charisstoma

I chose Cole, spelled Coal.

Title: Dog and Cat Drinking Together
Author: charisstoma
Word count: 746


“You think they’ll be long?”

Fred turned his head from his water bowl to look in disbelief at Don. “Surely you know about humans, and even if they’re wizards they’re still humans. They don’t do a simple mating thing. They tend to take their time and after that they tend to fall asleep cuddling together. And often they do it all again sometimes waking the other to mate again and again.” He sighed. “This may be an all night thing since you’re over here too.”

Don’s eyes widened, “That’s why he brought my stuff over here.”

“Yep.”

“Where do I sleep then?”

“Couch, chair, spare bedroom;” Fred did a dog shrug, “but I warn you, if you decide to sleep there it’s my bed too.”

“I like to sleep between the sheets.”

“So do I but I’m in my human form.”

“Oh. You wear pajamas?”

“Nope.”

“Oh.” Don looked away down into the second water bowl. “You mind if I stay in my cat form?”

“Scaredy cat?”

“Cautious cat. I may shed my fur but I’ve never done human naked in bed with anyone and my pajamas aren’t in the things Tony packed. I watched him closely.”

“What did you think he was packing so many of your things for?”

“We’d stay late, like maybe after 11 o’clock, and he knows I’m finicky. I don’t want to eat dog food if I get hungry and since you might not get to eat anything except dog food if you’re in canine form.”

“And the blanket?”

“My blanket, that I like to cuddle into if it’s cool and there’s no sunlight to sun in. You might be one of those families that like to turn the A/C down cool.”

“Yeah, we do do that at night for bedtime.”

“So, you think they’re going to be in there long?”

Fred sighed and told himself not to roll his eyes. “Yes.”

“It’s already 11 o’clock.”

“So it is.”

Don sighed, “Spare bedroom is where?”

“Want to use the outdoor cat box first?”

“No.” Don shuddered. “I’ll use the indoor facilities.”

“We’ve got no cat box and you didn’t bring one.”

Don sniffed, “I know how to use the toilet and flush it after. You’ll have to put the seat down for me if it’s up.”

“Ooooh an educated cat. That’s handy. I use my human form for the necessities. Even know how to operate the can opener.”

“Really? Before I leave would you show me how. Might come in handy sometime.”

“Sure. No problem. Gotta be in human form though.”

“Why do you have dog food then?”

“Cheaper. Isn’t too bad especially if Alex pours gravy over top of it and if a regular human visits they expect to see dog food down for me to eat if I get hungry. Usually we eat the same thing though.”

“Tony doesn’t think of that. He says things like cats have special needs in their food and because he’s really aware of that ash thing in foods I eat,” Don sighed. “He’s careful. I probably should be in my human form more. Humans can eat pretty anything they want and he forgets I can be human.”
“Want to start practicing that human form thing tonight?”

“I don’t know you well enough to do that and sleep with you. I don’t tom cat around.”

“Fair enough. I’ll put the seat down for you and show you where the spare room is before I shower.”

“Dry well. Wet skin and fur don’t go well together.”

“I’ll remember that.”

“Right.”

Alex heard the shower start a short time of the flushing of the toilet. He turned over and cuddled close. “Fred’s getting ready for bed. Don going to be okay?”

“He knows how to use the toilet. Expect he’ll curl up someplace with his blanket.”

Tony felt Alex smile against his cheek and turned into the kiss.

Sometime in the night Alex got up and checked things, returning to bed to tell Tony about how cute Fred looked with Don sleeping on his chest, his small cat head just sticking out from below the bedding.

“That’s the way he sleeps with me. He’s already training Fred.”

“Good. You’re time in bed is going to be taken frequently.”

“Good, often and well. You want to receive this time though?”

“A little sore?”

“No, I’m good. Equal time.”

Alex rolled over, “You are definitely good either way.”

“Flattery will get you everywhere.”

Chuckling, “Everywhere? I’ll remember that.”

Title: Street Art
Author: charisstoma
Word count: 421


“Alright who is the comedian?”

Tony came up to stand beside Don and surveyed the art on the pavement. “Probably some child. Some older child with more chalk than they know what to do with and more free time than is healthy.”

“I do not look like that.”

“Of course not, I’ve never seen your tail in that S shape and hmm looks like it might have been broken too.”

“My paws are not misshapen like that. They look like human feet. And it looks like I’ve got a sausage for a body. No cat has a sausage body.”

“True. True.” When in doubt just agree, Tony had found. “Cute face though.”

“Hmmm.”

“So you like Fred’s chalk art? It took him a while. I especially like the meteor. He doesn’t often change to his human form but for this he did.”

“He did this in his human form?” there was dread in Tony’s voice. Hoping against hope, “Fred’s age in dog years the same as his human form?”

“Oh,” The wizard laughed, “he’s about our age.” Eyeing the feline familiar, I’m assuming that Don is our age.”

“Then Fred is mentally an adult and not developmentally challenged?”

“Oh. Nope. Some people like to color in those adult coloring books. Fred likes a more free form format on pavement.” The wizard was slightly nervous, “this wasn’t meant to be derogatory. Think of it as sort of a caricature, exaggerated representation, a parody even. I um think the face is cute.”

“Look Wizard...”

“Alex. My name’s Alex. Pleased to meet you… again.”

“Look Alex...”

Tony cut off whatever Don was going to say, “I’m sure that Fred didn’t mean to be insulting. The fact that it’s on our sidewalk and not on your own is a bit suspect. But we’re adult enough to overlook any implied disrespect.”

“Um, Ooookay. Thank you. I’ll talk to Fred.”

“Thank You.”

As Alex walked hurriedly away Tony’s voice carried just enough to hear, “You will wait to cause it to rain until he gets safely back to his own house, Don. If need be we can get the hose out to wash the chalk off sooner. Do. Not.”

Alex put a little more speed into his step. By the time he saw his house fat raindrops were starting to splat on the concrete in an as yet sparse distribution.

Entering through the door he called, “Well, I don’t believe your familiar cat friend is a lover of your form of art.”

Fred’s laughter met his words.

This is a cat telling you you're trusted.

I think it's familiars communicating across species.

I is pretending I is dog.

SACRILEGE! HOW COULD YOU! BLASPHEMY! At worst, it is dogs who are pretending they are very hairy cats! Now take your plunny and go! Write! Think of this - a kitty who is also a WERE-CAT! Muwahahaha ::evil::

Written. http://charisstoma.livejournal.com/1248701.html

Man’s about to return his dog to the shelter when he reads a letter from the former owner
\http://theforeverdog.com/letter-from-the-former-owner/


This man’s about to return his dog to the shelter when he opens and reads the letter from Reggie’s former owner. What’s inside changes everything.

“They told me the big black Lab’s name was Reggie as I looked at him lying in his pen. the shelter was clean, no-kill, and the people really friendly. I’d only been in the area for six months, but everywhere I went in the small college town, people were welcoming and open. Everyone waves when you pass them on the street.

But something was still missing as I attempted to settle in to my new life here, and I thought a dog couldn’t hurt. Give me someone to talk to. And I had just seen Reggie’s advertisement on the local news. The shelter said they had received numerous calls right after, but they said the people who had come down to see him just didn’t look like “Lab people,” whatever that meant. They must’ve thought I did.

But at first, I thought the shelter had misjudged me in giving me Reggie and his things, which consisted of a dog pad, bag of toys almost all of which were brand new tennis balls, his dishes, and a sealed letter from his previous owner. See, Reggie and I didn’t really hit it off when we got home. We struggled for two weeks (which is how long the shelter told me to give him to adjust to his new home). Maybe it was the fact that I was trying to adjust, too. Maybe we were too much alike.

For some reason, his stuff (except for the tennis balls — he wouldn’t go anywhere without two stuffed in his mouth) got tossed in with all of my other unpacked boxes. I guess I didn’t really think he’d need all his old stuff, that I’d get him new things once he settled in. but it became pretty clear pretty soon that he wasn’t going to.

I tried the normal commands the shelter told me he knew, ones like “sit” and “stay” and “come” and “heel,” and he’d follow them — when he felt like it. He never really seemed to listen when I called his name — sure, he’d look in my direction after the fourth or fifth time I said it, but then he’d just go back to doing whatever. When I’d ask again, you could almost see him sigh and then grudgingly obey.

This just wasn’t going to work. He chewed a couple shoes and some unpacked boxes. I was a little too stern with him and he resented it, I could tell. The friction got so bad that I couldn’t wait for the two weeks to be up, and when it was, I was in full-on search mode for my cellphone amid all of my unpacked stuff. I remembered leaving it on the stack of boxes for the guest room, but I also mumbled, rather cynically, that the “darn dog probably hid it on me.”

Finally I found it, but before I could punch up the shelter’s number, I also found his pad and other toys from the shelter. I tossed the pad in Reggie’s direction and he snuffed it and wagged, some of the most enthusiasm I’d seen since bringing him home. But then I called, “Hey, Reggie, you like that? Come here and I’ll give you a treat.” Instead, he sort of glanced in my direction — maybe “glared” is more accurate — and then gave a discontented sigh and flopped down. With his back to me.

Well, that’s not going to do it either, I thought. And I punched the shelter phone number.

But I hung up when I saw the sealed envelope. I had completely forgotten about that, too. “Okay, Reggie,” I said out loud, “let’s see if your previous owner has any advice.”
( Get the facial tissue box NOW )

Disney offered a job to the student that created this animation. After watching it, I can see why at 0:54...

Good news, or rather better news.
Earlier a dog came onto our street and ravaged our neighbors dog so badly they thought it had been run over by a car. The neighbor across the street has outside cameras so they knew what the dog looked like.

Yesterday another neighbor, the one with the outdoor cats came over to ask if we'd seen the cat we usually end up feeding if we stepped out our door. Seems one of the other cats they have was mauled by the same dog. Luckily they heard and intervened. Cat has a broken leg and puncture wounds and is in an emergency pet hospital. Surgery went well and they're flushing the puncture wounds but the vet's still worried about them.

Dog has been identified and due to be picked up today by animal control. It wasn't the old white dog next door, which I'm glad of. I'm thankful that it didn't get at a small child. We've got some in this area, also there's many preteens on bikes in the neighborhood.

I feel sad for the owner and yes, the dog too. Am probably being too empathetic about it. But the dog needs better control.

But they never mentioned it was actual fact.