031 The Poky Little Puppy

031 The Poky Little Puppy

Published: 01/19/2021

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Welcome to Storytime with Dad. Today we will be reading, The Poky Little Puppy.

Five little puppies dug a hole under the fence and went for a walk in the wide, wide world. Through the meadow they went, down the road, over the bridge, across the green grass, and up the hill, one after the other.

And when they got to the top of the hill, they counted themselves: one, two, three, four. One little puppy wasn’t there.

“Now where in the world is that poky little puppy?” they wondered. For he certainly wasn’t on top of the hill.

He wasn’t going down the other side. The only thing they could see going down was a fuzzy caterpillar.

He wasn’t coming up this side. The only thing they could see coming up was a quick green lizard.

But when they looked down at the grassy place near the bottom of the hill, there he was, running round and round, his nose to the ground.

“What is he doing?” the four little puppies asked one another. And down they went to see, roly-poly, pell-mell, tumble-bumble, till they came to the green grass; and there they stopped short.

“What in the world are you doing?” they asked.

“I smell something!” said the poky little puppy. Then the four little puppies began to sniff, and they smelled it, too.

“Rice pudding!” they said.

And home they went, as fast as they could go, over the bridge, up the road, through the meadow, and under the fence. And there, sure enough, was dinner waiting for them, with rice pudding for dessert.

But their mother was greatly displeased. “So you’re the little puppies who dig holes under fences!” she said. “No rice pudding tonight!” And she made them go straight to bed.

But the poky little puppy came home after everyone was sound asleep. He ate up the rice pudding and crawled into bed as happy as a lark.

The next morning someone had filled the hole and put up a sign. The sign said: Don’t ever dig holes under this fence!

BUT…

The five little puppies dug a hole under the fence, just the same, and went for a walk in the wide, wide world.

Through the meadow they went, down the road, over the bridge, across the green grass, and up the hill, two and two. And when they got to the top of the hill, they counted themselves: one, two, three, four. One little puppy wasn’t there.

“Now where in the world is that poky little puppy?” they wondered. For he certainly wasn’t on top of the hill. He wasn’t going down the other side.

The only thing they could see going down was a big black spider.

He wasn’t coming up this side. The only thing they could see coming up was a brown hop-toad.

But when they looked down at the grassy place near the bottom of the hill, there was the poky little puppy, sitting still as a stone, with his head on one side and his ears cocked up.

“What is he doing?” the four little puppies asked one another. And down they went to see, roly-poly, pell-mell, tumble-bumble, till they came to the green grass; and there they stopped short.

“What in the world are you doing?” they asked.

“I hear something!” said the poky little puppy.

The four little puppies listened, and they could hear it, too. “Chocolate custard!” they cried. “Someone is spooning it into our bowls!”

And home they went as fast as they could go, over the bridge, up the road, through the meadow, and under the fence. And there, sure enough, was dinner waiting for them, with chocolate custard for dessert.

But their mother was greatly displeased. “So you’re the little puppies who will dig holes under fences!” she said. “No chocolate custard tonight!” And she made them go straight to bed.

But the poky little puppy came home after everyone else was sound asleep, and he ate up all the chocolate custard and crawled into bed as happy as a lark.

The next morning someone had filled the hole and put up a sign. The sign said: Don’t ever EVER dig holes under this fence!

BUT…

In spite of that, the five little puppies dug a hole under the fence and went for a walk in the wide, wide world.

Through the meadow they went, down the road, over the bridge, across the green grass, and up the hill, two and two. And when they got to the top of the hill, they counted themselves: one, two, three, four. One little puppy wasn’t there.

“Now where in the world is that poky little puppy?” they wondered. For he certainly wasn’t on top of the hill.

He wasn’t going down the other side. The only thing they could see going down was a little grass snake.

He wasn’t coming up this side. The only thing they could see coming up was a big grasshopper.

But when they looked down at the grassy place near the bottom of the hill, there he was, looking hard at something on the ground in front of him.

“What is he doing?” the four little puppies asked one another. And down they went to see, roly-poly, pell-mell, tumble-bumble, till they came to the green grass; and there they stopped short.

“What in the world are you doing?” they asked.

“I see something!” said the poky little puppy.

The four little puppies looked, and they could see it, too. It was a ripe, red strawberry growing there in the grass.

“Strawberry shortcake!” they cried.

And home they went as fast as they could go, over the bridge, up the road, through the meadow, and under the fence. And there, sure enough, was dinner waiting for them, with strawberry shortcake for dessert.

But their mother said: “So you’re the little puppies who dug that hole under the fence again! No strawberry shortcake for supper tonight!” And she made them go straight to bed.

But the four little puppies waited till they thought she was asleep, and then they slipped out and filled up the hole, and when they turned around, there was their mother watching them.

“What good little puppies!” she said. “Come have some strawberry shortcake!”

And this time, when the poky little puppy got home, he had to squeeze in through a wide place in the fence. And there were his four brothers and sisters, licking the last crumbs from their saucer.

“Dear me!” said his mother. “What a pity you’re so poky! Now the strawberry shortcake is all gone!”

So poky little puppy had to go to bed without a single bite of shortcake, and he felt very sorry for himself.

And the next morning someone had put up a sign that read: No desserts ever unless puppies never dig holes under this fence again!

The end.

The Poky Little Puppy has been a favorite story of mine my whole life! Strangely, I think it’s only because I really love rice pudding, and that dessert being in the story just really made it memorable for me.

Also, did you notice that Poky Little Puppy was slow and that the story seems to make this out to be a bad thing?… I actually kind of like that about the puppy! There’s nothing wrong with being slow, or methodical – I am a dillydallier myself. And we can see that the Poky Little Puppy was the most observant and detail-oriented puppy of all of them! For all of his slowness, the Poky Little Puppy was also very special in ways that the others weren’t. This may true of you as well, I know it’s true of me.

We all have things about us, ways we act, that adults and other people will say is not good. These people are not always right. You are wonderful just as you are. As you grow up you will discover what your strengths and weaknesses are, but you should know: if you are a little Poky yourself, take it from me – that is all right.

Don’t forget to give my podcast a review and email feedback to: hello@storytimewithdad.com. Or tweet me @DadStorytime. You can also read, or read along with all my stories for free at https://storytimewithdad.com.

Thanks for listening! We’ll see you again next time.

Narrated by: Grant Dryden

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