Now he's definitely smiling, his ear scratching growing in enthusiasm at the lick.

"Not since I was a boy. My mom, she had this little Yorkshire Terrier, he was the tiniest fokken dog. And my dad, he wanted a big manly dog, I mean he loved the tiny thing, but he didn't want to admit it... Anyway, so this cute tiny sweet fokken thing, and he names it 'Butch'."

Wikus sniffs slightly. "Mom wanted to name him 'Daisy', but she let Dad have that. It's how they were. Mom always got her way, and Dad pretended he had a say in the while thing- Shit."

A tear drops onto his hand and he realizes he's started crying. His left hand makes a brief appearance from his pocket, giving a quick swipe of the bandaged back of his hand across his eyes before tucking it away again.

There's certainly no mistaking two green tentacles for human fingers no matter how briefly seen, though.

"Sorry," he mumbles. He probably would have got up and hurried off in embarrassment, except he really doesn't want to stop petting Makkachin at the moment.