"Happy Dan,The Cynical Dog" is a short story by Ward Green. Dan was an inspiration for the character of Tramp.
The story was first published in the February 1945 issue of Hearst International combined with Cosmopolitan.
Story[]
Happy Dan, a spaniel, was not like other dogs. Most dogs believe that men are good, cats are evil, and birds can be caught by chasing them; they have illusions.Happy Dan was born With practically none,and by the time he was six months had lost those.He believed in nothing,not even his master's voice.He was a cynic.
While still a puppy Happy Dan learned that men have illusions about dogs. For example,the one about the Dog being man's best friend. Happy Dan was quick to take advantage of his discovery. It made his life softer and jollier and he was absolutely conscienceless about using his knowledge. Happy Dan wagged when he didn't mean it, he fawned on people he loathed, he barked simply to round a legend that he was a good watchdog, and once he chased and bit a tramp snooping around the perambulator when, in cold fact, he hoped the tramp was about to kidnap the baby, a brat. The Tramp got the baby's candy bar and Happy Dan a medal from the Boy Scouts.
Happy Dan belonged to a family living near Westwood, New Jersey. They made a great pet of him and fed him well and let him run loose. He would be gone for hours, often days. "Don't worry," the family would say. "Happy Dan loves his home; he will always come back." And he always did, panting with joy which was all put on.
What Happy Dan did on his rambles was to look over other families. You never can tell, was the way he put it, what with the war and the draft and meat rationing and all, a dog with one family is not sitting pretty. So he pretended to be homeless and gradually got himself adopted by three other families and, in no time, petted and well fed by them and allowed to run loose. He picked his families carefully—one in Hillsdale, one in Hohokus and one in Park Ridge.
They were far enough apart to be unacquainted, yet close enough for a daily dogtrot, and all were well fixed. The different families had different names for Happy Dan and he answered to all the names.
Once one of the families bought Happy Dan a collar. This dismayed him. But he picked a fight with a lady dog he really adored and she tore the telltale thing the hell off. "That Skipper!" moaned his collar family. "We ought to punish him." Happy Dan groveled, looked sweet and got away with it. He made up with lady dog, too.
There is no moral to Happy Dan's story. There won't be as long as he thrives—and that he does. Sometimes he wakes shivering when he dreams of all four families meeting. But that happened only once, and then, thanks to Happy Dan's fast thinking, everything was jake.
He was with his Hohokus Master when he ran into his Hillsdale master in Westwood. "Why, Spot, where did You drop from?" asked Hillsdale when Happy Dan jumped and barked around him.
"Here, Rex, here!" called Hohokus, and Happy Dan ran back to him and jumped and barked around him. Then he deliberately bounded over to a woman he has never seen in his life and licked her hand.
"Great Dog," said Hohokus, passing Hillsdale. "Loves everybody."
"Everybody loves him, too," said Hillsdale, passing Hohokus.
"Well, I'll be dogged." Happy Dan said to himself. "But who wouldn't be when men are that simple?"
The Lady and the Tramp[]
In 1943, Joe Grant and a story team showed Walt Disney the storyboards for the film "Lady," but Walt didn't like the story. In 1945, Walt read the story by Green, a personal friend of his and an editor at King Features Syndicate, the distributor of Disney's comic strips. Walt bought the copyright to the story,He wanted a romantic story with Dan as Lady's boyfriend, and in 1945, he renamed Dan as Tramp.
Walt mistakenly referred to the story as "Happy Dan,The Whistling Dog" in the novelization of the film.
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