Toffee the Wonder-Dog

One moonlit night in Trull’s fair streets

There lurked a fearsome foe

All ready to torment the folk

Who evening stroll would go

This foe appeared upon the street

The play-thing of a cat

But after cat did run away

It showed itself: A rat!

A mighty rat, a foot in size,

(At least appeared to be)

No wonder cat did run away

And climb up high in tree*

How could the village life be good

And people walk at ease,

When such a fiendish villain roams

And scare whoe’er it sees?

But just when darkness seemed to loom

And hope be far away

There rose a hero, full of fur

To stand and save the day!

No knight on horse, no sirened car

Did rush with doubled speed

But hero Toffee “Wonder-Dog”

Was there to do the deed.

Now some malign our canine friend

And call him nasty names

And misinterpret all the fur

That covers his lean frame

And think that just because his run

Is leisurely at best

That Toffee isn’t quite the dog

For a triumphant quest.

But Toffee showed the scoffers what

A dog of his kind does

And showed the muscle and the grit

That lurked beneath that fuzz

He jumped upon the helpless rat

At supersonic pace

And very soon the rodent, bad,

Had given up the race

His owner proud let out a squeal

Unscathed but not unshook

And went back home to tell the tale

Or even write a book.

For surely this brave deed of dog

With neither fear nor fret

Is worthy of a story in

The Somerset Gazette.

So there be ended up our tale

Of Toffee and the Rat

So proving that our Toffee’s size

Is muscle, fur … not fat!

* (actually a wall but it didn’t rhyme)



Toffee the Wonder-Dog, graciously letting me
carry him after he conquered Mount Beer in Devon