Molly was very warm and comfortable in the middle of the huge, double human bed. It was her favourite place for sleeping. She was snoring softly while she slept, her dream of chasing peacocks making her legs thrash about, as if she was running. Suddenly she was awoken by a familiar noise. She lifted her head and opened one eye, listening carefully.
"I know that sound,"she thought to herself. "It's the front door opening".
Jumping off the bed, Molly crept down the hallway and peeped round the corner at the front door. It was open and no one was there! Not hesitating for a second she made a dash for it! "Yippee, I'm free," she thought, quickly hiding herself in the secret garden she had discovered just over the road. Crouching behind a thick clump of heather she watched as her human dad returned from the garage and went inside closing the front door behind him.
"I'd better be quick," Molly barked softly to herself, "before he notices I'm missing and comes looking for me".
She decided to scamper down the road and find her friend Bertie. Perhaps she could persuade him to come peacock chasing with her. She thought he might need an incentive because Bertie wasn't really into 'chasing', he preferred just sitting in the sun being lazy. Molly decided to take him a present. She quickly crammed five of her favourite pine cones into her mouth and set off in search of Bertie. She found him lying in the sun in the corner of the garden. She ran up to him, wagging her tail furiously, and dropped the pine cones ceremoniously in front of him. Bertie slowly sat up and looked at Molly. "What are you doing here?" He softly growled. "Do you want to come and chase some peacocks? It'll be fun, we can make them fly up onto the roof".
"I don't feel like it today," Bertie yawned, "I'm tired."
"Oh please, please, please," Molly yapped, "It'll be more fun if we do it together. I've brought you some pine cones, you can have a rest and chew them up later".
"Oh alright then, but where are we going to find the peacocks?" Bertie wondered.
"I think they're in the garden behind the high fence, just over the road. I know how to get in there. You go down the dyke, run along a bit until you come to a hole in the hedge. You can squeeze through the hedge," Molly informed him.
"It'll need to be a big hole,"Bertie exclaimed, "I'm a big dog, much bigger than you!"
"You'll be fine, I'll help you," Molly said encouraging him.
"Come on then, let's get on with it".
The two dogs set off stealthily to find a way into the peacock garden.
Luckily, for Bertie, the hole in the hedge was big enough and in no time at all they were in the garden. Molly was right, there was a whole family of peacocks there. The dogs started barking furiously and charged towards them. There was a tremendous flapping of wings and frightened squawking as the huge birds frantically tried to escape. Some of them flew up into the big trees in the garden, but three brightly coloured young male birds flew over the fence and up onto a nearby roof. They sat there making loud squawking noises which could be heard for miles around. Meanwhile Molly and Bertie, with very self satisfied looks on their doggie faces, quickly made their way home to their own gardens. If dogs could laugh you'd have heard them chuckling all the way back.
Bertie settled down to chew his pine cones, his present from Molly. Molly sat outside her now closed front door and gave one loud, peremptory bark. "Let me in!"
