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The potato puppy


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A four-year-old boy called Shane, had been asking for a puppy for

over a month, but his daddy kept saying, "No dogs! A dog will

dig up the garden and chase the ducks and kill our rabbits. No

dog, and that's final!"

Each night Shane prayed for a puppy, and each morning he

was disappointed when there was no puppy waiting outside.

I was peeling potatoes for dinner, and he was sitting on the

floor at my feet asking for the thousandth time, "Why won't

Daddy let me have a puppy?" "Because they are a lot of trouble.

Don't cry. Maybe Daddy will change his mind someday," I

encouraged him. "No, he won't, and I'll never have a puppy

in a million years," Shane wailed. I looked into his dirty,

tear-streaked face. How could we deny him his one wish?

So I said the words that were first spoken by Eve, "I know a

way to make Daddy change his mind."

"Really?" Shane wiped away his tears and sniffed.

I handed him a potato.

"Take this and carry it with you until it turns into a puppy," I

whispered. "Never let it out of your sight for one minute. Keep

it with you all the time, and on the third day, tie a string around it

and drag it around the yard and see what happens!"

Shane grabbed the potato with both hands. "Mama, how do you

make a potato into a puppy?" He turned it over and over in his

little hands.

"Shh! It's a secret!" I whispered and sent him on his way.

"Lord, you know what a woman must do to keep peace in her

home!" I prayed.

Shane faithfully carried his potato around for two days; he slept

with it, bathed with it and talked to it. On the third day I said to

my husband, "We really should get a pet for Shane."

"What makes you think he needs a pet?" My husband leaned

against the doorway.

"Well, he's been carrying a potato around with him for days. He

calls it Wally and says it is his pet. He sleeps with it on his pillow,

and right now he has a string tied to it and he's dragging it

around the yard," I said.

"A potato?" my husband asked and looked out the window and

watched Shane taking his potato for a walk.

"It will break his heart when the potato gets mushy and rots," I

said and started getting out food for lunch. "Besides, every time I

try to peel potatoes for dinner, Shane cries because he says I'm

killing Wally's family."

"A potato?" my husband asked. "My son has a pet potato?"

"Well," I said shrugging, "you said he couldn't have a puppy. He

was so disappointed, in his mind, he decided he had to have

a pet..." "That's crazy!" my husband said.

"Maybe you're right, but explain to me why he is dragging that

potato around the yard on a string," I said.

My husband watched our son for a few more minutes.

"I'll bring home a puppy tonight. I'll stop by the animal shelter

after work. I guess a puppy can't be that much trouble," he

sighed. "It's better than a potato."

That night Shane's daddy brought home a wiggling puppy

and a pregnant white cat that he took pity on while he was at

the shelter. Everyone was happy. My husband thought he'd

saved his son from a nervous breakdown. Shane had a puppy,

a cat and five kittens and believed his mother had magic powers

that could change a potato into a puppy. And I was happy

because I got my potato back and cooked it for dinner.

Everything was perfect until one evening when I was cooking

dinner, Shane tugged on my dress and asked, "Mama, do you

think I could have a pony for my birthday?"

I looked into his sweet little face and said, "Well, first we have

to take a watermelon..."

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Me neither.

Were bing or blaze one of those dogs, Nixy? How old are they?

We've always had dogs. As a kid we usually had at least two at a time. I'm thinking once we get past puppy phase here we might go for a second, but I wasn't sure I could handle house training with 2 at once without going mad... (turns out it's been not too bad).

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