourite food for him, cream of carrot soup, it always made him feel better.

Within a few days of becoming spotty the spots started to slowly disappear and as the spots disappeared Charlie began to feel better.

The day Charlie spotted a new friend

Charlie has always liked to be high in the air, he likes to see everything that is going on around him. One day he was flying around above the wood when he noticed an animal he hadn't seen before.

The closer he flew the more he recognised the shape of the animal was that of a puppy. This puppy was spotty!

Charlie is a very clever Crow and he knew that if the puppy was spotty it must be very poorly indeed. He decided to fly down to the puppy dog and tell him that he should go home immediately. His Mummy should tuck him up in bed with a hug, a kiss and fluffed up pillows. If the puppy dogs mummy did not know the recipe for cream of carrot soup Charlie was sure he could remember most of the ingredients.

Charlie landed on the branch of a Beech tree, next to the path the puppy was wandering along.

"Hello" cawed Charlie Crow, "how do you do?" "Very well, thank you," said the polite puppy as he scampered on down the path. "My name is Charlie Crow, what's yours?" "My name is Danny, what kind of a bird are you?" Charlie Crow had to fly quickly to keep up with Danny. "He's very fit for someone who is so poorly" thought Charlie Crow. He knew his new friend was very ill because there were lots and lots of spots and they were all over Danny's body. They were very big and very black.

Charlie Crow was very concerned and decided that he must tell Danny just how poory he was and take him home to his mummy.

"I'm a Crow," replied Charlie Crow in answer to Danny's question. "I wonder, do you feel poorly?"

"No I feel very well indeed, thank you" Danny replied as he skipped along the path.

"Excuse me Danny, but I think you may be poorly and need to go home. You need to go to bed urgently, you have a virus." Charlie told the puppy breathlessly.

"I feel perfectly fine" replied Danny, "what do you think is wrong with me?" his quick trotting pace started to slow when he looked at Charlie. He began to feel uneasy, he could see from Charlie's face that the little Crow was very concerned.

"Well", started Charlie, trying hard to explain very carefully to Danny, "You have a virus."

"What's a virus" Danny stopped still now "is it dangerous" "I had one once" Charlie's spoke in a grown up way, "it was slightly different from your virus though." "How was it different" Danny was very worried now, what if his virus was more serious than Charlie's.

"My spots were red not black like yours and they were nowhere near as big"

Charlie looked with wide open eyes at Danny's big black spots. Danny looked at Charlie for a few seconds and then he started to giggle. The giggle turned into a chuckle and the chuckle turned into a roar of laughter.

He laughed so much that he fell over and rolled onto the ground, his legs kicking up into the air.

"Charlie Crow I'm a Dalmatian and Dalmatians are always spotty" It took Danny awhile to say this because he couldn't stop laughing. Charlie felt very silly but how was he to know that Dalmatians are always spotty.

His new friend Danny saw that Charlie Crow was feeling very silly.

Danny explained that he wasn't laughing at Charlie Crow, in fact, Danny thought Charlie was very kind to be so concerned.

Charlie slowly realised how funny his mistake had been and he began to laugh too.

When they had both laughed so much that they had to stop because they were exhausted Danny and Charlie Crow sat on the grassy bank at the side of the path overlooking the pond and talked and talked.