Corban was a funny-looking dog. Grandad said she had the eyes of a pug, the legs of a greyhound … and the mouth of a vacuum cleaner.

Corban ate anything and everything. When Grandad went outside to get the washing in, he saw that his stripy socks had gone. So had his smiley face socks – and even the reindeer socks he’d been given for Christmas!

But what was that dangling from the corner of Corban’s mouth?

’Bad dog!” said Grandad. “Stop eating my socks!”

Corban put her tail between her legs.

She whimpered an apology: “Wooooo-wooooo-woooooooooo.”

But Grandad still looked cross. So when he went back inside, Corban ran away.

She slunk past the houses, the café, the bakery and the florist. She smelt coffee, cinnamon scrolls, roses … and something even more delicious.

In the butcher shop window was a lovely, long string of succulent sausages.

The door was closed, but a sign said PUSH. Corban nudged the door with her nose, but it didn’t budge. She pounded it with her paws, but it only moved a millimetre. So she backed up to the other side of the footpath, looked both ways, and then ran at the door as fast as she could.

Whoomph! The door flung open and Corban landed inside.

“Oi,” said the butcher, putting her hands on her hips. “Get out!”

But Corban didn’t move. She was transfixed by the butcher’s socks. They were covered in polka dots, every colour of the rainbow. Corban had never seen such delicious-looking socks. She couldn’t help herself.

Lick! Slobber! Slurp!

“Bad dog!” said the butcher. “Stop eating my socks!”

But as Corban’s raspy tongue ticked her ankles, she started to giggle.

“Tee hee hee.”

And then she started to laugh.

“Hee ha ha!”

And then she started to belly laugh.

“AWWWW! HORRRRR! HORRRRRR!”

The butcher finally caught her breath.

“Stop it, you rascal,” she said. “Here, have this instead.”

And she gave Corban the lovely, long string of succulent sausages.

Corban trotted back past the florist, the bakery, the café and the houses until she was home.

“Good dog!” said Grandad. “Just what I felt like!”