Just our dog

He was just a dog, mister - that's all;

And all of us boys called him Bub;

He was curly and not very tall

And he hadn't a tail - just a stub.

His tail froze one cold night, you see;

We just pulled the rest of him through.

No - he didn't have much pedigree -

Perhaps that was frozen off, too.

 

He always seemed quite well behaved,

And he never had many bad fights;

In summer he used to be shaved

And he slept in the woodshed o' nights.

Sometimes he would wake up too soon

And cry, if his tail got a chill;

Some nights he would bark at the moon,

But some nights he would sleep very still.

 

He knew how to play hide-and-seek

And he always would come when you'd call;

He would play dead, roll over and speak,

And learned it in no time at all.

Sometimes he would growl, just in play,

But he never would bite, and his worst

Was to bark at the postman one day,

But the postman, he barked at him first.

 

He used to chase cats up a tree,

But that was just only in fun;

And a cat was as safe as could be -

Unless it should start out to run;

Sometimes he'd chase children and throw

Them down, just while running along,

And then lick their faces to show

He didn't mean anything wrong.

 

He was chasing an automobile

When the wheel hit him right in the side,

So he just gave a queer little squeal

And curled up and stretched out and died.

His tail it was not very long,

He was curly and not very tall;

But he never did anything wrong -

He was just our dog, mister - that's all.

 

(Author unknown)