Cowpoke Clyde and Dirty Dawg

Cowpoke Clyde’s house was completely clean—he’d even shooed off the horseflies: “Then right behind his cookin’ pot, / he spied one thing he’d plumb forgot: / ol’ Dawg, his faithful, snorin’ friend, / all caked with mud from end to end.” Needless to say, Dawg wakes up and runs. The chase that follows—with page-turn surprises—makes for a hilarious shaggy-dog story involving fleas, a hog, bribery, cats, deception, and a mule. The rhyming stanzas are pitch-perfect, Texas-style, and plumb near cry ou…