Magic At The Zoo Trivia Quiz

Answer: Each of them narrates a section.

"Zoo Day" is a verbal triptych, told in turn from the viewpoint of Harry Dresden, his ten-year-old daughter Maggie and their Foo dog (or temple dog), a furry, gray mountain of love named Mouse.

As the family enters the zoo, each member realizes that all is not well, though each senses different causes for their unease. Interestingly, Harry's perceptions are the narrowest. It is only when they turn towards the gorilla house, after being entertained by a great show put on by the animals (that Harry suspects and Maggie knows has been arranged by Mouse), that he feels "a series of flickering sensations against my forehead, that reminded me of a moth fluttering against a lit wall, constant and random flutters somehow conveying confusion frustration and fear." Magic is in the air, so strong that a few zoo patrons have discovered that their electronic devices have stopped working. Harry has the professional and moral obligation to investigate and help if he can.

Maggie can sense what Harry does, but her awareness of something wrong had started even before they entered the zoo proper, with the baggler-ridden couple on the sidewalk. She also recognized the pack of haunts that Harry took for ordinary children, and knew they had singled her out as prey.

but Mouse alone has the full picture and, though his humans don't know it, Mouse saves the day.

Answer: A service dog vest

Because Maggie has debilitating anxiety, Mouse is her constant companion. Hence, the red nylon service dog vest.

Answer: The gorillas

While they are walking into the zoo, Maggie confides that she particularly wants to see the gorillas, and that Mouse does too. Mouse confirms this by wagging his tail and giving Harry a doggy grin. A moment later Maggie's interest is explained when she asks her father if it is true that he once saved gorillas from a monster. The incident in question was rather more complicated than that, but, seeing no need to burden his daughter with the details, he agrees affably.

On the way to see the gorillas, the family stops at other exhibits. Mouse talks to all the animals, and they are generally cooperative. The otters are the most enthusiastic. The bears are agreeable. Though the lionesses disdain to do exhibition pouncing, the lion roars most satisfactorily. Maggie is enchanted and Mouse considers it a good day's work.

Answer: French fries

Both Maggie and Mouse love French fries with, to Harry's dismay, mustard rather than catsup.

Answer: A warlock

On a path that seems strangely deserted, Harry finds a warlock, a youngster just entering puberty, who doesn't understand the powers he has suddenly discovered. Such young, inexperienced wizards can be very dangerous, doing a great deal of inadvertent harm and, if left unchecked, can easily become dark wizards permanently.

John Marcone is Harry's nemesis and occasional, unwilling, ally throughout the "Dresden Files" series.

Harry has friends who are werewolves, though they do not appear in this tale.

Dementors are from Harry Potter's world, not Harry Dresden's.

Answer: Go back and try to help

Unusually for Harry, he walks away from the troubled young wizard to return to Maggie and Mouse. Deciding to tell her the truth rather than trying to protect her, since such attempts have generally turned out badly in the past, he explains what he found and what it means. After some discussion, Maggie urges him to go back and try to help.

Answer: He persuades the person on the path to come have a hamburger.

Harry talks to the warlock, whose name turns out to be Austin, demonstrating that he understands what the youngster is going through. But it is when Harry neatly dispatches into the Never Never a vicious demon that Austin has inadvertently summoned (or thinks he has summoned) that the kid truly trusts him. Being a kid, he is hungry. So, hesitantly, he agrees to accompany Harry back to the café for a hamburger.

Answer: True

This is Maggie's belief. Mouse certainly performs these tasks for her. Harry, who has known Mouse much longer and so knows him better says, "The beastie was full of helpful but little understood magic." In fact, the Foo Dog's powers far exceed what either of his humans can imagine.

Answer: A child possessed by a haunt

Maggie and Mouse had noticed the pack of haunt-possessed children earlier, though Harry thought them merely children. The elderly couple possessed by bagglers (mostly harmless things resembling paper bags whose effect seemed to be to make their victims talk incessantly about politics) had passed by on the sidewalk outside the zoo. Maggie saw the creeps, though her father apparently didn't. In Maggie's experience, there are a lot of creeps that grownups can't see and don't even know about. Maggie is very much aware of them, and they contribute substantially to her chronic, acute anxiety. Mouse can see or sense the creeps too, though only once they get close enough to threaten his little girl.

Molly Carpenter, eldest of Michael and Charity Carpenter's children and Harry's erstwhile apprentice, is the Winter Lady. She is also Harry's and Maggie's friend. Molly started The Book when she was a child.

The Polka-loving Waldo Budders is the local Medical examiner and Harry's unofficial personal physician. Despite being Jewish, Waldo is one of the three Knights of the Sword (or of the Cross), being the wielder of Fidelacchius, which in his procession takes the form of a light saber.

Neither Molly nor Waldo figure in "Zoo Day".

Answer: Throwing salt in their eyes

Maggie senses that Mouse would drive the haunt off if she let him. But, since only she and Mouse can see the haunt for what it is, the people in the café would merely see a huge dog attacking a child for no reason. She knows enough about the world to know that would be very bad. So, she discourages Mouse and, with a little simple sleight of hand, gathers some salt to throw in the haunt's eyes. She knows salt to be effective against creeps of all kinds, though she doesn't know why.

Maggie Dresden is a practical child, observant and interested in the world around her. She also has the benefit of The Book, a compendium of magical dangers and how to counter them, compiled by the Carpenter children. She isn't much interested in theory though, only results.

Answer: Deal with the haunts

When Maggie urged her father to go back to help the warlock, her motives were not purely altruistic. She needs to confront the haunts. Both because Harry can't see them and because engaging the haunts is a dangerous and uncertain proposition, she can't let him know about it. So, she needs to get him out of the way. The warlock provides the perfect cover for doing so.

In order to deal with the haunts, Maggie has to go alone to the scariest place she can find, allowing the blank-eyed things to follow her, and squarely face the fear they represent. Mouse walks with her part of the way but, in the end, he falls back and settles down to wait patiently. And a good thing too...

Answer: Laughter

In the dark, dank subbasement she has found, Maggie confronts the pack of haunts. They taunt her and eventually cause her to relive the day when the Red Court vampires came for her, murdering her foster family and causing much other havoc and heartache. But, as Maggie angrily points out, she herself survived that terrible day.

They continue to taunt and torment her until she suddenly realizes that they have singled out herself, the smallest, most vulnerable person they could find. And that leads to the thought that maybe they are not so scary after all. Maybe, why maybe, they are scared...of her.

She turns off her light And, there in the dark, the thought that she herself is the scariest makes her laugh, a laugh with "a ferocious, sunlit, lion-like joy behind it".

When she stops laughing and turns on the light, the haunts have gone. There are only confused children all around her.

Answer: No

Mouse is a dog. In other words, he is loving and happy, not fond of worrying about the future, rather concentrating on protecting his people in the present...and with a taste for French fries. He believes that dogs were put in this world to teach humans how to be happy.

At the same time, he is a powerful magical being. While Harry senses the warlock and Maggie sees the creeps, Mouse realizes both threats are being manipulated by a single malevolent intelligence and sets out to thwart it.

Answer: Mouse's brother

The being Mouse refers to as "my shadow" turns out to be his eldest brother, whom he has not seen or so much as sensed for many years. This dog is leaner than Mouse (who, he admits wryly, is rather fond of treats), with streaks of white in the thick gray fur and scars showing through. But the surface differences are nothing compared to the profound ones. This dog, whom Mouse addresses throughout as Brother, knows nothing of love, loyalty or trust. So, like most beings who are missing important elements of life and thus cannot understand those elements, he is contemptuous of them. He also discounts them as a motivating and empowering force for mouse...to his cost.

The epic battle between Mouse and his brother seems to cover most of the park. Mouse walks into a trap, where he is attacked by the very demons that young Austin believes he has summoned. Though seemingly overwhelmed and in a hopeless position, Mouse stays calm and focused, drawing not only life-sustaining oxygen from his indrawn breath but also energy and strength. In the end, the brother is forced to yield, departing without harming Harry or Maggie, just as Mouse told him at the outset would be the case.

Answer: "Good dog!"

Having had his hamburger, Austin the Warlock crowds into the Blue Beetle with the Dresdens. Harry plans to take him home and have a talk with his parents. The bond between Maggie and Harry seems to be well established. Sleepy and contented, Mouse gives Harry a nice, big kiss and correctly interprets his friend's response as "Good dog!"