We Agreed to Forget the Dog
A couple in witness protection agree never to discuss their old life. Then their supposedly dead dog appears with a new collar and someone else's house key.
ImagineYourBook writes a fresh draft from this idea.
How it begins
The dog arrived on a Thursday.
We had agreed never to discuss the dog.
Adam saw him first.
He was standing at the kitchen window, drying a plate, when his hand stopped moving.
I followed his gaze.
A black spaniel sat beside our new garden gate wearing a blue collar.
Our dog had worn red.
Our dog was dead.
"That's not him," Adam said.
I had not asked.
Outside, the spaniel lifted his right paw.
The little white patch under his chin showed.
I put down my cup.
We had been given new names, new jobs and a folder explaining how ordinary people behaved when nobody was trying to find them.
Ordinary people did not stand at their windows arguing silently about an animal they had buried.
The dog waited.
He had always been better at waiting than either of us.
"Leave him," Adam said.
"He's in the rain."
"It isn't raining."
It began before he finished the sentence.
I opened the back door.
The dog came straight to me.
He smelled of wet grass and the old house.
For a moment I could not remember the name I was supposed to use now.
Adam stayed in the kitchen.
Around the dog's neck, beneath the blue collar, hung a small brass key.
No tag.
No address.
Just a strip of tape carrying four numbers.
Our wedding anniversary.
I looked at Adam.
He set the plate on the counter so carefully that I knew he recognized it.
"You said you saw him buried."
"I did."
"Then whose key is this?"
The dog moved between us and sat facing the front door.
His ears lifted.
Two short knocks sounded from the other side.
Not the doorbell.
The old signal.
Adam closed his eyes.
I took the key from the collar.
For the first time since we moved, our new house felt exactly like the one we had been paid to forget.
Your idea. Your book.
Keep the spark. Change anything.
Create my bookCreated with ImagineYourBook. Free to use as inspiration.
Outline and characters
- The couple's supposedly dead dog returns
- Julia checks the new collar's key
- Adam admits a separate protection contact
- The key opens a house prepared for their old identities
- A neighbor recognizes the dog's trained response
- Julia uncovers the false death report
- Adam must choose between concealment and a corroborating witness
- They contact independent oversight through a verified route
- The dog leads them to the person who kept it safe
- They decide which parts of their old life to reclaim
Characters
- Julia Moss, 35. Protected witness questioning the terms of her new identity
- Adam Moss, 41. Estranged husband hiding a separate protection agreement
Series possibilities
- The protection office sends a photograph of a second pet from their old street.
