There have also been occasions in which Walter has willingly helped Dennis: when Gnasher went missing in the 1980s, he tried to help Dennis find him, and more recently, he has helped Dennis several times: finding Gnipper's long-lost sisters when the puppy had been poisoned, helping Rasher win a pig race, and trying to save Dennis's favourite tree by chaining himself to it, thus changing his relationship with Dennis from enemies to, if not outright friends, civil rivals. A likely reason for this is increased public awareness of bullying and the increasing unacceptability of a comic featuring a bully/victim relationship that stars the bully as protagonist.