Things were looking up. I crushed the latest quarterly review at work. Managed to wrangle my team well enough to meet the completely unrealistic goals set by management. We were the only ones who managed. I was on my way home from taking my team out to celebrate the achievement. I was a little tipsy, but the brisk October air was refreshing and helped to keep me upright. I was hustling home because I knew Bento, a sassy Shiba Inu, would need to go out for a walk. Considering it was close to ten at night, he would definitely be angry with me and demand a longer one. I didn’t mind. It was a Friday night; I could finally relax a bit.

  Unsurprisingly, walking into my spartan apartment Bento rushed to the door to sit and stare at me with judgement in his eyes. He snuffed at me when I reached for his leash, and he graciously let me put his harness on him.

  “There you go your majesty. Sorry I’m late boy, let’s get you out for a night stroll,” I cooed to him while scratching behind his ears.

  He side-eyed me for a moment, then stuck his tongue out in a smile and rushed out the door, pulling me along. We walked across the street to the park and proceeded to do our tour of the neighborhood. I liked to finish at the dog park after he let out a bit of energy on the walk. We passed by a homeless person on our walk that was walking towards the park. Bento sniffed at him, almost certainly expecting head pats. The man was older, with a dirty white beard and bald. He was wearing sunglasses at night, which was unusual but not totally out of the ordinary. Toronto has plenty of its own quirky people; New York doesn’t own the trademark of odd and peculiar citizens.

  “Evening sir,” I greeted with a polite smile. He was surprised by my addressing him like that. People tend to ignore or outright disdain the homeless in Toronto. The homeless population had exploded since the COVID pandemic, and I just counted myself fortunate enough to not be among them.

  “May I pet your dog?” He asked.

  “Sure, if he lets you. Bento can have a bit of an attitude.” I replied.

  To my surprise, Bento leapt up to lick the man’s face as he squatted down to give him his head pats. He even went so far as to lick the man's hands and face which caused the homeless man to giggle a bit.

  “A fine dog you are Bento, well cared for by your partner,” he stated while ruffling Bento’s fur. I puffed up a bit at that.

  “I do my best, but he’s dangerously cute and he knows it. Too smart for his own good,” I joked.

  “He certainly is a clever one, you can tell by the look in his eyes,” the man chuckled in response. “I’m sure you give plenty of trouble for mr...”

  “Parker, Robert Parker,” I supplied. “No need to mr. And you?”

  “Oscar,” he stated while standing. “Welp, Rober Parker, I appreciate you letting me meet Bento. You can always get a measure of a person based on what their partner thinks of them.”

  I cocked an eyebrow at him. “Odd way to evaluate someone. And what did you glean from this bundle of trouble of mine?”

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  “That you are indeed his partner, but you haven’t quite figured out what you want to do versus what’s expected of you. You are loyal to a fault but aren’t quite sure to whom you should give your loyalty to. Plenty of potential, but still untested. But you are certainly loyal to Bento here, and he to you.”

  I shrugged at him. “Quite the interesting reading just based on my dog. I think I’ll take that as a compliment that he thinks of me like that.”

  “As you should young man, these dogs are tricky as they come, but once you earn their loyalty it is unshakable.”

  “Well, we’ve got to finish our walk, you have a good night Oscar.” I said while pulling Bento along.

  “Oh, I think my night just took an interesting turn. Enjoy the rest of your walk Robert and Bento, see you around.”

  Odd as the interaction was, I didn’t think much of it, and we continued our stroll. Rosedale is a nice little neighborhood tucked just on the northeast corner of downtown Toronto. I always enjoyed the quietness of the night. It was particularly quiet as we finished up our walk at the park, which is why Bento bark broke me out of my reverie. He pulled his leash out of my hand as he dashed into the park like a bullet. Swearing to myself, I was glad I always kept his treats in my jacket, knowing exactly the kind of hassle it was to get him to listen to me when he got excited at the park.

  My weariness changed to worry as I chased him into the park and heard shouts.

  Rushing after Bento into the park, I found three men beating the ever-living shit out of a fourth on the ground. It took me a second to realize the man on the ground was Oscar, the same homeless man that I was chatting with earlier on my walk.

  Bento didn’t give me any time to think before he charged in and started barking at the men beating on Oscar. That got their attention and stopped them from continuing before they turned their violent attention to my dog. Bento, the genius dog that he is, didn’t have the wherewithal to back down. Instead, he continued to growl at them in a way I had never seen before. They hadn’t yet noticed me as one of them decided to try and kick Bento.

  He. Tried. To. Kick. My. Dog.

  Any hesitance I had originally was gone the moment one of them took a swing. To my relief, Bento dodged around him. And I wasn’t about to let any of them take another swing.

  “Hey,” I shouted without thinking, “what the fuck do you think you’re trying to do?”

  One of the others turned his head right on time to catch my fist on his jaw. Now, I’m not normally a violent person. In fact, I like to avoid confrontation as much as possible. But just because I don’t like it doesn’t mean I’m incapable. And they were about to punt Bento. Who the hell reacts to an adorable animal like him by trying to punt him like a football.

  I followed up my punch by shoving the guys into his friends, making some space so I could position myself between the three of them and Oscar.

  The three of them regained their balance and spread-out across from me while Bento found himself at my side, ears back, still growling lowly at them.

  “Who the hell are you?” The guy I punched asked.

  “A concerned citizen. Why are you guys beating up a homeless man? And why the hell did you try to kick my dog?” I replied, huffing with the adrenaline coursing through me.

  “Keep him on a leash and move along mortal. This doesn’t concern you,” the man in the center said.

  “The hell it doesn’t. You just tried to kick my dog. Besides, he is on a leash, and this is an off-leash dog park,” I responded.

  The three men were all dressed in black and wore bandanas on their faces. Odd outfit for a walk in the park. The man in the middle, who I assumed to be the leader, shrugged.

  “I apologize. He startled me. I didn’t hit him though while you hit my friend here. Let bygones be bygones and be on your way. We have unfinished business with the man behind you,” he said.

  The apology surprised me, but I didn’t relax. Dressed like they were, I didn’t think this was a random act of violence.

  “Let me guess, Oscar owes you money or something?” I asked.

  “Or something,” the leader replied vaguely.

  “Fuck this,” the guy I punched earlier said, and he charged me.