"Hello, all. Zorro T. Mouse here. (By the way, did you know I share a middle name with Kermit T. Frog, John T. Baptist and Winnie T. Pooh?) I'm here to tell you all about the wild and wacky couple of weeks we've had around here.

Just sit back and I'll share with you a tale the likes of which I'm sure you've never heard before. It all started about two weeks ago when I noticed on the calendar that it was almost Easter. And we all know what Easter means, don't we? CHOCOLATE!!!

You may all remember a couple of years ago when it was revealed that the Tauntz family play a crucial rule in the making and delivery of all that Easter goodness. Well, this year, the more I thought about all that luscious brown creaminess, the more I was craving it.

I finally snuck down in to the Tauntz Burrow and tried to make my way to the back rooms where they manufacture all those decadent treats. Their new alarm system caught me and they took me immediately before Tauntz. I found him in a right tizzy.

I guess things weren't going as well as they should. After only a little coaxing, Tauntz began to unload on me. He said,…

"I can't take this kind of pressure anymore! All the candy-making machines are malfunctioning, and now you're trying to steal from us!"

Now that may have been true, but Tauntz was looking more frazzled by the second and I'm not the sort of mouse who leaves a friend in that kind of predicament! So naturally, I asked him what the problem was.

He told me that their Primary Chocolate Egg Incubator was on the fritz! And when they sent out for a new thingamajigger to fix it, they got sent the wrong part! This close to Easter, there was no more time to send for a replacement.

Now, I'm one of the smartest mice I know, so my wonderful brain cooked up an idea immediately! I said "Hey Tauntz, I bet you could just make a new part on that 3D printer thingy I saw in the Dude's office last week!"

Tautz's face lit up and he thought about that for a second. "You know, I think you're right. But we have to get Dude's permission and surely his help cause we don't know how to run that new thingamajig."

I have heard that you can make just about anything on that new doohicky. But chocolate eggs? I don't know. We'd have to ask Dude.

We made our way to Dude's workshop, but he wasn't there. We could see that new doohicky through the window and got very excited, but we would have to wait for dude to get home.

We saw Mrs. Dude and she told us, "The Dude is out of town till tomorrow, but as soon as he gets home I'm sure he will help you out, but in the meantime do not touch that machine!"

Well of course you know how I always follow instructions to the T, but this was not T time, we had eggs to make, and lots of them, because I just happen to love chocolate eggs!

I let the gang into the dudes office by my own little secret door and there stood the SuperDuper-Everythingmaker thingamajiggy

It was an owlsome machine, with all it's shiny levers and buttons, making a few eggs would be a cinch for sure. Just as we turned the thing on…

I heard Mary from the other room. She said very sweetly, "Zorro dear. You're not thinking of turning that machine on, are you?

Well, I reached up very quietly and shut the machine off. But now what?

The only thing I knew to do was to call CC.

I told CC the problem and she listened …

I had an idea but would need CC's help over the phone. I asked her to hold on. I went and closed the door where Mary was. I asked CC how to make the Dude's machine work. She didn't like the idea but told me how to make chocolate eggs from the Dude's machine. Things were going well when the machine went kerzonk and…

suddenly started making eggs at triple the starting rate! I pushed the restart button, and it speeded up to 10 times the rate! I tried every button on the crazy machine, and everytime it went faster!

By this time the room was almost completely filled with chocolate eggs, and I was screaming for help. Mary opened the door, took one look around and calmly pulled the plug on the berzerk machine.

Then Mary said, "I hope that teaches you not to fool around with things you don't know how to use," she said, but somehow I didn't think it would. Next…

To our dismay, Vacadude walked in! He gave us his best glare and said "What's going on and why is there chocolate all over my 3D printer?"

Tauntz and I practically fell over each other trying to explain what happened. "We were just trying to make sure Easter can still happen! It might have gotten a little out of hand I guess, but I can fix it!" I promised him.

I guess he must have thought we looked funny half-drowned in chocolate eggs, because he started laughing at us!

"No thanks," he said. "I don't want you touching the printer anymore, at this rate you'll end up breaking it! There had better not be any more eggs in this room by the time I'm done cleaning the printer."

I turned to Tauntz and said, "We're in trouble now Tautz. I think we should just gather up as many of these eggs as we can and get out of here before Dude gets mad again.

Tauntz said, "We still have to make these eggs into Easter baskets, too, so we have a lot to do"

"You're right," I said. "We can pile all these eggs into the back of the cart we brought and wheel it over to CC's. I bet she'd love to help us make up pretty baskets to spread around." We got ready to leave with our eggs to head to CC's when all of a sudden…

the cart fell over. Eggs rolled everywhere. Kids and critters came running. Soon we had almost no more eggs. Tauntz sat down and cried. Just then, one of the Tauntzlets came running and said, "Daddy, I fixed it. The machine was unplugged."

Tauntz and the others started cleaning up and having a good laugh at their stupid mistakes.

Mary and I were just trying to take it all in when the Dude…

said, "Look, I know everybody's trying hard here, so I'll be happy to pitch in. Leave the spilled eggs here, and they can be picked up later. I'll clear a space around the printer and make some eggs to take the place of the ones you couldn't get made while your candy machines were down. Then we can combine everything we get done.

So Tauntz and his family got busy in their burrow, and the Dude got his printer working properly, and everything was going well. Finally it looked like they had enough candy made. But then, …

One of the tauntzlets came running. "Dad!!! We missed counting the whole continent of Europe! We don't have any candy made for Europe!"

The bunnies all went into hyperdrive. They called in reinforcements. Bunnies swarmed in from all the neighboring couties. Soon they had dozens of bunnies painting eggs, more bunnies wrapping chocolates, and a whole assembly line of bunnies filling baskets.

Tauntz was marching around like a major general with a clipboard in his hand, shouting orders, taking inventory, prodding a few slow bunnies and trying to stay on top of things. I just stayed back and watched. I'd never seen such frantic activity. (Well, not since I still lived at home and Daddy would sound the alarm that McGee had been spotted.)

Soon it was Easter! It was time to deliver the eggs. But where was Tauntz? No one could find him! Everyone was searching frantically. And then I spotted him. He was curled up in the lap of a big stuffed lamby, sound asleep.

Well, I did the only thing a mouse could do. I marched over to him, but then, I just didn't have the heart to wake him. So, I did the only OTHER thing a mouse could do. I called up the steampunk rocket ship and loaded that thing full of candy and baskets and a couple of litters of Tauntzlets.

I put the autopilot into hyperdrive and we were off! We were candy-bombing houses right and left. It might not have been as pretty and neat as Tauntz would have done, but those kiddos got their Easter candy (and I managed to sneak a few into a big basket just for me.)

So …, if your basket was a little messy this year, you know why. You can thank me, Zorro, The Easter Mouse/Bunny.

The End