'It's my dog story, tonight' Thomas said as he ate his supper.
'I hadn't forgotten' Grandpa smiled at him.
'What are you going to do tomorrow?' asked Grandma. 'Have you any plans?'
'We're going to Ruth and William's house to see their pigeons'Bethan answered.
'That should be nice for you' Grandma said.
'William said I could take Tess, is that all right with you,Grandpa?'Thomas asked.
'Yes, that's fine, only don't let her off the lead in their garden, wait until you are in the field behind their house'.
'I'll remember, Grandpa' Thomas promised.
So their chatting continued until supper was over, then - 'Story-time'Thomas and Bethan shouted and they ran into the sitting room.
'I suppose I had better go then' Grandpa smiled at Grandma.
'Yes, they certainly love their stories' Grandma agreed.
So Grandpa followed the children into the sitting room, and smiled as he saw them already sitting on the rug waiting for him.
'My dog story tonight' said Thomas.
Bethan and Grandpa looked at each other and laughed.
'That must be at least five times you have reminded Grandpa today' Bethan pointed out.
Thomas joined in their laughter. 'I didn't want Grandpa to forget'he said.
'Here we go then' said Grandpa, and began to tell Mr.Dog's story.

It was raining, no, it wasn't just raining, it was absolutely pouring, and the clouds were getting darker and darker.
'I don't like this weather' said hedgehog as he came into the stable shaking his spines.
'Do watch where you are shaking yourself' grumbled Mr. Cat who was getting quite wet as all the raindrops flew from hedgehog.
'Oh, I am sorry' said hedgehog who was really a very nice fellow,and knew how much the cat hated being wet. There was no answer from Mr. Cat who was now vigorously grooming himself to get rid of the nasty raindrops.
Suddenly a flash of lightning lit up the stable, and Donkey looked around at all the animals who had come in whilst Mr. Cat had been growling at hedgehog. Sparrows and pigeons were fluttering their wings in the rafters, and Mr. Dog, who had just arrived, gave himself a good shake sending raindrops flying all over the stable.
'This really is too bad' Mr. Cat growled angrily. 'There's no point in being in here if I'm going to be as wet indoors as out in the storm!'
'Don't be upset' cooed one of the doves. 'Look, we will bring you some sweet, dry straw, and you can curl up on it and be warm and cosy' and off from the rafters they flew. Picking up the straw in their beaks the doves soon had a snug little bed made for Mr. Cat.
Mr. Cat walked elegantly over to the straw, inspected it, decided it was worthy of him, and lay down. 'Thank you' he said to the doves. 'I think perhaps I've misjudged you.' He was thinking of the other day when he had thoroughly enjoyed himself chasing the doves from one place to the other.
The doves, now out of breath after all their work, settled themselves again on the rafters, happy to be friends now with Mr.Cat.
Donkey was very glad to see them happy with each other. He didn't like to hear the animals quarelling which, happily, was not very often. So he turned to Mr. Dog and asked 'Would you like to be storyteller tonight, Mr. Dog?'
Mr. Dog, who had been rather dejected thinking it had been all his fault in making Mr. Cat angry, immediately cheered up. 'Oh, yes' he almost barked in his excitement. 'I can tell you a lovely story'.
'It happened on a beautiful sunny day out on the hills. I, and a few friends were roaming around, just playing, when we saw a huge crowd of people in the distance. So, having nothing better to do, we decided to investigate.'
A noisy "Caw" came from the crow. 'A real band of detectives eh?' he chortled.
'Ssh!' 'Ssh!' the animals didn't want someone else getting upset, so they quickly silenced the crow. But Mr. Dog hadn't been offended, and he happily went on with his story.
'When we reached the crowd' he said. 'We could see they were very tired. I saw a friend who said they had been there for hours listening to .... Jesus! The stories Jesus had been telling had been so interesting the people hadn't noticed the time passing. Now they were both hungry and tired. I then noticed a few men moving amongst the crowd. They were asking if anyone had brought a picnic. No-one had. I was beginning to feel hungry myself by now ....'
'Ha ha' interrupted little voices. 'Tell us when you aren'thungry' and everyone looked at three little mice rolling on thefloor with laughter. Everyone joined in, they all knew that Mr.Dog was always hungry!
'Wait until you hear the end of the story' said Mr. Dog who had also joined in the laughter. 'A little boy went forward and gaveJesus all his picnic lunch - five loaves and two small fishes. Then what do you think happened?' he asked them.
The animals looked at each other, and then all their eyes turned to Owl. He was the wisest of them all - didn't he know? No, not even the wise Owl knew. He shook his head. 'What did happen,Mr.Dog?' he asked.
Mr. Dog's tail began to wag with happiness. 'Jesus took the bread and prayed then broke it into small pieces, and the more He broke it, the more there seemed to be. And the five loaves fed all the people, and there must have been thousands of them! It was another miracle!
The same thing happened when Jesus broke the fishes. Everyone was fed - even me!! AND there were twelve basketsful left over!
And Mr. Dog laughed so merrily that everyone joined in, and the stable was filled with the happy sound of the animals' laughter.
'What a happy story' said Donkey. 'Another wonderful miracle of Jesus. Just the sort to listen to on a rainy day'.
'It's stopped raining now' one of the pigeons said as he looked out of the window, ' and I can see a rainbow!'
'Where?' 'Where?' The animals scampered to the stable door to look with delight at God's promise in the sky.
Just then they heard a little sneeze, they looked around and there was a tiny rabbit whom they hadn't noticed before.
'God always keeps His Promises' she said. 'I know, and there is another very special one He is going to keep'.
'Huh!' said crow. 'And YOU know something as important as that?!!'
He shook his feathers disbelievingly - if you couldn't fly then you were no-one in the crow's opinion!
'I do know' repeated the rabbit. 'May I tell you one day?'
'You shall certainly tell your story' said Donkey firmly. 'And we shall ALL look forward to hearing it' and he looked sternly at crow.
'Oh! I'll be there' said crow and he cackled as he flew into the air.
'A mere rabbit knowing something so "special"' he thought.

The animals looked at each other and sighed. It was sometimes rather difficult to be friends with Crow!
Elizabeth Aynsley ©

Mark CH.6 Vs.30 to 44