Zoltán tried to understand, really, but she was right. What was to understand about it? Eventually he settled on accepting the nighttime hunts as a quirk, or even a necessity, some form of therapeutic activity. It was the time of the pandemic, everyone was under a lot of pressure, pressure that needed release. This was how she found release, so what? After all, dogs are only animals, and they make out pretty well living as our pets. Maybe it was time for them to give back a little bit more to the community. It was only natural. What’s the pain of a bite measured against the comforts of a home?

At night, when Nikolett went hunting and Zoltán waited for her sitting out on the balcony, he felt he had made the right decision. They had found a new routine. Their happiness was intact. He learned to accept that everybody needed a hobby, and this was hers.

Only it wasn’t a private affair, because it included dogs. Dogs are property, and damaging property inevitably becomes a case. After a short while everyone knew someone who knew someone whose dog had been bitten. Finally it became official, not just a disturbing rumor. Photocopied notes appeared on every entrance and community billboard: ‘Watch out! Dog biter on the loose!’ It didn’t take long before the dog owners tried to ask for help. Naturally, they turned to the police.

The police did nothing – they apparently had more important things to deal with. They made a note of the attacks but also made it clear that upholding curfew laws, monitoring the streets at night, enforcing mandatory quarantines, and dealing with the many cases of sickness all over the country in general and within the force in particular had eaten up most of the time they could spend on such minor cases. To make it clear the police spelled it out for the owners: this was a minor case. So the police directed the dog owners to the local neighborhood militia.

The officials at the militia said the same thing as the police, then directed the dog owners to the Office of Animal Safety and Control, who were completely shut down due to the pandemic, but gladly directed the owners back to the militia, who directed them back to the police. The dog owners finally accepted that no help would be coming. There were laws in this country, but there was nobody left to enforce them. Laws existed, but not for people’s protection anyway, and especially not for the protection of their property, the dogs. They felt that laws actually protected the perpetrators from the victims.