Puppies on a bus

 

Nobody would have guessed why the well-dressed woman had a puppy in her handbag. She got on the bus one day with what looked like a Pekinese; the dog had its head sticking out with a red ribbon tied on in a bow. The woman wore a bright red sweater, scarf and matching gloves.

 Smiling at the other passengers, she soon had an audience who wanted to make a fuss of the dog, which they did with remarks like "oh what a sweety," and "how adorable." This suited the woman well enough until a younger woman said, "what I'd give for a dog like that.”

"She is my treasure," said the lady in the red sweater, "a pedigree, but I have to go into hospital and can't have her anymore." The younger woman, looking over her shoulder, pleaded, “I want her, will you take fifty pounds for her?"

 The lady replied, “all I want is for someone to look after her, it’s not a question of money.”

"I insist, it’s only fair. You probably paid a lot more for her than that. Here take the money. She will be happy with me, and I will look after her, I promise.”

At this, the woman took the dog out of the handbag, gave it a kiss on the forehead and gave it to the other woman.

 "Please take good care of her. Write your address on this piece of paper. I will send you the pedigree certificate.” She took the money and got off the bus. 

Of course, the dog had no pedigree, and the woman took the next bus home to where the other puppies were being housed. They looked for all the world to be from an excellent pedigree, but looks can be deceiving.

 Some weeks previously, a stray, bedraggled dog had turned up at the house. Her husband convinced her to take the dog in. But the stray was pregnant and produced a litter of eight. They would not keep them and the husband left it to her to sort out.

Now she changed her outfit to a blue scarf, dress, and collar for the dog. Picking one up and kissing it on the head, she set out again, looking for the next sucker and another fifty pounds.

 Taking a different bus route this time, she headed out of town. She didn’t want to risk meeting the same people she saw last time. Each trip, a different route, a different coloured outfit. This is going to earn her a lot of money. There were eight puppies, and she was confident of selling all of them in this manner. She seemed to have no problem doing that, drawing attention to the puppies by having them looking out of her handbag with an enormous bow tied on. A couple of times prospective buyers asked to accompany her home for the certificate, but she bluffed her way out of those.

Feeling very pleased with herself when she had finally sold the last one, she went to the station to pick up her husband who worked away during the week. Coming out to the car with a huge smile on his face, he quickened his step, flopped himself down into the passenger seat, out of breath. He was very excited about something.

 "Hello dear, how was the journey? Wait till you hear what I’ve done while you were away, you’d never guess.”

"Never mind that for a moment, look at this first,” he said, handing her an envelope. It was from the Kennel Club. “Go on, open it.” He could hardly contain his excitement. She felt herself go cold as the words on the official-looking document started to sink in. “Isn’t that wonderful? I took a saliva sample from the dog, and while I was away I took it to the Kennel Club for analysis, and guess what? It came back positive. Our stray dog has a pedigree, and the puppies are worth five to six hundred pounds each. I can’t believe our luck. What do you think about that, my angel? So, tell me, what did you do while I was away that you were so keen to tell me? I’m dying to hear.”