Parable Dog (the dog that bit the cat)

An anonymous animal figure invoked by the synagogue rabbi as part of a cascading parable about retribution: "the stick that beat the dog that bit the cat that ate the kid." The Parable Dog functions solely as a moral instrument within liturgy, enacting a single, consequential action (biting the cat) that propels a chain of escalating violence. The figure carries no personal history or agency beyond symbolic function, shaping ethical argumentation about cycles of vengeance in the episode's religious counsel.