Cassian had caught the approach in his peripheral vision and so was prepared for it. Didn't try to fight the animal off when it jumped—though that wouldn't necessarily be his first instinct anyway. He found a lot of the damage one could sustain from animals came from struggling; playing dead could be surprisingly effective. But he also liked animals. And this one was radiating enthused friendliness.

As such, he'd caught the dog's scull between his hands and was ruffling the soft ears by the time the dog's human caught up to pull him away.

Cassian figured he'd wait until she was less distracted to try and assure her it was okay. The language she addressed him in… was the one he'd heard more frequently spoken in Heropa. The one so infuriatingly like Yaval that hearing it didn't first make him think that's another language, but rather oh hell I've forgotten how to speak Yaval…! He'd started learning it just to resolve that cognitive dissonance.

Language acquisition was one of the aspects of spycraft Cassian had been able to enjoy and be good at without emotional complication, so he's able to respond in kind. …Though, for all his accent in Basic sounded Mexican to local ears, his accent speaking Español suddenly sounded… less so. Just slightly something else.

"Don't worry about it," he answered, holding up a palm to protest the money. "They were full of paint already. And I like idiot dogs. It's fine."