looks like the dog’s out of the knapsack…” she sighed again and turned to Jenna, “See, when Dad went to talk to Balto, we had Greg here, er, I mean Steele is it? Anyways, he went along with Dad to take care of Balto so that we could introduce him to you. We just wanted to get you away from the wolf. There wild and vicious creatures and we were afraid that he might do something to harm you.”

            “Mom, he’s different then you may think. He’s brave and smart and would do anything for me. I love him and I always will.”

            Balto grinned widely and some “Awws” could be heard from the crowd.

            Then Kaltag interrupted the sweet moment, “I think we have bigger fish to fry.”

            Kaltag nodded his head towards the direction of Steele lurking away. He turned around when he found full attention on him. Soon many of the dogs, including a ticked off couple of parents were growling at him.

            “Well Steele, I would say-” started Duchess.

            “we do not like to get tricked and used as pawns-” continued Ritchie.

            “to feed some plot to get our daughter”

            ‘I can take that wolf-dog by myself, but I can’t take on a whole town.’ Steele thought.

            Normally he would have tried a last ditch attempt, but he was outnumbered by an extreme amount, so he decided to save his skin and tried to run away with some dignity.

            “Well Balto,” said Duchess with much more sincerity, “can we start over?”

            “Hi, I’m Balto, nice to meet Jenna’s lovely mother.” Balto smiled with a twinkle in his eye.

            “Careful Balto, she’ll think that you’re trying to hitch up with her if you’re not careful.” laughed Jenna.

            Normally Duchess would have taken offence to this, but she decided to let it go and just laughed along with some of the other dogs.

            Later that day, about sunset, at the dinner table Susan stood up to make an announcement.

            “Attention. Attention. I would like to tell everyone something very important.”

            “What is it?” ask Tom.

            “Well,” said Susan, “I decided to do something I’ve been waiting to do, and I finally got around to doing it. I made up my mind to buy,-”

            ‘Oh no.’ thought Nancy and she shot a worried look to Tom who returned it. ‘I hope she doesn’t buy that old boat. It’ll just make it worse for her.’

            “I know it seems odd but,-”

            ‘Here it comes.’ Tom thought.

            “I’m buying an old house out of town. Sure it’s a fixer-upper but I don’t care. My things are already on a ship bound for here before the sea freezes up. This means that I’ll be able to see you everyday instead of barely at all! Come on, there’s still some light out, I’ll show you right now!”

            Rosie finished her last bit of mashed potatoes and all the family members, including Ritchie, Duchess, Jenna, and Balto, who had come for a visit, rushed outside to the outskirts to see the house. Balto couldn’t believe it, it was the same house that Steele had trapped them in the shed behind!

            And on a hill overlooking the town stood Steele.

            “Don’t worry Balto. I’ll be back. But next time I’ll have better pawns.” he took one last look and slowly trudged back to White Mountain.

Fin.

~By, Walto Disney