Alana isn't really a dog-person. Whenever she's had pets in her life, they've only ever been cats and the occasional goldfish. Not at the same time, of course. Well, there was that one time, but it was the first and last. Give her a break - she was eight.
When she takes in Will's dogs - all of the fluff-butts, oh god, her carpet's fucked- she expects them to take over her house. She expects anxiety-induced chewing of furniture, panicked barking, whining in the middle of the night.. Not that they've ever been anything less than dog-mannerly when she's visited Will's place. But she expects it because Will won't be there, and she's thinks - rather irrationally, really - that maybe the dogs suspect that he won't be there again. Maybe.
Instead, they're quiet. Subdued. When she pets them (and apparently you can't pet just one - all or nothin', baby), they whine quietly in the backs of their throats and snuffle and rumble contentedly, and bark alertly when someone's at her door because they're still dogs. But they're less.. perky. Happy, or whatever. They're glad enough, she supposes, to have a dry place to live and food and water. They just don't light up in the way that dogs do in the presence of their person. Alana is decidedly not their person. That doesn't mean they don't cuddle up to her or object to her freely-given affection, but they just - they're not perky, okay? As a first-time dog owner caretaker, it's a mild concern.
So when she visits Will in a non-psychiatric capacity, she asks about the dogs. Or lets him inquire after them. It's a subject she enjoys because it's safe. Very safe. She asks about each individual dog's quirks.
"Winston - is there any reason why he sticks to you like glue when the front door's left open?"
"That's uh.. heh, that's just Winston."
"Mm, okay, that explains it."
"Actually, one time…"
She likes that talking about his dogs makes Will laugh a little. Smile a little, smooth away the tight lines that have developed across his forehead.
And when she returns home from one of those visits, she'll invite the smallest of the dogs up on the couch with her and let the larger dogs rest their heads on her knees.
For a while, they're all quiet together.