> They've been wrong on close to two dozen planets so far, and
>now Cerberus, half-grown and rapidly losing whatever puppy cuteness he
>might have had, lies uncomfortably in his cage, wondering in his
>rather dim canine way why no one wants to be his friend.

I can only imagine what ASPCA commercials must be like in the UF-verse. Now my mind's eye is showing me Cerberus staring soulfully at the camera while Sarah MacLachlan's "Angel" plays in the background....

>"(Well, here's a phrase I never would have imagined I'd ever say,)" he muttered
>to himself, then approached the merchant and said with a smile, "Pardon me, sir
> - how much for the three-headed dog?"

At least it wasn't in the window, with a waggily tail.

> Dukat said, "You know, we've doomed future Duelists to finding
>ever-weirder mascots now. Someone 100 years from now is going to
>curse us and our three-headed dog."

Fast forward to 2510, when someone is trying to smuggle an Arakkis sandworm into the Castle....

> Daran rubbed the dog's chest for a moment, then asked
>offhandedly, "Is he housebroken?"
> There was a slightly brittle pause.
> "I... ... don't know," Lindsey said.

Yeah, that's about the right note to end on. I would love to see this developed further, even if I have no idea what the end product would look like.