Dogger CBeebies Bedtime Stories

CBeebies Bedtime Story.

Hello. I'm Sally.

Have you got a favourite toy you take everywhere?

You have?

There's a little boy in tonight's bedtime story

who loves his toy more than you can imagine.

Let me tell you about him in tonight's story,

which is called Dogger and is written by Shirley Hughes.

Once there was a soft, brown toy called Dogger.

One of his ears pointed upwards and the other flopped over.

His fur was worn in places because he was quite old.

He belonged to Dave.

Dave was very fond of Dogger. He took him everywhere.

Sometimes he gave him rides in a trolley.

Sometimes he pulled him along on a string lead, like a real dog.

When it was cold, he wrapped him up in a bit of blanket.

Now and again, Dave's mum said Dogger was getting much too dirty.

She showed Dave how to wash him in a bowl of soapy water.

Then they hung him up by his tail on the washing line to dry.

Dave's baby brother, Joe, liked hard toys.

He liked putting them in his mouth and biting on them

because he was getting teeth.

Dave's big sister, Bella, took seven teddies to bed every night.

She had to sleep up against the wall to stop herself from falling out.

But Dave liked only Dogger.

One afternoon, Dave and Mum set out to collect Bella from school.

Mum took Joe in the pushchair and Dave took Dogger.

Next to the school gate was a playing field.

Men with ladders were putting up coloured flags.

There was going to be a summer fair to get money for the school.

Dave pushed Dogger up against the railings to show him.

Just then, the children started to come out of school.

An ice cream van came around the corner playing a tune.

Bella ran up with her satchel flying.

"Mum? Can we have an ice cream?"

Mum gave her the money for two cones.

Joe didn't have a whole ice cream. He was too dribbly.

On the way home, Dave walked beside the pushchair,

giving Joe licks of his ice cream.

Joe kicked his feet about and shouted for, "More!"

At tea-time, Dave was rather quiet.

In the bath, he was even quieter.

At bedtime, he said, "I want Dogger."

But Dogger was nowhere to be found.

Mum looked under the bed. She looked behind the cupboard.

She searched in the kitchen and underneath the stairs.

Dave watched through the banisters.

Joe watched through the bars of his cot.

Bella joined in to look for Dogger.

She turned out her toy box, but he wasn't in there.

When dad came home, he looked for Dogger.

He searched in the shed and down the garden path.

But Dogger was quite lost.

Dave was very sad when he went to bed.

Bella lent him one of her teddies to go to sleep with,

but it was not the same thing as Dogger.

Dave kept waking in the night, missing him.

The next day was Saturday and they all went to the school summer fair.

The playing field was full of stalls and sideshows.

There was a fancy-dress parade.

Then there were sports, with an egg and spoon race,

a wheelbarrow race and a fathers' race.

Bella was very good at races.

She won the three-legged race with her friend Barbara.

"Wouldn't you like to go in for a race?" they asked Dave.

But Dave didn't feel like racing. He was missing Dogger too much.

Then another very exciting thing happened to Bella.

She won first prize in a raffle!

It was a huge, yellow teddy bear wearing a beautiful blue silk bow.

He was almost as big as Dave.

Dave didn't like that teddy at all.

He didn't like Bella much either because she kept winning things.

He went off on his own to look at the stalls.

One lady had a toy stall full of knitted ducks and cars

and baby dolls in bonnets.

And there, at the very back of the stall,

behind a lot of other toys, was Dogger!

He was wearing a ticket saying, "5p."

There were a lot of people at the stall.

Dave told the lady it was his Dogger who got lost

and was on the stall by mistake! But she wasn't listening.

He looked in his pocket. He had 3p, but that wasn't enough.

He ran to find Mum and Dad to ask them to buy Dogger back at once!

Dave went everywhere in the crowd, but he couldn't see Mum and Dad.

He thought he was going to cry!

At last, he found Bella by the cakes.

She and Dave ran back to the toy stall as fast as they could,

but something terrible had happened.

Dogger had just been bought by a little girl.

She was already walking off with him.

Dave began to cry.

Bella tried to explain that Dogger really belonged to Dave

and could they buy him back?

But the little girl said, "No."

She said she bought Dogger with her own money and she wanted him.

She held on to him very tightly.

Dave cried and cried and the little girl started to cry, too.

But out of the corner of her eye,

she caught sight of Bella's big yellow teddy.

She stopped crying

and put out her hand to stroke his beautiful blue silk bow.

Then Bella did something very kind.

"Would you swap this teddy for my brother's dog?" she asked.

Right away, the little girl stopped crying and began to smile.

She held out Dogger to Dave and took the big teddy instead

and went off with him in her arms.

Then Dave smiled, too.

He hugged Dogger.

And he hugged Bella around the waist.

"Thank you, Bella," he said.

That night, Dave had Dogger in bed beside him.

Bella was practising somersaults.

"Shall you miss that big teddy?" Dave asked her.

"No," said Bella.

"I didn't like him. He was too big and his eyes were too staring.

"And if I had another teddy in my bed, there wouldn't be room for me."

And that story was called Dogger.

I hope you're hugging your favourite toy.

Make sure you don't lose it.

Snuggle down now and have sweet dreams

and I'll see you soon for another bedtime story.

Night-night.