Peppy the bottle nose dolphin lives in the Indian Ocean nearby the Cocos Islands. Peppy is a very happy mammal because the entire ocean is his playground. Peppy starts his day early in the morning. First, he’ll eat breakfast on a coral reef. Peppy likes to munch on shell fish from the reef. After breakfast he’ll exercise in the deep, blue ocean water. He’ll swim from below and shoot up like a rocket through the water surface toward the shiny, blue sky. Then he’ll dive back into the ocean and swim below the water straight like a torpedo. When Peppy finishes his morning exercise, he’ll wade around his neighborhood to greet his friends. Peppy has a lot of marine friends.

“Hey Peppy, how are you doing?” greets Tommy the Skipjack Tuna.

“I’m doing well Tommy.”

“Hey Peppy, where are you going today?” asks Stevie the Blue spotted Stingray.

“I’m going to the Cocos Islands.”

“Hey Peppy, aren’t we going to play with the whales today? Asks Ollie the Giant

Octopus.

“Not today Ollie, I’m going to visit my friend at the lagoon on the Cocos Islands.”

Peppy waves his fin to say goodbye to his neighbors, and swims faster and farther away from his friendly neighborhood.

On his way to the Cocos Islands Peppy spots a fisherman’s boat with a large, colorful sail. He swims to the side of the boat and greets the three people on board – a father, a mother, and their child.

“Look mom, it’s a dolphin!” yells the child.

“Yes, he’s saying hello.” says the mom. “Let’s give him a treat.”

Peppy shoots out of the water and does a flip in the air. The father has a fresh fish ready and throws it into the air. Before the fish hits the water, Peppy snatches it with his wide open mouth. Dolphins love fresh fish. After Peppy eats the fish, he swims ahead of the colorful sail, leaps out of the water, and rolls in the air to say goodbye to the friendly human family.

Peppy soon sees the lagoon of Cocos Islands. Suddenly, he hears a loud sound in the water. The sound is a school of White tip sharks who are hunting for food! Peppy dives deeper into the water and moves toward the sharks. He sees them and hides inside a floating patch of seaweed. The sharks are stalking Peppy’s friend, Tomba the old Green Sea Turtle! Peppy swims around the sharks and reaches Tomba.

“Tomba! Quick! Go into the seaweed!”

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The school of White-tip sharks see Peppy and chase after him while Tomba the old Green Sea Turtle hides in the thick seaweed. But Peppy is brave. He swims swiftly towards one of the hungry sharks and with his hard bottlenose thumps the shark’s belly. The other sharks are surprised at Peppy’s speed and can’t find him. Now Peppy is swimming near the surface of the water, far above the hungry Whitetip sharks.

“Ha! Ha! Ha! You can’t catch me sharkies!” laughs Peppy.

Peppy slowly swims toward the lagoon of the Cocos Islands and looks for his friend. He reaches the rickety, wooden pier at the end of the lagoon. On the pier is a girl fishing with a bamboo pole. She sees Peppy.

“Peppy, I’m over here!”

She drops her fishing pole and dives into the water. Peppy swims to her side.

“Peppy, I missed you so much!” she says and gives Peppy a big hug around his rubbery neck.

Peppy gently rubs his warm bottle nose on the girl’s cheek and makes a cute chatter which means, “I missed you too, so I’m here!”

The young girl climbs onto Peppy’s back as she has done many times before.

“Peppy, let’s go to the other side of the island and my mother will give you a big

basket of fresh fish for lunch.” she tells Peppy.

“Great! Fish lunch!” and Peppy’s eyes get bigger.

With a swiftly wagging tail, Peppy takes the happiest girl of the Cocos Islands for a zippy ride to the other side of the islands.

Peppy is not a human being and the girl is not a dolphin. However, they are best friends because they share their time and fun in the simplest ways.