Mr. Pigeon lived in a small house alone. He was lonely. So he thought he’d get a friend. Someone who could go out for a walk with him. So he went to a shop that sold pets.
The first thing that caught Mr. Pigeon’s eye was fish. But what fish could go for a walk with him? He would have a hard time putting a collar on them and he couldn’t even cuddle them. So he looked for another friend.
Could his friend be a guinea pig? Guinea pigs wear collars. But a brisk walk? Guinea pigs’ legs are too short for that and probably wouldn’t want to go where Mr. Pigeon wanted to go. So Mr. Pigeon kept looking.
He saw a little puppy. He immediately fell in love with it. This will be the right friend for walks and cuddles, Mr. Pigeon thought. He immediately bought the puppy and took it home.
But such a small puppy is no joke . Puppies want to play all the time and need toys. Mr. Pigeon forgot and the very next day the puppy chewed his pillow.
“You little rascal,” said Mr. Pigeon. He was angry, but smiling at the same time. It’s just a silly puppy.
He went to the shop to buy a new pillow.
When he arrived home with the pillow, he found the duvet chewed up.
“I should have bought it too, my rascal,” he said to the puppy, threatened him lightly with his finger, and went to the store again to get the duvet.
When he got home, he jumped into bed, the puppy snuggled up to him, and they slept together.
Day after day passed and the little puppy grew. Mr. Pigeon noticed this when the puppy jumped into bed with him one night. The legs of the bed creaked and broke. The puppy was thriving and growing nicely, Mr. Pigeon was pleased
“Tomorrow I’ll take you for a long walk to tire you out, and teach you to walk at my feet,” Mr. Pigeon promised the puppy, scratched him behind the ear, and fell asleep.
The next day he loaded the puppy into the car and drove to the edge of town, where there was a meadow and a forest. The puppy was very happy. He rushed out of the car, and because he was already a very big puppy, he dragged Mr. Pigeon behind him on a leash that his master could hardly keep up with.
“By my leg, by my leg,” cried Mr. Pigeon.
But a puppy is a puppy. It lurched forward like a tractor. Mr, Pigeon would have liked to go the other way, but the puppy stubbornly went wherever it wanted. Mr. Pigeon looked at the tree and realized they’d already passed this tree at least four times. And here they went again, around the same tree. Yeah, the puppy went round and round around the roundabout! What kind of walk is this?
“Come to me, let’s go to the woods,” cried Mr. Pigeon, gently patting the dog’s bottom.
The dog’s eyes popped and ran into the meadow. He pulled Mr. Pigeon through the thicket and kept running. Mr. Pigeon could barely move his legs to keep up with the dog.
A neighbour and her little girl walked by.
“Oh, look, Mummy,” said the little girl. “There flies Pigeon.”
“Where?” the mother looks up at the sky.
“But not in the sky, over there, following a dog on a leash, flies Mr. Pigeon, our neighbor.”
Mr. Pigeon barely had time to wave and he already disappeared in the thicket. There was a huge muddy puddle waiting for them. The dog finally stopped and started rolling in the mud.
“I think I bought a pig dressed in a dog’s coat,” complained Mr. Pigeon to himself as he panted.
The dog was satisfied now. He walked up to the car, at Mr. Pigeon’s feet. The dog and his master were both covered in mud.
When they got home, Mr. Pigeon washed the car. Then he washed the dog. And then he washed himself. In the evening he was so tired that he fell into bed and fell asleep right away. But he was very glad that he had such a cheerful friend, that he was not alone and that he was certainly not bored.
And the dog? He was tired too. He was lying with Mr. Pigeon, still shuffling his feet in his sleep, as he was dreaming that he was again on a walk with his beloved master.
