Excuse me. The pokey little puppy is NOT the doggy I am thinking about.
Maybe it was a dog called the Shaggy Dog, or the lost dog. Seems like there was a strawberry patch involved.
Synopsis
Instead of following his siblings on adventures, the Poky Little Puppy decides to sniff a different patch of grass. In the beginning, his independence is rewarded. The puppies all dig underneath a fence to escape from their yard, but only the Poky Little Puppy’s siblings are caught. The Poky Little Puppy avoids punishment because he’s off exploring as his mother scolds his siblings, and he comes home alone after everyone is asleep. The Poky Little Puppy then eats the rice pudding that the mother was planning to give all the puppies but withheld because of the fence-digging incident.
Only at the end of the book, when the puppies make amends with their mother, fate catches up to the Poky Little Puppy. His siblings enjoy some strawberry shortcake, while the Poky Little Puppy is nowhere to be found. He misses out on the strawberry shortcake, and the book concludes with Poky Little Puppy going to bed without a bite and feeling “very sorry for himself.”