‘Stray Dogs #3’ (review)

Written by Tony Fleecs
Art by Trish Forstner
Published by Image Comics

After Sophie discovered a picture of Roxanne’s lady in the last issue, Roxanne is more sympathetic to the idea that their Master isn’t who he seems to be on the surface. Rusty remains kind but doubtful of their memories.

Something about that conversation jogs Roxanne’s memory.

It all comes back.

She remembers watching helplessly as the Master hurt her lady.

When she catches the scent of something unusual, she follows it to the crawl space underneath the porch. Sophie and Rusty go along, joined by the curious dalmatian Victor.

The four are faced with human-sized mounds of dirt when they enter the crawl space. Roxanne is frantic to find the truth of what happened to her lady. Heedless of the danger, she desperately begins digging.

It’s a narrow escape to get back to the house before their absence is noticed. They’re lucky that the Master only sees dirty dogs and not ones about to expose his secrets.

Their risky choice didn’t expose any evidence of Roxanne’s lady under the porch, but it did reveal a scrap of clothing that brings Victor’s memories back.

Victor’s lady was a firefighter who rescued him from a blaze and took him in. He was just as much station dog as he was her dog and loved his new life. And just like Roxanne and Sophie, Victor has the same horrible memories of their Master strangling his owner.

Victor isn’t willing to wait for a careful plan to get all of them out of there.

Remembering what he learned about 9-1-1 in the fire station, he manages to knock the telephone receiver off its base and press the button for emergency services. He may not be able to talk but he can bark and hopefully get the police out there. Nearly all the others join in, barking and yipping and making as much of a racket as they can.

Nearly all the others.

Earl the bloodhound slinks off to find the Master and alert him to what the other dogs are doing. The Master quickly assures emergency services that one of his dogs knocked the phone off the receiver and there is no need to send anyone to the house.

But something seems suspicious now. As the Master scans the room, he spots Victor, standing with a scrap of clothing in his mouth.

We’ll miss you, Victor.