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The Gentle Night Friends Series

Gentle bedtime stories about kindness, courage, feelings, and growing up.

Gentle Night Friends™ is an evolving series of bedtime stories that explores social-emotional learning through imagination, warmth, humor, and quiet reflection.

The stories take place at Woodmere Estate and Rescue Farm, where Walter, Oscar, Jimmy Joe, Baxter, and their companions encounter the sorts of problems that can seem very large when you are small.

A frightening storm. A mistake that won't leave your thoughts alone. Someone who needs kindness. Something difficult that cannot be changed. A friend who sees things differently.

And watching it all is Professor Pondo.

Professor Pondo knows that animals do not speak to him in human words. Instead, he watches them carefully: their eyes and ears, their movements, their expressions, and the ways they respond to one another. Then he imagines the conversations that might belong to what he sees and records them in his notebook.

Those imagined conversations become the Gentle Night Friends stories.

Gentle Stories With Something Important Inside

Gentle Night Friends stories explore familiar experiences such as uncertainty, courage, embarrassment, kindness, forgiveness, persistence, fear, and understanding.

But they are not lectures disguised as bedtime stories.

Walter and his friends are allowed to discover things for themselves. Sometimes they understand immediately. Sometimes they don't. Sometimes the cats understand something Walter doesn't. And sometimes everyone simply needs a little time.

The lessons emerge from what happens.

Children can recognize the feelings, think about them, or simply enjoy the story. 

A Quiet Place at the End of the Day

Bedtime provides a special kind of quiet.

The adventures in Gentle Night Friends may involve storms, mistakes, worries, disagreements, unexpected visitors, and other difficulties, but the stories eventually return to safety and calm.

That is an important part of the series.

A child can encounter something difficult alongside the characters without being left there. By the end of the story, the lights are low, the animals are settling down, and Professor Pondo is preparing to close his notebook.

The day is over.

Tomorrow can wait.

Meet Some of the Gentle Night Friends

Professor Pondo P. Pondo, to be precise. The "P" is for Pondo. Yes, his full name is Pondo Pondo Pondo. He always says it's an old family name and won't elaborate.

Professor Pondo P. Pondo is a gentle, thoughtful Sasquatch from another dimension and a permanent guest at Woodmere Estate and Rescue Farm.

He is very large, even by Sasquatch standards, with warm brown fur, kind eyes, enormous hands, and a deep voice that can sometimes seem much too large for a quiet room. He usually wears a vest with several generous pockets, although what he keeps in all of them is not entirely clear.

Pondo came from a place very different from our own. He knows considerably more about science, nature, and the universe than he usually discusses, but at Woodmere he is less interested in explaining distant worlds than in understanding the ordinary lives unfolding around him.

Humans especially fascinate him.

So do dogs.

Cats remain somewhat more difficult.

Pondo prefers the quiet hours of the night. He has excellent night vision, and after dark he can wander freely through Woodmere without being noticed by visitors who might find the presence of a Sasquatch difficult to explain.

During the day, he often observes the estate from the walkway surrounding the observatory at the mansion's highest point, using a handheld telescope to watch the animals and human activity below.

After the house has gone to sleep, he often settles into the east conservatory, as there are two conservatories on opposite sides of the mansion, or walks quietly around the estate and rescue farm. These are the hours when he notices the small things that busy people sometimes miss.

A dog hesitating before entering a room.

A kitten investigating something new.

A cat pretending not to be interested while watching everything.

An injured animal beginning to trust its surroundings.

A frightened animal discovering that it is safe.

These moments interest Professor Pondo enormously.

He watches Walter, Oscar, Jimmy Joe, Baxter, and the many other animals who live at Woodmere or find their way there.

Professor Pondo cannot actually understand animals in human words.

He is quite clear about that.

Animals communicate constantly, but much of what they say is expressed through posture, movement, sound, distance, attention, and silence. Pondo watches their eyes and ears. He notices tails, paws, breathing, and the direction of a glance. He notices when an animal approaches and when it chooses to remain where it is.

Then he imagines the words that might belong to what he has observed.

Sometimes those imagined conversations are funny. Sometimes they reveal worry, embarrassment, courage, patience, kindness, or uncertainty. Sometimes nothing very important seems to be happening at all until Pondo watches a little longer.

He writes these observations and imagined conversations in his notebooks.

Those notebooks become the Gentle Night Friends stories.

Pondo is patient, observant, and kind. He rarely rushes to judgment. When something goes wrong, he is usually more interested in understanding what happened than deciding who should be blamed.

He speaks human languages with some effort because a Sasquatch mouth was not designed for human speech. As a result, he speaks slowly and deliberately, with excellent diction, choosing his words carefully before saying them. Long pauses do not bother him.

In fact, Professor Pondo rather likes pauses.

They give everyone time to notice things.

Although Pondo is wise, he is not solemn all the time. He has a quiet sense of humor and occasionally finds human behavior bewildering. He also writes poetry, which he considers an important creative pursuit.

The animals have expressed no opinion about its literary quality.

Professor Pondo has chosen Woodmere as his home because it gives him something his travels through extraordinary places did not always provide: the opportunity to remain somewhere long enough to know the individuals who live there.

At Woodmere, he has become more than an observer.

He is a friend.

He watches animals arrive frightened, injured, uncertain, or alone. He watches them recover, form friendships, develop routines, make mistakes, and sometimes help the next frightened newcomer discover that Woodmere is a safe place.

And late at night, when the house is quiet and most of the world has stopped hurrying, Professor Pondo opens his notebook.

He listens.

He watches.

He notices.

And when he believes he has understood enough, he begins to write.

Walter is a large, gentle dog who lives at Woodmere Estate and Rescue Farm. He is part Rottweiler and part Australian Shepherd, with deep black and warm brown fur, a white streak on his chest, and a long, expressive tail.

Walter is calm, patient, and protective. The smaller animals feel safe beside him, especially Oscar, who is still learning about the world. Walter listens carefully and tries to treat everyone with kindness, even when kindness is not returned.

He does not always know what to do. Sometimes he worries. Sometimes he makes mistakes. Sometimes he expects more of himself than anyone reasonably could.

But Walter keeps listening, thinking, and trying. His quiet conversations with the other Gentle Night Friends often help them understand one another—and occasionally help Walter understand himself.

Baxter is a long-haired Maine Coon cat with a magnificent coat of silver, charcoal, and cream. He prefers high places where he can rest comfortably and observe everything happening below.

Baxter is quiet, thoughtful, and remarkably difficult to impress. He does not rush toward conclusions or become excited without a good reason. He watches, waits, and notices details the others sometimes miss.

When Walter worries too much or Jimmy Joe acts before thinking, Baxter often asks the simple question that changes how everyone sees the situation. His observations can be direct, but they are rarely unkind.

Baxter understands that not every thought requires an answer and not every problem requires immediate action. Sometimes the wisest thing to do is watch, notice, and remain calm.

Jimmy Joe is a large, muscular golden tabby with warm orange stripes and an open, expressive face. He approaches life at Woodmere Estate and Rescue Farm with curiosity, confidence, and tremendous enthusiasm.

Jimmy Joe often acts before thinking. His adventures do not always end as he expected, but he is willing to look at what happened and learn from it. He does not turn every mistake into a judgment about himself.

Where Walter may worry about what he should have done, Jimmy Joe accepts what has already happened and decides what to do next. He can admit that something went wrong without deciding that there is something wrong with him.

Jimmy Joe reminds the Gentle Night Friends that learning requires the freedom to make mistakes. We can notice what happened, make amends when necessary, and try again without carrying shame wherever we go.

Oscar is a tiny gray kitten with soft silver highlights and vivid green eyes. He is the smallest of the Gentle Night Friends, and much of the world still seems large, unfamiliar, and occasionally frightening to him.

Oscar notices things the older animals have learned to ignore. He asks honest questions and speaks openly about feelings that others may try to hide. When he is uncertain, he looks to Walter, Baxter, and Jimmy Joe for reassurance, but he is gradually learning to trust his own understanding too.

Oscar sometimes feels afraid, embarrassed, or left behind. His friends do not expect him to stop feeling those things. They stay near him while he discovers that courage does not mean never being frightened. It means taking the next small step even when fear comes along.

Oscar reminds the Gentle Night Friends that being small does not make our feelings small. With patience, kindness, and the safety to keep trying, confidence can grow a little at a time.

Anthony and Harriet Honkins are a devoted pair of Canada geese who live at Woodmere Estate and Rescue Farm.

Anthony came to Woodmere after being badly injured by a hunter and losing a wing. He can no longer fly, but Harriet remains faithfully at his side, even when the wild geese pass overhead.

Anthony is dignified, watchful, and sometimes a little stubborn. Harriet is calm, practical, and rarely impressed by Anthony's attempts to appear more dignified than he actually feels.

Together, they have made Woodmere their home.

Professor Pondo has learned that the Honkins have quite a lot to say.

Or at least, he imagines they do.

Willow, Maple, Bramble, and Pebble are the four goslings of Anthony and Harriet Honkins.

They hatched at Woodmere Estate and Rescue Farm, where they spent their early days following their parents, exploring the lake, hunting insects, nibbling young plants, and discovering a very large world one small adventure at a time.

Each has a different personality. Willow is careful and observant. Maple learns through steady practice. Bramble approaches almost everything with tremendous enthusiasm. Pebble is the smallest and often takes a little longer than the others.

Together, the four goslings bring curiosity, persistence, occasional chaos, and plenty of gentle humor to the Honkins family.

The Gentle Night Friends Stories

The world of Gentle Night Friends continues to grow.

Each story explores a different experience or social-emotional theme while remaining part of the larger world of Professor Pondo, Walter, Oscar, Jimmy Joe, Baxter, and their friends at Woodmere Estate and Rescue Farm.

Individual stories are available as free downloadable PDFs, so families, caregivers, teachers, and anyone else who finds them useful can read and share them.

Physical editions are also being developed for readers who prefer a traditional book at bedtime.

Visit the Gentle Night Friends Stories page to explore the stories and download the available books as free printable PDFs.