Buddy the Magician

March, 1999

When Buddy the dog arrived at Best Friends from North Carolina and promptly won a national award for being the hero who rescued a young woman from certain death down a deep well, I thought this deserved an investigation.

The story begins with Kimberly Cheek - that's the young lady in North Carolina - delivering groceries to one of her neighbors, a nice old geezer who can't manage too well by himself. She's carrying the bags over the porch and into the house for him when the porch suddenly collapses and Kimberly tumbles down an old well that's underneath the house.

It just so happens that a stray dog is crossing the porch at exactly the same moment as Kimberly. He promptly falls down the hole, too, right on top of her.

It's impossible for either Kimberly or the dog to get out, so they cuddle up together to keep warm and cozy since they've landed in a big puddle of water at the bottom of the well.

(Some versions of the story have Kimberly up to her waist in water, but she says it was only ankle-deep.)

An hour or two later, the local fire department arrives and hauls the two of them out. Kimberly is remarkably okay, except for some cuts and scrapes. So she heads off home. The little dog, who has no home, is taken to the county shelter. (No word, however, on whether the groceries ever made it into the house.)

A month later, Buddy, as he is now known, is still at the shelter where he's rapidly turning into a public relations disaster. He's been behaving very badly, can't possibly be placed in a home, and can't stay at the shelter, either. Everybody there agrees that they can really only give him one more week before the you-know-what.

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