My head was deep in a bucket of fish guts, my teeth crunching into a skull, when someone barked at me. It’s hard to hear over noisy chewing like that, so all I really heard was, “HEY woof aroo grr ruff yip GIVE ME SOME.”

So I growled. My voice rumbled inside the bucket, making its plastic sides shake. The fish guts quivered.

I thought that one of the big dogs had come to steal my chow. A young stray like me has to snarl and act tough if he wants to keep his lunch to himself.

I lifted my muzzle out of the bucket, my lip curled and my shoulders hunched and ready for a fight. But all I saw was that goofball dog Scrumpy sitting staring at me, her head cocked to the side, her tongue hanging out.

nico eats fish out of a bucket