But guilty of what?! I can hear you asking yourself, and that's the point of the story about Geoffe and why he features on his own Tiger Tags name label…
Out on the vast, sun-drenched plains of Africa where he lives with his family, it gets pretty hot and dusty. Geoffe's mum, Griselda, is always telling him to make sure he drinks plenty of water and to stay in the shade during the hottest part of the day. Geoffe's little sister Gertrude always does as she is told and never gets into any trouble (apart from that time with the Antelope - but that's another story for another day), Geoffe on the other hand, is trouble on four long legs and thinks his sister is a boring goody four shoes!
The thing that Geoffe most often gets into trouble for, and is usually guilty of, is losing things. Last month it was his pencil case, last week it was his scarf and this morning...the worst loss to date, his much-needed water bottle. He has forgotten that he left it at the side of the dirt track that leads to the back of the school yard when he became sidetracked by his best friend, Zachary the Zebra, who wanted to play a quick game of hide and seek before class.
So, dawdling his way home from school to delay the inevitable telling off he will get from his mum, Geoffe is rather preoccupied with dreaming up a new excuse for his absent mindedness. So deep in thought is he that, at first, he doesn't hear the distant thunder of hooves on the dry earth approaching from behind. He is just thinking that it would be really good to have his water bottle right now to quench his increasing thirst in the heat of the day, when he becomes aware of someone behind him calling his name. Geoffe stops and cranes his long neck around to see who it is and to his surprise realises it is Zachary’s mum, Zina with Zelda and Zizzi, his twin sisters.
“I’m so glad we caught up with you Geoffe” says Zina, puffing slightly after her gallop to catch up with him.
“Zachary says this may be yours?” she continues whilst rummaging in a large rather scruffy bag that she always carries and produces the missing water bottle.
“Oh, Auntie Zina! Thank you so much!” squeals Geoffe gleefully – “Mum would have had another meltdown if I lost it!”
“I know Geoffe” says Zina, “I bumped into her at the watering hole earlier and she told me you are forever losing your stuff. I told her to get some of the name labels I got for Zach and the twins from those clever Tigers over in Asia – totally brilliant, they haven’t lost a thing since I stuck them on everything they own”
“Wow! That does sound helpful Auntie Zina” replies Geoffe
“You can even get them with little pictures on them to help you recognise your stuff” she adds.
“Look!” says Zizzi, pulling her lunch box out of her satchel and proudly showing Geoffe the colourful sticker with a cute picture of a Zebra on it beside her name.
“Thank you again for picking up my water bottle” says Geoffe gratefully, “I will remind Mum to get those stickers for me and Gertrude”.
And so it was that Geoffe became guilty of one less thing…there’s still the dawdling, untidiness and being late, but with the help of his new name labels, he’s finally stopped losing his stuff.
