A Christmas Scrap for Harry
Dec. 4, 2025 | Chris Knight
Happy Holidays from everyone here at GUSTO TV! To celebrate the season, here’s one of my favorite holiday tales — a story about kindness, turkey, and a dog named Harry.
Harry the dog had a long, tragic history of never receiving table scraps. Not a crumb, not a crust — not even a tiny, suspicious pea. The family insisted it was “for his own good,” though Harry never understood why it was for his good and not theirs. After all, he exercised far more than any of these two-leggers… except the little girl, of course. From time to time, she would accidentally-on-purpose drop something while “cleaning up” after dinner. Harry really liked the little girl, whose name was Eloise.
Every dinner went the same way:
Harry sat by the table, eyes wide, ears perked, deploying his most powerful weapon — The Trembling Puppy Stare™.
And every night, the family responded with the same cold-hearted phrase:
“No scraps, Harry. Lie down, Harry.”
But everything changed on one fateful Christmas.
The house smelled like roasted turkey, mashed potatoes, and all sorts of glorious things Harry wasn’t allowed to lick. He positioned himself under the table like a furry secret agent, waiting for a miracle.
Enter Eloise — the smallest human, the softest touch, the one with a well-documented history of suspiciously sticky fingers.
As the family chatted about the weather, shopping, and why Uncle Greg’s sweater looked like a confused llama, Eloise peeked under the table. Harry met her gaze. She gasped dramatically, as if she had just discovered hidden treasure.
Which, to be fair, she had: Harry’s enormous, pleading eyes.
Harry seized the moment and summoned every ounce of golden-retriever cuteness he could muster. Zoink.
Eloise grinned, tore off a small piece of turkey, and whispered the words he had waited his entire life to hear:
“Don’t tell.”
She slipped him the turkey.
Harry’s world stopped. Angelic choir or not — strictly avoided since we’re keeping this non-religious — something magical happened. The turkey was warm. Juicy. Life-changing. Harry ascended into a new plane of existence; a world made entirely of poultry and possibility.
And that was only the beginning.
Eloise gave him another piece. And another. By the fifth, Harry was vibrating with joy like a small, furry washing machine. By the seventh, he was convinced he could understand human speech. By the tenth, he was fairly confident he was human. Clearly, the handsome, rugged, super-smart, laugh-out-loud funny — and don’t forget wise — dad was also a great chef.
Then Eloise’s mother looked under the table.
There was a pause.
A gasp.
A small, outraged yelp: “Eloise!”
And an even larger, triumphant belch from Harry: “Haaa-rrrp!”
But instead of getting into trouble, Eloise simply patted Harry’s head and said,
“Well… it is Christmas.”
From that day forward, Harry occasionally — accidentally, of course — received the odd scrap. A sandwich crust. A noodle. A glorious fragment of rogue sausage.
Later that night, with a full belly, Harry lay in front of the fire while his entire family piled onto the couch to watch 14 straight hours of quality entertainment on GUSTO TV, taking only the briefest breaks for the bathroom or for a turkey sandwich (extra mayo, please).
As he drifted off into the most excellent of dog dreams, Harry realized two very important things:
Kindness — even in tiny scraps — can make someone’s whole day.
And you can never watch too much GUSTO TV.
Wishing you a warm, joyful, and delicious holiday season — from all of us at GUSTO TV (and from Harry).
