Welcome to Birdwell Island

Welcome to Birdwell Island is part 2 of the 12th episode of Clifford the Big Red Dog. It aired on September 12, 2000.
==Characters==
*Clifford
*Emily Elizabeth
*Charley
==Characters in Flashback==
*Mark
*Caroline
*Horace Bleakman
*Violet Bleakman
*Jetta
*Mrs. Handover
*Mac
*Victor
*Pedro
*Fireman
*Fire Chief Campbell (debut)
==Summary:==
This flashback episode tells the story of the day the Howards moved to Birdwell Island. The town is full of preconceived ideas about how "a big dog can mean big problems", but they soon learn that Clifford has much to offer and they shouldn't make assumptions before they know the facts.
== Plot: ==
The episode starts with the school bell at the Birdwell Island School ringing and Clifford started running to the school to pick up Emily Elizabeth. The front doors of the school open and all the kids start running out when Clifford arrives. When many kids walk out of the school, Clifford sees Emily Elizabeth and Charley and Emily says hi to him. All the other kids run up to him as well and start petting and climbing up on top him.
Later, Clifford starts giving Emily and Charley a ride home. Charley sees Clifford is such a really cool dog and everyone on Birdwell Island loves him. Emily tells Charley everyone now, but they didn't always. Emily explains to Charley that when people first saw how big Clifford was, they all thought he was going to be a "big problem". Emily then tells Charley all about everything that happened when she, Clifford and her parents, Mark and Caroline first moved to the island.
Emily then flashbacks as she tells Charley all about it. Clifford was way too big for the Howards to live in the city anymore, so they packed up everything and moved to Birdwell Island. As the rode the ferry to the island, Emily was excited to get there, since they'll be lot's of room to play, and they'll make lot's of new friends.
When the ferry arrives at the pier, Victor and Pedro were there. Victor and Pedro welcome the Howards to Birdwell Island and introduce themselves. Mark and Caroline also introduce themselves as well. Emily then introduces herself to Victor and Pedro and she then introduces Clifford to them. When Victor and Pedro see Clifford and how big he is, they get scared and shiver in fear. When Victor says hello to him very nervously, Clifford happily barks and Pedro hides behind Victor, and then Victor hides behind Pedro. When Clifford, Emily, Mark and Caroline head off to see their new house, Victor and Pedro see the Howards as a nice family, but Clifford as a big dog. Because of his size, Victor and Pedro preconceive the idea that "a very big dog can cause very big problems". Charley was surprised to hear about it when Emily tells him about it. Charley knew that they didn't even know him. Emily then tells Charley that sometimes people feel about someone before they get to know them. Charley didn't find it fair since Clifford is a great dog. Emily then tells Charley that Victor and Pedro weren't the only who thought Clifford was going to be a "big problem".
Back in Emily's flashback, Horace Bleakmen was busy watering his flowers, when his wife, Violet, carrying a cake, tells him to come on, as she wants to welcome their new neighbors. So Mr. and Mrs. Bleakmen go to their fence and Mrs. Bleakmen says hello to the Howards. Mark and Caroline then walk up to the fence and Mrs. Bleakmen introduces herself and Mr. Bleakmen to them, and Mr. Bleakmen welcomes them to the neighborhood, and Caroline introduces herself and Mark to them. Emily then says hello to Mr. and Mrs. Bleakmen as well and Mark introduces Emily to them. Emily then asks Mr. and Mrs. Bleakmen if they want to meet her dog, and Mrs. Bleakmen says okay. When Emily calls out to Clifford, Clifford comes out of his doghouse and runs up to the fence. As soon as he stops in front of them, Mrs. Bleakmen gets very scared because of how big he is and tosses the cake she was carrying up into the air and it lands on Mr. Bleakmen's head and he accidentally squirts Mrs. Bleakmen's face with his garden hose. Mrs. Bleakmen cries out that Clifford is huge, and Mr. Bleakmen adds that "a huge dog means huge trouble!". This makes Clifford sad, but Emily hugs him. Next, the Mail Carrier was walking down the sidewalk. When Emily calls out "hello" to him, the Mail Carrier looks up and sees Clifford with Emily on his back. When the Mail Carrier named Mr. Carson sees that Clifford is huge, he gets scared, drops his letters and hides behind a tree. When Clifford looks behind the tree, getting his face close to the Mail Carrier, he gets more scared. Emily asks the Mail Carrier if he's okay, and he answers to her that he is. Clifford with Emily riding on his back then head off.
In front of the sea shell, Caroline was sweeping the sidewalk while Mark fixed the door knob on the front door. Caroline is excited for her and Mark to have their very own store. Jetta Handover then comes walking her dog, Machivelli, called Mac for short. Jetta introduces herself to Mark and Caroline, and they were pleased to meet her. When Jetta looks into the window of the sea shell, she asks Mark and Caroline if they got any great stuff in their store. Caroline tells her they have all kinds of wonderful things, when Emily comes out of the store, making Mark tell Jetta including their daughter. Jetta says hello to Emily, and Emily hello back to Jetta. Emily then sees Mac and sees him as a beautiful dog, and she pats him on his head. Jetta introduces Mac to Emily and tells her that he's the biggest, bravest, fastest dog on the island. Emily then asks Jetta if she'd like to meet her dog, and Jetta says sure. When Emily calls out to Clifford, Clifford shows up and runs toward the sea shell. As he runs towards the store, Jetta and Mac get scared and start shivering in fear, and Mac jumps on top of Jetta. When Clifford stops in front of the store, Jetta says hello to him nervously and Mac jumps off Jetta and walks slowly away. Clifford then licks Jetta with his tongue, making Jetta say, "Ewww, Slobber!". Mac then gets more scared and runs away. Emily gets impressed seeing that Jetta's dog really is fast, but Jetta tells Emily that her dog is too big, and she doesn't think he belongs on Birdwell Island. Jetta then walks away and Clifford gets sad that his feelings was hurt, but Emily tells Clifford he does belong on the island, and she just wishes people would get just get the time to know him better.
Later at the Birdwell Island Park, Emily plays fetch with Clifford, tossing a garbage can lid like a frisbee making him run after it. As Clifford runs after the garbage can lid, Victor, Pedro, Mr. Bleakmen, Mrs. Bleakmen, the Mail Carrier, Jetta and Mrs. Handover watch nervously as he runs past them and catches the lid. Mr. Bleakmen states that Clifford is going to be nothing but trouble. Mrs. Bleakmen states that the Howards seem like such a sweet family, but their dog is just too darn big, and Jetta adds that he slobbers too. Just then, they all hear a siren and a fire truck drives past them. Everyone notices there's a fire, as the fire truck stops at some smoke. A bunch of firefighters quickly get off the truck and run up to the fire with a hose. One of the firemen states that someone must haven't put their camp fire out pretty well, and hopes they have enough water in their tank to stop it. The firemen start squirting water at the fire in determine to put it out, when Victor, Pedro, Mr. Bleakmen, Mrs. Bleakmen, the Mail Carrier, Jetta and Mrs. Handover arrive. Victor asks the fireman if they could help, and the fireman tells him they can. He shows them the water tank in the truck isn't big enough, so they'll need to use their buckets to bring water over from the pond. So everyone quickly gets to work. They take many buckets from a box and start using them to scoop up water from the pond to put the fire out. When Pedro scoops up some water from the pond with one of the buckets, he then hands it over to Mrs. Handover, then she hands it over to Jetta, then she hands it over to Mr. Bleakmen, then he hands it over to Mrs. Bleakmen, then she hands it over to the Mail Carrier, and then he hands it over to Victor. When Victor throws the water from the bucket at the fire, it seems to work, but then it keeps on spreading, so they need more water. As everyone keeps filling more buckets with water and passing each one to each other to try to put it out, Clifford and Emily arrive. Emily suggest maybe she and Clifford can help. Mrs. Bleakmen tells Emily that's real sweet of her to offer, but she doesn't think so. Clifford watches as everyone is trying hard to put the fire out. As the firefighters kept on squirting water at the fire from their hose, it finally runs out, as the fire truck's tank was finally empty. Clifford then has an idea, so he quickly runs up to the pond and drinks up some of the water loading it in his mouth. Mr. Bleakmen gets shocked and thinks Clifford is drinking all of the water and they won't be able to put out the fire. Clifford then runs up to the fire and blows the water out of his mouth, squirting it at the fire putting it out. As Clifford blows the water at the fire, everyone gets impressed. Finally, after Clifford blows plenty of the water at the fire, it finally gets fully put out. Everyone was now very impressed since Clifford put the fire out, and Victor, Pedro and everyone else now released that they were wrong about Clifford causing big problems. Pedro states Clifford never really did cause any problems big or small, and Victor states they never took the time to really get to know him, and Pedro decides to start to know him right now. So Victor and Pedro, now no longer scared of him say hello to Clifford and welcome him to Birdwell Island. Mr. Bleakmen, Mrs. Bleakmen, the Mail Carrier, Jetta and Mrs. Handover also now no longer scared of him also walk up to him and happily pet him. Clifford wags his tail and makes a nice breeze, and now everyone loves Clifford.
After Emily's flashback is over, she tells Charley that all the people who thought Clifford was a big problem, learned something from him. Charley agrees with her, knowing that they learned that they had to give someone a chance and really get to know Clifford, before they decide if they like him or not. After arriving back at the Howards' house, Emily and Charley slide down Clifford's back and Emily says, "Now everyone loves Clifford, my big red dog." 
==Trivia==
*Cleo and T-Bone do not appear in this episode. Mac and Jetta only appear in the flashback. 
**Most of the episode takes place in a flashback. T-Bone didn't meet Clifford until a few weeks later and Cleo moved to Birdwell Island later that year.
*Originally, everyone on Birdwell Island feared Clifford's enormous size when they first met him.
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