"Hey, it's clearly a zebra," Heiji protested. "See the stripes?"

And indeed, there were... er, bacon bits? Arranged rather haphazardly on the sculpture's body. They could be stripes. Maybe.

In any case, Heiji was just going to go along with the joke. "Yeah, I bet I got held up when they wanted to make off with my latest creation. But a true artist can't just give away inspiration. It's like their life!"