“Charley, it’s perfect!”
his mother exclaimed.
“We’ll hang it right up,
I’ll go have it framed!”

The painting was bright!
And, though there were lots,
His mom hung it up
In the best of all spots.

And the neighbors came over,
To look and admire-
The blues like the ocean,
The reds like a fire.

One neighbor said, “Charley
This work couldn’t lose!
You must enter a contest,
Any one that you choose.”

Charley’s mother thought yes!
This painting’s quite pretty.
So they wrapped it right up
Stamped ‘first class’ to the city.

They waited and waited,
(And waiting’s not fun)
They waited for news
To see if they’d won.

They waited through storms
Through rain and dark haze;
They waited up nights
For almost three days.

Then Wednesday it came!
The news—there it was.
The mail finally came
As mail finally does.

He’d won the contest!
He won, the whole show!
Charley was to be famous,
To the museum he’d go!

He packed up his toys,
His paints and his brush
And off to the museum!
He went in a rush.

And oh! How they cheered
For Charley that day!
He stood up so happy
As they shouted ‘hooray!’

But deep down inside
Charley, he knew,
Something just wasn’t right
This just wouldn’t do.

He’d tried to tell mother,
But she was nowhere around.
He tried telling the judge
But he couldn’t be found.

Charley had to do something,
The right thing, right away.
He knew what to do,
But not what to say.

So he found a big box,
And climbed to the top,
And then to the crowd, he hollered out,
STOP!

As soon as he’d said it
Silence fell on the crowd
And he wished that he hadn’t,
Hadn’t been so, well, loud.

But he had their attention!
He glanced over at mother.
He took a deep breath,
And then took another.

“I… I didn’t paint this.
I’ve lied to you all”
These paintings aren’t mine,
These ones on the wall.”

The whispers came flying!
Could it be true?
And a man with a dark hat
Cried out, “Then who?”

Charley stuttered a moment
And looked the crowd over.
“It was him,” he pointed,
“It was my dog, Rover.”

What is this? What a shock!
Could a dog paint this stuff?
They all turned to Rover
Who said only ‘Ruff!’

And it was in fact true,
It was Rover who’d done it.
They gave him the trophy—
It was he that had won it.

When it came time to go home
Charley hung his small head.
“I’m sorry I lied”
To Rover he said.

Once safe back at home
To the beach they did race.
Charley hugged his dog Rover
And Rover licked Charley’s face.

He forgave Charley right then
As they played on the shore –
For Rover liked painting
But he loved Charley more.