45. Sam's Favorite Purple Springtime Sun Hat

He jumps for joy!

Soon, he reaches the local forest hiking trail - a great place to experience nature, and see lots of birds!

Sam likes birds!

He just knows that he is going to have so much fun today.

~~~

~~~

He looks around, to see if he can spot any of the beautiful birds.

But he doesn't seem to see any here!

Until suddenly, he spots just what he was looking for. A bird, right there in that tree!

It's magnificent! But it's so far away! He needs to move just a little closer to see it better. It won't hurt to leave the trail just a tiny bit.

~~~

Uh oh.

This was not a good idea after all.

Sam likes most animals, but he does not like ticks very much. In fact, he might even be a little afraid of ticks.

As calmly as he can (which is not very calmly at all) he runs to a nearby lake to wash them off before they bite him!

Thankfully, all of the ticks come off without causing Sam any lasting harm.

He's a little wet... and a little grumpy...

... but not for long. He won't let one little mishap ruin his springtime walking adventure!

And now, he will make sure to pay closer attention to all of the trail signs...

Uh oh.

The only thing Sam likes less than ticks, are spawning octopuses.

He quickly gets out of there!

While he runs for his life for the second time in ten minutes, he begins to wonder if he should even try continuing on his walk. Things don't seem to be going very well! Maybe it would be better if he just went home.

And then he stops. And he sees something that changes his mind.

Not one, not two, not even three, but a whole quarter of sweet, cute, soft little baby ducklings!

They are the cutest things Sam has ever seen!

He just wants to cuddle them, but then he stops himself. Before doing anything, he has to check the signs.

But once he knows it's safe, nothing will keep him from making new friends!

~~~

Except that.

And that too.

Sam really cannot catch a break today.

After outrunning certain death for the third time, Sam stops to think. What is he doing wrong, that everything is going so badly today?

Is it his posture? Does his breath smell? Maybe he needs to eat more fiber.

And then, suddenly, it hits him.

Maybe it's his hat.

He looks at it long and hard... and he realizes...

...this is not his favorite purple springtime sun hat at all!

This is his favorite purple summertime sun hat! It is terrible bad luck to wear it out of season! This is why he has had such bad luck today!

~~~

Ah yes, here is his springtime sun hat!

Once that major faux-pa was dealt with, Sam knew that the rest of his day would go perfectly, and set out to finish his springtime walk adventure.

And he had a very good rest of his day.