"Ooh, yeah."

"I can talk and drive, but magic takes a lot more focus. We're almost there now, though."

"Okay."

Pawprint's house is on the edge of a large town, though urban sprawl makes the definition of a 'town' a little vague. And practically next door to a large building labelled 'veterinarian office, rescue & adoption center'.

That makes sense.

Here is her room, which appears to be a hastily converted office. It has a door that locks from the inside.

Here are a bunch of cats who are curious about her, and another dog. "No, she doesn't have food for you, Cobalt."

"Which one's Cobalt?"

"The grey, cantankerous old tomcat here."

He gestures affectionately at him. "You'll get your food when I have dinner as always, relax."

"What are the other ones' names?"

"Softy," an orange, sneaky-looking cat, "Gerald," a tabby of some kind. The most nervous-looking one is, "Wander, he just visits me once in a while, doesn't stay." And the dog, apparently, is 'Snowball'. Despite not being white-furred.

"Why is he named Snowball?"

"Hah, well we found him rolling around like crazy in the snow with Bernie. He was just put out on the street from someone stopping off the highway, from what I could get from him. I'm not sure why - he's friendly, a good people-dog, but his owners just dropped him. And nobody wanted to adopt him either."

"Huh. Do you know why not?"

"He was an adult already, which might be it. Puppies have a much better chance of getting adopted. They're cute."

"Aren't they a lot messier, though?"

He shrugs. "People who go out looking for a pet aren't necessarily looking for one that's easy to care for, I guess. I usually talk up the ones that are already trained... But people say it's not the same, and I think they think unadopted adult dogs have something wrong with them, lurking until it will get let out as a nasty surprise."

"...Okay."

He nods. "Yeah. So... Anything in particular you want right now?"

"...Is there...anything for me to do?"

"You mean, chores? I'll decide later. If you mean games and so on I'm afraid I'll have to disappoint. Never been a big fan of those. There's a pond out back if you want to practice your magic, though."

"Pond's good. I meant--like either, but less games than books."

"I've got a few books. We can go to the library later. Department store or something too - no idea what all you need, I don't think about that stuff too often." He snorts. "Wouldn't surprise me if Dottie already made a list. You probably need more than one set of clothes, though, even if they're gonna bring what they could get from the house tomorrow."

"Yeah...and, um, a pharmacy or something. For, uh. Girl. Biology. Stuff."

He looks confused for a moment and then, "Right, sure. Now? Want me to help rearrange the furniture in there first or something?"

"Not now," she clarifies, "just, sometime in the next few weeks. And it would be bad to forget."