"Good boy, good dog!" Jenny patted the head of the dog-shaped void, and set a bowl of raw dog food outside her door.
The dog-shaped void bounded forward, tail wagging, and opened its muzzle to eat. But it opened in quarters, expanding like a particularly savage flower, and the food flared as it vanished into the void's mouth.
"Ah, Jen, I don't mean to alarm you, but I don't think your dog is a dog." Micah watched the void eat, then lift its head, tail still wagging as eyes like nebula peered up at Jen.
"Of course, he is. He's dog-shaped, he acts like a dog, ergo, dog. Regardless of what he's made of, isn't that right, Romeo?" The tail wagged faster, making Micah's head ache.
"Right. Ok, hi, Romeo." The other woman waved a little, and Romeo panted, twin tongues lolling out of the four way mouth.
"I'll bring your night-night bone out in a little while, ok, sweetie." Jen ruffled the pointed, shepherd-like ears, before shutting the door. The void walked over the the porch steps, and sat at attention, watching the neighborhood, the stars, whatever happened by.
"What's he feel like?" Micah whispered, after Jen shut the door.
"Soft, but I'm not sure if that's him or what my brain thinks he should feel like." Jen shrugged. "He showed up a few months after Moxie died, and he's been here ever since."
"I, Jen, do you think..? No one's seen Gary since right around then." Micah glanced out the window. Romeo looked back over his shoulder at her, and panted, mouth opening in a fractured, doggy grin.
"Gary told me he'd kill anything I loved that wasn't him." Jen smiled at Romeo through the window. "I'm 95% sure he killed Moxie. I have no proof Romeo ate him, and I'm not losing any sleep over it."
"Right." Micah turned away from the window.
But not before Romeo winked one of those nebula eyes, and went back to surveying his domain.