Perky

Perky is Mrs. Wood's pet dog and the mother of Arthur's dog Pal. She can be mean at times, and Mr. Higgins, the mailman, refers to her as "Jaws".

When Mrs. Wood goes away on vacation, Perky stays with Arthur. She acts very grouchy and unfriendly when she comes to stay at the Read household. Arthur does not know what's bothering her, and believes that he has ruined her life. When Mrs. Wood gets back from her vacation, Arthur cannot find Perky, but then he finds her snuggled up behind the living room chair, where she has given birth to three puppies. She acts very happy when Arthur pets her revealing that the reason she was so grumpy was because she was pregnant. Nobody seemed to take any notice about it. As a reward, Mrs. Wood lets Arthur keep one of Perky's puppies which winds up becoming Pal in the end.

She was seen later in the series in two flashbacks in Arthur Writes a Story, when Arthur starts writing a story about how he got Pal. Also in the same episode, she was seen as an elephant in the false stories that D.W. suggested to Arthur after she called the real story he was trying to write "boring".

In What Scared Sue Ellen?, Sue Ellen hears something howling in the dead woods and becomes frightened, so she, Arthur, Binky, and Buster decide to find out what it is that is scaring them. It turns out to be Perky who was stuck in a tree trunk. She is reunited with Mrs. Wood who asks to give Arthur and his friends a kiss for rescuing her but this scares the gang away. Perky isn't seen after these episodes.

Trivia
According to the map of Elwood city on the PBS kids website, she is from the city's animal shelter. This is confirmed in Pal and the Big Itch.