ABOUT THE BOOK: "Ness and Codaddy” is a children’s rhyming book about two chocolate labs, daddy and daughter. Ness, the one year old female, is fascinated with her daddy’s long pink tongue. Codaddy is always getting blamed for Ness’s mischief; so he lures her away from home in an attempt to lose her.
Ness and Codaddy
by Janice Daugharty
Smashwords Edition
Copyright 2010 Janice Daugharty
I like to help my big brown Codaddy.
Sometimes we work,
Sometimes we play.
Sometimes we run like we’re doing today.
When he pants, something pink hangs out of his mouth.
And I have to stop and help him try to get it out.
It could be a toy or a piece of meat.
If I snatch it free we can share the treat.
He growls and we run again.
We run through green fields of grass.
“Look at me, Codaddy, I can run fast!”
But that something pink hangs out of his mouth,
And I have to stop and help him try to get it out.
He growls and we run again.
Codaddy fetches the newspaper
and takes it to our master
To exchange for some meat
If it arrives without disaster.
I sat on Codaddy’s porch day after day
Watching how he scoops the paper up and bears it away.
Right in the middle he grabs the roll between his teeth
With not a chew-mark, not a tear in its plastic sheath.
Then one morning while Codaddy was fast asleep
I waited for the paper man in his candy-red jeep.
When he tossed it over the gate to the ground,
I headed out to get it while no one was around.
I balanced the roll between my sharp front teeth
Then trotted like Codaddy to where he was asleep.
He opened one eye and spied me coming for his meat.
The paper dropped to the ground, spread open at his feet.
We couldn’t get it up without causing a disaster
So Codaddy had to wait next to it for help from our master.
“Bad boy, Codaddy! No meat for you this morning.
Next time I’ll send Ness; let this be a warning.”
We cut through woods
On the trail of a deer.
Codaddy sprints past me,
Barking in my ear.
I pin my ears back and pick up speed
And up ahead is my Codaddy taking the lead.
His pink thing is hanging out of his mouth.
So what can I do except help him try to get it out?
He growls and we run again.
The deer is gone so we chase a squirrel up a tree.
We both stand their baying, just Codaddy and me.
The squirrel isn’t nearly as pretty as that pink thing in his mouth.
I want it, I want it. I have to get it out.
He growls and we run again.
Codaddy gets more treats for picking up trash in the yard.
When I tried to help him once, he got caught off-guard.
My single sheet of paper had divided into a dozen little scraps.
Codaddy was putting it back together when we heard—“Oh crap!”
“Labs,” our master said. “All they do is chew.
Codaddy, Codaddy, shame on you!”
Our big tall master wagged a finger in his face.
Codaddy slunk off to search for a safe hiding place.
We stop by a creek to take a break and get a drink.
Codaddy’s pink thing hangs out his mouth
And before it can touch water
I am there to get it out.
We run and run and run
Not running after anything as far as I can see.