Heron Lake Plateau spare dad

Owen very objectively sez but twittishness is the natural state of sisters anyhow, see
which I guess could pretty much double as the tl;dr for this  >.>;

Owen frowned afresh, disturbed to have to admit to himself that his sister's arguments here made quite a bit of sense, really. When was the last time Raven or Quixote had gone off and had fun adventures, after all? Owen was pretty sure their life had been all stick-in-the-mud boringness ever since he and his sisters had come along—not that he really liked to pay more attention than he absolutely had to to all that boring grownuppy stuff anyway, but dang. (Also, he wasn't entirely certain if his parents had led such lives of boringness before puppies anyhow...maybe they were just unadventurous like that? Owen was doubtful of this line of reasoning, though. No matter how hard it was to imagine his parents as young and hip and carefree.) Mmm, he said though, not entirely wanting to give Phoebe credit for hitting upon such a good point, but also not entirely wanting to disagree. It was a pretty terrible thought, wasn't it, to envision Eljay turning into Dad. Oof. ...So Owen tried hard not to think of it, looking down at his paw as he scraped it fretfully to and fro across an errant tuft of fresh-sprung grass before looking obliquely up at Eljay again.

Owen's ears drooped a little further, though he didn't say anything to signify his guilt. Could it really have been that simple as their old puppysitter wanting to come check in on them? Or maybe, thought Owen pessimistically, Eljay just didn't trust Kite not to fall into the lake again without Eljay around to keep a close eye on her. Maybe he just didn't trust any of them. Owen squirmed internally however, and a little bit externally. I'll visit, he blurted after a few moments without really thinking it through, just to make the guilt and discomfort go away. I promise. This didn't entirely do the trick like he'd hoped, though. Owen's toes curled under a bit as he mentally stepped back to consider some of the potential ramifications of his promise. Owen wasn't really into too much adventure ideally, and he still wasn't sure how he felt deep down about the whole splintered-off pack or Eljay's leaving. But Eljay was a meaningful person in his life, and however uneasy fulfilling his promise to track his former puppysitter and all the new puppies down at some point might make Owen, the boy meant to make an honest attempt to keep it. But he did swallow hard and amend his words with a, When I can, I mean... I'll come visit. Sure. Even if inside he quailed a little extra at the idea that it could in fact be an entire litter of girls he might be expected to play nice with...horrors! Owen had had quite enough of that growing up with all his sisters, really. Gloomily he suspected the Fates might indeed be just cruel enough to play such a trick on him, though. It would be just his luck, wouldn't it. The prospect of a whole new bunch of rowdy girlpups turning him into their chewtoy was really not a very appealing one though after he felt like he had just finished surviving that nonsense with his own siblings. Never having had a proper brother, Owen had it in his head somehow that a fellow male would obviously be a lot easier and funner to deal with. Obviously.