Meanwhile, 800 miles away...

‘Happy-Chow’ was the number one pet food brand in the country. Consistently and for over 80 years their ubiquitous branded ‘puppy’ and ‘adult’ dry kibble mixes, in their blue and orange packaging adorned with their famous cartoon mascots, were a stalwart presence on grocery store shelves from coast to coast.

Martin Grey, head of branding at Happy-Chow, stood with his hands on his hips and his sleeves rolled up, peering down at the little paper notes that covered his desk. He kept arranging and re-arranging them, trying to figure out the best layout for the new product packaging.

A light knock at his open office door broke him from his concentration, Stefan, one of Martin’s team, poked his head into the room.

“How’s it going?”

“Good, Stefan. I think we’re getting there…”

The junior smiled, “Did you settle on a color? Manufacturing just wanted to know about inks.”

“Pink,” Martin nodded sagely, “It’ll be totally unique on the shelves, which I think is appropriate – but they shouldn’t need to get anything on order. Remember, we’re only doing a limited production run. Just enough for her immediate vicinity.”

Stefan’s smile grew, “Perfect, I’ll let them know.”

Before he could leave Martin stopped him, “Any word from the guys downstairs on the recipe?”

“Last I heard Angela had spent most of the day on the phone with Lucy’s physician, making sure they get the hormone mix exactly right,” Stefan drummed his fingers on the door frame, “He’s sending through her medical records anyway but I think they know what they need to add... Beyond that I think they might have something close already, apparently it’s pretty close to the adult mix, but with a lot of vitamin C introduced just for her”

“Flavor?”

“Roast chicken I think? I’m not sure…”

Martin raised his eyebrows, “They work fast, I’m impressed!”

Stefan shrugged, “It’ll probably still be a week until they can get it down to the factory and run a proper batch through.”

“Plenty of time then,” Martin said, laughing with self-depreciating humor. He normally had six months to get a product to market, not six weeks!

“We can make it work,” Stefan gave his boss a supportive nod, “Everyone’s got their heads down out here, it’s flat out.”

“Thanks Stefan, tell the team I appreciate it.”

“No worries” He said, turning to leave again but he stopped himself with a laugh, “Though you might owe Mia an extra beer – says she’s been drawing cartoon dogs for so long she’s forgotten how to do anything else…”