Welcome to May!

It is a month of the sun, of blooming, of the time between spring and summer. It is when we all pull out sunscreen and sunglasses. It is the time to worry that the heat outside might be too much for the large black Newfie!

Unlike March, May is not a mixture of cold and light - it is the first breath of spring. Nor is May like April, with spring rain and easy warmth.

No, May is something different.

It is the end of Spring and the beginning of summer. It is when the plants are more than blooms.

It’s when the first harvest starts to appear. It is a time of celebration of motherhood. And thus, we wrote a story for just such a purpose.

We hope you enjoy our story and that all your naps are without interruption.

Carter and the Mother’s Day Fetch Quest

Carter blearily awoke from his nap to hear his final snore echoing through the room.

Above him, he saw the unusual sight of his three siblings gathered around him. The three of them gathered around him wasn’t unusual. That they were looking down at him was. Normally, his Newfie body towered above their Maine Coon cat bodies. But gray tabby Charles, orange tabby Raymond, and tortoiseshell Valerie all looked down at him as he lay on the floor sleeping.

Uh-oh, he thought. What’s wrong?

Valerie’s soft voice was needlessly, but accurately, translated from Feline into English by her collar. “Carter? What happened to Mom’s Mother’s Day carrots?”

Carter’s ears slowly moved down, and his tail, which had wagged at the sight of his siblings, stopped its movement.

The dual Feline/English speech took a little getting used to, but Carter was experienced with that. His own collar translated his Canine into English. “Mom’s carrots? I thought they were for me. They’re my favorite ever since I went through teething.”

Raymond nodded his orange stripy head. “Yeah. That took forever for you, poor guy.”

Charles, the gray tabby, spoke up. “We can’t find where they are. Did you eat them all?”

“Let me think for a second.”

He closed his eyes and thought about it. His tail wagged again as he remembered the wonderful taste of the crisp carrots.

“Carrot. I only ate one.”

Valerie patted his nose with a soft paw. “Where are the rest then?”

“Let me think some more.”

And he started thinking again. He had pulled the big bag of carrots out of the refrigerator and put it on the cabinet, as he’d been taught. He knew he’d put it away.

“The bread box.” He opened his eyes from thinking, to see all three kittens glaring at him.

“That was the wrong place? Sorry.”

He raised his head from the ground. This gave Valerie a chance to come in and rub his chin and give him a nose lick.

“You’re a goof, but, you know, you’re our favorite larger brother.”

The three kittens moved off towards the kitchen while Carter lumbered to his feet and followed in their furry wake.

Valerie saw him following and spoke to him. “We’re making Japanese curry for Mom. The latest romance series she’s reading is set in Japan. There’s a Nano-Sapiens fox in it.”

Her voice showed extra excitement. Nano-Sapiens in literature were still new. Even if there were a flood of it on the way.

Charles broke in with, “Yeah. That’s so cool.”

“Yeah.” Raymond mewed, “But everybody knows there’s no such thing as a Nano-Sapiens fox.”

They’d reached the kitchen. Carter saw that there were already bottles and jars of various powders and liquids on the cabinet. But he moved to the fridge to help them get the enormous bags. Five and ten-pound bags of onions, carrots, and potatoes were a little big for the Maine Coons, while he barely noticed that they were there. Although the carrots weren’t in the refrigerator. They were in the bread box. Then he opened the meat side of the refrigerator and nosed around.

“Guys, I can’t find any shrimp.”

Three mews of dismay followed him. Immediately, one kitten was at his feet, peering between his legs into the refrigerator, while two others climbed his body to get a higher view. Eventually, Valerie climbed onto and checked every shelf.

In unison, all three kittens exclaimed, “No shrimp.”

Their sad little ears drooped with their tails. They almost looked like sad dogs. Carter didn’t tell them this. They might get upset. Intelligent from nano-tech shots or now, they were still cats and moody.

“Hey.” Carter thought a moment more. “I can go down to Edmund and Raihana’s place and borrow some.”

Three hopeful, bright-eyed faces looked up at him.

Valerie was almost like Kathy and Carter in her interest in cooking. “We can get started on everything else. The shrimp goes in last, so it doesn’t overcook.”

So, Carter ambled over to the front door, shook himself, made sure he had his collar on, the one with the tag telling where he lived because he sometimes still had trouble remembering that. He went out the door and down the street.

Edmund and Raihana were in the same place that they’d lived after getting married as graduate students. He stood up on his rear paws and nosed the doorbell, which, after an unfortunate incident, had been waterproofed.

The former graduate students’ daughter answered the door. Kathy’s dark face looked down at him, much as he looked down on the kittens. “Carter, how are you today?”

Carter’s tail wagged. Kathy knew about cooking. She’d help. “We don’t have any shrimp at home, and the kittens are cooking food for mom. Can we borrow some shrimp?”

Kathy tilted her head at him. “I’m sorry, Carter. I don’t even have to check. We don’t have shrimp because it’s not kosher. Usually, if Dad wants some, he gets it when we go out to eat.”

Carter’s head slowly sank until it was almost level with Kathy’s knees.

Kathy bent down and hugged him around the neck. He felt her head turn as she looked at a clock nearby. “Carter, I’ll help you get some from the store, but I need to be back in time to count Omer.”

She stood and grabbed a jacket from inside. Carter shook himself out and asked, “Count Omer? Is that a countdown to something?”

“Actually,” Kathy laughed, “it’s a count up towards Shavuot, when we celebrate the giving of the Torah at Mount Sinai.”

Carter nodded his blocky head as Kathy came out and locked the door behind her. He was always interested in learning. But right now, he was a little more interested in getting shrimp for Mom’s Mother’s Day present.

He dog laughed. “This is like a real life fetch quest.”

Kathy laughed in return. Then she stopped and glared at him, although he could still smell the humor behind her mock anger. “Hey! Did you just call me the village NPC?”

***

Twenty minutes later, Carter had no idea where he was. He looked left down the long grocery food aisle. Then right down the long grocery food aisle. Colorful bags of dog and cat kibble lined the aisle as far as he could see. Some of the kibble was even marketed towards the small but growing Nano-Sapiens population. Usually, younger ones that didn’t want to have to cook.

Carter enjoyed cooking. Thinking about it made his tail start up again.

The Nano-Sapiens oriented colors made little sense to humans, but were bright, cheerful, and delicious to a dog or cat.

The important thing, though, was what he didn’t see. He didn’t see Kathy. But Kathy knew where the shrimp were.

“Well,” he said to himself, “only one thing to do. I have to go look for her.”

The next place he looked was in produce, next to the carrots. No Kathy here, although, oh, the yellow and orange carrot smelled so good. He knew not to try sniffing the whitish carrots because those were actually parsnips. He liked them, but they didn’t smell the same.

Then he checked the other aisle where he thought Kathy might be: the outdoor aisle. He looked longingly up at the rows and rows of tins of tennis balls. But despite the delectable collection of toys, no Kathy. He shook himself wildly, and this seemed to shake a thought into his head.

“Wait a minute. I’m a dog. I can smell. And we’re not here for cool stuff. Well, not dog cool stuff. We’re here for shrimp.”

Immediately, his head dropped, not in dejection, but energetically and hopefully. This let what his siblings always called his inadequate nose get closer to the scents on the ground.

He nosed through the store, automatically going around people in carts, until finally, he found his Newfie scent mixed with a human, Kathy. He looked up one way and then the other. She probably didn’t leave without him, so he followed her scent into the store. Bravely, he ignored the kibble as he walked through the kibble aisle. So, he’d been with her at some point. Struggling out of the kibble aisle, he followed the scent around, down, around. Suddenly, the smells of raw seafood and cold assailed his nose. He looked up, and Kathy was there.

She held up two bags. “Carter, where have you been? I found colossal shrimp and large shrimp. Do you have a preference?”

“Sorry. I couldn’t find you.”

Carter sniffed at one bag and then the other. He could read “shrimp”. And the word “large”. Some of the other words were still a little tough for him, so he asked Kathy what the difference was. She held up one bag and said, “This shrimp is bigger, but it has a tail on, you know, the shell, the part on the end. You can’t eat it.”

Carter nodded, and then Kathy held up the other bag. “This one, the shrimp aren’t quite as big, but all the shell, including the tail, has been removed.”

Carter nodded again. “Let me think for a minute.”

He tried to remember if his mom had any feelings about this. He knew she’d like the larger shrimp, and then he remembered something that had happened on one outing.

“We want without the tail,” he declared. “Sometimes the tail’s kind of pokey, and it’s too hard to eat around, but yet there’s so much shrimp left inside it. And let’s just say it caused problems.”

Kathy put the undesired bag back on the shelf and petted him with the now free hand. “Carter, why didn’t you ask for help when you couldn’t find me?”

They were walking, and Carter stopped because he had to think. Finally, tentatively, his translated voice came from his collar. “Well, if I didn’t know where you were, why would anyone else?”

***

Much later, Kathy had returned home to her counting, and Carter had returned to his for the cooking.

He helped the three kittens push the tray of food into their parents’ bedroom. The tray was a custom tray, nice and low so that everybody could reach it. Tall enough for the cats. A little low for Carter, but everybody was happy with it.

Carter carefully pushed the tray to stop in front of Veronica. He joined his brothers and sister next to the tray. Their father Timmy, a gray tabby Maine Coon like Charles, popped in the door to join them.

In unison, they all shouted, “Happy Mother’s Day!”

Their orange tabby Maine Coon cat mom chirped in pleasant surprise. Her tail went high and straight, trembled just a little, and then settled down. She approached the tray, sat, politely leaned forward, and took a lick of the curry.

It must have been good, Carter thought. All of her fur stood on end.

Charles climbed up on Carter. Carter knew this meant Charles was going to give a speech.

“We love you, Mom. You always take care of us. To show appreciation for that, we’re taking care of you today.”

He looked down at his siblings. His sister nodded back at him.

“In fact, we made enough Japanese curry and shrimp for all week.”

Veronica looked at the kittens and Carter. Then she directed a very pointed stare at Timmy.

Their father gave a cat shrug. “They just asked me to keep you busy. I had no paw in their plans.”

Veronica laughed and moved to give each of her kids a cheek rub, having to stand up on her back legs to do so properly with Carter.

“Thanks, kids. I love all of you.”

Carter shivered in happiness. He gave his mom a Newfie lick of joy - equal amounts of drool and love. And he had a lot of love.

Mom’s yowl was drowned out by the kittens exclaiming together, “Drool is love!”

Chaos Tip of the Week

Be like May!

Bright, warm, and ready sear anyone with a heat of your smile.

Hotter than a Mother’s warning with all your names!

Critter Question of the Week

For the Mom’s out there, what is the best Mother’s Day present you ever received?

For the rest of you, what would you like to do for your mother (or pseudo-mom, step-mom, or mom equivalent persona in your life) to show her how much they mean to you?

Leave a comment

~Anna and Tod

More IP Writing on the Way!

Anna and I are please to announce that our story, Family Honor, has earned a spot in the Annals of the Auran Empire anthology. has a blog post with the complete author list and more details. The anthology is set in the Adventurer Conqueror King System Imperial Imprint RPG universe of the Auran Empire. (Think Fantasy Rome.)

Crowd funding opens June 8th, and you can sign up to be reminded via BackerKit now!

https://www.backerkit.com/call_to_action/8b8be898-82a5-4dc9-868d-aa9a9b449f6e/landing

We’re pleased to see our fellow Alpha Mercs joining us: , (the first anthology we were in was also with Sam), B.K. Gibson (who also gave great developmental feedback during edits https://coldlightrpgpress.weebly.com/), and .

We think our story has the most interesting one liner in the announcement:

“Family Honor” by A. Kristina Casasent, featuring a Ring Against the Wolf, tells the story of a Tirenean nobleman struggling with the challenge of producing an heir with his new wife.

For more details, checkout the Arbiter of Worlds blog!

Arbiter of Worlds

Annals of the Auran Empire Authors Announced

Friends, Aurans, Countrymen …

Read more

2 months ago · 33 likes · Alexander Macris

There is nothing better than a close up cuddle with one of your critters when you are having a rough week. I am not sure why it is, but even when they are brats, it just helps. And for some reason, I am writing very odd poems for each. I am going to go with I am more tired than I like to admit.

Chaos Critter Close Ups

Fluffy

We will start with Fluffy.

Fluffy isn’t fluffy but her word is law.
So we sit and wait for her to grow wings and fly.
For a dragon is never done changing the world around them.

Aki

She was the first.

Aki is the princess. The queen of all she sees.
Her sneezes make the windows rattle.
Like her wheezes.
But don’t tattle.

Beleth

He hung around.

Beleth latched onto Tod.
At first, we thought it was very odd,
But then we learned it his true goal
To have a cuddle.

Crokell

He was the fastest puppy.

Fast and Furious was his first name.
Something we had little hope to tame,
but them we found out his weakness,
Napping with sleekness.

Dante

This puppy nose is sharp.

Dante dances in place.
Even sitting is a race.
He doesn’t do it to save face,
but his butt will always wiggle in place.

Chaos Tip of the Week

Make time to cuddle your own chaos critters. After all, time spent with a critter is worth so much more than times that spent on the internet.

Critter Question of the Week

What is the one action your critter does to remind you they need attention? Does it work or get on your nerves?

Leave a comment

Friend, Aurans, Readers! Lend me your puppies and kitties!

Anna and I are please to announce that our story, Family Honor, has earned a spot in the Annals of the Auran Empire anthology. has a blog post with the complete author list and more details. The anthology is set in the Adventurer Conqueror King System Imperial Imprint RPG universe of the Auran Empire. (Think Fantasy Rome.)

Crowd funding opens June 8th, and you can sign up to be reminded via BackerKit now!

https://www.backerkit.com/call_to_action/8b8be898-82a5-4dc9-868d-aa9a9b449f6e/landing

We’re pleased to see our fellow Alpha Mercs joining us: , (the first anthology we were in was also with Sam), B.K. Gibson (who also gave great developmental feedback during edits https://coldlightrpgpress.weebly.com/), and .

We think our story has the most interesting one liner in the announcement:

“Family Honor” by A. Kristina Casasent, featuring a Ring Against the Wolf, tells the story of a Tirenean nobleman struggling with the challenge of producing an heir with his new wife.

For more details, checkout the Arbiter of Worlds blog!

Arbiter of Worlds

Annals of the Auran Empire Authors Announced

Friends, Aurans, Countrymen …

Read more

2 months ago · 31 likes · Alexander Macris

Today we are going to do a leash lesson that is pure fun. It’s likely not required for every dog (wow, I mistyped that the first time as “god”…). Well, it is Sunday, so it is also a reminder to say your prayers before and after leash lessons, I guess.

Tunnel

Today’s leash lesson is going to be the tunnel. This is actually one of our agility entry points for leash lessons, and it’s something I’m working on with both Crokell and Dante. Dante does this way faster than Crokell, but Crokell is more balanced about how he goes through each tunnel.

For most dogs, tunnels can be a bit noisy, fast, and weird to go through. One of the hardest things for many dogs is that when they enter a tunnel, they can no longer see you. Plus, the tunnel changes all sounds and has an odd texture and smell. Each of these makes it difficult for some dogs. Other dogs (I am looking at you, Dante) just don’t care and are happy to run into and out of a tunnel as fast as their little paws can carry them.

Versions of the Tunnel Command

Now, there are a few different versions of the tunnel command in agility training, but for this lesson, we’ll focus on one simple version and build from there.

• Tunnel: this is what I used to send a dog through a tunnel…

• Through: This is what I used to send a dog through someone’s legs. Some people use this as their tunnel command.

As usual, you can use any command, but I provide some common options.

How does this work for our Chaos Critters?

Hmm. Dante rocks it. Actually, he is not sure why we don't do tunnels every day.

Crokell is not sure why we need tunnel but will go through them just fine. He would rather have a car ride (hint, hint).

Teaching Your Newest Critter to Tunnel

The setup is important. Make sure the dog is comfortable. The first try should be on flat ground. The tunnel should be short and straight, and big enough for the dog! This is important. Crokell is huge compared to Dante, so he has to have a large tunnel. Trying something small would be mean. On the smaller dogs, you can start smaller, but you could always start big and go smaller as they get comfortable.

Still, it is best to start small (or rather big but short). Then get longer tunnels as your critter builds up confidence. For starters, get a straight tunnel and make sure the tunnel is fully anchored. For this, you want a short tunnel where the dog can see you at the other end when you’re calling them through.

As with all leash lessons, we will start on leash. Now, if you are looking at me going, “But tunnels and leashes don’t mix,” shh. Don’t get your hackles up yet. I have a method to my madness. And no, I am not telling you to pull the dog through.

If your dog is scared, get them to touch the tunnel. You reward them. Change it up, do something else, then come back. This should not be repeated one right after the other. Although, if it was a really bad one, you might want to repeat it, but more gently, shortening it, or making sure the dog has some sort of success at the end.

Incentives

You’re going to do this on leash and it’s going to be you and, hopefully, a partner. Have the partner walk the dog to one side of the tunnel, and you (since your dog loves you best [Tod is sad because it’s true. Although, Crokell might love me at least as much as Anna. -Tod]) are going to be on the other end of the tunnel. You then call the dog to you. Note, you can have the tunnel really short for this. They are almost just stepping through a hoop. Pet them up and maybe play some tug. Then you lengthen the tunnel when you repeat it.

Corrections

Hopefully, your pup will come. If they don’t, the leash at least helps keep them from going around the tunnel, and you can use it to help guide them to you and then play with the pup, when it is through. This next part is particularly crucial, when dealing with a nervous dog attempting to avoid the situation. If it requires waiting, then wait. You aren’t pulling so much as preventing them from running around your backyard. But also check your setup. Make sure your tunnel is not wobbling and rolling, because sometimes they’re fearful more because your setup is bad.

Session Length and Style

Short, short, and shorter. Actually, that isn’t true for Dante, but it is for Crokell. Because the setup is longer and Dante LOVES tunnels, I tend to do these as longer sessions, going a whole 15 minutes of games and such in the backyard before I switch out dogs.

Dante LOVES tunnels and thinks I should send him through whenever one is out, which actually means sometimes I put them out just as a distraction.

For Crokell, I try to do three to five reps, with maybe some other couple of things going on in between. Then he is bored and warm and wants a nap.

Tunnel Games

As your dog gets better trained, you can have them sit, stay, and do other things, and then call them through without the second person. At the beginning, I just used the “come” to get them to go through the tunnel; later I added the tunnel command and started slowly giving it from different angles.

This is where the game comes in, and where I have the most fun. So far, we are working on these three with Dante.

Tunnel to me: This is the most basic game with a tunnel.
Tunnel get it: This is sending them to a tunnel to get a treat or something cool.
Tunnel and run: This is sending them through a tunnel and then having them run through, join you on the other end, and keep going with you.

Consider mixing in other simple obstacles or even changing how the dog goes in. For me, changing left and right can be a huge change (because I barely remember my left and right) and always think of left as dog side, and right as the other side…

So, I have to work on that.

Right vs. left side

This came up in one of my sessions with Dante!

In training class, we usually walk up to the tunnel with the dog on our (checks and rechecks) left side. Then tell them “tunnel” and keep walking. Almost every dog got really confused when they had to approach the tunnel on the right side of the trainer.

I heel so much on the left that Dante is confused when I try to send him from the right or have him work on the right. (Nope, it isn’t my fault for not knowing the difference, nope. Not at all.)

Hence, that is what we will need to practice doing more on the right. You should be able to run the tunnel with your dog on the right and your dog on the left. It will be hard the first few times. You still need to have a clear cue for left and right, and you need to be able to tell your dog on which side to work on.

We might cover this in a different leash lesson — although having Tod teach me left and right might take more than a few treats and LOTS of corrections.

How often to practice?

The tunnel is sort of part of flatwork (aka not jumping), but it is still an obstacle, so I only really do this on the weekends. It has to do with the time to set up, because pulling out the tunnel takes a hot minute (at least for me). If you already have an agility course set up in your backyard, whoop! Go use it. I envy you, and you’re likely more of an expert at this than I am. Feel free to make comments about what I’m doing wrong, because I can’t get better without corrections.

Note: At this time, I haven’t competed in agility yet, but I’m really excited to do that sometime this year or next year with Dante. One of the things I read is that flatwork is the most important for agility. So while I’m going to show some stuff on the obstacles, all my training this year for almost everything is going to be flat work, where the only parts where I do the jumps or the tunnels is going to be once a week, and it’s going to be a sort of exciting play thing with him because he loves it.

Other equipment you can pair the tunnels with: wings, low jumps, or a mat. Have fun and don’t worry too much. We train for life, not just for competition.

This is a great Saturday or Sunday practice where we can just have fun and then flop over and pant.

Duration, distance, and distractions

Now, what do you want to use? How do you get started with this? The duration is going to be not just the length of the sentence or of the training session, but the duration you have of the tunnel itself. It’s both distance and duration.

• Distance: This is how far away you are sending them to the tunnel. You’re going to start right in front of it, and then slowly you’re going to be further and further away when you’re sending them through it. Changing the angle here will change what they do.

• Duration: This is the length of the tunnel. Start short, then lengthen it as your dog becomes more confident. Also, this is the time you wait, or the time of the session. Ahh. It can be too many things. Hides head in the toy box.

• Distractions: Having the jumps out, another dog, or just noise can be a big deal. Shorten the length and make sure they are ready to go. I also consider angle a little on distractions as well. If you only train for the left, sending from the right is a huge issue and can either be considered a distraction or a distance issue…

Remember to only strengthen one “D” at a time: distance, distraction, or duration. Choose one for that session.

I am trying to review this each weekend for now, but you are going to find this is something you can do if you’re in an agility group during the week, cool. Every time you do your agility session, you’re going to want to really work on tunnels at least a bit.

The biggest thing is that this builds up confidence, especially for dogs that are scared of stuff. It’s right to expose them to things and get them used to stuff.

Homework

Get a tunnel and find the other side. I mean, really, just have fun. Maybe you can even climb through yourself and your critter might follow.

Chaos Tip of the Week

Remember, the light might be an oncoming spaceship zooming to freedom, or it might be an opening to a new world or plane of existence. Just make sure you’re prepared to jump on through whatever is incoming.

Critter Question of the Week

How do you go through your own tunnels? Do you crawl, stall, or run through like a crazy Dante menace?

Leave a comment

Thank you all. Have a nice day and happy leash lessons. Find the tunnel to your own heart.

~Anna, Tod, Crokell, and Dante

More IP Writing on the Way!

Anna and I are please to announce that our story, Family Honor, has earned a spot in the Annals of the Auran Empire anthology. has a blog post with the complete author list and more details. The anthology is set in the Adventurer Conqueror King System Imperial Imprint RPG universe of the Auran Empire. (Think Fantasy Rome.)

Crowd funding opens June 8th, and you can sign up to be reminded via BackerKit now!

https://www.backerkit.com/call_to_action/8b8be898-82a5-4dc9-868d-aa9a9b449f6e/landing

We’re pleased to see our fellow Alpha Mercs joining us: , (the first anthology we were in was also with Sam), B.K. Gibson (who also gave great developmental feedback during edits https://coldlightrpgpress.weebly.com/), and .

We think our story has the most interesting one liner in the announcement:

“Family Honor” by A. Kristina Casasent, featuring a Ring Against the Wolf, tells the story of a Tirenean nobleman struggling with the challenge of producing an heir with his new wife.

For more details, checkout the Arbiter of Worlds blog!

Arbiter of Worlds

Annals of the Auran Empire Authors Announced

Friends, Aurans, Countrymen …

Read more

2 months ago · 31 likes · Alexander Macris

Tod here! If I learned anything from television while growing up, it was that monsters and cookies go together. So, here are some pictures of our critters monsters before we get to the cookies.

Carter and Kathy’s Resurrection Cookies

See last week’s story for the meaning of each ingredient:

Ingredients

• 1 cup of nuts (traditionally pecans, we used almonds due to allergies)

• 3 large eggs (whites only)

• 1 teaspoon vinegar

• 1 pinch salt

• 1 cup sugar

Also Needed

• One Gallon Zip Top Bag

• A wood mallet

• Tape

• Mixer

• Tablespoon scooper

• Cookie Sheet with Wax Paper

Recipe

Do this Saturday evening before Easter Sunday and right before bedtime.

1. Preheat oven to 300 degrees F

2. Place nuts in a bag and use mallet to break them up.
   Bible Reading: John 19:1-3

3. Add vinegar to mixer bowl.
   Bible Reading: John: 19:28-30

4. Add egg whites to mixer bowl.
   Bible Reading: John 10:10-11

5. Add pinch of salt to mixer bowl.
   Bible Reading: Luke 23:27

6. Add sugar to mixer bowl.
   Bible Reading: Psalm 34:8 and John 3:16

7. Beat on high until stiff peaks form. (~15 minutes)
   Bible Reading: Isaiah 1:18 and John 3:1-3

8. Prepare cookie sheet.
   Bible Reading: Matthew 27:57-60

   1. Fold in crushed nuts.

   2. Use the scoop to place the mixture on the wax paper covered cookie sheet.

9. Turn the oven off.
   Bible Reading: Matthew 27:65-66

   1. Place cookie sheet in oven.

   2. Seal door shut with tape. (I recommend painters’ tape.)

10. Bedtime!
    Bible Reading: John 16:20 and 22

11. Easter Sunday (Resurrection Sunday) Eat hollow cookies.
    Bible Reading: Matthew 28:1-9

Chaos Tip of the Week

Always read recipes and lab protocols all the way through before trying them. Many instructions have the culinary or scientific equivalent of “remove the blue wire from the warhead” which is followed by “only after removing the detonator”.

Chaos Question of the Week

What is your favorite cookie?

Leave a comment

~ Anna and Tod

More Nano-Sapiens!

Need something to read while your cookies are baking?

Curious about Carter’s future career?

Do you want to know more about the Nano-Sapiens and Carter’s cat friends and their adventures?

Are you aware of the intersection of poetry and monster-of-the-week television shows?

These questions and more are answered in “It’s Raining Cats and Dogs” part of Raconteur Press’ anthology Moggies in Space: A Galaxy Fur Fur Away. Buy it for the chaos and share it with the poetry lover or veteran in your life!

Available on Amazon! https://www.amazon.com/Moggies-Space-Galaxy-Raconteur-Anthologies-ebook/dp/B0CXZ5ZGXK

For other Nano-Sapiens adventures check out our author’s page at https://amazon.com/author/casasent

More IP Writing on the Way!

Anna and I are please to announce that our story, Family Honor, has earned a spot in the Annals of the Auran Empire anthology. has a blog post with the complete author list and more details. The anthology is set in the Adventurer Conqueror King System Imperial Imprint RPG universe of the Auran Empire. (Think Fantasy Rome.)

Crowd funding opens June 8th, and you can sign up to be reminded via BackerKit now!

https://www.backerkit.com/call_to_action/8b8be898-82a5-4dc9-868d-aa9a9b449f6e/landing

We’re pleased to see our fellow Alpha Mercs joining us: , (the first anthology we were in was also with Sam), B.K. Gibson (who also gave great developmental feedback during edits https://coldlightrpgpress.weebly.com/), and .

We think our story has the most interesting one liner in the announcement:

“Family Honor” by A. Kristina Casasent, featuring a Ring Against the Wolf, tells the story of a Tirenean nobleman struggling with the challenge of producing an heir with his new wife.

For more details, checkout the Arbiter of Worlds blog!

Arbiter of Worlds

Annals of the Auran Empire Authors Announced

Friends, Aurans, Countrymen …

Read more

2 months ago · 31 likes · Alexander Macris

Happy Easter and Fourth Day of Passover

We hope everyone is having a good weekend.

This week we’re starting off with critter pictures and a group shot of roses.

Those are followed by the story of Carter learning about Easter, while helping Kathy out in the kitchen. As normal, next week expect the accompanying recipe.

Carter and the Easter Cookies

“Dad’s asleep in the dining room. Ready?” From her stool, Kathy set the oven. “300 Fahrenheit, right Carter?”

A blue LED on his collar showed where his canine voice was translated into English. “Yes, I checked it twice.”

Once Kathy was on the floor, Carter put his head down. His white and black Newfoundland dog body was bred for pulling, but he pushed her stool to their ingredients.

Afterwards, Carter carefully stood with his front paws on the countertop.

Again, atop her stool, Kathy announced, “Carter, we’re going to surprise everyone with Resurrection Cookies tomorrow.”

“Isn’t Easter tomorrow?”

“Yes silly. That’s when we celebrate the resurrection of Jesus. This year with cookies!”

Doubtfully, Carter surveyed the ingredients. “Are you sure this makes cookies? Are we grinding almonds into flour?”

Kathy put on her most grown-up voice. “No. We’re making the cookies with crushed almonds because momma’s allergic to pecans.”

She measured almonds into a plastic bag and retrieved a huge wood hammer from behind the ingredients.

Carter’s ears pulled back, and he yawned in suppressed concern. “I’ve never seen either of our parents cook with a hammer.”

Kathy’s voice grunted as she smashed the almonds. “This is to remind us. Uph. How bad people hurt Jesus.”

Carter whined and cocked an ear, but the dining-room door blocked the sound.

After a bit, Kathy gave the almonds a final whack. Carter was no chef, but he suspected the last strike was just for fun.

She held a bowl of clear liquid to her gigantic canine companion. “Smell that.”

Carter stuck his enormous black nose into the bowl and woof inhaled.

With a deep boof, he dropped to all fours, sneezing. Carter shook his head, trying to get the harsh smell out. Drool flew from his jowls to coat the lower cabinet doors.

Kathy put the bowl down and hugged Carter.

He felt her rubbing a towel on his face and chest.

“Sorry Carter. Can you imagine drinking that like Jesus did?”

“Drink it? I don’t even want to smell it again.”

They both froze as a car flew past the third-story window. After a moment, they went back to work.

“Now, we add the egg whites. Carter, what do eggs represent?”

“Oh.” Carter knew this. His long, heavy tail waved back and forth, low and slow as he thought.

His floppy ears visibly perked. “I remember. Eggs are life. Because live chickens come from eggs. Not kitchen eggs though.”

Kathy laughed. “That was pretty funny - and smelly - when you tried hatching eggs.”

Carter watched her add clear eggs to the bowl.

She opened the container of salt. “Now salt from tears cried when Jesus died.”

Kathy reached in and froze.

“Carter,” she whispered. “There’s no salt.”

Carter felt his tail drop and his ears with it. “No cookies?”

“We only need a little bit.”

They both considered the problem.

“Carter, I got it!” whisper-yelled Kathy. “The dining room saltshaker.”

“Where your dad is sleeping?”

Kathy’s brown eyes dimmed. Her dark face turned even darker.

Carter couldn’t stand to see Kathy sad. “We’ll sneak in and get it. Right?”

He and Kathy got down on all fours. They pushed open the heavy dining-room door.

A snore came from Kathy’s dad.

Without a word or a whine, Carter lowered himself and crawled forward.

Kathy crawled on all fours next to him. Finally, they reached the edge of the table.

Carter placed his head on Kathy’s neck, to tell her to hold still. He forgot his chin was always cold and wet from Newfie slobber.

Kathy started to squeal but buried her face in his fluffy mane to drown the noise.

Once she recovered, Carter lifted his head up. Seeing the salt right there, he grabbed it, closing his mouth around the small shaker.

He tasted the bitter grains as some spilled.

Back in the kitchen, Kathy added a pinch of salt to the bowl.

“Now the best part!” She slowly poured what Carter thought was a lot of sugar into the bowl. “Because of how sweet that Jesus loves us.”

Carter helped Kathy move the new mixing bowl to the cabinet. He let her plug it in, since they both knew from painful experiences that wet Newfie drool did not mix with electricity.

The new mixer was Kathy’s inspiration.

“One of the other Nano-Sapiens designed this. It’s quiet and doesn’t hurt dog or cat ears. Dad won’t hear it either.”

Carter fought down a laugh. After all, her father hadn’t heard the almonds being wacked with a hammer; he was pretty sure he would sleep through worse than the annoyance of a blender. As the mixer ran, Kathy lifted one of Carter’s ears and whispered, “The white is clean, like when our sins are forgiven by Jesus.”

Carter got really interested as Kathy mixed the nuts and put little cookie mounds on the parchment paper covered cookie sheet.

“Carter, this part is like Jesus’ tomb. But I expect His was bigger.”

He watched as she put the cookie sheet into the oven. Nobody had found a way for a Newfie to put stuff into an oven and not get burned yet.

Carter felt useful again as he pushed Kathy’s step stool over so she could switch the heat off. She also let him help seal the oven shut. His big nose was perfect for smoothing down tape.

“We seal the oven just like a tomb.”

“Kathy, I’m sad. I want cookies now.”

He felt her little arms wrapped around his neck. A little human peck of a kiss warmed the top of his nose momentarily.

“That reminds us of how sad it was while Jesus was dead.”

Carter considered this. “But we get the cookies tomorrow?”

Her arms renewed their hug. “Yes. The neat part is the cookies are sort of hollow inside. Just like Jesus’ tomb was empty on Easter.”

“Kathy, you know, I think these cookies are my favorite. Even better than canine safe chocolate-chocolate chip ones.”

Chaos Tip of the Week

Always check your chin for drool before resting it on someone’s neck; otherwise, it might be difficult to get the other person to hold still.

Chaos Question of the Week

Have you ever tried to pleasantly surprise a friend for loved one and ran into issues doing so?

Leave a comment

~ Anna and Tod

More Nano-Sapiens!

Need something to read while your cookies are baking?

Curious about Carter’s future career?

Do you want to know more about the Nano-Sapiens and Carter’s cat friends and their adventures?

Are you aware of the intersection of poetry and monster-of-the-week television shows?

These questions and more are answered in “It’s Raining Cats and Dogs” part of Raconteur Press’ anthology Moggies in Space: A Galaxy Fur Fur Away. Buy it for the chaos and share it with the poetry lover or veteran in your life!

Available on Amazon! https://www.amazon.com/Moggies-Space-Galaxy-Raconteur-Anthologies-ebook/dp/B0CXZ5ZGXK

For other Nano-Sapiens adventures check out our author’s page at https://amazon.com/author/casasent

More IP Writing on the Way!

Anna and I are please to announce that our story, Family Honor, has earned a spot in the Annals of the Auran Empire anthology. has a blog post with the complete author list and more details. The anthology is set in the Adventurer Conqueror King System Imperial Imprint RPG universe of the Auran Empire. (Think Fantasy Rome.)

Crowd funding opens June 8th, and you can sign up to be reminded via BackerKit now!

https://www.backerkit.com/call_to_action/8b8be898-82a5-4dc9-868d-aa9a9b449f6e/landing

We’re pleased to see our fellow Alpha Mercs joining us: , (the first anthology we were in was also with Sam), B.K. Gibson (who also gave great developmental feedback during edits https://coldlightrpgpress.weebly.com/), and .

We think our story has the most interesting one liner in the announcement:

“Family Honor” by A. Kristina Casasent, featuring a Ring Against the Wolf, tells the story of a Tirenean nobleman struggling with the challenge of producing an heir with his new wife.

For more details, checkout the Arbiter of Worlds blog!

Arbiter of Worlds

Annals of the Auran Empire Authors Announced

Friends, Aurans, Countrymen …

Read more

2 months ago · 31 likes · Alexander Macris

Thanks for reading Chaos Critters! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.

Furry Siblings

One of the benefits of having multiple siblings means there’s always one around to help you demand things from your owners. Regular readers will already be aware: our critters are not aware of any differences between dogs and cats.

And now our feature presentation…

Hector and the Forging of the Sword of Incredible Power and Beauty, Chapter 02

His mind clean from his second swim, Hector settled down to design the sword. He flopped on his side and lay down, letting out a huge Newfie sigh that summoned his fire elemental, Gem. The little creature flickered and flared. With a thought, Hector sent it scrambling to a fetch parchment and his favorite pen.

Gem was little more than a small light at the moment, a swirl of heat and brightness, that could float in the ether until Hector needed him. The little creature was mute, and some thought half-dumb, merely a reflection of the bound’s will, while others insisted all elementals were intelligent, empathetic creatures that we just didn’t know how to speak with yet.

Hector wasn’t sure what he believed. He just knew that talking to Gem made his thoughts order themselves. That his sword design satin an unreachable recess of his mind, but in speaking all his worries and other nonsense out to Gem, the idea would crystalize, as if he had to chip the stone away to reveal the gem beneath, hence why he called his fire elemental Gem. Because it was a muse and a key to his thoughts. And... Hector thought cynically, he just liked talking to his fire elemental.

“I was the first puppy in my entire line to leave our family den on the island. Nobody else in my family makes things. They work at honorable tasks. They’re water rescue dogs manning the lighthouse that dominated the island I grew up on.”

He stopped just in case the fire elemental wanted to reply or an idea would surface. Gem merely floated there, holding the pen posed above the paper. Ink glinted on the nib of the pen, which was held by a pale swirl of burning light. Hector continued.

“But nobody created anything. Even the wagons we hauled and our traces were designed, created by others. Mom knew I was a little weird because I kept wanting to draw stuff. Although it’s really tough to draw when you’re a puppy and don’t have any hands.”

He looked at his paws. His huge, fluffy paws with webbed toes and long claws that could not wrap themselves around a pen or brush, no matter how hard he tried. And he sighed.

“Paws are wonderful for swimming, but very poor for holding a pen or a pencil. But then my fire element, you Gem, established a link and brought me my first brush and hammer, and I moved here to become a metalsmith. Lillian was already working in town. She was startled when I won a contract from her. She hadn’t known she had competition and worked doubly hard to get the next one away from me.”

He sat, looking around the great foundry that was his home den. At the modified tools that let him handle items with his mouth if needed. And the other, delicate ones that Gem welded for him when inspiration took him.

“Sometimes one of us, Lillian or I, does a little better than the other. Other times, the other one pulls ahead. But it’s great because each of us is better because we’re measuring ourselves against our rival. It is a fire that drives us on.”

Gem still merely floated there, perhaps contemplating nothing, perhaps listening intently. The little elemental swirled a little around the pen poised above paper. Hector let out a little sigh. He was close. He could feel the ideas starting to gel. The flicker of thought, an image of a sword, was starting to peak within his mind.

Before he could find the complete image, Hector smelled traces of a lake-cleansed cat. His Maine Coon friend, Ralph, had come to visit.

Barely a breath later, Ralph’s mew signaled his presence. “You there?”

Hector laughed and stood up from where he’d flopped. He felt the image of the sword recede into the mists of his mind. He shook himself, looking at the dim, sparkling light of Gem and greeted Ralph at the door.

“I sure am. Just getting ready to start drawing. What have you been up to?”

Ralph gave him a slow blink. That was terse, even for his friend Ralph. He must be feeling very cat at the moment.

The orange maned tabby sauntered in, rubbing against Hector in greeting. “Tania?”

Hector gave a Newfie chuckle. “No. She’s not here at the moment. I’ll probably see her tonight or tomorrow. I’m supposed to get together with Basant to give her an update, and, you know, Tania is always with her.”

Ralph nodded towards the elemental holding the drawing materials. “Design?”

Hector settled himself onto a nice, cool marble bed set into the floor. Its cold seeped into him, making his mind feel fresh while he worked. “I was just telling Gem...”

The sentence hung in the air as the mist of creativity cleared from Hector’s mind. He could see the design. The spiraled handle, the slightly curved sword that would slice through the wind itself, the wave in the fire-cured steel that glinted in the hottest forge, before being plunged into cold salt water. It was beautiful, magnificent.

And his.

Hector didn’t realize he hadn’t finished the sentence. Instead, Gem flew into motion, drawing the image that danced in Hector’s mind. Not one subtle sweep was forgotten, from etchings to edges, from pommel to point, from ore to craft. Everything was there. Design and recipe.

He forgot Ralph was there.

Hector even forgot he was really directing his fire elemental as his words became the sweep of the brush on parchment, the dream of flames and wind, of earth quenched in water, molded to his will.

Gem glinted gold and then faded to the light of a moon. The brush stokes took on a silver gleam as flicks of dust from the very air settled onto the parchment, freezing the vision in place.

Clarity came. And as if waking from a dream, Hector blinked and sighed. He could smell the light musk of Ralph and the warm smoke of Gem’s drawing. He yawned.

“Ralph. You have a wind elemental. We need Wind Ore to add speed to the sword, to curve it into a shape that the wind itself cannot withstand.”

The cat purred but made no other response as silver shone from the sword design.

Gem etched maroon-copper flecked embers across the sword, breathing life back into the coals of fire in the drawing.

“And, Gem, my fire elemental, of course. I need Fire Ore to seal the sword’s power. It’ll need power in the games.”

The running water of the river came to him through the open doors and windows. “And Water Ore to let the sword bend and not break under pressure, to move with unbearable force and not shatter.”

Blue was followed by copper in the design.

He felt the warmth that was that collected in his fur seeping into the marble underneath him. “And Earth Ore to give structure, a place for everything else to be held together.”

The sword design was elegant: long and slender, with a slight curve at the end.

What started as just a black blade was wrought through with the silver of the Wind Ore, the maroon of a Fire Ore, and the royal blue of a Water Ore. Elements rarely touched each other. But the copper of the Earth Ore ran throughout the sword, touching, combining, joining all of its elements.

Where one Ore began and the other ended was inseparable. The gleam of light wove the colors together into a dark rainbow where the folds of Ore would sing through the steel.

A very orange Maine Coon cat sigh broke Hector’s concentration. Ralph was so impressed. He used two words. “Elegant. Beautiful.”

Hector shook his head. Flicks and bits of drool splattered the floor and ceiling, but mostly missed Ralph.

The Newfie inspected the design carefully and whimpered.

“I don’t have any of these, and you can’t buy them. Even to get the Wind Ore, I can’t fly. I don’t know any birds. I don’t even know where to go to get Wind Ore, but I have to do this and I have to do this myself or it won’t be mine.”

Hector lowered his head, and Gem surged forward. The elemental flickered and swirled. Light and dark. Smoke and fire. Rising and falling.

Ralph shook himself, and with rare eloquence, asked Hector a complete question.

“What would the sword be like with just Fire Ore?”

Hector lost himself in the design and then turned away from it. It wasn’t to be. Instead, he grumped.

“Slow. Fragile. One that shattered at the first hit. Warped with no shape and every shape. A useless sword.”

Ralph just blinked at him.

Hector grumped again. “But I have to do this myself. I just need to.”

Ralph gave Hector a polite headbutt. “Nap calling. Instead, I show Wind Ore.”

Hector gasped. “How do I reach it? Where is it? How do you know it? How do we get to it? How do I get to it? Is there a lot?”

Ralph flicked his tail and turned. He strutted out of the house and toward the river. Gem shimmered and disappeared into the ether.

Hector trotted after him, grumbling questions, until he was almost out of breath.

With a sharp turn, they paused. Hector panting. Ralph flicked a look over his shoulder and sat at the dock rising over the river where they’d had their swim that morning.

Hector blinked. “Why are we at the river? Wind Ore will be up somewhere higher where the winds never stop.”

Ralph nodded at him. “Dive.”

With that, Ralph took a running start and threw himself off the dock, disappearing into the water. His tail was the last of him that Hector saw.

Shaking himself, Hector didn’t ponder further. He galumphed down the dock, and he too disappeared into the water.

Water closed in. Down and down. Dim became dark. Dark became darker until blackness closed in. His lungs burned. His nose ached. His eyes were half shut. Hector wanted to inhale, but knew better. Hector started worrying about running out of air.

Ahead, a gray light began to glow, and Hector swept his leg, pulling the water, surging toward the shadow of Ralph. Suddenly, Ralph’s wind elemental showed up.

It first surrounded Ralph, who slowed down, and as Hector caught up, surrounded the Newfie.

And they could breathe in the dim light of elemental wind.

Hector couldn’t help himself. “Why are we swimming down? Where are we going?”

“Cliffs of the Condors.”

The wind elemental bubble sucked them into the tunnel. It started as just a normal, everyday tunnel that you might find hidden underneath a river that nobody knew about.

Hector started sneezing as the magic tickled his nose. “There’s some sort of magic in the tunnel.”

Ralph gave a cat laugh. “Elemental.”

The bubble rolled them again. Magic tickled them between their webbed toes. Wind and water babbled to each other. The tunnel twisted until Hector could not tell which way was up.

He gasped out a laugh as something pushed him from behind.

And they went sailing through an opening into another cave. He stumbled, feeling the coolness of dry, rough rocks under his paws. He shook, expecting to flick off water.

But it was a dry shake, sending out only drool, dander, and loose fur.

“We’re dry!”

Ralph nodded and straightened his whiskers with a practiced gesture.

Hector considered his fur. “It works well, but it isn’t as fun as the dryer.”

“Faster.”

“True. And a lot more interesting.”

Ralph shot the Newfie a slit-eyed cat glare, and his elemental ruffled Hector’s hair fur, making it all stand on end.

Hector shook his head again, jowls swaying, splattering the cave edges with drool.

A cold, dry land.

Rough, dark rocks.

The scent of wind and light that cut through the damp, he would have expected from an underground river cave. “Where are we?”

The orange tabby turned to face him, sat, and raised his head to look above Hector’s head. Hector knew Ralph wasn’t the sort of cat that would ignore you even if he didn’t talk a lot.

So, he circled around Ralph and looked out into the openness of sky. Then he looked up.

And up.

And up.

Unnecessarily, he asked, “Are those the Cliffs of the Condors?”

The cliffs kept going until they disappeared into the clouds. He’d never seen something so tall. Nothing could be that high. He gave a deep swallow.

A small, dark speck came spiraling down from the cliff. Was a pebble falling?

Something was gliding toward them. Slowly, it inched along, becoming larger.

Time ticked by.

Ralph gave a light, snoring purr from beside him. But Hector couldn’t take his eyes off the dot as it got larger and larger.

It’s a little bird, like a mockingbird or something.

But it got bigger and bigger.

Eventually, he could see it was a dark bird with gray flight feathers paired with gray claws. It had a little mane, almost a collar made up of fine white feathers, like fine fur.

The bird had a wrinkled, red-gray head. As the bird got closer, Hector realized that the bird was gigantic. It was huge! Three Newfies could have stood side by side on the bird’s back, and the bird might not have noticed.

Finally, the bird was close enough for him to catch its eye. Its eyes were laughing, and a kindly voice croaked out from the giant condor. “Hello, Ralph. It’s nice to see you again so soon. Please introduce me to your friend.”

Ralph nodded, yawned, and stretched. He twitched an ear towards the Newfie and said, “Hector.”

He twitched the other ear towards the enormous condor. “Wakasa.”

Hector and Wakasa’s eyes met again, and they laughed. They knew Ralph’s laconic nature well.

The condor nodded. “So, Hector, what brings you to the Cliffs of the Condors?”

Hector took a deep breath and explained the quest. “So, I need to collect a Wind Ore. I need to do it myself. But it is so high.”

Wakasa looked at the Maine Coone, who nodded.

The bird, slightly awkward on land, waddled around in a circle. His twinkling eyes never stopped laughing, and finally, the wrinkled gray head returned to inspect Hector.

“I will help you, but I must be entertained in the traditional manner with a dance.”

Hector barked the sharp yip of a surprised dog laugh. “A dance?”

Wakasa nodded again. “Yes. This is how it has always been done by my people through ages far into the past, beyond what any of us can remember, and we remember much forgotten by others.”

The Newfie turned his big, blocky head towards the Maine Coon cat. “Ralph, will you help?”

The Maine Coon flicked his tail. A rhythm starting from the tip and stretched into a graceful bow to begin the dance.

Quick turns, light hops, sweeping paw gut gestures.

His claws left little lines of silver in the air behind him from his wind element.

Hector laughed and answered with a slow, deep bow, where Ralph jumped over him, his elemental ruffling both of their fur. The Newfie continued with slow, powerful steps, a strong counterpoint to Ralph’s delicacy and grace.

Gem flicked to life, casting shadows and light on the dancers, while Ralph’s wind swirled around them like a veil.

Hector’s broad paws drummed a deep rhythm into the earth. Together, they picked up that rhythm and wove a playful duet. Ralph’s nimble moves wound spry and spunky around Hector’s steady, pounding power.

Wakasa’s bright, ancient eyes gleamed. He spread his great wings halfway. The entire cliff held its breath. As the two sprang and rolled, light shimmered, wind whistled, and paws pounded the hard ground.

The next time Hector noticed anything else, an audience surrounded them. A small circle of condors. Their white manes and gray flight feathers glowed silver, the color of wind elementals.

Ralph leaped onto a low boulder. He arched his back in a final flourish. Hector rose up behind him on his hind legs and made a majestic yet comic bow. His hair was wild and standing on end from the elementals. Then Hector danced to Ralph, bouncing around him.

The great condor’s head bounced in time with Hector. “This, this is your friendship. This is when you met.”

Ralph responded to Hector rolling and cavorting around him.

Like waves bouncing up and down, Wakasa’s head swiveled. “And this, this is your swimming rivalry.”

Hector jumped up high off the ground, his front paws reaching as high as Wakasa’s back. Ralph too sprang up. He clambered up the Newfie’s back and leaped off, upward, his elemental raising him up even higher than Wakasa’s head.

As Ralph went up, Hector went down.

He landed and flopped flat.

Moments later, Ralph also flopped flat, landing atop him.

Then, to Hector’s embarrassment, they both started giggling uncontrollably.

Their giggles were broken when Wakasa gave a great booming cry of approval, spreading his wings out full. His mane and his flight feathers now glowed the silver of a wind elemental.

“My friends, my oldest furred friend and my new furred friend, thank you. Rarely have we had such entertainment, full of friendship, humor, and... grace.”

Wakasa settled himself as low as he could next to the boulder Ralph had jumped onto during the dance. His nod was an invitation. The two four-legged friends climbed onto the condor’s back.

With the rest of the condors leading the way, slowly they flew up the cliff.

It took some time.

At one point, Hector knew that Ralph was sleeping because he could feel the rumbling snore.

He understood the reason.

They were too far off the ground to see anything interesting, and too far from the top for that to be interesting. Just as he thought that he saw a silvery glow at the top.

Wakasa told him, “That glow, that is the Wind Ore. Every few weeks, another handful take full form. There are many.”

Hector watched the glow for a while. Newfies weren’t sight hounds, but they had reasonably decent vision, having been bred to watch for drowning swimmers. Finally, he asked Wakasa, “Is the glow dimming?”

Wakasa’s wrinkled red-gray head turned to face his Newfie passenger for a moment, even as the condor’s wings continued to heave them upward.

The eye Hector could see didn’t lose its humor, but it showed concern. “Yes. You’re not seeing things, and that is very wrong.”

By the time they reached the top, there was no more silver glow.

But in the sunlight, they could just see a red tail tipped in white disappearing around the bend.

Wakasa landed, and they looked around the cliff top. Hector didn’t notice the gorgeous view around them. Or the wind. Or striations in the rock - the ancient history thrust up into the sky.

He only saw that there was no Wind Ore.

His voice was a whispered whimper. “Wakasa, thank you for your help.”

But he couldn’t continue further. He knew what had happened, but not how.

The Newfie looked around, trying to find an Ore that had been missed. A warm softness pressed under his chin and he felt the rumble of Ralph’s purr.

The Maine Coon, pressed up once more, then took a moment to shake himself dry, giving Hector time to piece together some words.

“She took it. She took them all. Not just what she needed.” The Newfie bit back a whine. He knew in his heart that Lillian had absconded with all the Wind Ore.

Wakasa’s distress dimmed the humor in his eyes. “Even the partially formed ores are gone. My friend, there will be no more Wind Ore until long after your competition.”

Ralph snickered.

Hector turned, dropping his head and looked at the Maine Coon his hackle dropped at the betrayal of his closest friend. His anger summoned Gem. The elemental light flared above his head.

Then Wakasa laughed.

The big black Newfie whirled. His eyes hollow with hurt surprise as he faced the great condor.

Hector saw that the humor was back in the big bird’s eyes.

Hurt and a bit of fear rolled through him.

Ralph stalked around the condor and stroked along the condor’s great gray claws. He gave one word in a meow. “Now.”

Wakasa waved one wing toward the sky and flickered his tail at the flock that had accompanied them up the cliffs. The flock circled overhead.

One by one they dipped down as if bowing.

Then the last came to the disheartened Newfie: a female with glowing gray feathers and a pebble of silvery light leaking through her claws.

She hovered in front of Hector, obviously waiting.

Hector blinked. His eyes grew rounder and rounder. He gave a delicate bow before he reached out. His large head was small next to the gigantic condor. He took what was offered from the condor’s claw and placed it on the ground in front of him.

Wonder made his voice small. “It’s a Wind Ore.”

Ralph smirked. He sat tall. Smug and superior as only a feline can be.

Wakasa’s head bounced in amusement. “Yes. Ralph came to visit earlier this morning. He asked me to collect a Wind Ore for you. We were going to give it to you at the base of the cliffs, but you wanted to collect it yourself. But you earned it. And one cannot earn an Ore without a dance that pleased all condors. Unfortunately, that left the Ore unattended. We are sorry, but Ralph’s friendship saved you.”

Hector sat without even thinking, his butt falling as if the cliff surface had too much gravity. The large Newfie eyes blinked at his old friend and his new friend.

“Thank you. You are more than I deserve.”

He rose a little unsteadily and dog-hugged each of them. Wrapping his head and shoulder half around them, although there was very little of Wakasa he could reach to hug.

“I will make fish for you, my friend, and coffee for you, Ralph, and honeyed tea for your elemental. After I’ve defeated Lillian in the competition.”

His two friends nodded, and laughter rang across the Cliffs of the Condors.

Cozy Fantasy

Tod here this week. I trimmed back our cozy story to be fantasy. It’s still very cozy but not having to make sure all the extra tropes needed for true cozy were present saved me a lot of vital time.

In regard to vital time, Hector’s story is going on the back burner while we concentrate on some long form fiction that has more defined deadlines.

The tale of Hector and Ralph’s dance was inspired by one of the variations of the tale of the Fox and the Condor. ShyStoryteller has a summary of the legends here. The website has summaries of a bunch of legends and myths from all over the world.

https://shystoryteller.com/myths-and-legends/the-fox-and-the-condor-an-andean-tale-of-humility-and-cosmic-balance/

Chaos Tip of the Week

Always be yourself and don’t be afraid to dance when everyone is watching. Chances are, they can’t dance either and will appreciate the effort on their behalf.

Chaos Question of the Week

Have you ever considered taking dance classes? If so, what kind?

We both adore ballet and used to have season tickets. But ballroom dancing always seems like fun.

~Tod and Anna

Leave a comment

More IP Writing on the Way!

Anna and I are please to announce that our story, Family Honor, has earned a spot in the Annals of the Auran Empire anthology. has a blog post with the complete author list and more details. The anthology is set in the Adventurer Conqueror King System Imperial Imprint RPG universe of the Auran Empire. (Think Fantasy Rome.)

Crowd funding opens June 8th, and you can sign up to be reminded via BackerKit now!

https://www.backerkit.com/call_to_action/8b8be898-82a5-4dc9-868d-aa9a9b449f6e/landing

We’re pleased to see our fellow Alpha Mercs joining us: , (the first anthology we were in was also with Sam), B.K. Gibson (who also gave great developmental feedback during edits https://coldlightrpgpress.weebly.com/), and .

We think our story has the most interesting one liner in the announcement:

“Family Honor” by A. Kristina Casasent, featuring a Ring Against the Wolf, tells the story of a Tirenean nobleman struggling with the challenge of producing an heir with his new wife.

For more details, checkout the Arbiter of Worlds blog!

https://arbiterofworlds.substack.com/p/annals-of-the-auran-empire-authors

Arbiter of Worlds

Annals of the Auran Empire Authors Announced

Friends, Aurans, Countrymen …

Read more

2 months ago · 24 likes · Alexander Macris

Roses and Writing

Well, our golden plan for the year has had a minor hiccup. Tod is helping me edit something and I want him to focus on that before I let him work on anything else. Bwhahahah!

Plus, it is rose season this week or something and I really didn’t want to miss posting all my beautiful flowers while they are blooming like crazy. It feels like it has been years since I did an overview of the garden and my vibrant roses. (Jan 2024 was forever ago.)

Our roses are blooming like wildfire right now, and oddly, or maybe not so oddly, the one we picked up from the hardware store isthe hardiest of the bunch.

I also feel a bit like a mad scientist (and not just from work) as my roses cross‑pollinate! The Popcorn Roses (which start yellow and turn white) show tiny dots of pink and purple, like the very first whispers of a sport mutation.

That’s how some of my favorite varieties, such as the striped Purple Tiger (white and purple striped rose) and the brightly streaked Abracadabra (yellow and red, I really want one of these), first appeared (I think): one odd bloom on an otherwise ordinary plant followed by gathering seeds and careful future cross. Given time and careful selection, those strange little rebels are bred up into the glorious standout oddballs that I love too much.

Today, I guess all the roses inspired me, or maybe DJ Butler’s new podcast https://www.youtube.com/@DavesHighLowBrow, because we have something a little unusual for Chaos Critters: a poem.

A Rose is its Own

by A. Kristina Casasent

My roses are not just red and white.
Instead they blush from across the scale.
While some darken in the cool of night,
When the moon rises, others fade to pale.

Like my heart’s beat, each rosebud doth strive,
To spout, ascend and thrum through this rock,
Thorn petals fall, roots alone survive,
Gentle lines turning soil from a block.

Then there are my favorite flowers,
Those that cannot quite make up their mind.
They are inimitable bowers,
Petals flare and flame, then fade in time.

As cream cools, orange screams at pink’s light.
Quiet dawn after a storm's retreat,
Misty beauty in a dream’s sight,
One bloom or many, each complete.

A single name, we know as a rose,
Each tendril ranges from wild to meek.
Bushes bursting with briars disclose,
Their hidden shade fragilely sleek.

Corolla lures with steep fragrance,
Then fades and cutting us to the core,
Each part alone deserves reverence,
Crown, canes, and hips to adore.

A sweet gather is this flora,
So, how simple is this prize,
It reminds us of the day's aura,
and that our very souls must rise.

What is the rose, but a word and farce,
For pushing through soil, rocks, and stones.
Surviving from the mountains to marsh,
Precise and poised velvet overtones.

Frail petals and deadly prickles glint.
Reminding us how shears cut or touch
Stamens, carpel and calyx imprint,
Yet, one gardener is one too much.

The wild laterals know its own care,
We are nothing but fleeting sheaves,
In the warm morning mist and dusk air.
Words, deeds watching mother nature leave.

Petals are changing from red and white.
Falling to dust as evening dims to night.

Chaos Tip of the Week

When writing a poem, make sure you have the time to bend the winds of fate to your will because word and rhyming tend to clot and clod. (Or make sure your husband is understanding of how long the blog will take that day. -Tod)

Chaos Question of the Week

When you are writing, do you have different verses humming in your mind? Or do you just find that the words don’t want to rhyme?

Leave a comment

~ Anna and Tod

More IP Writing on the Way!

Anna and I are please to announce that our story, Family Honor, has earned a spot in the Annals of the Auran Empire anthology. has a blog post with the complete author list and more details. The anthology is set in the Adventurer Conqueror King System Imperial Imprint RPG universe of the Auran Empire. (Think Fantasy Rome.)

Crowd funding opens June 8th, and you can sign up to be reminded via BackerKit now!

https://www.backerkit.com/call_to_action/8b8be898-82a5-4dc9-868d-aa9a9b449f6e/landing

We’re pleased to see our fellow Alpha Mercs joining us: , (the first anthology we were in was also with Sam), B.K. Gibson (who also gave great developmental feedback during edits https://coldlightrpgpress.weebly.com/), and .

We think our story has the most interesting one liner in the announcement:

“Family Honor” by A. Kristina Casasent, featuring a Ring Against the Wolf, tells the story of a Tirenean nobleman struggling with the challenge of producing an heir with his new wife.

For more details, checkout the Arbiter of Worlds blog!

https://arbiterofworlds.substack.com/p/annals-of-the-auran-empire-authors

Arbiter of Worlds

Annals of the Auran Empire Authors Announced

Friends, Aurans, Countrymen …

Read more

2 months ago · 24 likes · Alexander Macris

It is wonderful weather this week for some outside work, and the pups are raring to go! If you have been lurking around the blog for a while, you will remember our two most often shown Chaos Critters: Crokell and Dante. They are going to help me later in quick demo videos of what “drop it” should look like. So, we have two nice videos courtesy of the Tod.

What is the “Drop It!” Command

If you have a dog, you know that they will stick anything and everything in their mouth. Our previous Leash Lessons on “leave it” discuss how to prevent them from doing the ground hoover. But here, we are going to discuss how to get them to spit out whatever they have picked up out before it becomes a problem, medical or otherwise.

“Drop it” is actually a pretty tough trick, but incredibly important. To me, the “drop it” command means open your mouth and let whatever you are holding fall to the ground and “leave it” the hell alone.

While “drop it” can be for safety reasons, it is also the beginning of fetch, and lots of other fun tricks and training.

In fetch, you want them to give you the ball. You want them to “drop it” so you can throw it again, again, and again. But not too many times because then you will get injured or your dog will go dig a hole and hide it. Not that ever has happened to me… (That was my brother’s Puggle. -Tod)

For competition, “drop it” is needed for the dumbbell retrieves. It is also useful for service dogs, where you want to send the dog to get an item you need and bring it back. And last, all of you have to end that game of tug sometime, otherwise your arm will fall off. “Drop it” is the perfect command for such as occasion.

While you should have had your house more or less puppy-proofed, I know that sometimes people have problems with their dogs getting their shoes or other toys. A lot of that’s boredom, but you might need to drop it. And if you need to drop it, or if you are having those problems, you should be practicing this with toys, not your shoes or something else expensive or important. Because if you are practicing with shoes, they’re going to still think shoes are toys, and we need to not have that.

We want to be able say “drop it,” have that thing out of their mouth like a hot potato. Otherwise you are taking it out of their mouth, and nobody wants that. (Reminder: drool is love. -Tod)

Teaching “Drop It!” One Trade at a Time

It is often good to start “drop it” with what they call a trade-up.

“Trading up” means that the critter gives you whatever they are currently holding to get something better, whether that is another toy, a treat or attention, depends on the critter.

For example, if they are like Dante and LOVE tug, you can trade up from a ball or a stick or a bone to a tug rope.

You are going to want to start once again in a low-distraction place with the dog on a leash so they can’t run away and turn it into a chase game. And you want two or three values of toys. I prefer to use toys over treats, but you can use treats if your dog is more food driven.

Start by playing with the low-value toy, something that they’re not as enamored with. Let them take the toy, say “drop it” once, and then help them “drop it”. Then you say “yes, good boy” and give them a reward, or pet them, or play with them with a different, better toy! While I show it in the video using the same toy, it is better to “trade up” to a new and better toy so that your critter doesn’t lose interest. I don’t have that problem with Dante, Crokell on the other hand is another matter…

With Toys

For training with three values of toys for “drop it”, end when they’re given the best one. I’m not going to have them drop the highest value one. I’m going to just play their favorite game with them or move on to a different exercise with that toy.

With Food

The other version is where you are trading the toys for food. This is good for fetch especially. You jackpot them with some treats or a lot of attention and pets, but most of the time it’s treats. You should only say “drop it” once. That’s a big thing. And whenever they spit it out, once they do it, give them two to three treats in a row. (They don’t need a lot of treats at once. Give them one piece quickly three times back to back. A lot of treats once is “one treat” to them. Three back to back is “three treats”. -Tod) And then when they finish eating, you either let them pick up the toy or you give them the toy.

Teaching “Drop It!” on Leash

Like always in Leash Lessons, we start on leash. That’s why is a Leash Lesson!

This prevents your critter from running far away, not that they should want to during training time. The leash should start small (six-foot), but some day you can work up to a fifteen-foot leash or off leash once you both are comfortable with them doing this on a six-foot leash. Otherwise, especially with this lesson, it will likely turn into a chase session!

There are other ways, like where you want to make sure that you have corrections. The reason I say that you want to do this on leash is you do not want the dog to be like, “Well, they’re going to take my toys. I’m going to run away.” You want to have them on a leash to make sure that you can reel them in if you need to, and to remove the toy if needed.

When I say remove the toy, I do not want you to wrestle the toy away from them because they’re going to learn tug from that. That’s why you have push the toy up and back into their mouth to get it out! This might mean that you reeled them in nicely with the leash. You want them right in front of you and then you take hold of the other end of the toy and instead of tug. Press up and into them, this motion makes the dog gag and therefore let go.

The leash can provide other information is going to be that it will tighten, and you tighten both the leash and then the push-up at the same time. It’s sort of going, “This isn’t working. You should make a different choice,” and they’ll slowly learn it.

Keep it Short

As for practice, keep it short. Keep it fun. Don’t repeat the drop it to death. They aren’t going to want to keep giving stuff away, unless you are doing fetch but even that has limits. (Remember the Puggle! -Tod) Until you have it down, I would say that you do it around three times a day at MOST. If they hit it good the first time, just let it go. Train something else. There is a lot still left and plenty of time.

You do not want them to get tired out. If you’ve done two reps and the second rep is beautiful, but you were planning on doing five, consider stopping. The reason is they say the dog retains the lesson from the last attempt. With Crokell, too many repetitions is a big deal, because by the fourth or fifth rep, he is bored as hell and he doesn’t want to work for me anymore, doing the exact same thing. He wants to change up! Or he will just doze off and take a nap, even in the ring! (This took some time to figure out in classes where they have the trainer repeat something 20 times in class. Not Anna and Crokell. He’s too smart and thinks Anna should be too. -Tod)

Other Corrections

If you are struggling with this, you can use a sort of body block for the trade. It means that you’ve leashed them in and then you prevent them from taking both items until they dropped the current one. It is about the placement of your body to prevent them from trading up like a freeloader at a buffet. This prevents your critter from just taking what they want and ignoring you.

Body blocking is really about your posturing of holding yourself up and sort of making them give it to you. But you can also do this with… presence. This is a feeling you can project, that say “I am in charge” or “You listen to me.” It’s not forceful or full aggro, it is a calm alpha, a stable presence of a calm confidence that one projects. It says to the dog, “No, this is mine” and “you obey.” Some of us just have this with dogs, other people can learn it. But once you have it, dogs (and people) will usually respond and listen.

(We used to live in a high rise and, even pre-Crokell, we always rode the freight elevator for a chance to see dogs. A guy and his chihuahua got in. The dog was standing there wiggling and Anna just looked down at it. The dog sat. The owner looked at the dog. Then looked at Anna. Finally, he said, “I didn’t know he knew how to sit.” -Tod)

The Progression

In this progression, you go from home quiet to outside park free range fetch, but it is slow. We play with toys in our house. As we trade up, we know how many times we are going to go up, because we have ranked our different toys. Then you can look at changing it from toys to possibly a chewy or a carrot (lower and lower value) until the trade is automatic and you can start just doing fetch. But always practice with low-risk items.

Let’s Level It Up with Some Games

Hold, Bring, Drop: If your critter knows “hold it” a good game is to have them hold the toy for 5 seconds to 1 minute and then have them come and give it to you. This levels up both the hold it and the drop it.

Fetch: If they know “get it”, this is a great slow or fast game which can get you to a true fetch. You should have taught “get it” where they pick up a toy you have thrown, now you want them to bring it back, you run away from them calling them and get them to bring you the toy. Then ask them to drop it. They will learn if they drop it, you pick up the toy and the game continues. Turning it into a lot of dogs’ favorite game, FETCH. (Pro tip: even this starts on leash!)

Drop It on the Walk

On walks, however, if they do pick up a leaf, stick, empty cardboard box, or whatever, and you need to get it out, you shorten up that leash, give them the “drop it” command, help them “drop it” by pressing it on the inside of their jaw. Once they’ve done it, you move away from that object, praise them, get them to do some other trick for you to get their mind off it. In that case, it’s not training. It’s just real life. Let’s keep them safe.

Tip of the Week

When you pick something up, make sure that you’re willing to let it go because everything spoils at some point. Sometimes, drop it isn’t just a game - it’s good advice.

Critter’s Weekly Question

What is the most disgusting thing that your dog, cat, or other critter has picked up that you’ve had to get them to drop? Why do you think it was harder than a regular drop for you?

Leave a comment

Happy training, and don’t forget to “drop” a quick question or tip in the comments. That’s all. Thank you.

~Anna and Tod

Minstrels in the Galaxy

Let’s not drop the ball on reading either. Here’s an oldie but a goodie!

Minstrels in the Galaxy contains our delightfully chaotic story “Tablet in the Air.” It is a mix of sci-fi and fantasy, but with a similar feel to our free fiction in our Chaos Tales Section. (One of the less dark stories.)

https://www.amazon.com/Minstrels-Galaxy-Stories-Key-Tull-ebook/dp/B0D79FMH8S/

And of course, we cannot forget to thank the editors and publishers for this anthology, Sam Robb and Shari Robb. They put in a ton of work into making this and other anthologies. We are still grateful to have been selected for their first publication.

Hope everyone’s week is going well. Ours is improving, with much sleep, and hiding, like birds from a ferret. I am a little goofy today, because I managed to catch Tod’s virus. On the good side, I had medication, much sleep, and a very cuddly puppy that is willing to keep me company. On the bad side, breathing is difficult at times. But such is life.

Also, I started trying out my charcoal pencils and charcoal sticks. (For those that didn’t know, Anna is teaching herself to draw. With both hands. -Tod) I have decided I like pencils best, because I am like a cat, and don’t like to get my fur dirty… Well, at least I am like Aki now… but long ago she climbed up a chimney. I don’t think she would do so now, but Beleth would. I am no longer sure why people say cats are finicky… might need to come up with another saying for that.

Question for my artist friends: is there a trick to keeping once’s fingers from turning black when drawing with charcoal sticks or is this just part of the fun?

Anyway, enjoy the fun little recipe below. Cook, Tod, cook.

I am going to go back to napping. See you all next week.

Irish stew (Irish: stobhach)

If you missed the story, it was posted last week. https://blog.casasent.blog/p/nano-sapiens-carter-and-the-saint

This recipe, while appearing simple, creates a tasty stew with a flavor profile more complex and powerful than such simple ingredients would suggest. For the Nano-Sapiens version, our critters substituted fennel bulbs for onions. (Also an alternative if you need to avoid onions for dietary reasons.)

Ingredients

2.5 lb deboned mutton, cut in chunks

4 large potatoes, peeled and thickly sliced

2 large onions, thickly sliced

3–4 medium carrots, peeled and thickly sliced

1 sprig of parsley, chopped

5 cups water

Salt

Pepper

Note: We used red potatoes and added potato starch to thicken the stew. Russet potatoes should naturally thicken the broth.

Steps

Prepare Ingredients: cut the meat into chunks, peel and thickly slice potatoes, cut the onions and carrots into thick slices. Salt and pepper as desired, especially the meat.

Layer Ingredients: Use a big pot with a lid - we used our enameled cast-iron pot. Layer the ingredients starting with and ending with potatoes. We added water to cover the ingredients.

Cook: Cover and put on a very low heat for about 1.5 hours for lamb (2.5 hours for beef) until the meat is tender. Potatoes should thicken the liquid.

Chaos Critter Pictures

Chaos Tip of the Week

When you purchase special ingredients for a recipe, be sure to actually use them in the recipe!

Also, red potatoes - or really any kind of potato that holds its texture/shape better - will not act to thicken a stew!

Chaos Question of the Week

What’s your favorite kind of potato? We like red potatoes for soups and sweet potatoes for baked potatoes.

~Anna and Tod

Leave a comment

More Nano-Sapiens!

In a stew about what to read next?

Do you want to know more about Carter and his pals?

How did a Maine Coon cat become Carter’s mom?

How did Kathy’s parents, Edmund and Raihana, meet?

These questions and more are answered in “Peer Review Parenting” part of Raconteur Press’ anthology Or All Will Burn! Buy it for the chaos and share it with a graduate student in your life!

Available on Amazon! https://www.amazon.com/Will-Burn-Raconteur-Press-Anthologies-ebook/dp/B0CKX6KXVR

Our story is preceded in the book by our friend J. Kenton Pierce. Like us, his story features chosen family!

For other Nano-Sapiens adventures check out our author’s page at https://amazon.com/author/casasent

Happy Saint Patrick’s Day (in two weeks)

This week has been a little odd, since I spent Sunday through Thursday recovering from a random anaphylactic reaction. My wonderful coworkers and Tod made sure that I didn’t eat by myself and took the correct amount of antihistamines before eating, which was very sweet. I am feeling much better and very cared for (true friendship is having a friend that is fasting sit with you when you eat to make sure you don’t die). However, likely due to the stress of that, Tod got sick later this week, but is starting to pluck up now. So, this weekend has been a lot of resting, recovering, and determining how I am going to safely eat. And I get a start a new med which will hopefully reduce the chances of these random anaphylactic reactions. Yay, modern medicine.

Therefore, today we present another cute story because the world needs more cuteness and less stress. Join us for a new installment of a Carter the first Newfie Nano-Sapiens and his adventures discovering human holidays. And after that, we have a few words from our own critters.

Carter and the Saint Patrick's Day Stew

Veronica settled her orange tabby Maine Coon cat body against the cool tiles of the kitchen counter. In most human households, cats, even ones raised to sapiency via nanotech shots, weren’t allowed on the kitchen counter. However, today, this particular Nano-Sapiens cat was supervising two children in preparing a Saint Patrick’s Day meal.

Veronica watched the two aforementioned children enter the room.

Carter came in first, his big, Newfie face pushing the door open, his black, fluffy, long fur standing out against the clean, sparkling kitchen. Kathy, his little dark-skinned human shadow, followed behind him. Carter was Veronica’s adopted child, while Kathy was the offspring of the two graduate students who had helped create Nano-Sapiens.

Seeing her, Carter bounded forward, his English voice coming from his collar with its distinctive blue LED. “Mom, I hear we get to make dinner today!”

Veronica tilted her head, her own collar translating her impeccable feline words. “Which is Irish stew. We shall be making it with mutton.”

Kathy walked up next to Carter, her shoulder just above his, and rested her arm along his back. “Oh, that sounds delicious.”

As the two got closer, Veronica noticed Carter had, as normal, had his stuffed sheep toy with him. For months Veronica and the graduate students had worried, because the only word he would say was “sheep”.

“Dear, why don’t you put your sheep in the corner? There’s a little pile of kibble bags. You can put it on top. It’ll be safe and dry. And it’ll stay clean.”

Carter ambled over and dropped his stuffed toy onto the pile of bags. “Are you sure? I still need it to sleep. You remember what happened when Benjamin and I forgot it.”

Veronica and Kathy exchanged a glance. They remembered what Carter and Kathy’s brother had gotten into. Veronica replied, “Yes, Carter. It’ll be fine.”

Kathy scratched Carter behind his ears as he rejoined them. “It’ll be fine, fuzzy cousin. We have to keep everything clean while we cook for Saint Patrick’s Day.”

This time, the Newfie cocked his head. “Another saint? How many do you have?”

Kathy and Veronica exchanged another look and laughed. Then, in unison, they replied.

“A lot.”

Veronica continued the explanation, though.

“Saint Patrick lived in the fifth century. He was a saint who was a missionary in Ireland. He’s supposed to have died on the seventeenth, so that’s why we have Saint Patrick’s Day on the seventeenth.”

She could see Carter mull this over. And as he was thinking, she decided it would be good to start preparations. Veronica had Kathy and Carter bring her the ingredients still in the refrigerator. In this case, the mutton.

Dropping the thankfully sealed, drool-covered package into Kathy’s waiting hands, Carter pushed over a chair that Kathy climbed up on. It looked like these two had done this sort of thing before. She wondered what sort of mischief they got into that she never heard about. Well, mischief is to be expected of someone from a family of cats.

She sat and oversaw Kathy while she cut up the mutton for stew meat. Veronica would never admit it, even to herself, but having a human around with opposable thumbs made certain things much easier.

She made sure to keep Kathy from sticking her pointer finger along the top of the knife. For some reason, humans really like to do that, and it really wasn’t safe since it made the knife harder to control.

The stew meat cut up, she and Kathy pushed the tray to one side. Carter looked at his front paws up onto the counter and used his big nose to move an empty pan over towards the two girls. The pan was followed by a big bowl of four potatoes and two large fennel bulbs.

While Kathy chopped them, Veronica explained, “We cut the potatoes into thick slices. And the two fennel bulbs, we cut up into smaller pieces. We use brown Russet potatoes. Otherwise, the stew will need potato starch to thicken. Onions aren’t really good for Nano-Sapiens, so we’re using the fennel bulbs, not the fronds, instead of onions.”

Kathy poked at one of the fennel bulbs. “It does seem sort of oniony.”

She cut off a teeny piece and tasted it, passing another tiny sliver to Carter. “Oh, it doesn’t have that strong licorice taste like the fronds have.”

Veronica gave a human nod. “Very good. Always know your ingredients.”

While they talked, Carter collapsed onto the floor in a manner only a Newfie could do. He gave a big, sad Newfie sigh. “Momma, I wanna help more.”

Veronica gave a wink to Kathy and pulled a towel over the nearby tray of carrots.

“Carter, dear, we forgot to get carrots. Could you get some from the garden?”

Carter bounced excitedly to his paws. “Helping! Garden! Digging! Yes, Mom!”

He started to run from the room and skidded to a stop almost before he even started.

“What am I supposed to get again?”

Kathy giggled. “Carter, you’re getting us carrots from the garden, please.”

The Newfie shook his face, drool flying excitedly around the kitchen. “Oh, yeah. Thanks.”

Watching him go, Veronica repressed a shudder and whispered, “Drool is love.”

Carter ran out of the room again. This time, actually making it out of the room.

Veronica watched as Kathy finished the potatoes and fennel bulbs.

Then Kathy pulled over the parsley, wrinkling her nose as she washed it and started cutting it up. “This we put on the side. Right? Because it’s a garnish, and some people don’t like it. Mama says it tastes like soap.”

Veronica laughed and said, “Yes. It’s not true for everybody, or we wouldn’t use it at all. But we put it on the side.”

She made an exception and let Kathy climb up on the counter in order to get the salt and pepper out of the cabinet. They put salt and pepper on all the ingredients except the parsley. And the yet-to-be-delivered carrots.

Speaking of which, Veronica raised her voice, her collar dutifully translating it from a yowl into English. “Carter, dear, do you have the carrots yet?”

A big thunk from the kitchen door answered her.

Her son, covered in dirt and bits and pieces of various kinds of garden vegetables, most of which weren’t carrots, backed into the kitchen. The door bounced off him and finally revealed a huge mass of carrots, way more than one would need unless they were serving an entire regiment of Space Marines.

Veronica decided she would be a little more in touch with her Nano-Sapiens cat side and decided it was below her to worry about all the dirt on the floor. The floor, after all, was actually below her.

Kathy, on the other hand, giggled and leaped off the cabinet, something Veronica, again, decided to ignore.

Through her giggles, Kathy thanked the Newfie. “Thanks, Carter.”

The two of them managed to get some of the carrots into the sink. Veronica started running water over them to clean them off.

Carter and Kathy cleaned the floor and Carter. Carter wasn’t really good at it, but Nano-Sapiens households had discovered they could pull the cleaning heads off of a dust mop and a mop made out of strings and yarn. And those worked pretty well for the Newfie.

The cleaning didn’t quite get up to cat standards, but who, other than cats, did?

Everything clean once again, Kathy climbed back up onto her chair and removed the tops from the cleaned carrots. She placed them aside since she thought her mom wanted to try something with them.

The rest of the carrots she cleaned. Carrots she cut up. The remaining huge mass of carrots that Carter had brought in were still on the floor, this time sitting on top of a plastic bag to keep from getting the floor dirty again.

“Now,” said Veronica, “we need to layer the potatoes, the meat, and the veggies. We start and end with potatoes.”

Carter, who had had his front paws up on the cabinet to watch, gave Kathy’s cheek a wet, soft Newfie sniff, making her laugh. He asked, “Why?”

Veronica stopped for a second, thinking. “I don’t know.”

She looked at Kathy. “Kathy, you sometimes cook with your mom and dad. Do you know why?”

Kathy shook her small, dark head, her hair flying out around her with the vigor of the movement. “No.”

They all looked at each other, gave their respective species-specific shrugs, and went back to layering potatoes, meat, and veggies. They layered it up in the pot, and then filled the pot with water.

Then Veronica and Kathy made Carter get down off the cabinet while they turned on the stove to start the water boiling.

While waiting for the water to boil, Carter and Kathy, being kids, started to get bored. Before they could get into mischief with the carrots or something worse, Veronica distracted them.

“Do you two know why we wear green on Saint Patrick’s Day?”

Kathy gave another head shake, causing her hair to fly around yet again. Carter had a Newfie of distress on his face.

“Green? We have to wear green?”

Veronica suppressed a cat laugh and said, “Yes, dear. Saint Patrick used the three leaves of the green shamrock to teach the Holy Trinity while he was a missionary. So people wear green on Saint Patrick’s Day. Although the tradition started in America and migrated to Ireland.”

Carter mulled this over while Kathy and Veronica lowered the heat on the now boiling pot to a simmer. They placed the lid on the pot, and they both climbed down to where Carter was still considering the idea of green for Saint Patrick’s Day.

Turns out he understood the idea, but his face showed his distress.

“I don’t have anything green. What am I gonna do?”

Veronica let her cat laugh out, and Kathy giggled again.

Veronica told Kathy, “Why don’t you take Carter and find some green fabric? When you get it back, I’ll help—well, I’ll help you figure out how he can wear it. I’ll stay and watch the stew.”

After the two kids left the room, Veronica thought she’d have to warn Edmund and Raihana that their little girl and my little boy may have really messed up the house in their search for green fabric.

With that thought, she jumped up, being careful to keep at a safe distance from the stove, and lay down. She went to sleep with her eyes open, watching the cooking stew.

She woke up as the door burst open, with two kids running in at full speed. The clatter of Newfie paw claws and the pounding of human feet let her know who it was. The two kids were dragging a length of green fabric behind them. Veronica didn’t know where they found it and kept herself from asking, just in case she didn’t want to know.

She looked at the clock. Still fifteen minutes of the one and a half hours for cooking mutton. The pot was still not boiling over, so she jumped down and joined Kathy and Carter, considering the fabric and the dog.

Finally, she and Kathy put one end of the fabric in Carter’s mouth. From his mouth, they ran it along his left side, behind his head, then back under, between his front legs, around his back torso, and then along his right side to rejoin the fabric in his mouth.

Then Veronica had Kathy tie it.

She purred. “There you go. Now you’ve got something green to wear for Saint Patrick’s Day.”

Carter bounced around the kitchen, trying out his new clothing.

Veronica had Kathy pull the top off the stew and check the meat and potatoes.

“Aunt Veronica, I think it’s done.”

“Okay, dear. Pull out a little bit of potato, meat, and the veggies into a bowl for us.”

Carter quit bouncing around and jumped his front legs onto the cabinet so he could watch. “Do we get to try some?”

She shook her orange mane, fluffing it out in the heat from the stove. “Of course, silly. The cooks always try the dish to make sure it came out properly.”

As the little girl pulled the meat out, Kathy asked Veronica, “What is mutton?”

Veronica replied, almost without thinking, “It’s sheep, an older lamb.”

Carter’s ears perked up in that floppy eared Newfie way. His blocky head swiveled over to look at the corner of the room to check on his toy.

His stuffed sheep was still lying on top of the pile of kibble bags.

“If we run low, please don’t cook my toy. I can’t sleep without it.”

Chaos Critter Pictures

During the week, all of the Chaos Critters were having a group nap in the living room. So, Tod took pictures of course.

Chaos Tip of the Week

Remember, pause for paws and keep your teeth to yourself. After all, critters are better cuddled than creating mischief, although they are good at both. And naps are even better!

Chaos Question of the Week

What is the one food that you hate that your loved ones can’t stand? How do you compromise on having it in the house, or do you?

~Anna and Tod

Leave a comment

More Nano-Sapiens!

Don’t be caught napping, do you want to know more about Carter and his pals?

How did a Maine Coon cat become Carter’s mom?

How did Kathy’s parents, Edmund and Raihana, meet?

These questions and more are answered in “Peer Review Parenting” part of Raconteur Press’ anthology Or All Will Burn! Buy it for the chaos and share it with a graduate student in your life!

Available on Amazon! https://www.amazon.com/Will-Burn-Raconteur-Press-Anthologies-ebook/dp/B0CKX6KXVR

Our story is preceded in the book by our friend J. Kenton Pierce. Like us, his story features chosen family!

For other Nano-Sapiens adventures check out our author’s page at https://amazon.com/author/casasent

Cozy Fantasy

Tod here this week. At Superstars I went to a class on Cozy Fantasy - which I discovered is a really hot genre right now. During the class, I discovered that a lot of the elements of my writing style are “cozy” elements. However, I don’t usually pull in or follow all the requisite tropes for the different cozy genres.

But I thought it would be fun to try.

So I borrowed (sort of) the setting from one of our other fantasy stories, and am working on troping it up for Cozy Fantasy.

But first, our critters!

Critters and the Yellow Croc

And now our feature presentation…

Hector and the Forging of the Sword of Incredible Power and Beauty, Chapter 01

Hector and the Forging of the Sword of Incredible Power and Beauty

Black fur flying wildly, Hector ran down to the dock, the sun warm on his back. His four legs quickly slipped into that syncopated pattern that all Newfies referred to as a galumph. With a spring from his mighty hindquarters, he launched himself into the air. The long, slow, low arc ended with him belly flopping into the water. He enjoyed the feel of the cool water seeping through his still warm fur.

A few minutes lapsed as he floated in the cool water when a smaller splash alerted him to a friend. As the water receded from this splash, it resolved into an orange tabby Maine Coon cat.

Ralph, his neighbor, swam up to Hector. “Ready?”

Hector yawned the deep yawn of a content Newfie. He appreciated that Ralph didn’t talk a whole lot. Sometimes you want quiet. Ralph was a good, quiet companion.

Hector grunted. “Yep. Except today, we need to swim across the river. I forgot to get tea for the meeting today.”

Ralph responded by heading across the river.

Hector followed behind. “Thanks pal!”

Beside him in silence, the cat swam. Each enjoying the cool water, the warm sunlight, and the feel of freedom that comes from being strong in limb and mind.

Hector was much larger, but he was moving more mass. His strokes were long and sturdy, his webbed toes pulling him forward in powerful lurches.

Beside him, cutting through the water was Ralph, a small blob of red orange. One could have thought the cat would drift behind, but his movements were faster, more graceful, as his own webbed paws kept him close. His stamina not flagging.

As usual, their swim became a race. This time across the river instead of out from the dock and back in.

Hector shook water out of his eyes and put a little extra oomph into his swimming. He climbed out just ahead of Ralph. This is what normally happened on the first race. The Newfie’s greater strength let him pull ahead, but there would be a second race. Ralph hung in there until the very end. Sometimes, he managed to beat Hector in the first race, which is what made everything fun.

Of course, sometimes Hector won the second race. Like he planned to today.

Without pausing to shake, the big Newfie ran into the tea shop on the shore. He left the shop at a run, a small, water-tight package tied around his neck.

With a burst of white foam, he leapt into the river.

Ralph shook himself into action - a smaller splash joining Hector in the water.

They reversed course, back towards the dock.

After his brief lead from his running jump, Hector started to fall behind.

He reminded himself, I have the stamina to keep swimming. I just can’t go as fast as Ralph. But today, we’re doing something different.

The big Newfie stayed a tail’s length behind the Maine Coon cat, a black shadow behind the orange tabby.

At least until they were almost to the dock. Then, Hector took a deep, panting breath and worked his legs harder. He even tried wagging his tail as fast as possible, thinking that every bit should help.

And it did.

Just barely.

He floundered ashore a nose length before Ralph and collapsed onto the sand.

The Maine Coon padded up and looked down at Hector’s panting face. “Good swim. Meeting soon?”

With a sigh, Hector lumbered to his feet. He shook his fur out.

It started at his nose.

His jowls flew out, spraying drool along with the water from the swim. Next, his ears started to shake. And then the big, fluffy ruff of his neck, fur flying out, standing on end, water sprinkling through the air, forming a rainbow in the early morning light. The shake continued to work down his body, his whole torso waving back and forth, back and forth. It worked down his torso. By the time the shake reached his tail, his face had stopped moving. And then his tail went into action, swinging like a huge brontosaurus tail.

The big, furry appendage flung droplets and the scent of wet dog everywhere.

Ralph watched him and waited for the rain of dog water to stop. Hector knew why Ralph was waiting. He’d seen what happened when the cat shook before Hector a few times. They’d both discovered Ralph had to shake dry a second time after Hector.

In a long sentence for the cat, Ralph had explained to him. “Using extra energy that should be for naps is bad.”

Ralph’s performance mirrored Hector’s, starting with his face, without the jowl action, of course, shaking down through his torso.

“That was fun,” Hector panted at Ralph.

“Swimming fun. But drying important.” Ralph licked his paw and wiped one eyebrow. A cat smirk drifted across his face, and he nodded to the barrel just a few feet from them.

Hector choked back a laugh. For all his companion liked to swim, Ralph was never happy until he was dry again. Good naturedly, the large Newfie lumbered over toward the open barrel drier and climbed in with his friend.

The inside was just big enough to fit two Newfies and therefore was quite comfortable for Hector and Ralph. It wasn’t a clothes dryer like you would find in the mundane world. It was a big barrel that Ralph had worked on with his wind elemental.

They got in, and Hector moved his nose along the activation glyph. He waited for the roaring sound of the wind to start. Slowly, with increasing speed, the wind built up, blowing up from below them. Hector thought about what Ralph had said. He and Ralph loved swimming, but swimming when you’re a long-haired dog or cat means then you have to get dry again. Otherwise, you get sores, hot spots, which are not comfortable. He really appreciated the fact that Ralph had been interested enough to build this dryer for them.

He felt the wind start down at his paws. It caught the webbing between his toes, lifting it just a little and tickling him. He assumed Ralph felt something similar, but wasn’t sure, since Ralph didn’t talk a lot. The wind crept up his legs with increasing speed. Soon his ears, jowls, and tail were all floating in the air.

In the early stages of building the drying barrel, Ralph had turned the speed up too high and actually blown himself into the roof. Hector had sat up on his back paws and carefully grabbed his friend and pulled him down. Fortunately, Newfies are known for soft, if not dry, mouths.

Soon, both of their fur all stood straight up. Then they turned to orient themselves towards the activation glyph. The wind changed direction and blew them down onto the ground. Then, slowly, it tilted until it was blowing straight into their faces. They both clenched their eyes shut because while it didn’t hurt, it would injure their eyes over the long term. Plus, they just didn’t have the blink reflexes that humans had.

Hector peaked one eye open so he could look at Ralph. The big, although little, next to Hector, Maine Coon’s face and flips were distended by the blowing air. Hector was sure he looked even more hilarious, but he couldn’t help it. He liked to see his neighbor with his lips being blown open. It made Ralph seem more like a Newfie than a cat, somehow.

The air continued running down their bodies. It had taken Ralph a few tries and experimentation to get this part right. He and Hector had discovered that having your fur blown straight up while it dried underneath also tangled the fur. Then they needed something to blow their fur down where it needed to go and smooth out any tangles. There was probably also some magic that helped. Hector wasn’t positive about that, though. Maybe someday he’d ask his Maine Coon neighbor.

Hector didn’t know a whole lot about air elementals because he didn’t have one. He had a fire elemental.

Giving one final shake, Hector pressed his nose to Ralph.

“I have to be getting home.”

Ralph nodded, his tail twitching, and asked, “Important meeting?”

“Yep. Basant is coming by.”

Hector watched his friend’s tail freeze for moment. Then, just the tip twitched.

“Tania?” was the one-word question he received in return.

“Of course. Basant can’t function without Tania.” Pushing down the need to giggle, Hector raised his tail a bit as he thought. “But I guess Tania doesn’t function without Basant either.”

Ralph nodded. But didn’t speak again. Instead, the two exchanged nose sniffs and went their own separate ways.

Hector ambled up the walk to his house. It was larger and taller than strictly needed for a den in which to sleep and entertain friends. Inside, he sat down on his haunches, legs splayed in what some of his friends always called the puppy sit.

He looked up, and up, at the reason for the house being so large.

It was a very tall blast furnace. Fortunately, with a fire elemental, he could turn the furnace off at night. Mundane blast furnaces had to be kept lit all the time. Otherwise, they would solidify and become unusable.

He paused and summoned his fire elemental. In the midst of his efforts, there was a knock on the door.

Knock. Knock.

Dissipating his fire elemental, Hector padded over to the door and nosed it open.

Basant Batahtis, the human mayor of Rivertown, stood outside. She was a witch and stuck with traditional black color for her attire. She omitted the that though, to show off her hair.

Basant looked down at him. This week, her hair was electric blue and standing straight up as if she’d only been through the first half of Ralph’s dryer. It was a pretty blue, but it was very straight and very tall. It set off her dark features well.

“Good morning, Hector. It is 08:00 and time for us to meet.” Her voice was smooth, and neither high nor low, but that mid tone that was comfortable and comforting.

Basant’s assistant and familiar, Tania, sat at her feet regally, with her tail curled around her toes. Tania was a cat with the long, dark gray fur and deep emerald eyes. As she had once explained to Hector, “I am not a Long-Haired Russian Blue, despite my beautiful silver-gray fur. If you notice, my fur is much longer than the so-called Russian Blue. And so much softer. I am Nebelung and thus much superior.”

Fortunately, Hector didn’t know enough about cats to have called Tania by an incorrect appellation. He’d seen people who had accidentally called the Nebelung a Russian Blue. Tania teased them for ages afterward about how they couldn’t tell the difference between her beauty and that of a common cat.

Aside from teasing people who could not tell cat breeds apart and assisting with her human witch magic, Tania helped Basant keep her schedule. Basant was prompt but needed a keeper, especially with her extensive number of appointments. At least, that was what Tania told him.

Hector shook his face, ears flopping. Fortunately, since he had just been dried, he hadn’t collected enough drool to splatter his guests.

“Oh, yeah. Come on in. Would y’all like something to drink for breakfast?”

“I would like some tea, please.” Basant smiled and headed over to their normal table on one side of Hector’s house.

She took a delicate sniff. “I can smell that you’re going to have coffee. I suppose that will be okay. Are you just now getting up? Silly. You’re wasting the day away. You get up early and work, and then night is for flying and spell work.”

Tania followed Basant in, jumping up onto the tall stool on the other side of the table. She gave a large yawn, small white, pointy teeth shining as her mouth worked.

“Getting up early is silly. You always get that wrong. Daytime is for sleep. Nighttime is for prowling and more sleep.” She head-butted Hector a good morning. “And, as usual, I will like anything you give me as long as you put milk in it.”

Bounding over to the kitchen area, Hector busied himself with the pouch for which he and Ralph had braved the river. He used his fire elemental to heat water for both the tea and the coffee.

He sniffed hugely. Basant was welcome to her opinions. To his nose, both coffee and tea smelled wonderful. The hojicha was a Japanese tea from the mundane world. He woofled at the seeping tea deeply. The earthy smell almost made him choose it instead of coffee. But he decided to hold off. Coffee for breakfast. Hojicha with lunch.

Hector’s elemental followed him with hojicha for Basant and a coffee. He poured some of his own coffee into some milk and put that in front of Tania. His fire elemental moved around, manipulating everything that his paws couldn’t. Himself, he had coffee as black as his fur without even the drop of milky white that sat in the middle of his own chest. He sat on a low chair next to the table with Basant in the human chair and Tania on a stool. This way, their heads were all mostly at the same level.

Basant smoothed her black traditional witch’s robes. In passing, Hector wondered, are there traditional mayor’s robes? Maybe we could get some for Basant to give her a change.

Her words, though, pulled him back to the present.

“Hector, the annual Knight Tournament is coming up.”

His ears perked up and his tail worked back and forth. Tania used her own elemental, an ice elemental, to pull a piece of paper out from one of Basant’s pockets. It slid across the table in front of Hector. Tania didn’t speak and let Basant keep talking.

“This is a schedule of the upcoming events.”

Hector looked down at the piece of paper and painstakingly read it. “Der Ring des Nibelungen.”

His tail stopped and his ears dropped in confusion.

“I’m sorry.” Tania gave a squeak unlike her. “That’s a schedule for the upcoming Ring Cycle. They’re doing Wagner again.”

The paper whisked out of the way, and a new one came down. Again, Hector concentrated and read, “Sword entries.”

His tail started wagging again. His ears perked up. Without him realizing, his tongue slipped out of his mouth, and drool started dripping down it onto the piece of paper. Tania didn’t object, as she delicately lapped at her milk-colored coffee. Hector figured that meant she had no intention of asking for the paper to be returned.

“As you will see from the schedule,” Basant continued, “I’ve already spoken to Lillian. The two of you will create swords, and we will test them. The winner will be used by our champion to represent our town.”

“Oh, boy,” said Hector. “Another competition with Lillian? That’s even better than racing Ralph in the water.”

His eyes cast up towards the clock on the wall. “And I think I will let you keep your schedule because I have to go down and keep mine. It’s time for my second swim with Ralph.”

His mind swirled away, already at work designing a sword for the competition. Each year, the design had to be new. He wasn’t going to copy last year’s winner. No, he would come up with something unique, noble, and beautiful. Something only a Newfie would think of. Swords were tested not just on their physical abilities but on beauty and style.

Basant and Tania waved in their own way at his back as he clambered off. He knew they recognized what his brain was doing. He was already planning. They were used to this, and they adored that about him. They would finish their drinks in peaceful silence, watching Ralph and Hector swim. By the time the swim was done, they’d be gone, which was what they knew was for the best.

Because once he got back, Hector would be working. Ignoring everything else. Even his friends.

Chaos Tip of the Week

Crocs are not hats, even if Crokell is the most patient Newfie ever.

Chaos Question of the Week

What activity did you, your kids, or your critters unexpectedly enjoy?

Leave a comment

The Anthology Canifel Started

The Magic of Yuletide contains “Ice Blue and the Christmas Rescue”

The story of Ice Blue is where the world of Canifel started - which is where I’ve placed Hector’s story. Some of the magic and lore in this first short isn’t the same as in Hector’s story. (At least, not in a way I’ve managed to make it fit yet. -Tod) But it has the same feeling as the cozy Canifel.

Chromosphere Press is proud to announce the release of its first anthology, The Magic of Yuletide, a family-friendly collection of holiday-themed short stories, available just in time for celebrating the holidays.

Ebook! https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0G4XM2KY7

Print! https://www.amazon.com/Magic-Yuletide-Lydia-Sherrer/dp/1950633411

Authors with stories in this delightful collection include Lydia Sherrer, Stephanie Osborn, Aaron Canton, Tiffanie Gray, and more. Foreword by David Weber!

This contains “Ice Blue and the Christmas Rescue”, the first story in our new magic Canine-Feline universe Canifel! Our story includes giant breed dogs and a Maine Coon cat who learns something about Christmas from an unlikely source - a human boy.

Well, it is has been a while since I have posted a Sunday Salutation (life update), as we are trying to post more fiction, dog lessons, and recipes this year. Tod is editing something for me, so I decided to be nice and not make him handle the blog too. ;-)

Tod and I went to a business of writing conference in Colorado Springs (Superstars Writing Seminar Series) again this year. We got lots of great tips and made some connections. It was so packed that in some ways it is hard to keep everything straight. But I wanted to provide some highlights.

It is about a week late… but not a dollar short, I hope. I blame it on being super tired from all the networking and learning. My brain was full and needed time to digest.

Our critters thrived without us. Dante had fun misbehaving at Tod’s brother’s house.

But Dante was also delighted to be reunited with his other big brother.

Aki didn’t understand why we didn’t wait on her more completely.

But this weekend, the dogs were back in class.

And we leave you with the cover of The Road Dogs’ first single “Bad Trainer”.

Anna’s Top Three

I am not even sure where to start. The week flew by. Except for missing my puppies and kitties, it was wonderful. Looking up at the mountains, breathing in the cool air, and talking about fiction, writing and art just makes anything feel doable.

Almost every lecture had me reconsidering my favorites. But Tod forced me to pick a top three: Ray Porter, Chris Mandeville, and Jim Butcher.

Ray Porter, I could listen to him read a phone book. He gave two wonderful talks on narration and read the first page of two of our works (as well as anyone else who brought them). It is amazing to see him cold read a page and just feel like you fell into a story. He is also one of Tod’s favorites, and not just because of his voice, but because he says what he thinks and does it with style.

Chris Mandeville, she is a really wonderful teacher. I went to two of her seminars this time. The one on setting up your author bios really stuck with me. She even looked over our bios and said it was fun and on point for a website (squee). Although she did give me suggestions for what to do when we have it on a book jacket. She also has an amazing service dog, Ollie, who is wonderful and helps her keep her balance.

Then there was Jim Butcher’s Beautiful Flaws seminar. I think it was my favorite for craft advice. It made me look at how I write, trying to make sure each character is multifaceted but not in the crisp, clean, and shiny way. The beautiful mess that is humanity needs more than that. We are not perfect, and that is what makes us interesting. We have flaws, and we try to correct them or embrace them, and that is what makes us cool.

There were tons of other wonderful teachers: agents, editors, and writers. I don’t think I could even name them all. Overall, Superstars was a delightful experience.

Tod’s Top Three

As for Tod, except for Ray Porter’s talks, we more or less divided and conquered (although not possible with 2 people and 8 different tracks) the seminars. Still, his two other favorite people (since we both chose Ray) were Michael La Ronn and Seth Norris CPA. I guess he was going for death and taxes. Naw, I jest.

Michael La Ronn has an amazing talk and introduction to helping teach authors (especially those short on time, or that can’t type for long periods of time) how to dictate and transcribe. He even has specific suggestions if you want to dictate while driving. (I am slightly disturbed by this but, hey, I don’t drive.) Michael recommends the Plantronics Voyager as being best at ignoring road noise - maybe our trucker-writer friends out there can tell us if it helps. Overall, he is fun, interesting, and useful - a hat trick! As for his actually writing, well, Tod put the first three books on his phone, and then before his normal time, upped it to rest of the series. I guess that tells you Tod is a fan.

Tod’s other favorite is Seth Norris for info on taxes. Yes, Tod went to a writing seminar and learned about taxes. I can’t make this up. Actually, it was very useful, because writing income is different from other income streams (at least for us W2 workers), and learning the differences is helpful. (I am glad Tod is taking a crack at it.) Tod said, in one of Seth’s presentations, they discovered CPAs have feelings. Who knew? Seth also pointed out some ways commercial software can do self-employed writer taxes incorrectly, even when questions are answered correctly, because of the oddity of self-employment and writing income. Tod was thrilled to learn about the difference between Schedule A (personal deductions) versus Schedule C (self-employed business deductions). I am going to have to leave it at because I usually just try to hide from doing taxes.

I think that about wraps it up. We are back home now. Crokell and Dante are curled to my right, and Aki and Beleth are wandering around giving me suspicious looks.

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Chaos Tip of the Week

Waking up to your puppy trying to do CPR on you is the next best thing to sleep.

Chaos Question of the Week

What is the oddest seminar or class you found and liked, that you never thought you would like?

I mean, Tod selected learning about taxes. Me… I think listening to agents talk about how trad pub works interested me a heck of a lot more than I thought it would.

Leave a comment

We have been on Substack for almost 2 years now, and I am not sure if I just missed the recipe format feature. At first I thought it just came out, but a quick Perplexity search said it came out in 2022… So, it was here when we started.

Head Desk.

Well, as I completely missed this in our other 25 or so recipes. I am going to give it a whirl here. But I would love to hear what everyone thinks of the format, and if we should continuing doing the recipes on the fly or if they prefer this nifty built in version.

That being said, I’d love to get everyone’s input should we go back and update our older recipes to match this new format, or just let it be? Or do you actually prefer the original layout? Taking Votes in the poll.

PS - Tod’s voting against it. The recipe format almost instantly becames post “too long for email”.

For this month’s recipe, we have a “critter-approved fudge recipe”. Tod found and made this - it was featured in last week’s Nano-Sapiens story. Oddly, we can’t actually test this with our pups as both are now on food sensitivity diets! But that is a whole another bag of kibble.

But first, critter pictures!

Chaos Critter Pictures

Chaos Tip of the Week

Chocolate might be the best flavor in the world, but saving it all for yourself like a dragon’s horde is still a noble goal.

Critter’s Weekly Question

When you want to bribe your significant other, what is the one treat that you can use to get them on your side?

Leave a comment

~Anna and Tod

PS - Check out last week’s story, which featured this week’s recipe!

More Nano-Sapiens!

Do you want to know more about Carter and his pals?

How did a Maine Coon cat become Carter’s mom?

How did Edmund and Raihana meet?

These questions and more are answered in “Peer Review Parenting” part of Raconteur Press’ anthology Or All Will Burn! Buy it for the chaos and share it with a graduate student in your life!

Available on Amazon! https://www.amazon.com/Will-Burn-Raconteur-Press-Anthologies-ebook/dp/B0CKX6KXVR

Our story is preceded in the book by our friend . Like us, his story features “chosen family”!

For other Nano-Sapiens adventures check out our author’s page at https://amazon.com/author/casasent

Happy Valentine’s Day

It is February which means Valentine’s Day! Yes, each month appears to have a holiday and Tod is being wonderfully organized and writing holiday Nano-Sapiens shorts for many of them. Growing up, Valentine’s Day was not one of my favorites, and now… well lets just the say any week when we get extra chocolate is marvelous, just marvelous. I have always like the thought of trying to reach out to those you care about or being sweet to your spouse. Use Valentine’s as a reminder that it should be an everyday thing.

Somehow having a date shared by there rest of the US makes the non conformist in me balk - we do something special, but never on Valentine’s Day, since everything is too crowded and hectic on the day. But to those enjoy celebrating it on time, Happy 13th days until V-Day!

Make a nice dinner for your loved ones, have a sit down with the one that makes your heart sing, and most importantly cuddle the ones you love most, because Valentine’s Day should remind us of all the people we should reach out to that matter to our lives.

Carter and the Valentine’s Distraction

Carter, the big Landseer Newfie puppy, tilted his head at the short, dark human female. A blue LED glowed on his collar as it translated his words into English. “You want me to distract Edmund?”

Raihana adjusted her scarf, which appeared dark brown. But she’d told him it was red.

“For Valentine’s Day. I want to make a treat for him.”

Carter’s tailed brushed back and forth at the T-word, endangering the contents of the table behind him. He perked up. “Treats for Edmund? Can I help?”

This time, Raihana tilted her head. “Can you distract him and help?”

***

The black and white puppy tilted his head while looking up at the tall, pale giant with a shock of blond hair. “You want me to distract Raihana?”

A rich East Texas accent answered. “Yup. I want to make her a card without her knowin’. You reckon you can do that?”

Carter’s ears went up and down. Humans are weird.

“Yes. But I want to help make the card, too.”

Standing in the doorway, “watching for Raihana”, Carter’s big, brown Newfie eyes followed as Edmund got colored paper. He was pretty sure the bright brown shades were red.

The lace caught his attention. “Mom would love that.”

Edmund laughed. “Veronica’s a Maine Coon cat, so I reckon she does. The kittens can’t leave lace alone.”

Noises came from the kitchen. The pure Newfie part of Carter wanted to check on the treats. But his Nano-Sapiens side, generated by nanotech shots, let him do his job as a distraction.

“Edmund, what’s Valentine’s Day? I don’t remember that from the lab.”

The former graduate student checked his phone. “Well, Critter Explainer says Valentine’s Day started as a fertility festival. In the fifth century, Catholics replaced that with a martyr’s feast.”

With a deep Newfie sigh, Carter lay down. His eyes followed Edmund’s hands, occasionally darting towards the kitchen.

“Raihana isn’t Catholic. And I don’t think she wants to take part in a fertility rite. She gets upset when a Nano-Sapiens forgets himself and sniffs her inappropriately.”

***

A little later, Carter was in the kitchen, distracting Raihana, while Edmund composed something.

Carter quietly watched as she whisked together already measured ingredients: carob powder, chopped cashews, a bunch of sesame seeds, and some shredded coconut. The big bowl loomed large next to the small scientist.

The puppy shook, careful not to get drool on the countertops. “Why do this on Valentine’s Day?”

Raihana also checked her phone before responding. “Well, little guy, according to Critter Explainer, it started in the Middle Ages, when poets associated February with bird mating season.”

“Birds?” Carter felt a slight pull to be outside, chasing something flying away from him.

Raihana laughed and scritched his head. “I’m not sure why either. The truth is, Valentine’s Day was created to sell cards. That doesn’t make the day less special.”

Stretching, Carter put his paws on the counter, carefully away from the stove. His mom was very strict about fuzzy Newfies being too near flame.

His enormous brown eyes followed honey and peanut butter into a saucepan. Raihana stirred the mess constantly.

A couple of neurons finally fired in Carter’s head. “How is today special?”

Raihana’s face got her thoughtful look as she slowly mixed the dry ingredients into the wet. “It’s a day to tell those you’ve chosen that you love them.”

At a noise, both darted glances at the door.

Carter didn’t use his nose as much as other breeds, but he took a big woofle. “It’s Edmund. I’ve got it.”

As he dashed out, the words “20 minutes” drifted after him.

***

He wagged his tail, looking at the blond-haloed face far above him. “Edmund? Can you help me in the other room? If Raihana knows, she’ll tell Mom.”

Two large, warm hands burrowed around him. The ground dropped away from his feet.

Edmund carried Carter back to the room with the construction paper and lace. “What can I do for you?”

“Can I borrow paper, some lace, and scissors?” Carter shook his fur out as he was released.

He looked up at Edmund. “Oh. And I need your thumbs too. Don’t tell Mom I said that. She says thumbs are overrated.”

Soon, he had the young man totally wrapped up in a new project. Now they’re both distracted.

***

Back home, he presented a plastic bag to Veronica, his orange tabby Maine Coon cat mother. “Mom! I missed you.”

He gave her a quick Newfie slobber lick that she barely shuddered at.

“How was your day with Edmund and Raihana?”

Carter felt his whole body wiggle with happiness. “I learned about Valentine’s Day. And I was a distraction--”

At the look his mom gave him, he quickly added, “That was a good thing. I promise. But I need to tell you about Valentine’s Day.”

He wracked his brain. He really needed his own phone to consult Critter Explainer. “A fertile saint... who liked to feast... said you should tell those you’ve chosen that you love them.”

Veronica cocked her head.

His ears drooped.

He helped her pull open the plastic bag. The smell of glue and fudge hit them.

“Carter, chocolate isn’t safe for Nano-Sapiens.”

He nosed a piece towards her. “Raihana made it with carob. She says it isn’t as good as chocolate, but it’s safe for us.”

He joined her in sampling some. “Too bad we can’t really compare. And Edmund helped me make this.”

Careful for once not to drip drool, he extracted a lace bestrewn heart-shaped card from the bag. In the middle of the card was a paw print. One of his paws. All around the edges were little red mice. Edmund hadn’t been sure about them but let Carter make his own card.

He wiggled with happiness again. “Mom, I know you chose to love me, even before you gave me the shots that made me a person. And you know what? I chose to love you back.”

Chaos Critter Pictures

Chaos Tip of the Week

Subtle can be sweet, direct can be elegant, and love that isn’t expressed is held hostage and will wither and die. Be elegant or subtle, but remember your family - found or biological - need to know you care.

Chaos Question of the Week

What is your best sweet relationship memory? Something your spouse or significant other and you did for each other that just thinking of it makes your heart warm.

Leave a comment

~ Tod and Anna

PS - come back next week if you are interested in what Raihana was making, as that is be next week’s Chaos Kitchen Creations. WHOO! ;-) I think Tod’s V-Day present to me is writing so many of the blogs this month. Which is great, since it means I can focus on getting a nice Chaos Tales written and a few videos for Leash Lessons. Yay Tod.

PPS - This was news to me, but sure. It’s a present for Anna!

More Nano-Sapiens!

Do you want to know more about Carter and his pals?

How did a Maine Coon cat become Carter’s mom?

How did Edmund and Raihana meet?

These questions and more are answered in “Peer Review Parenting” part of Raconteur Press’ anthology Or All Will Burn! Buy it for the chaos and share it with a graduate student in your life!

Available on Amazon! https://www.amazon.com/Will-Burn-Raconteur-Press-Anthologies-ebook/dp/B0CKX6KXVR

Our story is preceded in the book by our friend . Like us, his story features chosen family!

For other Nano-Sapiens adventures check out our author’s page at https://amazon.com/author/casasent

It is odd that every person experiences a life that is different and yet the same. As time passes, we get further and further from our ancestors, from the terror that was our first steps in the darkness. And yet, there is something that remains the same. A fire in the human soul, a whisper in the mind, and a frozen feeling that takes over the limbs at times.

It is that creeping sensation of discontent, the sense of loss, and the sense of connection that comes in fleeting and hollow. The mesmerizing beauty of romantic, complete and whole love. A dream full of wistfulness and hope, a mirage of the actual world.

What are the classic fairy tales but exactly that? A shifting storm of love and terror, of our greatest beginnings and greatest endings, twinned together.

And as such, though the classics, we find condition and call it human, only to realize we have connected to words on a page, from a mind that is been and gone, that was and is no more. And thus by writing we are connected more than ever and separated completely in the same breath.

Below, I have taken a story as old as I can find and turn it into my own. And yet, and yet, it reminds, a ruminate of mine soul, and the souls of all those before and behind me.

Beastly Manners

Henri gazed outside at his fields. Young workmen sang as dawn broke, and they began their work. The harshness of winter was over, but there was still a crispness in the air. He turned away from the window with a sigh. He wanted nothing more than to run down the stairs, out to his stables, and take his stallion for a long gallop.

But today, he couldn’t.

With a sigh, he returned to his desk and the letters etched with seals - a reminder that the trade delegation was on its way. He felt a wave of weariness and fought the urge to loosen his cravat.

If it was not his duty, he would have turned the delegation away. His father was less than 6 months dead, and he was still in deep mourning. Deeper than most people would expect, as he and his father had rarely shared a house.

Still, he was determined to be a good host. His father’s last wish had been for him to pave the way for trade. Henri had few fighters. Indeed, his were a people of the farm, dairy, and brewery, with a random healer or two. There had not been a soldier in his direct line for decades - a weakness according to the other dukes. His land needed trade. To barter for protection from the coming civil war, if what his father had suspected was true.

So, Henri de Noailles, duc d’Ayen pushed aside his grief and flipped through the tome of social etiquette. He wanted action and was bored by farming and negotiations. But if he had to be a diplomat, well, he would learn that too.

~~~

Henri awaited the delegation awkward in stocking feet, but his reading said the delegate did not wear shoes inside. He must make them welcome. He had banished all shoes from indoor workers, and the lingering smell of feet unused to being free from leather almost turned his stomach. But his reading was clear shoes indoors were an insult.

So, he stood barefoot, in a dark robe that felt more like a blanket and left him feeling awkward instead of hospitable.

The long parade of people slowly approached. His inside servants stood likewise barefoot, while outside workmen waited in their boots.

He would greet the delegate, let her select a meal of lamb, beef, pork, or fowl. The workmen would perform a ritual slaughter in the courtyard before he led the delegate to her suite.

Having read that a small, thoughtful, personal token was the best way to open negotiations, he held in his hands a gift - a pocket watch, his father’s greatest gift to him.

He felt certain he would soon have a true alliance. He smiled and then tried to school his features to the blankness that he had read was polite as well.

~~~

Maiyaku no Shonin, Rin Chiyo felt tired and drained. The cold bit into her, and she wanted nothing more than to receive the bows of this new trade partner and retire to her bedchamber with a hot green tea. But knowing the French, they would only have the bitter, black tea that bit at her throat and made her skin itch with excess energy. Her three maids - personal, secretarial, and ritual - walked behind her, while her two guards walked behind, guarding their backs. Two male servants walked in front of her to clear the way. She could have been carried from the boat, but such delicacy was not for a Maiyaku no Shonin. Her magic with words and spirits meant she needed, more than others, to have her feet on the ground, to remain humble and clear of mind.

But her feet ached, and her stomach was still raw from the pitching of the waves. The wind made her robes heavy and her headdress almost clang like a bell around her head. Her expression was blank, as any good negotiator’s would be, and the white face powder helped keep her secrets. The courtyard of cold, hard stones opened. Her waraji sandals made a soft rasping sound across the hard stones. The courtyard was filled with row after row of men and women. A few animals stood on short lines.

She felt the piercing gaze of each person, making her skin crawl as unnaturally light-colored eyes followed her every move.

A man came forward, tall with sun darken skin and light hair. His grey eyes, still to light-colored, held a smile and glinted. For a moment, she felt comfortable.

She nodded to her ritual secretary.

“May I present Maiyaku no Shonin, Rin Chiyo to you, duc d’Ayen.” Her secretary bowed deeply to the man. “We thank you for coming to lead her into your lands. May you find wisdom and balance in each other’s terms.”

The man flinched and shook his head hard.

“I am but a humble farmer. My name is Sils. Henri de Noailles, duc d’Ayen, asked me to present you with a choice of life stock before entering the manor.”

He gestured back toward the line of animals. Chiyo recognized pigs, cows, and saw chickens picking at the ground. They all smelled, and the new shaggy ones made her nose twitch.

She gave a slight nod to the farmer and turned to the creatures, unsure why duc d’Ayen would be offering her an animal. Some strange welcome gift.

She looked over the odd assortment, looking for the most dignified looking beast. After all, what could it be but a test of her ability to choose the best from the muck. One cow stood out - placid, regal, and mostly clean.

Chiyo gestured, indicating the beast with a nod.

“Good choice.” Sils smiled, nodded and led the beast to one side.

She kept her face clear and continued on toward the manor.

No one else came out to greet them, instead waiting for her to reach them. This might be her first negotiation, but her blood froze with the anger of being so demeaned. Met by a servant and beasts.

Her servant stepped forward once again to introduce her.

“May I present Maiyaku no Shonin, Rin Chiyo, to you…” Her servant bowed and let the words linger.

The man nodded and moved forward. “Madam Chiyo, I am Henri de Noailles, duc d’Ayen. Let me present you with this token of our meeting.”

The French duke offered her a symbol of death - a handheld clock - a reminder of her limited time on earth and how she too would fade and die. Her blood, already frozen, deepened into frigid.

But she kept emotions from her face, passing the evil disk into her sleeve.

The duke was not yet done with the insults. “Remove your shoes and enter. We have much to speak of.”

Thankfully, the white powder covered her flush of rage as she removed her shoes. She looked around carefully but was not mistaken. No slippers. Like an uncultured peasant.

To one side, she saw Sils raise his knife to her chosen beast’s throat.

The scream was wrenched out of her. “Stop!”

Her magic pulsed through the air.

The world froze.

She stalked forward, ice leaking from her bare foot, her prints rimed in ice.

She threw Sils to one side and claimed the knife. Her people bowed, covering their eyes, while the wind whipped around her, becoming a flowing cape of power. The powder blew from her face, leaving a light tan skin open to the air only for a moment before frost settled over her. Her black eyes were cold with anger.

Her headdresses fell to shatter at her feet, while her loose hair flowed down her back like a black, frozen river. She turned coated in the white of ice and snow, in the white of death and dying.

“How can you dishonor me so? After a long voyage, you do not greet be but send a servant and beasts in your stead. I am made to choose an animal, only to have you attempt an unclean act of killing it in my presence.”

Strands of frozen ice pellets orbited, shadowing the harnessed wind around her. “You strip me of my travel shoes and offer me no slippers. And last of all, you give me this.”

She let the death watch dangle from one long finger. “You wish death?”

The duke stepped towards her. “Madam Chiyo, I mean you no insult.”

“Bha. You do nothing but insult me. But no more.”

Her winds picked up speed. The ice formed blue-white paths around her. “For your beastly manners, you and yours will feel the wrath of a Maiyaku no Shonin.”

The ice ribbons reached out to wrap the other French in the yard and beyond. “Your servants shall be silent and unseen.”

Columns of white faded to nothing. New strands were carried by her winds across the nearby fields layering them in frozen blue. “Your crops shall grow for a hundred years without harvest.”

When the winds returned to her, the early crops stood, perfect, unchanging, and blue. “Your face shall take on the shape of all the animals you have ever killed. You will not know yourself until you have lost yourself. Your blood will fall on the most beautiful flower, until you can wake in the heart of one of my country’s women, a love as pure as it is bold.”

Now the winds and ice surrounded the duke.

~~~

Henri screamed as the wind whipped around him. The ice went through him. His face contorted and burned. He raised his hands to his face to see fur and claws. A whimper escaped him.

His vision blurred and turned dull. He could not even yelp for the pain that filled him.

The slow sound of feet wrapped in soft reeds pattered around him. But he was in too much pain to move. He lay panting.

The wind echoed the Maiyaku no Shonin’s last words as her vessel sailed away. The courtyard was empty of all life but him. And his father’s pocket watch that floated in a pocket of blue in the air.

“You have until the watch stops to find one that can love you, as both Beast and Man.”

Chaos Critter Pictures

Chaos Tip of the Week

A bone for one is a treat, for another an omen, and another trash. Make sure you don’t mix and match your omens or throw them in the trash.

Chaos Question of the Week

What is the most common thing that people casually do, that you find insulting?

Leave a comment

~ Anna (and Tod)

Minstrels in the Galaxy

If you enjoyed “Beastly Manners”, here’s a little throwback you might like!

Minstrels in the Galaxy shared our delightfully chaotic story “Tablet in the Air.” It is a mix of sci-fi and fantasy, but with a similar feel to our free fiction in our Chaos Tales Section. (But less dark.) So, if you enjoyed “Beastly Manners” consider giving this a try.

https://www.amazon.com/Minstrels-Galaxy-Stories-Key-Tull-ebook/dp/B0D79FMH8S/

And of course, we cannot forget to thank the editors and publishers for this anthology, and Shari Robb. They put in a ton of work into making this and other anthologies. We are still grateful to have been selected for their first publication.

This is Dante and Crokell’s adventure during our New Year’s up at our friends’ sheep ranch. Remember: never stop learning, and make time for naps.

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Dante and the Bucks and Does

Dante watched out of the window of the car as the Great Northern Den grew closer and closer. Finally, the dust from the unpaved road settled, and he looked out.

And saw the tree, the huge tree.

His Mini American Shepherd butt wiggled with excitement. He squirmed in his seat, pulling against his seat belt harness. He turned and pounced on his brother, who lay snoring next to him.

“Crokell, wake up. We’re here. We’re here. I see the tree.”

He stopped and thought for a second. “I need to pee.”

Business taken care of, the two dogs took a walk to check out the Great Northern Den. The lake was still there. With good rain this year, it was full with a beautiful sky overhead.

But Dante bounced up and down. “Crokell, what’s that over there?”

The big slobbery Newfoundland shook himself and walked through some sticker brushes to pick up more burrs in his fur.

“Why, Dante, that’s a couple of stags. They’re fighting over does.”

And he sat down and watched the two stags for a while. Dante sat down in his big brother’s shadow and watched too.

Finally, he asked, “Crokell?”

“Yes, little guy?”

“What’s a doe?”

Crokell laughed. “Here. Let’s go back up to the lodge, and you can talk to Office Cat.”

The two brothers ambled at their respective speeds and met back up at the office. The gray female cat was in. She looked down at the two dogs.

“What are you two doing back here again?”

Crokell shook himself from head to tail and smiled up at the crabby old kitty. “We don’t have any choice. The monkeys put us in the car. The car comes up here, and we have to stay for a week.”

The cat glared at the two dogs. Dante tried really hard to sit as still as possible, but his butt was wiggling. He slowly butt-walked around Crokell, until he was sitting on the other side closer to the cat.

The cat couldn’t help herself and laughed. “You are the weirdest little dog I know, and I know a lot of little dogs.”

“Hi, Office Cat,” popped up Dante. “Can I ask a question? What’s a doe?”

The cat looked at the two brothers.

“You city dogs. A doe is a deer, a female deer.”

Crokell nodded. “I suspected as much.”

Dante jumped up and ran around in a circle around Crokell a couple times. He sat back down, looked up at Office Cat.

“Thank you very much. Why do the stags fight over does?”

Office Cat laughed at Dante again.

“It’s what happens in nature. Whichever male wins, it’s his job to protect the does.”

Dante tilted his head. “Is that all?”

Crokell and Office Cat exchanged glances.

Crokell responded to Dante. “As far as we’re concerned, yeah, that’s it, little guy.”

Office cat told Dante. “Why don’t you run over to the far side of the pastures? There’s some water buffalo there. Look at them and then come back and tell me what you saw.”

Dante scurried off at his normal pace, 20% faster than his legs would actually carry him sending loose gravel out in a cloud of dust behind him.

Crokell looked up at the office cat. “You just wanted a nap while he ran there and back.”

The cat looked down at the Newfie. “I see we’re of like minds. You are very intelligent for a dog.”

They lay down, the cat on the roof, the dog on the cool pine porch, and waited for Dante to return.

Eventually, Dante came screaming back. “I saw it. I saw it. I saw it. I saw the water buffalo.”

The cat woke up, yawned, and looked down at the little Mini American Shepherd. “Right. And you saw there was a big male, a big female, and then a bunch of smaller ones. Right?”

Dante ran in a circle. “Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes.”

“Well, did you notice when you looked at them, the male kept his eye on you just in case you tried to do something to one of the water buffalo?”

Dante bounced up and down. “Yes.”

He stopped for a moment. “I was very quiet and very still around them.”

Office Cat blinked at him.

“Yep. That was a very good thought. Now, I want you to go to the south side where the shelters are. And there, you should see some blackbuck. I want you to watch them and come back and tell me what you saw.”

Dante ran in a circle around Crokell, who was just now starting to wake up.

“Okay. Okay. I’ll be back.”

And he ran off, spraying burrs and sand everywhere. Crokell shook himself clean. He craned his head up at Office Cat. “Where’d you send him this time?”

“Blackbucks.”

The dog nodded.

“Good thinking.”

And they went back to sleep.

Too short of a nap later, Dante came running up, nails scrabbling on the wood.

“I saw him. I saw him. I saw him.”

Office cat looked down at him again, stretching. “And what did you see, Dante?”

Dante bounced up and down at the sound of the cat saying his name.

“Blackbuck does are the lighter colored ones. Right?”

Crokell, waking up, caught up with what was going on. “Yes. I heard the big monkey say that.”

“Well, the dark one, the male with the horns, he just stood there, and he watched all the females, all the does, run bouncing away. When the last one had passed him and gotten a bit from him, he followed them.”

Office Cat nodded wisely and blinked. “That is right. He was making sure all the does made it to safety before he followed them.”

Dante blinked. “Safe from what?”

The cat chuckled. “Well, in this case, it was from you, little guy.”

Dante sprang to his feet, scurried in a circle again, jumped over Crokell, went and sat back down.

“Why?”

Office Cat cleaned on paw. “I guess they don’t like to be herded.”

The cat and the Newfoundland dog exchanged a glance. This time, the cat spoke to Crokell.

“City Newfie, you should get your monkeys to take you to the other house. There, Dante might see something he really likes, and the wise Jack is there.”

Crokell pulled himself slowly and laboriously up to all fours. He shook himself again.

“Well, thank you for the naps, Office Cat. We’ll see what we can do.”

It took some doing because, as Dante and Crokell were both aware, monkeys are very slow on the uptake. But eventually, they took a walk. And while they were walking, Dante suddenly stopped, alerted. He looked into the woods.

“What- what is that? I want- that should be herded. I’m sure.”

He shook himself.

A chuckle behind them made Dante bounce and turn around in the air and come down.

“Jack!” exclaimed the Mini American.

Crokell nodded at the little white and brown dog and flopped over while the little monkey went up and petted it.

Jack took the pets offered but kept his attention on Dante. “Hi, guys. Glad you could make it this year.”

Crokell responded with a snore, but Dante wiggled around. “What- what’s that over there in the woods?”

The wise Jack looked. “Oh, that’s a sheep.”

Dante said the word to himself.

“Sheep. Sheep. Sheep.”

He started to fall asleep but jerked himself awake.

“I think I like sheep.”

The Jack laughed at him. “That’s because you and I are herding dogs. We herd sheep and goats.”

Dante looked at the big monkey and the little monkey. “I don’t think they’re gonna let me herd the sheep.”

Little Jack nodded. “Yeah. But maybe someday.”

Dante enjoyed watching the sheep and the goats and the other animals for the rest of the week. Finally, the little monkey and the big monkey gathered up Crokell and Dante. They looked at the Great Northern Den, saying goodbye to it for another year.

Crokell, in particular, had decided he was a rancher dog.

But eventually, reality called, and they piled into the car and watched through the window as the Great Northern Den disappeared into the distance for another year.

Chaos Tip of the Week

Never quit learning. But make sure you know what you’re learning.

Chaos Question of the Week

What did you learn lately that you really enjoyed - either the knowledge itself or the learning experience?

Leave a comment

~ Tod and Anna

Crokell, Dante, Tod, and I welcome you to the first round of 2026 Chaos Critters Leash Lessons. As you might notice, this post has a very conversational tone, even more than normal, because I injured my wrist dog training, and I am doing much of this via dictation. Yay, technology!

Starting in 2026, the Leash Lessons segment will run every month with a small video demo. In this segment, I walk through teaching different commands. For those interesting in dog training, Leash Lessons is a how to guide, with random anecdotes about my current dogs. For my friends in the dog training world, this is a good place for critiques, talking about your own hurdles as I work to improve my own training. Depending on the interest and comments (hint on comments) we will take topic ideas and, if warranted, produce longer instructions and demos.

Leave a comment

My two canine helpers for these Leash Lessons will be Crokell, my 8-year-old Newfie, that is slow, mellow, and fairly well trained, and Dante, my 20-month-old Mini American Shepherd that is a handful and a half and still has puppy brain. (Hey! I’m here too, even if only behind the scenes! -Tod)

These two pups are as different as different can be. Crokell is very well trained in certain aspects with several titles. But he can be a little… we’ll go with slow on responses. And sometimes he has a level of not giving a howl, and a mind of his own. (This is particularly true in obedience levels, where Anna isn’t allowed to talk to him all the time. -Tod)

Dante, on the other hand is still a puppy. He is quite vibrant and willing to respond. He sort of… forgets the commands and gets distracted. The little guy has the attention span of a goldfish if you aren’t giving him commands. If you are telling him what to do, he’ll work himself into the ground. Such is the life of a herding dog. But 80% of him is still running on instinct, not training.

In all the Leash Lessons, we are going to show you working with these two very different breeds, a herding breed and a giant breed. One is bred to follow your commands and tend a flock - the other is bred to lay on a ship and respond independently if someone starts drowning.

Today’s Leash Lessons is “recall” - to come when called. This is something I am terrible at personally - but my pups are better.

Grab your leash and your four-legged partner and let’s get started!

The Importance of Recall

One of the first things that you want to teach your dog is recall, usually using something like “come” or “here” as the command.

It an important command, not just for competition, but everyday life. You want your dog is to come back to you whatever he’s doing. If there’s a squirrel that’s running across your yard, the road, or the asteroid field, you don’t want them chasing after it. Or if there is someone at the front door that doesn’t want to meet them, or has packages, calling your dog back to position is really important.

It’s safe and polite.

A really good recall gives you more freedom, from being able to work in your backyard with your pup, to being able to take them to a dog park, or teach them herding.

Yep, that is right recall is like the first thing when I was reading about that you need to start herding practice. They want you to be able to have your pup, heel, recall and down from any distance, before they want you to try to even go near livestock.

This makes a lot of sense. A dog, regardless of size, can get in very little trouble laying down or with a strong recall back to you.

Come is the command that says, “I don’t care what you’re doing. Turn away and bolt back to me, like your tail is on fire or gone missing. Straight to me! Now!”

Versions of the Recall Command

Now, there are a few different versions of the recall command.

• Come: There is the come here to me that is exercise and fun and doesn’t really care about the exact position of the dog.

• Front: There is the AKC competition command, where the dog comes directly to in front of you and sits within touching distance facing you.

• Here: Is the service recall, which means the dog goes back to heel position at the handler’s side.

All these start with the initial “come” command. Run like crazy back to me.
Regardless of the command used, you want the dog to feel that coming to you is the best thing ever. So, remember a recall should result in fun, play, or attention in a manner your pup likes, a good part of the time - especially when he’s learning.

How does this work for our Chaos Critters?

So, for Dante, rewarding with attention really works, as he loves to play. While he loves treats as well, he has a really sensitive stomach, so his treats are his kibble or a carrot, if I am using them at all. But for him a ball, tug rope, or just me works as a reward.

Crokell is a little more food driven and set in his ways. He is going to want his treat. He was trained primarily on treats from the beginning. (His brother is having a very different upbringing.) He will perform without a treat, but he prefers a tasty reward. Although, he loves meeting new people, so running to someone and then back to me is a game in and of itself. Still, Crokell can be like, “You’ve petted me. I’m good. I’m going to wander away now.”

Here’s video of first Dante and then Crokell doing recalls at our friends’ sheep ranch.

Teaching Your Newest Critter to Come

For the very first game, and most training starts as a fun game, you get your dog out and start playing a little. Let them run a few feet away on a long line, or leash if they are small, then clap as you jog or run in the opposite direction.

Most pups will chase you, especially herding breeds like Dante, that are always down for a good romp or herding. You don’t even use “come” at first; clapping to get their attention works. But the point is, it should be fun and about them moving towards you. Once your dog consistently comes toward you in your backyard or another safe, enclosed space, you’re off to a great start. This stage is all about fun and play. You can do this using a long line, but I prefer more structure with a 6 foot leash in the beginning to keep the puppy brain on task.

The next step adds even more structure and is often how most people start. Put a leash or long line (15+ ft) on your dog. When they reach the end of the leash, give it a gentle tug, say “Come,” and reel them in, guiding them back to you. You can also start this by using the leash pressure and then jogging backwards a little, giving them soft tugs and rolling up the lead, until they are all the way to you.

When they get back to you (touching distance), give them the attention they like. For Crokell, this is pets and under the chin scratches. For Dante, this is more animated, jumping up and excited verbal praise.

Adjust your excitement level, energy, and response to your dog. The goal is for them to love making that mad dash to you. Once you have them tearing down the pavement to be at your side, you can up the ante and add something like “front”.

Front is a come that becomes a “sit” once the dog is close. We go back to the 6 foot leash for this. (2 meters is fine for our metric friends!) Start with dog sitting and facing you, at the end of the leash. Say “front” and gently tug towards you, and reel them in to sit in front of you. Jog backwards if needed to get them to move towards you. Give them gentle praise here after they’ve sat, so they know they need to stay seated. After they’ve sat for a second, celebrate with them!

Recall in the beginning is focused on building excitement in the dog to join you and in creating a connection with your critter.

Celebrate every step towards you. “Yay, you are rejoining the pack and everything is great now!” Some people will do this by jack potting treats. I used to, but I am currently usually working without treats. I still use them sometimes, especially to sharpen responses, but my main goal is for the dog to want to be near me and to enjoy the interaction itself.

Additional Incentive: The Lure

Sometimes a particular pup or breed might not have the instinct to chase or come back to you. The “come lure” rewards and encourages movement towards you.

Any movement.

For the lure you are going to have your hand out, showing them the treat (food or toy). When they come to get the treat, you will bring the treat to you your body, until the dogs is touching you and the treat. Give them the reward at that point.

You’re marking those steps in your direction and making the dog feel good to be near you. If your dog is really soft or sensitive, you might need to keep the rewards calm and gentle: a quiet pat, a soft scratch under the chin, maybe a treat if they like food.

Corrections

If you have been here before, you know I’m a believer in balanced training. That means both rewards and corrections have a place, and rewards should be tied to you, not just the food in your hand. Corrections are there to improve and keep your dog from harm. They should be clear, calm, and well-intended. Think of it like parenting: kids need boundaries, and so do dogs, but screaming isn’t necessary. You want that calm, cool confidence that says, “I mean what I say and I’m in control.”

If you are on a longer line, you give your recall cue, then a light tug if they ignore you. Start on a short line and build up to a longer one. The correction should be a short, quick, light jerk, not a big haul that pulls your dog off their feet. The power of that correction depends on your dog. You wouldn’t correct a Chihuahua the same way you would a Newfoundland. A tiny dog might get flipped over by the force that a big dog barely registers.

You aren’t trying to drag the dog to you. You want the correction to be just strong enough to get the dogs attention and encourage them to come towards you. If the dog is just drifting away or sniffing around, you might increase the intensity slightly and then reward when they respond. I also use a verbal or sound marker as a “that wasn’t right” cue. It isn’t “no,” it’s more like a buzzer noise that tells the dog, “I didn’t like. Try again.” Or even just “Wrong. Focus.”

And remember, many dogs respond well to you moving away and activating their chase play.

Cues

For my dogs, our recall cues are a verbal “come” or “front”. I am trying to remember to use different cues for different commands. So, bear with me as I fix my own issues.

But I also have a front hand single where I hold my arm out to one side and bring my hand into my chest. That bent arm motion is my nonverbal cue. Some dogs respond better to non-verbal cues.

In competition, I can a visual or verbal cue, not both, because that counts as a double command.

With Crokell, I usually rely on the verbal because he doesn’t always keep his eyes on me (that whole, bred to watch around the boat thing), and the voice helps pull his attention back. Over the next year, I’ll be working more on his focus, so he keeps his eyes on me more automatically and maybe we will transition to more hand signals.

Session Length

Keep sessions short and fun. It can be part of a full session or a couple minutes of “play”. Dante could run back and forth forever and never get tired of it. Crokell is more, “We’ve done these three or four times. I know this. I’m done.” Respect that different dogs have different energy levels and different boredom thresholds, and it will work out well.

Session Style

How often should you practice recall? Daily. By which I mean you should call your dog to you in some way every day. After all, they need to be feed twice a day (for our guys) - that is at least two recalls with a built-in reward. But the recalls can be part of a larger session, a way to begin or end a session and switch to play. You aren’t doing ten or twenty recalls in a row, unless you have a very high-energy dog that really thrives on that repetition. (Dante, I am looking at you.)

Think tiny: two or three recalls, some play, another recall, more play. It’s also great to do it right before meals or something else they love so “come” is always associated with the best part of life: breakfast!

Recall In Real Life

Some people say you shouldn’t use recall and then give your dog a pill. I disagree. I want my recall for real life. Now, unless it is life threating, or major, I wouldn’t call them and immediately pop a pill in their mouth. I’d call them, play or interact a little, keep it positive, and then give the pill so “come” still feels like a good thing.

With Crokell, he thinks all his pills are treats. So when he hears the pill bottle, he comes running.

Come Games

Go out Starter Recall (Ping Pong Recall): Two or more people 10 to 20 feet apart call the dog back and forth. This is just having the dog go to whoever has called him and get rewarded for it. It can be done with two people or more. The pup will have a blast if they are a herding/high energy breed that likes new people. If they aren’t, maybe just choose their favorite two people. This game is about speed and enthusiasm and can be done at different distances. Remember, only change increase one of the three Ds (Distance, Duration, and Distraction) at a time, and if needed decrease the others. The more people, the more distractions.

Chase Me: The chase game is the one that I already told you about. You can either do it on a long line or you can do it sort of free range. I don’t do free range until my dog is doing what I want, because I don’t want to ever be the one chasing them. On the long line, it’s going to give you the possibility to give a little bit of correction. On a long line, call once, then run away; most dogs cannot resist chasing a retreating human, and you pay when they catch you.

Gate Call Game: This is practice helping your dog bolt to you instead of out the door - it’s basically Chase Me with a Doorway Distraction. On leash, have your dog sit next to you in front of a door. Open the door a crack at first - not wide enough for them to get through. Sliding doors are great for this. Then do the Chase Me game. I would never do this off leash unless the door leads into an enclosed space. You’re trying to get them to ignore the distraction that is the door or the outside. Use a leash, especially if the door leads outside. But when they come to you, away from the open door, make it exciting, and I suggest then give them a second reward of a walk or outside play. Later you can have them do it coming through the door back into the house or yard to you.

Recall Homework

Once your basics are solid, get creative.

You can do “sit, stay, then come and sit in front and release, dancing around.”

You can do “come and chase,” where you run and play once they get to you.

You can do “heel, release to sniff, then come and back to heel” and might give them a treat when they return to heel.

That last one is especially useful on walks: heel on the sidewalk, then release to sniff in a safe area, then call them back and heel again when it’s time to move on. Down the road, you can add fancy finishes and competition-style behaviors, but that can come later.

Or think of your own combo and share them in our comments.

Recap

Recall/Come is fundamental for all dogs. You need that recall all the time, not just once in a blue moon. But it also needs to be fun, and that’s what the games are for.

Chaos Tip of the Week

Make sure that whenever you recall, you know who or what you are calling because you don’t want to recall alien robots from space. (Or do you? -Tod)

Critter Question of the Week

What is the one thing that would make you come when called? Is it a hot chocolate, a fudge sundae, or something salty and spicey like fried potatoes?

Leave a comment

Make sure to drop any dog training questions into the comments. If there are tricks or items you struggle with, let me know, and we will do a Leash Lesson focusing on it. Or if you’ve trained a lot, you can laugh and comment about what I can do to improve my training, as I know I have a few followers on here with a ton more experience.

Have a nice day, and make sure to subscribe to Chaos Critters. Thanks, until next time,

~Anna, Tod, Crokell and Dante.

Happy New Year’s

We went to our friend’s sheep ranch in North Texas. Crokell was a great traveler as always. Dante was good traveler too but he wanted to at least visit everyone he saw. And they’re adding goats to the ranch!

We did some writing and filming at the ranch, to get a head start on the New Year. It was fun, relaxing, and enlightening, as most trips up there are.

Part of the New Year lineup are more Carter stories. Join our Nano Sapiens Landseer Newfie and he learns about the new culture he’s a part of starting with Carter and the New Year’s Kiss!

Carter and the New Year’s Kiss

The big black and white Newfoundland dog shook himself. Starting with his head, the Landseer swung his jowls and ears back and forth, spraying drool across the room. The shaking moved back along his loose neck, down his fluffy body, until his thick tail shook, knocking the coffee table out of place.

Next to the larger dog, a smaller black and white Miniature American Shepherd puppy hopped up on his back legs, using his front paws to steady the table.

From his collar a blue LED shone near a speaker that converted his yap into English. “Carter, watch it inside the house!”

Still somewhat small, Carter thundered his forty pounds over to an adult Mini American. “Aunt Sunrise, is it true?”

Light from a reading tablet set off highlights in the Mini’s white and red-brown fur. She looked up from what Carter knew was her latest romance novel. “Is what true, Carter dear?”

Dog instincts rose up in Carter, unstoppable even by the nanotech shots that gave him sapience and made him a person. He gave his aunt a slobbery kiss-lick on the cheek. The Newfie waited until his aunt’s shaking, much like his own moments before, finished. “Nightfall says we get to stay up late. All night actually. And we get to blow stuff up. And have special treats tomorrow.”

The Newfie’s furry brush of a tail and the two Mini American stubs instinctively wagged back and forth as Carter used the T-word.

Sunrise glared at Nightfall, her eyes gleaming momentarily like her translation collar LED. “Yes. Unlike last time, he’s not making stuff up.”

She paused and quickly added. “Except nobody gets to blow anything up.”

Carter whined, his ears going in several directions uncertainly. His great tail dipped. “But staying up late is against the rules.”

Nightfall bounced between his mother and his cousin. His entire rear made up for his missing tail by shaking back and forth. “But tonight’s special! And stuff does blow up. It’s so awesome!”

Carter looked to Sunrise again.

“Carter, tonight is New Year’s Eve. Tomorrow is a new year.”

***

Later that night, Carter looked up at the sky and watched it exploding. He’d brought his plush lamb with him in case he couldn’t stay awake. The breeder had sent it with him when he was adopted, and he still didn’t want to sleep without it.

His toy fell from his mouth unnoticed.

First there were a few flashes and booms in the sky.

Slowly his tail raised from its normal relaxed position. Even more slowly, it started moving back and forth.

Knowing a portion of the watchers were Nano Sapiens, the fireworks company had concentrated on blues and yellows. Those colors were more visible to all of the audience.

But Carter loved the fireworks the humans around him called red. They weren’t bright but looked like burning black flames.

“Nightfall, you were right. This is worth staying up late!”

His cousin was so excited he couldn’t hold still and ran around and under Carter a few times.

Then they both watched enraptured as the entire sky exploded.

Finally, the fireworks wound down. The human and Nano Sapiens adults all started milling about.

Carter looked around confused. “What’s goin’ on?”

Nightfall dog-laughed. “At midnight, you need to kiss someone for luck.”

His ears perked up as his eyes and nose fixed on someone across the room. “I’ll see you later.”

Carter stood there. “I gotta kiss someone? Who?”

But only Nightfall’s stub disappearing into the crowd answered him.

Frantic Carter grabbed his sheep and galumphed around the room. Unlike other breeds, his breed worked a little more on sight. Like his webbed toes, it was an artifact of being bred for water rescue.

At first, he couldn’t find anyone he knew.

All the adult humans and Nano Sapiens started counting down from ten.

He bounded around faster.

They were down to three when he saw the familiar light of what had to be a tablet with a romance book on it.

With a chorus of “one” in his ears, he leapt remembering to drop his lamb at the last second.

Landing on his aunt, he gave her the biggest, wettest midnight New Year’s lick ever.

Because drool is love. And love is luck.

Right?

Some time later Sunrise was still drying her fur and her reader on a fluffy towel. “Carter, I think you should sleep now.”

***

The next morning, the Newfie stared at the dining table. “This is breakfast?”

Nightfall dog-laughed at him. “Yup. Mom got Edmund’s family recipe before they left for the holidays. Except they made it with beef bacon, since Raihana doesn’t each pork. And skipped the spices we canines can’t have. New family recipe.”

Before him lay four small bowls of black-eyed peas, obviously for the four smaller Mini Americans who he was staying with while his family was away with Edmund and Raihana. In front of him was a huge bowl of black-eyed peas, with a gigantic piece of crispy bacon on top.

He thought for a moment about Gordon Ramsay, his favorite chef. “Only edible garnish.”

From the other end of the table, Sunrise spoke. “The black-eyed peas represent coins.”

Carter’s huge now drooling snout aimed at another bowl, filled with steaming, bright greens - although he’d never understood why something that appeared yellow to him was called greens. Atop the misnamed greens lay a huge dense hunk of yellow cornbread.

The food filled his eyes. For once, his nose had no problems scenting the delicious food. He almost couldn’t hear Sunrise.

“The greens represent money. And the cornbread gold.”

All sapient thought left Carter as the food started entering his mouth.

He came to his senses laying on top of the table. Bowls were scattered everywhere.

Sunrise and three other Mini American dogs stared sadly at him. His aunt’s voice was chastising but amused.

“Evidently, it’s already causing good luck. While you might have destroyed breakfast, there’s plenty more in the kitchen.”

Chaos Tip of the Week

If you find yourself in a herd, but you don’t recognize anyone there, just "Moo”. Someone might moo back. Or they will move on and you will find a better more chaotic herd to hang with.

Chaos Question of the Week

What is the silliest thing you have ever done to break the tension and reset set your mood?

Leave a comment

~ Anna (and Tod)

Christmas Anthology Available

The Magic of Yuletide contains “Ice Blue and the Christmas Rescue”

Do you still have that holiday spirit going? How about a Christmas anthology?

Chromosphere Press is proud to announce the release of its first anthology, The Magic of Yuletide, a family-friendly collection of holiday-themed short stories, available just in time for celebrating the holidays.

Ebook! https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0G4XM2KY7

Print! https://www.amazon.com/Magic-Yuletide-Lydia-Sherrer/dp/1950633411

Authors with stories in this delightful collection include Lydia Sherrer, Stephanie Osborn, Aaron Canton, Tiffanie Gray, and more. Foreword by David Weber!

This contains “Ice Blue and the Christmas Rescue”, the first story in our new magic Canine-Feline universe Canifel! Our story includes giant breed dogs and a Maine Coon cat who learns something about Christmas from an unlikely source - a human boy.

Goals in Review

Well, last year we had a ton of plans. We were going to focus on two things: writing and training dogs. For writing we had three goals: (1) finish the novels, (2) quarterly regular short fiction, and (3) monthly blog fiction. For dogs, we had three goals as well: (1) get Crokell a few titles, (2) get Dante a few titles and (3) start working out with the pups more. So, how did we do… (Wait, we had goals for 2025? When did that happen? -Tod)

Well, not so well. Let’s just say that 2025 kicked our … hmm, revised goals midstream. For writing, we didn’t complete the novels. But we got 5 stories out, and we published 24 short stories on the blog. So we met and doubled the goals there... Meat Loaf suggests that two out of three ain’t bad. Except we missed the top goal. Still, we didn’t stop, and that counts for something… right? Makes sad eyes at everyone.

What about our dog goals?

Well, I guess we batted zero on that. Not completely, but Crokell didn’t get any new titles. Dante earned an ATT (temperament test) and his BN, and we were doing well on workouts for a little while until my health took a dip and the roll coaster of life dumped into the puddle of tiredness, injuries, and allergic reactions.

They say success is a rollercoaster. Well, we rode the dip. I decided that means I just need to aim for the sky again. At some point, we will make it. And hopefully it will be 2026.

Share

Blog Revamp

Those of you who have been around might notice a few changes on the blog.
In 2026, we are using sections. “What” and “why” you ask? Sections let people subscribe to the stuff they like and ignore everything else.

And it isn’t like we don’t have a really eclectic set of subjects.

By default, you are signed up for everything we post. But for people like me that don’t always want to get everything, they can subscribe to their interests. So, we will have the following sections:

1. Chaos Critter Tails - Light Animal Fiction headed by Tod, twice a month.

2. Chaos Tales - Darker Fiction headed by Anna, four times a year, focused on fairytale retellings for 2026.

3. Leash Lessons - Animal Training headed by Anna, monthly.

4. Chaos Kitchen - Recipes headed by Anna (with guest spots from Tod), monthly.

5. Sunday Salutations - Life Updates done twice a year, with a random host.

As I am setting this up this week, you might notice some changes on the blog. Don’t be alarmed. There are more changes coming.

As we all know, just ask your dog, change is evil and should be barked at!

BARK!

We also might update the regular page on casasent.com but don’t count on it. (I intend to make Anna either update that or redo it to not have out-of-date content. -Tod)

When this next week (or two) is over, you should be able to alter your settings to only get the updates you want. How cool is that?

Goal Rebound

Writing Goals

Yes, I am calling a mulligan on last year’s goals, with a few changes.

1. FINISH the novels!

   1. The first Western Dragons novel.

   2. The first Nano Sapiens novel. (This series will each be around the length of a Heinlein Juvenile - my favorite length for a book. -Tod)

2. Quarterly Chaos Tale - Dark fiction on the blog

3. Monthly Critter Tails - Light animal based fiction on the blog

What about short story submissions? Well, Tod is going to be in charge of that. How many we submit will depend on him. I think he already chose these out for next year. (True, but I might substitute that with putting together self-published compilations of the short fiction for which rights have reverted! -Tod)

Dog Goals

1. Get Crokell his CGC-A/U, TKI/A and BCAT… We might try for Rally Choice. Timeline TBD. (Maybe Anna should describe what the alphabet soup means? -Tod) (NOPE! ~Anna)

2. Get Dante his CGC, TKN/I/A, BCAT, PCD or CD… Start Agility training. (I think he should finish learning “Stand” first. -Tod) (HEY! He knows it… mostly. ~Anna)

3. Back end workouts for both dogs. Why? Because Crokell is older, and I want Dante to fly the agility course.

Other Goals

1. Anna is working on learning German. Tod is working on learning Japanese. Goal of B1 for both next year. (What is B1, I wonder? -Tod) (Just means intermediate everyday conversion in our case. ~Anna)

2. Anna is learning to draw with her left hand (recap on that next year)… Tod is going to pick an RPG system for one of our universes and start writing it up and start a TypeScript project for Foundry VTT for it. (Wait! What’s happening here? -Tod)

3. Both of us are training to get in shape… or toned or whatever you call it! Anna’s goal Walk/Jog a 5k next year with Dante. Tod’s goal is to convince his health ring that his “cardio age” at least matches his chronological age. (“I feel I was denied critical need-to-know information.” -Tod and Burt from Tremors.)

Chaos Tip for the New Year

Don’t get discouraged. If things failed last year, it is time to reset. After all, even Godzilla couldn’t topple every city at the same time. Take a chunk out of your goals, one day at a time, and you might just make it… or not. But hey, at least your stomach will be full of rubble.

Speaking of destroying things and rubble, the video below is Crokell with an antler. His sound effects are impressive. Have you ever wondered what a wolf or hyena working over a dried bone or antler, just outside the light from your campfire, might sound like?

Well, Crokell’s your dog. He borrowed Dante’s Christmas present to demonstrate. He’s never been interested in antlers before now.

Chaos Question for the New Year

What are your resolutions for 2026? How are you going to prove to your pup you are “good boy”?

Leave a comment

Wishing you all a good year and reminding you:

Everything else might change, but we promise you, the dog (or cat, or other cute fluffy critter) never dies in our stories. Everyone else is fair game.

Delightfully weird and occasionally dark,

Anna and Tod

So, we had one of our RPG friends request more information on teaching their pup to leave it. To me, leave it and stop are actually some of the most important tricks for a pup to learn to keep them safe. In this one, I actually walk you through the process and we get to check on how much Dante has improved, as well as show how amazing Crokell is.

Sorry for the short text blog today. I hurt my wrist, and I am figuring out how best to type with one hand. Next week, we will try a dictated blog.

There is plenty of detail in the videos that isn’t in the text this week, so enjoy.

Leave It Revisited

One of our early Leash Lessons was Leave It. You can review the fundamentals here: https://blog.casasent.blog/p/leash-lessons-leave-it

Below we show how Leave It works with our big boof. He is such a love, and leave it, while not his favorite trick, is one of his best ones. He does look a bit like Snoopy acting like a vulture at times though.

Dante demonstrates Leave It, Stay, and the beginning of Focus (look at the handler). He does well, with just a few connections, mostly verbal using my error sound “eeeh!”

Chaos Tip of the Week

Self control starts in the smallest parts. It is one step away from self-discipline, but both take a constant effort. So, like Leave It, start small and you just have to level up your game. I am talking to you, chocolate and treats.

Chaos Question of the Week

What leash lesson trick or command would you like to see taught? We’re planning to do more of these next year and will be filming them at our friend’s sheep ranch.

Leave a comment

~ Anna (and Tod)

PS - If you missed it, their favorite treat is carrots!

Christmas Anthology Available

The Magic of Yuletide contains “Ice Blue and the Christmas Rescue”

Chromosphere Press is proud to announce the release of its first anthology, The Magic of Yuletide, a family-friendly collection of holiday-themed short stories, available just in time for celebrating the holidays.

Ebook! https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0G4XM2KY7

Print! https://www.amazon.com/Magic-Yuletide-Lydia-Sherrer/dp/1950633411

Authors with stories in this delightful collection include Lydia Sherrer, Stephanie Osborn, Aaron Canton, Tiffanie Gray, and more. Foreword by David Weber!

This contains “Ice Blue and the Christmas Rescue”, the first story in our new magic Canine-Feline universe Canifel! Our story includes giant breed dogs and a Maine Coon cat who learns something about Christmas from an unlikely source - a human boy.