The world's largest animal

Once upon a time, there was
a girl named Michelle. 
Michelle had a twin brother, 
whose name was Wolfgang. 
One day Michelle and Wolfgang 
wanted to go to the big city, 
but although Michelle has been searching 
for her shoes for more than ten minutes,
she couldn't find any of her shoes.
"Ha, ha, ha, she can't find her shoes,
she can't find her shoes!" 
was Wolfgang mocking her. 
But his laugh quickly disappeared 
when he realised that...
he couldn't find his shoes either.
Now they were both looking for their shoes, 
but these were not to be found.  
They looked behind and in front 
the door of the big room,

behind and in front of the bathroom door,
in the c’oset, even in the refrigerator,
 but the shoes couldn't be found ANYWHERE.
Well, finally Michelle  found her right shoe. 
It was hiding under the bed.   
And, Wolfgang also found his left shoe, 
behind the armchair. 
But neither of them could find the other shoe.
"So what do we do now?" asked Michelle.
"Let's go for a walk. 
Let's try something new," suggested Wolfgang.
Michelle  was thinking aloud:

"One shoe for each of us should be enough. 
I would wear my right shoe 
and hop on my right foot, 
and you would wear your left shoe
and hop on your left foot. 
And just so that we won't fall, 
we will have to hold each other."And so they did.
On their way they met Martin.
"What are you doing here?" asked Martin.
" We are playing a new game. 
It's called Hop with one shoe only, " Wolfgang explained.
"Can I play too?" asked Martin.
" You can't, how could you? 
You're wearing both your shoes."
Martin took off his left shoe, 
propped himself on Michelle's shoulder
 and now all three were hopping.
" Where are we hopping to?" asked Martin after a while.

Let's go to Lena first," said Michelle. 
They went to Lena, and Lena took 
the sandal off her left foot and  
started hopping with her friends.
The four were now hopping 
towards  the city centre.
On the store front, they met Mrs. Schmid-Bierbaum.
"Good day, Mrs. Schmid-Bierbaum. 
We are playing Let's hop with one shoe only. 
Please come and play with us."
Mrs. Schmid-Bierbaum was a very
nice person and she found this 
suggestion to be a very good one, 
particularly since her left shoe has
 been hurting her for a few days already.

Relieved, she threw her  shoe into 
the first garbage bin she encountered. 
She propped herself on Martin and...joined in.
Now, there were five people hopping
around with one shoe only ”” 
four kids and one lady.
Some people would turn their heads and ask, 
"What's this foul trick?" 
Others found this game so funny, 
that they immediately joined in. 
After about half an hour, 
the chain of people who 
were hopping with one shoe 
was almost a hundred yards long.
Miriam, Wolfgang's friend 
was all alone in her room. 
She has just finished eating 
a couple of biscuits, 
when she threw a short glance 
over her window and she 
couldn't believe her eyes.

She could see thousands of people, 
hopping on one foot 
and wearing one shoe only, 
and at the head of all 
these people was her friend Wolfgang.
"What's this?" asked Miriam.
"This is a caterpillar," said Wolfgang. 
"This is the longest caterpillar in the world!" 
and everybody was laughing.

Some time later they all returned alone
to their homes, hopping on one foot.