biggest kick in the teeth the game has given me (no Kranach)

[Grond]

Did you test her response when chatted to, or whether the message gets added to the victory text?

Whether the message gets added to the victory text. If you don't tell her about the dog's death or give her the corpse, she will have her usual dialog "Me sayz thanks for getting back me puppy."

[grobblewobble]

Wish immediately - works
Wish after the time limit without generating last puppy cave level - works
Wish after generating the last puppy level after the time limit - fails
Wish after seeing the cute dog die - fails
Wish after sensing the cute dog's death - fails
Wish immediately, and then kill another wished for cute dog - fails

Thanks for clearing that up.

Still, there is a pretty failsafe method to rescue the cute dog without burning a wish. Dive to PC:6 to generate a live puppy and leave the level immediately. If you come back many days later it will still be alive, so you can leave it there until you have monster detection and teleportation.