The thing that plopped out of the ball was…  

Have you ever heard the expression, “So ugly it’s cute”?  Well, that’s not what plopped out of the ball.  The little doglike beast in front of us was ugly to the point of being ugly.  It looked kind of like a small bulldog with wrinkly skin which folded over layers of short fur, and its face looked like someone had punched it and smashed it in an inch or two and simply flattened out the nose back almost flat to the ridge of the eyes.  If I had to try and rate the body of the beast, I suppose I’d say it somewhat resembled one of those overly wrinkled English Bulldogs – with two large differences.

First, the little beast had long droopy ears that draped down past its head and dragged the floor.  We could stick a feather in his nose and probably call him Dumbo, they so greatly mismatched his head and body.  Only time I’ve ever seen such ears on anything was on an elephant at the zoo, or on one of those long-eared basset hounds.  Combined with his wrinkled body and short stubby legs, I thought it looked ridiculous.

And second, it had small tusks protruding from the edges of the wrinkles around its face.  The overall effect was something like an insane crossbreed between a bulldog, a basset hound, and a boar!  All I could see was ugly stacked on ugly.  And the thing couldn’t even walk straight – it kept tripping over its own ears as it tumbled around and yipping at things.  It was about the size of a fully grown cat, but it had all the grace of a newborn colt.  Its knees wobbled, drool slobbered off its chin and dripped off its tusk, and its short stubby tail jumped left to right and back again like the windshield wipers on a car!

Ugly, wrinkly, long-eared, tusky, clumsy, yippy-yappy puppy of hell!

And the girls loved it!  

The little pup-beast tumbled around, shook its head, and yipping charged over to bounce into Isabella’s leg first, where it did a flip and landed upside down.  It’s head and tail was wagging up against her legs, and it was doing what looked like some odd type of headstand as it squirmed and yapped trying to right itself back to its feet.  After a few seconds, and with a light giggle, Isabella pushed it over and it shook its head as it finally righted itself – just to rush off and toss itself at Brandr next!

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This time, the little beast managed to half climb up her legs in an attempt to get into her lap, before it tumbled over and crashed into the ground.  Yipping and snarling, it turned and pawed at the ground and tried to bite at the floor – as if it was blaming the floor for making it fall!  Back and forth it shook its tiny little face across the floor, and finally satisfied, it snorted, yipped, and then charged me!

Having seen its previous actions, I reached down and scooped it up before it could knock itself silly running into my leg and held it up at arm’s length to look at it.  Up close, it was just as ugly as my first impression had indicated.  The little beast squirmed, wiggled, and yipped in my arms; its nub of a tail swapping back and forth furiously.  Drool slobbered everywhere as it slobbered while I was holding it.

And then, in a golden shower, the little beast baptized me with its holy water.

Disgusted, I dropped it and it made a solid little thump sound as it hit the floor, but it bounced right up, yipped, and ran over towards Isabella who was laughing madly now.  She picked it up and squeezed it in her arms and it yipped at her.   “Can we keep it?”  She asked, all puppy eyed.

“Let’s name it Buster.  It looks like a Buster to me,” came Brandr’s gentle voice.

“All right then!”  Isabella half hopped and tried to rub noses with it.  “Welcome to your new home Buster!  We’re your family from now on!”

“Hold on a moment,” I interrupted.  “Don’t I even get a say in the matter?”

“Nope,” said Isabella.

“Not this time, My Lord,” was Brandr’s soft thought.

Well fu…….

I thought I was the one who was supposed to be in charge!  All I could do in this case is just sigh slightly to myself and watch the two girls have fun playing with their new little puppy; I’d gotten outvoted before I even had a chance to cast a vote!

Little Buster, for better or worse, it looks like you’re part of the family now too.