It wasn’t her birthday, not until March. There was no reason for a cake, no need for it. Especially not a cake made from powder in a box, best paired with frosting from a plastic container.

Still, when she’d seen the Moist Strawberry Supreme cake box all alone on the baking aisle shelf, she’d added it to the cart full of canned tuna, sardines and anchovies, polenta and frozen crab cakes. She’d sought out chocolate and found some unsweetened super dark bars which she planned to combine with sugar and pray into a frosting. All of this in abundance, she rolled past the un-humaned cashier lanes and loaded her car. That would be her last time at University Market because there was nothing left that anyone should be eating now and the paper products were gone.

She drove home thinking only of the cake, while also sort of thinking of nothing, veering slow around potholes, her car lights off in the darkness. It was the first single digit cold snap of the year and the city was white, icy.

She parked a few blocks away from home, just in case. She unloaded the groceries she’d found, moving slowly, her attention extended around her in a 360. Foraging season was over. She had enough food, water, supplies. She didn’t need to go anywhere, not for a while.

Kama had kept a spare key to several of the neighbors’ homes and Dune had decided to use the Thorn’s kitchen as a winter pantry. They could work it out later. Dog found her in her unloading process, and followed her as she ran two bags at a time a few steps, setting them down and going back for the other two, doubling the distance and then repeating the process. Dog knew it wasn’t a game and stood watch over whichever bags she left behind.

Once she got to her own door with just the bag full of the cake items, she looked back at Dog for a long minute. She had never been interested in animals inside a house. She thought it was gross on the part of the humans and cruel to most of the animals.

But it was cold as fuck out there.

She held the door open and made a face at Dog that she hoped was both inviting and held a standard around potty training. Dog was cautious, stepping inside the door. He crossed the threshold of the kitchen and sat down, looking up at her as she unloaded her groceries. Once she finished, he took a few steps down the hall and looked back at her. She followed him. He kept going until he reached the bathroom. Inside, he walked over to the bathtub, pawing at its porcelain edge.

Dune laughed. “Bet.”

She gave Dog a warm soapy bath. He smelled like it had been a long time. He kept trying to drink the water from the faucet.