3 At The Circus

CLAUDE at the Circus AlexT. Smith

In a house on Waggy Avenue, number 112, there lives a dog. A small dog. A small, plump dog. A small, plump dog who wears a beret and a rather fetching sweater. His name is Claude, and here he is.

Claude's best friend is Sir Bobblysock. He is both a sock and quite bobbly. Claude and Sir Bobblysock don't live in their big house all by themselves; Mr and Mrs Shinyshoes live there too. Usually, Mr and Mrs Shinyshoes get up bright and early, leap into their smartest clothes and shiniest shoes and hotfoot it out of the door to work. Sometimes though, mainly on nice sunny Saturdays, Mr and Mrs Shinyshoes pop on their comfy clothes and pack a picnic.

'Let's go on a day trip!' Mr Shinyshoes says. 'Lovely idea!' says Mrs Shinyshoes. 'Shall we take Claude?' 'No,' whispers Mr Shinyshoes. 'Let's leave him here to sleep. You know how awfully tired he gets. We won't be long.' And so Mr and Mrs Shinyshoes tiptoe out of the house, hop in the car and pootle off to the countryside for the day. But Claude hasn't really been asleep. He's been listening with his floppy ears and peeping with his beady eyes. As soon as the front door closes, Claude jumps out of bed, puts on his beret, and decides what adventure he shall have.

One bright Saturday morning when Mr and Mrs Shinyshoes were off in the country, Claude popped on his beret and thought about what he wanted to do. He felt like he needed a treat as he had been very busy the day before, giving his bed a good spring clean. He had plumped up the pillow, shaken the blanket and tidied up his top-secret hidy-hole. Out went several packets of half- chewed biscuits and a juicy bone baguette which was rather past its best.

Sir Bobblysock had sat in a comfy armchair and told him what to do. He would have loved to help, but he didn't want to get in the way.