Kennel Chaos (Caoin)

[Zeal Aldercraft]

9th Day of Fall, 511

“Slow down, Vanya!” Zeal yelled out into the tall grass. Thick blades stretched and twisted in the wind, blocking the white fur of his deerstalker from view. His pale blue eyes scanned the distance, desperately searching for her, but she was gone. He picked up his place from a slow walk to a jog, heading towards the wavering stalks of murky green and gold, unease settling in his stomach. Even his dog could be lost to the unforgiving terrain that surround the moving city where she could be victim to a glassbeak attack…or worse.

Zeal whistled, blowing with two fingers to his cold lips. The sound sliced through the chilling autumn breeze and, if he was lucky, would lead Vanya out. He whistled again, this time calling her name frantically at the edge of grass. “Vanya! Come here girl.” Panic wove into his deep voice, filling him with dread. Vanya was the last of his deerstalkers. How could he lose her too? Was his Ankal right about him?

He pushed through the edge of the grass and as it closed down around him, he whistled again. The swaying blades brushed against each other, outside of that and the sound of his heart banging around in his chest, it was quiet. Zeal turned in circles, trying to figure out what path she took. To the right? To the left? Did she make her own path and dive straight through?

Zeal pushed forward, desperate to find her. His pulse hammered in his neck and his red-rimmed eyes blurred. The stalks of grass closed in so tight around him that he couldn’t breathe. He struggled to get free but the harder he struggled, the tighter they wove their way around him and during the course of it all, he yelled until his voice was hoarse, for Vanya to come back to him. To please, just come back to him. As darkness closed in on him, the grass slowly snuffed the life from his body. It was Vanya’s raspy wet tongue lapping his face that woke him from his crazy dream.

The Drykas slowly sat up in his bed and rubbed his eyes, clearing the sleep fog from his mind. He was so glad to see her, that he didn’t immediately wipe away the drool on his cheek. She was the best thing in his life. His guilt over what had happened to the rest of his kennel was still with him and he carried the heavy weight of bad choices on his back, but as long as he still had her, he would be okay.

He roughed the hair on her back and she laid down at his feet like a warm blanket while he petted her stomach. Her hair was coarse. She needed more than a bath; she needed a good grooming. He smiled at her as he got to his feet and slipped into his boots.

Together, they left the Aldercraft pavilion and worked their way through the sea of brightly colored tents to the bannered Silverstrider pavilion to the best groomer in Endrykas.

Word Count520

[Caoin]

Location: Silverstrider Pavilion
Date: Fall, Day 09, 511 AV OOCIf you don't mind, can we set the date for the 9th? If that doesn't work for you, just let me know and we can find a different day.

As Syna pushed her way up into the sky, chasing away the darkness of the night, Caoin felt the cold and wet of Sealgaire’s nose bumping insistently against her neck. The prodding was accompanied by a rather loud whining that was hard to ignore, and so she had no choice but to drag herself from whatever forgettable dream she was in, in order to contend with the real world. The young Silverstrider pushed herself up from where she had been laying on her stomach, and turned her head to find herself face to face with the a salt-and-pepper muzzle and a slobbery pink tongue. The tongue slid from her chin, over her mouth, and along the underside of her nose before disappearing back into Sealgaire’s jaws. The quarni left her skin wet with his drool, and she reached up to wipe it away as she twisted her body and moved into a sitting position. “I know, I know. Good morning to you too, boy.” She knew exactly what Sealgaire wanted, he wanted to get the day started, because the soon it got started, the sooner Caoin would get dressed and eat. The sooner she did that, the sooner he would get to eat.

She rose from her bed reluctantly and set about grooming herself for the day, which included washing off and straightening the unkempt mess that was her bed-head. Once she’d cleaned herself up she quickly pulled on the clothes that she had washed the night before, stumbling and hopping towards the common area of her family’s pavilion as she pulled on her pants and boots. It was a rather awkward and amusing site for those of her family that were sitting down to breakfast at the time that she entered, one foot in the air as she tried to pull a boot onto it. Caoin looked up as a few members of her family chuckled and giggled, she offered them a scowl in exchange before finally pulling the boot on. Caoin didn’t bother to sit down at the table to eat her meal, knowing that the day ahead was going to be a busy one. She simply grabbed would foods could be carried with her and started towards her family’s kennel. Her first order of business for any day was feeding the dogs, her own and the rest of the dogs that her family owned.

Caoin walked into the tent where the dogs were kept, Sealgaire following behind her with a tail that was wagging like a flag in the wind. It was breakfast time and he was ready to chow down. As the two entered, they were greeted by the excited barking of the family’s dogs, all of them happy to see a human face and eager to eat. Caoin went around to her own dogs, letting them off their leashes so that they could follow her around as they were accustomed to doing, and she paid each special attention, ruffling their fur and ears affectionately. Her attention was returned in kind with gentle licks and bodies rubbing heavily against her legs. "Good morning, girls and boys," she crooned in greeting to the dogs. Once her babies were busy eating their own meals, she got to work filling all of the food bowls for the other dogs and cleaning out the water bowls so that she could fill them with fresh water.

There were numerous animals to care for, and always the chance that someone else might bring their own animal by to be groomed or come by to look at the animals that her family was selling. It wasn’t unusual for her to help out with the sales or to fill in for family members when someone brought an animal by that needed to be groomed.

MizNo Word Count630

[Caoin]

Caoin scrubbed hard at the inside of one of the water bowls with a wet cloth. It was important to clean them thoroughly every now and then because of the thin veil of slime that would develop on the inside after awhile. It was disgusting and would lead to the dogs drinking unclean water if the slime was allowed to remain. It was also generally a good idea to clean the dishes that a person or animal ate out of anyway. That bowl happened to be the last of the bowls that Caoin had to clean and when she was finished, she filled it with fresh water and returned it to the run of the akinva deerstalker that it belonged to. The akinva looked up from his food bowl, wagging his stump of a tail happily at the familiar young woman before turning his attention back to more important matters, like eating.

The runs that Caoin’s family kept their dogs in weren’t your usual kind. Most people had kennels that were made up of large cages for the dogs to be kept in, but because Endrykas was a moving city, it was impractical to try and maintain such a facility; the cages would be far too difficult to move. Caoin’s family had turned to a simple solution. Their kennel was made up of a large tent, much like the usual Drykas styled stables, and each dog was kept on a lead that was attached to a spike in the ground that was designed to allow the dog to move all the way around the spike without getting tangled on it. In the same way that the stalls of horses were divided by wooden rails, the runs of the dogs were divided by wooden walls as well. The walls were made of sturdy pieces of round wood and designed to be like the walls of cages, so that the dogs could smell and see eachother through them, but would not be able to get at eachother should they grow aggressive. The leads also kept the dogs from jumping over the short walls. This negated the need for real cages, but allowed the family to gain easy access to the dogs. The Silverstriders did own a few large cages made of sturdy wood that were used to house new dogs that were not properly socialized with the rest of the family’s animals until they could be trained.

Caoin’s next order of business was cleaning out thse runs while the dogs were eating. It was a task that was pretty much the same as mucking out the stall of a horse. Scoop the poop and cart it off to a compost pile. Change out the straw bedding that the dogs used and replace the old, molding straw with fresh straw. Caoin found it rather amusing that when she wasn’t working at Rothos’s stable, she was doing practically the same job in her family’s own pavilion. Lucky for her that she didn’t really consider it work, it’s what she enjoyed doing. Being with the dogs and the horses, sometimes she felt like they understood her better than her fellow man, and she always felt like it was easier to understand them. Caoin paused in her work, leaning against the shovel she was using to scoop up poop and looked at the dogs around her, her gaze circling the tent to follow the line of runs that lined its edge to form a circle around the work space in the middle. Each and every dog fell under her watchful gaze before her attention turned to her own dogs where they were roughhousing in the middle of the circle while she worked. She understood that they were not humans and were not meant to be treated as humans, but they were still very much her children, her family. She loved them as dearly as she would any human.

Satisfied that her own dogs weren’t getting into trouble at the moment, Caoin turned back to her work, shoving the shovel under a pile of dog feces and dumping it into the cart she used to transport all of the excrement from the kennel. The Drykas woman looked at the pile of waste in the cart. Man, dog shit sure smelled bad.

MizNo Word Count714

[Caoin]

Caoin had finally finished cleaning all of the waste from the kennels and changing out all of the old straw for new straw. With the cart used to carry waste full, it was time to dump it all in the compost heap that her family kept. They often left the compost behind to fertilize the land after Endrykas had passed through, to help replenish grass and other plant life that was used or destroyed in their passing. Lifting the handles of the small, push-able cart, Caoin rolled it along in front of her towards the exit of the tent. “Come on guys,” she called to her canine companions as she walked out into the daylight and headed off towards her new destination. This was part of her routine, she always allowed the dogs to follow her freely about as she worked. They were trained well enough that they always stayed near her on their walks, and she only let them run loose on the land occupied by her own family.

The group made their way across the grass, weaving between her family’s tents toward the edge of their tiny corner of Endrykas. They had always settled on the outskirts of the Amethyst clan’s branch of the moving city so that they would have plenty of room for their livestock and dogs. As Caoin and her dogs neared the compost heap, Caoin decided to do a little work with her dogs while they were out, since it was imperative to maintain a dog’s training so that they wouldn’t forget commands. The woman stopped the cart, turning to the dogs that were following her and whistled to get their attention.

Once the dogs had their eyes on her, she held her hand out to them so that her palm was facing them, as if she were motioning for them to stop. The dogs immediately fell into a sitting position, alert and all of their attention on Caoin. “Good dogs,” she stated before lowering the hand she was using to give visual clues, her hand coming down palm first and stopping at her side. The dogs lowered themselves so that they were lying on the ground. “Stay,” Caoin commanded calmly and firmly. She watched them for a moment to make sure they were going to stay before picking up where she had left off and pushing the cart the rest of the way to the heap. Caoin dumped the waste at the edge of the pile and turned the cart around to head back to the kennel tent. The dogs were still lying on the ground patiently as Caoin walked past him. As she moved past where the last dog was positioned, Caoin called back to them all, “Heel,” and the six of them rose, catching up to her and falling in line at her side.

Despite the fact that Caoin was not a master trainer, her dogs were quite well behaved because her family had helped her to train them as they were being raised. It was Caoin’s attitude, her calm and yet firm manner that helped her to maintain control of the animals, since it helped her to establish her position as alpha of her pack. So long as she showed no signs of weakness, her dogs considered her to be the leader, and that was how she managed to keep control of them, even with six of them following her.

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[Caoin]

Upon returning from her trip to dump the kennel waste, Caoin rinsed out the cart and returned it to the corner of the tent that it usually occupied. When she was finished with that, she strode across the tent to the cages that the new dogs were kept in order to check up on them. Caoin noticed that their cages had all been cleaned and that their bowls had been cleaned and filled with fresh food and water. One of the other members of her family had likely taken care of them before she’d even gotten up for the day. Satisfied that she’d concluded her work in the kennels for the day, Caoin figured that it was time to move on to the stables and see if any help was needed there. She straightened herself from where she had been bent over the cage of a recently acquired silken and turned to make one more round to check on the dogs. Caoin barely caught a glimpse of Ri’pah and Shasta, her two akinvas, from the corner of her eye, but what she did catch was enough.

“Ri’pah! No,” Caoin cried out in surprise and shock. She’d turned to find Ri’pah and Shasta in a socially awkward position, one that she’d hoped would be a little more planned. She hadn’t counted on them going at eachother while her back was turned. There was no telling how long it had been going on while she was working that morning and not paying attention to the dogs the entire time. The two dogs paused in the middle of their activities, their heads swiveling around to look at Caoin, along with the rest of her dogs (who were behaving themselves nicely). The woman contemplated abandoning her last inspection of the rest of the dogs but shook her head. There was no point now, the dogs would have to finish before they could separate. She stared at Ri’pah and Shasta for a moment. “You guys couldn’t have waited,” she groaned, “I can’t believe you two,” and she continued to stalk her way around the pavilion.

When the akinvas were finally done, the two separated themselves. Caoin had taken the time to put the rest of her dogs back in their runs while the two lovers had finished their spat of loving. When the Drykas woman noticed they had finished, she strode across the pavilion towards them. Upon reaching them, both dogs looked up at her innocently. Caoin wasn't buying it though as she grabbed Ri’pah’s collar and led him over to his own run, where she quickly attached him to his lead. The other dogs followed, save for Sealgaire since he was never kept in the kennel, and Shasta. Caoin didn’t think the female akinva was in heat, and the males hadn’t been fighting over her, but after what had just happened, it was entirely possible that she was. Caoin couldn’t take any chances. Shasta would have to be kept separate from the rest of the dogs, in the area where females in their heat cycle or who were pregnant were kept.

Caoin retrieved Shasta’s leash and attached it to the dog’s collar. “Guess we’re gonna have to see how this one turns out, huh, girl? Come on, Sealgaire.” Caoin led Shasta out of the kennel, Sealgaire following close behind the two. She knew that she would have to keep an eye on Shasta and watch closely for signs of pregnancy. Caoin hadn’t intended to breed any of her dogs for the time being, but it looked like she might have a litter of puppies on her hands anyways.

MizNo Word Count533

[Lariat]

Caoin

Experience:

Animal Husbandry: 2 xp

Lores:

Recognizable gestures: Stay, and Come.
Need to be mindful for male and female dogs breeding on their own.

Comments
Good Thread again Caoin, shame Zeal dropped out though. Now it's tip time. It was a great thread, with good flow but there is a way you can earn more animal husbandry skill while still keeping the sanctity of the story. My suggestions for your level as you get close to competency is to work on very simple gesture's all your own to teach your own dogs, while also working on your technique when cleaning, caring for, and feeding your dogs. Quality is better than quantity of course, and the more you immerse yourself into it the more xp you will earn from it. If you would like examples, I'd be more than happy to pm you some. Keep up the good work!