"If I believed in god, I would point out that all animals must be a gift from him," Ashleigh said, frowning slightly as she worked through the logic in her head. "Unless you're going to argue that some animals are intended as a punishment." Insects, perhaps. Wasps and venomous spiders and snakes, not to mention some of the more dangerous magical beasts that preyed on humans. "In which case I still maintain that parrots are at least as much a gift from god as dogs are." If not more so, because birds - and Ashleigh was in no way biased by her sorting - tended to be intelligent.
Usually, Ashleigh took care to keep up with the news, but in the last few weeks most of her information was coming from what other people were talking about in the office. And even then, sometimes she sort of tuned out. So even if Higgs had wanted to talk about the impact of current affairs on his work, Ashleigh wouldn't have been able to contribute very much. "Oh," she said, pausing to rescue a chunk of pepper that was threatening to escape the confines of her pot. "It's fine." Work was fine. Her systems were so organised that she was still doing good work even distracted and tired as she was. She glanced at Higgs. "Would you be surprised if I quit to do something else?"