Whelpling

"[…] For that whelpling Diogenes sought to find a man, carrying round his lamp at midday; but Marcion, having quenched the light of faith, has lost the God whom he had found."

"Yes, I did," Evia replied, and then licked the top of the whelpling's head.

[…] to share space with his dog, whom the attendant explained he'd rescued from the road and taken in, likely, according to the corny script I'd begun playing in, so I'd understand I was truly a stray, a whelpling, a pup.