Mrs. Noodlekugel and Drooly the Bear — Daniel Pinkwater

In a wonderfully loopy third episode, Nick and Maxine are surprised to meet Captain Noodlekugel, back from the sea with a somewhat untrainable bear.

When their father decides to compete to be speed-knitting champion of the world, Nick and Maxine are happy to stay with their babysitter, Mrs. Noodlekugel, along with her talking cats and four mice who wear glasses. What they don't expect is a dripping-wet, whiskered man in the kitchen the next morning! Captain Noodlekugel has left his seafaring life to train animals for the circus, and he's even brought with him a hefty bear named Drooly for practice. But whenever he tries to teach Drooly to dance, the bear wobbles and falls asleep on the tulips. When Drooly goes missing, the siblings must try to figure out where a big clumsy bear might go!