a plan, bob, wild
- Fewer visitors are coming to the Big Top Mall, and Mack is not happy because he's losing money.
- Ivan takes it personally and wonders if he should learn some new tricks, or start eating more.
- Gorillas should eat forty-five pounds of food a day—perhaps he will try eating fifty-five.
- Bob tells Ivan his appetite is not the problem.
- Bob is a stray dog who lives on a steady diet of mall fare: hot dogs, ice cream cones, and lemonade.
- Ivan considers him a picky eater, but appreciates how clever it is that he uses his tail to communicate his basic feelings.
- Bob is also a survivor, thrown out of a truck along with the rest of his litter as a puppy; the other pups didn't make it.
- Ivan tells the story of how he woke up one day with a puppy asleep on his belly, and found it rather comforting. Can you blame him?
- H and Bob have been buds ever since.
- Ivan is aware that Bob has an unusual life. He doesn't have a home or people like other dogs, and he hides from Mack most of the time and keeps a low profile.
- Bob says he prefers the dumpster diving lifestyle because he is a wild beast at heart. He doesn't want to be tied down… or worse, to be arm candy like poodles.