Limericks and words

The first limerick I think I heard was by my father, 'The boy stood on the burning deck, his pocket full of crackers...", you know how it goes.

The next I can remember was in a book I was reading, "Doctor Foster went to Gloucester in a shower of rain. He stepped into a puddle, right up to his muddle, and never went there again". This puzzled the very young me for two reasons. I must have known by the then how limericks should be constructed, and Foster could not possibly rhyme with Gloucester, which of course it does. The second issue being muddle, clearly meaning middle. Was muddle ever an alternative word for middle? Now online, I see the word middle is used, which makes it wrong as a limerick. I suppose you could say, 'He stepped into cow piddle, right up to his middle'. 

I had to look this one up as I had forgotten the main verse. This is also my father's quoted version.

"Not last night but the night before,

Three little monkeys came knocking at my door.

One had a fiddle, one had a drum,

And one had a pancake stuck to it's ???

Don't be mistaken, don't be misled,

One had a pancake stuck on it's head.".

I assume everyone who knows this verse also knows this version? Maybe that was my first introduction to word play.

I'm sure I could do much better than this off the cuff limerick, but;

There is a cat we know as Jass,

who is really a bit of an ass.

While she seems rather gruff,

she is not really that tough,

in fact she is just a bit sass.