Why did the Wizard of Oz leave the Toto-Miss Gulch thread open.?

Question

I remember as a kid being very concerned about what would happen to Toto once Dorothy got back to Kansas -- or um... woke up from her dream.

The whole reason she ran away was not, as she said she learned, that if there's something missing and it's not in her own back yard, then she never missed it to start with, but to save Toto from being put down by the sheriff.

But that whole thread is never resolved. Sure Dorothy kills two withes and helps the scarecrow, tin man and cowardly lion get help from the Wizard of Oz whom she exposes as a fraud.

Then she wakes up in Kansas, and everything's right with the world. But Miss Gulch still has an order to have the dog delivered to sheriff to be put down.

I read the book when I was in middle school to see what happened, but that whole plot arc is completely absent from the book.

(Dorothy doesn't run away, she doesn't meet the carnival wizard who gets her to go back home, she doesn't have ruby slippers.)

So what is going to happen with Miss Gulch and Toto?

Answer 1

You're right. That thread was not tied. Maybe the writers and producers didn't care to resolve it -- that it would be anticlimactic after Dorothy's utterance "There's no place like home." Miss G. did not have the human kindness of Professor Marvel to inquire about Dorothy (How did Prof. M. know where D. lived?) so she was not among the group at the window.



Maybe she was caught up by the tornado.

Answer 2

Miss Almira Gulch is a socialite who is a neighbor of Aunt Em, Uncle Henry and Dorothy Gale. Using her status, she threatens to have Toto put to sleep for biting her, this character appears in the movie, but not in the book.

Dorothy Gale and her dog, Toto, run to their farm in Kansas after an encounter with Miss Gulch, who hit Toto on the back with a rake, after he bit her. No one at the farm seems interested in this, however. Miss Gulch arrives and announces that she will have Toto destroyed and has an order from the sheriff (who has no appearance in the film). She takes Toto away in a basket on her bike, but Toto escapes and runs back to Dorothy. Realizing Miss Gulch will return for him, Dorothy and Toto decide to run away. Miss Gulch is the real life counter part to The Wicked Witch of the West. She does not return for Toto at the end of this film due to being the tornado's victim which was concealed by a transformation of becoming The Wicked Witch of the East.

Answer 3

Put to sleep by Animal control.