"Yeah. He was just sitting there and waited at the bus stop with me and then my bus came back and he turned into a dog so he decided to follow me and then we played fetch at recess."
Maxine wasn't trying to bury the lead, exactly. There were just better parts to the can we have a dog story than this random stranger turned into a dog.
"He hasn't told me his name though, so I think we should come up with a new name. I like Mr. Big, because he's a really big dog."