The Slice: Maybe Santa will bring her a new iPod – she’s earned it

When Hannah Faurest Nelson Wicks was about 7 years old, she saw a scared dog trying to escape from an abusive owner.

There wasn’t anything she could do. She was just a kid. But the image stayed with her.

And that troubling memory flashed through her mind on an afternoon back around Halloween when the 16-year-old Lewis and Clark High junior observed a disheveled man hitting a puppy near a bus stop beneath the freeway.

So Hannah approached the guy and told him to knock it off.

The man, who seemed to be surrounded by all of his possessions, said the little dog had peed on him. Furthermore, he added, it was his animal and he would do with it what he liked.

Hannah volunteered to take the pooch off his hands, so he wouldn’t be burdened by it.

The man said it would cost her.

She offered him $10, which was all she had.

He said that wasn’t enough.

But Hannah had no intention of walking away and being haunted by wondering. Not this time. So she offered the guy her iPod.

It was a deal.

Arriving home with the mixed breed adoptee, she braced for the possibility that her mother, Robin, would be angry on two counts. But sometimes moms come through when you really need them to. And this was such an occasion.

They took the puppy, which weighed four or five pounds, to a veterinarian. Except for being malnourished, it was OK.

That lucky canine, which they named Jack, now weighs 15 or 20 pounds. He’s still growing.

The household’s resident poodles, Abby and Olive, have come to accept him. And though initially uncertain about this new addition to the family, Hannah’s art teacher mom has been seen nuzzling Jack and pronouncing him a good boy.

“I think I got a good deal on him,” said Hannah.

Today’s Slice question: What’s the greatest number of people who have been in your kitchen at one time?