The history behind the Simpson family dog is an interesting one.

With Christmas approaching rapidly, Homer was starting to worry about what gifts he was going to get everyone in his family. He takes a peek at the contents of his wallet and realizes that he is almost dead broke. *Pling!* Then it hits him - he's expecting a huge bonus from Mr. Burns, his boss at the Springfield Nuclear Power Plant.

Long story short, the bonus is much much much less than what he was hoping for, so he is still dead broke and freaking out over his car full of empty space where presents for his wife and kids should be. So, what does he do? What any responsible father would do, of course!

He goes to the dog track, puts all of his meager bonus on a dog he gets a "good feeling" about, a.k.a. Santa's Little Helper, and goes to watch the race. As far as I can remember, he either finishes last or doesn't finish at all.

The dog's owner runs out onto the track and beats the shit out of it, probably, and Homer slinks out of the track, heartbroken. But he hasn't given up yet. He spends hours in the parking lot looking for winning tickets to no avail. This is when the two meet.

Santa's Little Helper's owner kicks him out a door out of the dog track and says something to the tone of, "Get outta here, ya mangy mut!" The dog runs over to Homer, jumps on him, licks his face, etc. Homer decides to be a nice guy and take him home with him.

By now, I think it is Christmas morning. Homer walks in the front door to find his family walking downstairs to the Christmas tree where he decides to break the news to his family. "Marge, kids...I'm really sorry but--" Just then Santa's Little Helper runs in the door and jumps on Bart. Everyone is happy because they think Homer got him as a Christmas present. So Homer got lucky and dodged a bullet, again.

Good work, big guy. :)