8 Goring For Gold

CLAUDE Going for Gold RS SEEN ON TV Alex Smith

Claude is a dog. Claude is a small dog. Claude is a small, plump dog who wears a lovely red jumper and a very fetching beret. He lives at 112 Waggy Avenue with Mr and Mrs Shinyshoes and his best friend Sir Bobblysock.

This is Sir Bobblysock. Every day, after Mr and Mrs Shinyshoes have cried, 'Toodle-pip, Claude!' and left for work, Claude and Sir Bobblysock go on an adventure. Where will they go today?

It was a Tuesday and, for once, Sir Bobblysock couldn't wait to get out of the house. Claude, you see, had woken up with ants in his pants. Not REAL ones, of course (that had been yesterday's excitement). He simply couldn't sit still! He ate his breakfast with his bottom waggling about. He brushed his teeth hopping on one leg. And putting his beret on took approximately 45 minutes because he had to pretend that it was first a pancake, and then a flying saucer whizzing through space. jmkfho. (A flying saucer that knocked over two packets of cereal and an entire jug of milk.) Eventually, however, the two chums made it out of the front door.

Claude took a big sniff. Today smelt of... 'ADVENTURE!' he said in his Outdoor Voice (because he was outdoors). 'LET'S GO AND FIND SOMETHING EXCITING TO DO!' Sir Bobblysock was more interested in finding a frothy coffee and somewhere to park himself for a quiet moment, but he nodded his head in agreement. And so the two friends bustled along Waggy Avenue.

Claude looked for an adventure everywhere. Mr Lovelybuns was installing a lovely big cream horn in his front window, but that didn't get Claude's eyebrows waggling this morning. His tummy was still full from breakfast. Belinda Hintova-Tint had an appointment book FULL of curly perms to be done today, but that didn't get Claude's bottom wiggling. (Besides, Claude had helped her last week and Sir Bobblysock was still recovering.) At Miss Melon's fruit and veg shop there was usually a funny- shaped cucumber or some plums that needed juggling, but today there was nothing.