York. He lands a side-job when a rich Texan asks him to drive his prized car to Tulsa, Oklahoma where he is flying. Blacksad accepts, enjoying the free road trip. At a pit-stop, two hitch-hikers (who we see are Chad and Abe) steal the prized car and Blacksad, with the help of a street gang, motorcycles after them, hoping to catch them on their way to Amarillo. Meanwhile, Chad and Abe party with Abe's friend, Billy (a flamingo)—a mobster. In front of all of Billy's friends, Abe humiliates Chad by saying he is afraid of the cops and has no guts, forcing him to prove it by shooting a shotglass off of Abe's head. Chad cannot do it, however, and the entire bar laughs at him. Later on, into the wee hours, Chad, Abe and Billy sit smoking, drinking and talking. Abe drops into the discussion that he has mailed Chad's manuscript off to some place in Tibet, and Chad is instantly infuriated—that novel was his ticket out of the vagrant life, and out of relying on Abe to live. Billy and Abe laugh, until Chad finally takes the gun from earlier and shoots Abe out of vengeance. Horrified, Chad flees in Blacksad's prized car. He crashes it into a post box, and retrieves his manuscript. Blacksad parts ways with the bike gang in Amarillo and runs into Neal Beato (a hyena), a litigious, suspicious lawyer while he woos a potential client into suing his boss, a circus owner, for replacing him unlawfully. Overhearing their conversation, Blacksad suggests they are after the same person, and they travel to catch up with the circus where Chad is indeed working. Meanwhile, Chad struggles to fit in, and makes friends with one of the performers, a beautiful and mysterious psychic named Luanne (a Siamese cat), but is warned about becoming close to her by one of the clowns, the massive and imposing Polyphemus (a bear). Later that night during a performance, before Luanne is to go out and perform her act, Chad catches Polyphemus attempting to rape Luanne and while Chad and him fight, she stabs him in the neck. It is an uproar as the circus members apprehend the fleeing Chad and after the show finishes, decide the best way to deal with the tragedy is to abandon Chad and Polyphemus' body in the wilderness. Luanne however has tagged along unbeknownst to