Doof The Dog

There once was a dog called Doof. His name used to be Doofus and he got teased for it, but he moved to a new street and told people to call him Doof. He made a new friend very soon, and the friend’s name was Silly the snake.

A bird called Sooty also lived in Doof’s new street. She was very smart, but Doof was even smarter. There was a lemur named Logic the lemur on the street who loved to host test-like contests. He decided to host another one shortly after Doof arrived in the street. The contest was for inhabitants of Doof’s streets and other streets nearby. Sooty entered as soon as she heard, and so did doof. A few days before the contest, Silly and Doof were discussing the contest, but they didn’t realise Sooty was eavesdropping. “I want to enter, but I don’t think i’m smart enough.” Silly said sadly. “I could help you practise if you’d like?” suggested Doof. “Ooh, yes please!” Silly exclaimed happily. “People used to tease me in my old street, and they called me Doofus.” Doof told silly. “Why?” asked Silly. “Because my name used to be Doofus. I tried to change it to Doof, which doesn’t sound as bad, but they ignored me and still called me Doofus. That’s why I told everyone on this street to call me-” Doof was interrupted by a strange cackle. “Who was that?” The noise had alarmed Silly. “I don’t know.” Doof replied.

Meanwhile, Sooty was flying over to the place where Logic the Lemur stayed. She wanted to tell him about how she ‘overheard’ Doof say his name used to be Doofus (she wasn’t going to tell him about her purposely spying on them though). “Hello, Sooty!” Lemur greeted Sooty when she arrived. “Hi, lemur. Hey, did you know that Doof used to be called Doofus?! I bet he’ll come last in the contest, that must be why he was named that!” cackled Sooty. “That’s not very nice! I saw him practicing in that old abandoned library, he’s actually very smart, he even knows how to read!” Lemur told Sooty. “So can I! Anyway, I can’t wait to win another contest!” Sooty exclaimed. “But what if you don’t win? Doof’s quite good, he could beat you, y’know!” Lemur was very annoyed about Sooty being so immodest, for she did this every time Lemur made a contest. “You’ve got to be joking! No-one can beat me. Anyway, who else joined the contest?” Asked Sooty. “Apart from you and Doof, there’s a monkey from another street, a cat, another bird, and silly. So there’s 6 of-” Sooty interrupted. “Sorry, did I hear you wrong? I thought you said Silly, but he wouldn’t, he’s too dumb!” Sooty said in disbelief. “Stop being so rude, Sooty!” Lemur scowled. “Whatever.” Sooty rolled her eyes and flew away.

On the day of the contest, both Silly and Doof were nervous and excited. Doof had practised with Silly and he was a lot better at remembering the facts now, so he probably wouldn’t get embarrassed. Doof and Silly went over to Lemur’s place because the contest was being held there. Lemur asked a bunch of different questions, some math, some history, some completely random. Sooty got one wrong, but she still thought she had a way better chance of winning than the other animals. She was very shocked when Lemur announced that she was second, because she always came first.. At least, before that contest. So can you guess who came first? It was Doof. Silly came close to 3rd, but was only just beat by the cat. He didn’t mind though. Sooty was furious enough to tell lies to Lemur, and she did. “He looked at my paper!” (the contests were a lot like tests) Sooty fibbed. “Nonsense, he was nowhere near you!” Lemur snapped. “Stop being so ungrateful, Sooty, you came in second place!” Lemur left to go congratulate Doof. After Lemur was finished congratulating Doof, he left. Silly started thanking Doof for helping him practise. “No problem!” Doof smiled. After the contest, nothing particularly interesting happened, apart from Sooty plotting to sabotage Doof in the next contest. Silly heard Sooty, for she had a habit of thinking aloud, and told Doof as soon as he got the chance. Doof thanked Silly and started making his own plan.

Silly’s plan was to offer to take Doof’s sheet to Lemur. She was going to swap Doof’s real sheet with a sheet that answered every question with ‘poop’ (a bit childish, don’t you think?), then give the fake ‘doof’s answer sheet’ to Logic the Lemur. Doof’s plan was to give Sooty a fake sheet that also had the wrong answers, because the he could just give Lemur his real sheet, and he knew the Lemur would trust his sheet more than Sooty’s fake ‘Doof’s’ one. Doof knew his plan wasn’t particularly funny or evil, and he knew he could just tell Lemur that Sooty was trying to cheat, but there’s 2 reasons why that would be a bad idea. First of all, Lemur might not believe him, and second, if Lemur did believe him, Lemur would probably confront Sooty, and Doof wanted to see Sooty’s face when she realised she hadn’t won.

On the day of the contest, Sooty was very excited, because she thought she would win this time. Doof didn’t know why she wanted to cheat, because if you win just because you cheated, it’s not an achievement. Lemur started asking the questions, most of them completely different to the questions he asked last time. When he was finished, he waited a little bit for everyone to check their answers. When everyone was done, he said “Ok, pass me your answer sheets now!”. Sooty offered to take Doof’s to Lemur, so Doof gave her the bad sheet and hid the good one. Sooty swapped Doof’s fake sheet with her fake ‘Doof’s answers’ sheet while Doof wasn’t looking. When she had given the sheets to Lemur, she sat back down. Doof went over and gave Lemur his real sheet. Lemur took it and started marking all the sheets. Sooty looked very smug. When Lemur was finished marking the sheets, he cleared his throat. “Time to tell all of you the places!” he exclaimed. Sooty looked even more smug now. “In third place… Silly!” he called out. Everyone clapped. Doof clapped hard and Sooty clapped reluctantly. Lemur waited for the clapping to stop. “In second place… Cat!” Lemur exclaimed. There was more clapping. When the clapping had stopped, everyone knew that first place was next, so they were on the edge of their seats. Sooty was looking even more smug, for she didn’t know that her plan had failed yet. “In first place… DOOF!” There was louder clapping. Sooty was the angriest anyone’s ever seen her. “I’m leaving!” she screeched. “I should’ve come in first! I answered all the questions right, didn’t I?!” Sooty squawked. “Yes, you did but cheaters don’t deserve to-” Lemur was interrupted by Sooty wailing. “I’ll leave! I really will leave! And it’s all your fault! I’m leaving the street! Forever!” Doof stared at Sooty in disbelief. “Drama queen” Silly whispered in Doof’s ear. Sooty attempted to stomp out the door, but she was a small bird, so she couldn’t stomp very loudly. Everyone watched her flying away from the window. “Wait, Doof. Sooty told me you used to be called Doofus.. But why would anyone call you that? She must’ve lied to me” Lemur said. “It’s true, actually, and I don’t know why” Doof told Lemur. “But Doof still sounds a lot like Doofus..” Lemur said, sounding confused. “Sorry, but I like my name” Doof told lemur. “Oh well, I’m fine with it, I guess” Lemur shrugged his shoulders. “That’s good” said Silly.

And that was the end of Silly’s first adventure on this new street.

That was my 'silly animal story'. I like constructive criticism, so please try to post helpful comments.