[pshrynk]

Harv slowly opened his eyes, fearful of what awful thing he might see. It was worse than he could imagine and he quickly closed them and screamed lightly.

"You okay, boss?" asked Vivaldi.

"Why are you upside down?"

"I'm not."

Harv did some quick calculations in his head. "Then why am I upside down?"

"Well, you wre a little drunk last night..."

"That I knew already." Damn Vera and her security protocols, anyway! "What else?"

Harv re-opened his eyes and stared at the, to him, upside down nstrils of his dog, Vivaldi. Well, Vivaldi would argue that he was his own dog, and he merely worked for Harv, but the nature of canis domesticus was such that he soon came back to begging for skritch and a tug on the old knotted socks.

"Well, ever since those socks moved in next door, they've been a bit spooked whenever I come around to visit. The one with the safety pins and tattoos even pulled a knife on me, once."

"And this has something to do with me being upside down, how?"

"Apparently, they set some snares. So, when you were stumbling around last night..."

"Got it. Why are they upset with you? What did you do?"

"Why's it always my fault? Did you ever think that a pair of smart wool socks might have paranoia issues? Might it not be that they are the parties to the complaint that may be in the wrong?"

"No. What did you do?"

"Well, I might have tried playing fetch with one of them. But just once."

"Just cut me down, will you?"