He was glad she had good friends. Everyone deserved to have reliable, loyal friends in their life. He considered himself very lucky, by that logic, that he had his boys. It was just a shame they weren't here--or maybe that was selfish thinking. He didn't really want them to have their lives ruined by something like this.

"Yeah. The only thing wounded is my pride." He pointed to the gnoff, small enough to fit in his hand. "Pretty sure that's not going to hurt anyone. Unless it has rabies." It was arguably better than running into something bigger and actually dangerous.

He didn't think rabies existed here, either.

"In the mood for a pet?" He was joking, but it seemed like the fastest way to recover from getting spooked.