Log- Week 11-
*** Sunday afternoon .***
I would like to propose possibly getting locking handles or just actual door knobs instead of levers for the rooms at some point. Not an immediate issue, since all the doors open in instead of out, but at least one of the Pack has figured out how to use his wings to boost a jump just high enough to catch the door lever on the way down. If Rook can manage that, so can the others if they see it. And even if I tell him not to do that anymore, one of the next generations might find the same trick.
On a related note. Bill, I’m sorry for doubting the notes you sent me. They do seem to have at least alicorn level planning skills and thought process. And they’re still young, so the chances of the main Pack bloodlines hitting “Border collie level intelligence” someday isn’t completely preposterous. Especially the one you decided to add a strong dash of corvid genetics into. That said, this is the worst idea you have put in front of me. Border collies- nearly all smart herding breeds- are sneaky, cunning little bastards. Yes, they are my favorite kind, but really! Add even a bit of stubborn or smarty to that and we have a headache in the making.
Aurora is already going to be a problem. I know she’s one of the favorites in the footage, with the damage her size and aggression level allows, but she is a problem. Might have to run individual footage of her in the isolation rooms and set the boys against limited groups outside for a while, until I’m willing to let her back in with the others. Probably at least not until Foxfire’s wing and ribs heal enough she doesn’t pose such a tempting target.
Bill, I would also like to use this moment to point something out. Foxfire is by far the most fragile of the Pack, beyond the temperament issues, and she is a runt. I can try crossing her with the sturdiest of whatever I have available when the time comes. But much as Dave loves the idea of her look… I’m just adding this as a note, okay? Foxfire’s still on painkiller sedatives until next Sunday to give the bones time to heal before she starts running wild and being her usual self. If I run any more footage with her, it’s going to be in the isolation room and very controlled scenarios. Marnie has still been the best Foxfire watcher I have, keeping her happy and bringing her the toys and such she wants.
The surrogates had a little bit of a hissy fit about Aurora, Rook, and the walnut colt. Swapped normal Fluff’TV over to an Alicorn friendly special running 24/7, made Rook and Glory walk by and say friendly, nice things to those two mares and Pepper, with Marnie in tow saying nice, happy things about them. Opened all the runs and dished everyone out sketti bowls to eat “together, like good friends”. Yes, both the boys and Marnie were bribed and threatened within an inch of their lives before I let them in. Pepper, since Marnie agreed with what the show was saying, has completely swapped over to the right point of view. No more munsta babbeh talk, she’s tucked the walnut alicorn foal in completely as one of her own, “Peppaw be guud mummah fo’ aww babbehs, eben if babbeh udda mummy am bad mummah.” Three cheers for the least useless of my little breeding stable, even if her colors kinda suck. If she can foster alicorn rejects so I can sleep, she’s already more than earned her keep, and she’s being a good example for the high strung idiots in the next runs.
“Sunshine” and “Myra” seem to be toeing the party line now, but I’m watching them. Everything they’re implanted with is theoretically worth ten times what the brown alicorn is, even if we aren’t selling any of the foundation stock yet. I have no intention of letting either of them fuck this up- even if I have questions about Bill’s choice to use non- alicorn friendly mares, or at least non- alicorn tested mares, as the surragates for this shit. (Edit. he emailed me after I added the start of the log to Dave’s archives. Apparently when he picked the candidates for all the litters, he was expecting them all to be pillowed or milkbagged by the time the litters were born. He does appreciate that I’m keeping their stress low enough to mimimize the risk of late miscarriage, unlike what happened with litters 3 and 4. And he sent me pdf guides on milkbagging and the same pillowing guide George printed out for me. I’ll… I’ll keep it in mind, have them saved to my phone. As a last resort only, of course.)
Aurora spent all of 3 hours in the feeder kennels before I shoved her in the holding cage in the exam room instead. About six inches less space in each direction, no other fluffies to upset with her tantrums. In fact, the exam room is nearly soundproofed. Not sure who planned that little detail(pretty educated guess on why, Kal.) But regardless, no-one can hear her screaming anymore. She can mostly stand up and turn around, it’s big enough for now. She has water and I’ll dump some of the dog kibble I still have from weaning these idiots in front of her when I get around to it. Maybe I’ll turn the lights on in there at some point. I’ll deal with anything else that comes up as it comes up, I guess.
Cotton Candy and Margarita are still annoying and in possession of the same number of foals as yesterday. They and Pepper’s foals are starting to open their eyes, and the first bits of mane and tail should show up soon. Same for the blue bitch outside and her six.
Hey- remember how Margarita was asking for her sister? Yeah… that’s apparently the pregnant muck-ugly green mare I put outside. She’s named Absinthe, and she had five foals earlier today- one of which was an alicorn. A pale grey alicorn. Luckily her reaction was to ostracise the baby and push it aside rather than outright infanticide, and the herd’s reaction to the birth was loud enough Jake went to go see what was going on soon enough to salvage the situation. The tiny filly shouldn’t have any adverse effects from the ordeal, we got her tucked in alongside Pepper’s other responsibilities well in time.
Most of the rest seem decent colors as well, two more light grey, a black, and a paler version of her green. Absinthe has earned herself the last medium breeder cage, right next to her sister. Blue bitey Mummah had an absolute tantrum over that, and oh, I loved walking away from it. Almost think I should toss a couple of her brats to Aurora when I run this week’s vid… I’m spending way to much time with Kal and George, maybe Anyways, I’m debating between just breeding them to the best looking of the stallions I have caged here or seeing if I can use these as the test subjects for “are demonfluffs cross fertile with normal fluffies?”. The alicorn genes (Hey, Bill? Is it just recessive like dilute pigments in dogs or one of those really complex gene assortments? Do you have a study I can try reading?) I’ll give it a little longer. Katy said the boys might start hitting the first stages of sexual maturity in the next week or so, so we’ll see if they’re up to it before it’s time to rebreed the mares.
Early Monday update
Why is this always at like 4 in the damn morning? So discount fluttermop- uh… “Sunshine”, whatever, had her implanted litter tod- tonig- last nigh about an hour ago. Bit more of a production than most of the fluffy litters I’ve seen so far. I did call in Katy the moment it started. Which was a good thing for the papertrail and cya peace of mind if nothing else . There were seven viable foals at the last ultrasound before they were delivered. We have six that were still alive at birth, one of which lasted for just a few minutes before they stopped breathing. One of the others was pretty touch and go, but we managed to get her stable and nursing. So five out of seven out of the fifteen originally implanted. I’m kind of bummed at this, no matter how much Katy assures me I did the utmost. The stillbirth was a pinkish purple version of Foxfire, claws and batwings included, and we might have saved that tiny clawed unicorn. (Katy says we never had a chance. She just finished running necropsies on the two we lost, and says they wouldn’t have been viable no matter what I did. There is still a fifty-fifty shot she’s just trying to make me feel she just read this over my shoulder and hit me for that. Neither of them had the lungs developed right, the alicornish one also had heart and digestive issues.)
In other news, I have the fluffy-safest heating pad I could get under a towel in Sunshine’s run, everything cleaned up around her, and am keeping close eye on the monitors. We have three alicorns in this bunch, going by the tiny wing nubs and itty bitty horn stubs. One of them, the white one, and the one plain unicorn(one of the two sun/gold foals) of the bunch have longer tail nubs than I’d expect, which is…Bill did email me to expect a few oddities in these batches. We will see. So, white alicorn, pale pink alicorn, a maybe odd tailed golden unicorn, a just as golden pegasus, and a pale yellow alicorn with itty bitty scrunched batty wings. The last one is the one that nearly died on us a few times before we got her stable.
We have more demonfluffs! That pale pink one is, in fact, the only living colt. I foresee so much teasing in his future. Myra is supposedly somewhere between a few hours and a few days behind Sunshine, so I’m trying to keep an eye on her now too. So many foals. Exponentially more work than even half grown fluffies.
My current work load- Four adolescent carnivorous fluffies, one of them an utter, recalcitrant bitch. Five itty bitty chirpy carnivorous fluffies. Possibly up to eight more baby demonfluffs to be born any day now. Marnie, who’s almost no trouble at all as fluffies go. Eight breeder mares, all either pregnant or nursing a litter. Four breeder stallions in wall cages they whine about, (I’m sure they’ll get used to it eventually. Or they can go outside.) Nineteen foals with a chance of being sold, two of them alicorns. Outside there are five more mares, five more stallions, and six foals, all numbers subject to change the moment the Pack gets hungry and the cameras start rolling. And a couple half prepped ex-fluffies still in the freezer. (They’re pining for the fjords. Beautiful plumage- er, coats? sorry.)
Kal thinks he can find me a decent grinder to make my own supplemented mince for between vid meals. Sounds great to me, since I’m buying a fluffy based mix advertised for cats and ferrets and adding vegetable puree and rice. Going off what Bill and Katy have worked out, my charges could theoretically survive on pure meat with enough focus on innards and gutloading, but they’re probably a little more canid in digestive needs than feline. Vulpine? (Look, Bill, until you finish those full workups I have been promised, your extensive emails work out to little more than “carnivore but probably not obligate carnivore”. So vitamin laden veggie puree, bits of oats and rice, and lots of meat with natural taurine. It seems to be working so far. Tell you what- I’ll get Dave a litter out of her and send you Aurora for experimentation/ vivisection Look, finish with what Katy’s notes and samples tell you, and we’ll see where we get.) Katy actually just reminded me I technically have nearly two months more experience feeding and keeping these particular little shits alive than any of the lab people, Kal or George. That is a very sad thought, but I suppose.
The Pack get meat and supplements, except for the bitch who’s getting dog kibble because I’m still being a petty bitch myself. Pepper, Sunshine and Myra get high grade breeder nursing kibble, with extra supplements to the latter two so their milk is optimal for the implanted foals. The other six get slightly less high grade breeder kibble, and the stallions and outside idiots get the cheapest shit that didn’t make Katy cringe at the ingredient list. They also have access to grass, so whatever.
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