McDuff enjoys reading the paper with Fred and taking walks in the woods with Lucy, but all that changes when they bring a new baby home.

A little white dog that nobody seems to want finds just the right home--and a name. No one wants the nameless little dog wandering the streets looking unsuccessfully for food and shelter until kindhearted Fred and Lucy, a young couple, take him inside. After they feed him rice pudding and bathe him, they realize that they cannot bear to return him to the pound. Newly adopted, McDuff–named that night for their favorite shortbread biscuit–is last...

When McDuff and his new French-speaking neighbors' dog are enrolled in obedience school, it seems as though McDuff has not learned his lessons.

Sunday dinner at Aunt Frieda's means an evening with mean old cat Purlina and she and McDuff have a wild romp through the house.