From the foot of the stairs, Jared's dad made his usual evening call for volunteers to take Shaggy for his nightly walk.
"Sorry, dad," the impostor poked his head out of his bedroom door. "Gotta ton of homework tonight."
"Kevin?" Mr. Webster shouted.
Kevin's door opened and he gave the same excuse, except he added that he really had homework. "Jared's just surfing on his computer!"
The impostor yelled something not complementary about his younger sibling, and there was an exchange, their dad threw up his hand, and walked to the kitchen to retrieve Shaggy's leash.
"Life would be a lot less simpler without that huge dog," Mrs. Webster said.
"But Kevin..." her husband started.
"Kevin will start high school before you know it, and he's not going to have any time left for the dog," she said. "I've even called Frank, and he said he wouldn't mind at all. Shaggy would be free to roam and run all over that sprawling farm instead of being chained in the yard every day."
"I know, but..."
"And think of the money we would save from not having to hire dog walkers," she added, appealing to another of his weak points, his love for saving a buck.
As he started outside to take Shaggy on his walk, a light rain began to fall. He groaned and went back for the umbrella in the stand at the back door.
"And no more having to walk the dog in all sorts of weather," she said. "Rain, snow, sleet..."
"All right," he said. "Let me think on it overnight."
He then left the house for the unwanted chore of walking the dog that was supposed to have been the responsibility of his sons.