Walter the Wonder Dog, Part One

One night, Bud And Priscilla Shaftoe’s car pulled into our driveway.

“You guys want a dog?” Bud asked, flashing the kind of grin that meant trouble.

“Uh, no,” I replied, already sensing a setup.

“It’s just a puppy,” Bud continued, oh-so-casually. “Came from a friend’s litter. They said if we can’t find a home for it, well… ya know…”

Oh, we knew what “ya know” meant. Bud was laying down a first-class guilt trip, complete with emotional blackmail.

“Wow, that’s…unfortunate,” I said. “But no, we have cats. Try literally anyone else.”

“We’ve tried literally everyone else,” Bud sighed dramatically. Then, with the precision of a man who had studied psychological warfare, he added, “Ya know, I bet little Peter would love a puppy.”

At that very moment, Peter, our young son, peeked out the door.

Before I could throw myself in front of him like a Secret Service agent, Bud turned to him with a devilish twinkle in his eye. “Hey, Peter! This puppy says he wants to be *yours!* You want a puppy, don’t you?”

Peter was out the door faster than a cat. The puppy’s tail went into overdrive, and within seconds, Peter was getting his face washed by an enthusiastic tongue.

“Why don’t you just take him ‘overnight’ and try him out?” Bud suggested, like a shady used-car salesman offering a free test drive.

I opened my mouth to shout “NO!” but—

“Can we, Dad? Can we??”

And then Bud delivered the final blow: “Ya know… he doesn’t even have a name yet. What would you call him, Peter?”

Peter’s eyes lit up. “Walter! I’ll name him Walter!” (Walter, for reference, was the name of his best friend’s teddy bear.)

Sandy and I locked eyes, silently screaming for help. But it was too late. We had been played.

“Damn,” I muttered. “We’re getting a dog.”

“He’s gonna love it here!” Bud declared victoriously, handing over the squirming pup to Peter.

“Oh, and one more thing,” Bud added as he turned to leave.

“What now?” I asked, bracing for impact.

“Walter isn’t a “he. Walter is a “she.””

And that, my friends, is how Walter the Wonder Dog became part of the family.

Peter and Bethany with Walter the Wonder Dog