"Thank you. I appreciate your empathy. He can always use another lap and I'll be grateful for the company. Of the speaking kind."
John always felt it was necessary to relay he considered animals as good for company as people. Better than people in some cases. He knew he wasn't any better at conversation than the dog he was walking. Socializing wasn't something men in his line of work were often called on to do; John had never felt the need to be a man of words when he had found himself well suited as a man of action.
Gesturing for Sonya to go along with him, John tugged the leash along with a short, sharp whistle to get the dog moving, "It's nice to find someone who isn't afraid of the rain, too. I love the way the world smells after a rain. Fresh. Almost as if everything has been washed clean again for a new start. Children are like waking up to a new world every day. So I've been told. Do you have a boy or a girl?"
Gender was something important in the lives of young children. John remembered a time when he was sorted out for wrestling, grappling, lessons in pain while the girls in the house were taught to stand on their toes, stretch their bodies to the limits, become graceful in a way the human body was never meant to be given they were a flightless, ungainly creature.
"I don't know much about either one, but I remember when I grew up? The boys wrestled and the girls danced. It might make a difference in what kind of animal you want to consider. You enjoy construction? It seems like it would be unreliable work. I can count on there always being homeless animals to clean up, watch after, walk. I like the reliability of my job here. It's---more pleasant than the work I did at home."