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Vivaldi laid in the sun, dreaming of his water bowl. Typically inconsiderate of humans to leave the dog tied up to a post when they get kidnapped. From now on, he was going to choose a master who thought that tying dogs up was cruel and unusual, leash laws be damned! For a few seconds he pondered the need to raise an alarm about Vera being hauled off in an ice truck, but then got distracted by a squirrel jumping out of a tree down the block. He wasn't sure if he was hallucinating, yet, or not, but he was pretty sure that the squirrel was wearing black pajamas and wearing a black mask.
A car pulled up to the Ice Plant and several men got out. One was obviously auditioning for a job as a circus clown. another was tall, handsome by human standards and wore waaay too much cologne. He was wearing a battered flight cap and wore heavy riding boots.
The clown tripped over his feet and fell into the puddle of water that was just outside Vivaldi's reach. He chuckled, then remembered where he was and said, "Bark."
Harv reached down and pulled Biggles out of the puddle and absent mindedly handed him his handkerchief. Not that the puddle had actually caused the outfit Biggles had on to be less presentable. Quite the opposite, in fact. However, there was something on the edge of his thoughts that he couldn't just make out. Years of flying combat missions with the RAAF in the Great War had made him ultrasensitive to his environment. He usually combatted it by drinking a lot.
There was a dog tied to a post in front of the Ice Plant. Idly, Harv reached down and scritched behind his ears. He liked dogs, for the most part. He'd even had one as a boy growing up in Wisconsin.
"Whoa! That feels good! Keep doing it! Do you have some bacon?"
Absently, Harv patted at his pockets looking for bacon. He looked down at the small grey dog, who sat up and begged. "Whine," he said.
"Did you just say, 'whine'?"
"Of course not. Dogs don't talk. Whine whine."
"Well all right, then. Wait a minute!"
Vivaldi looked around as if to see who had been talking.
"I swear that you just talked. If I get you some bacon, would you do it again?"
"Bacon? Of course I'd... Oh, bugger!"
"Huh! A talking dog. Probably the second most unusual thing I've seen today. Maybe third, considering what Biggles is wearing."
"I say, old boy! Did I just hear that dog talking?"
"He says he doesn't."
"Well that's all right then." Biggles wandered off as if in a daze.
"Is he actually a moron?" asked Vivaldi.
"More like someone who can't hold his mojitos."
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