I left Mrs. Hudson with a delighted Priya, who'd gotten far too attached. As soon as I had a spare minute, I'd take the puppy to the rescue shelter. I'd have to let them know that synthetic blankets made her itchy and not to separate her from her squeaky cow paramour and that her favorite flavor of doggie treat was bacon. But take her I would, because she deserved to have a settled family life.

Levi and I walked over to Harbour Center, a tower that housed both the downtown campus of ...