Virtual Quill

Hi, I’m back, and I’d like to thank Fenton for filling for me last week. Moving on...
Coney is beginning to make friends outside of the family. There’s Francis, of course, and some prey species that enjoy her protection, but at the Happy Little Predator Preschool her best friend is a tiger cub named Lin Lee. Coney asked Kell if Lin could spend the night, and Kell was delighted. However, Lin mother’s apparently rejects all such invitations.
That’s her prerogative, of course, but Coney was disappointed. Lin had been given a heavy workload outside of the school, with no time for play. To her credit, Coney saw a way around the problem by offering herself as “prey” and allowing Lin to complete the letter of the assignment. Lin was able to come over to the house for a play date for an hour until Kell drove her home.
Kell Googled Mrs. Lee and found something revealing. She wasn’t an actual tigress, but a tabby cat with tiger-like markings. Through sheer force of will she’d become a tiger by adopting the behavior of that species to such an extent that the Species Registry had no choice but to grant her Reclassification Request as such. She eventually married a tiger, settled in Domain and gave birth to Lin.
I know all about the ability to change one’s species. It’s one of the great things about this country.

Fenton here. I’m having to write this because the major thing that went on last week involved something that my lovely wife couldn’t possibly comment on: her parents’ sex lives. Every time she sat down to compose her blog she would turn beet red and finally curl up on the sofa in a fetal position.
(I made up that last bit, but she was still really bothered.)
Due to her sense of decorum conflicting with her devotion to truthfulness, I was convinced to write about it. Of course I complied...reluctantly.
It seems that March is when rabbits (both male and female) are seized by hormones that compel them to...frolic. In past years Kell has particularly enjoyed frolicking, but now that she’s the CEO of the multinational corporation she has very little free time. Usually she comes home late and immediately falls asleep, leaving Kevin to carry her to bed.
Finally, one morning Kevin simply told Kell’s limo driver Wally to take the day off. When Wally arrived, Kell was distracted by Aby while Kevin got into the vehicle. Kevin drove Wally home and returned to the house where Kell got in the back seat. I can only imagine what happened when Kell realized who was really driving the limo.
And I can imagine a lot of frolicking.
See, Lindesfarne? That wasn’t so bad.

Kell verbalized her grand vision for Herd Thinners, Inc. Hiring insectivores to market a new product line was only the first step in a larger strategy. She would like the company to be involved in the entire food chain, not just large predators going after large prey.
This has all the risks involved in any corporate culture change, and all the benefits that would accrue to one firm dominating every segment of the food market. I’ll give her credit; she doesn’t think small.
Her motivation isn’t just for the company’s bottom line, although that would surely benefit if she’s successful. She’s always been uncomfortable with some of the firm’s predatory practices, which encouraged the staff to bring down prey that was sick. During her own hunts she made it a point to have her battles be a fair fight as she targeted young, healthy herbivores, which meant that the meat she brought in was always of a higher quality than anyone else’s. (This made her a favorite of her superiors, and led to her being in the room when Frank Mangle challenged R.L., and...Well, you know the rest.)
She’d like that fairness to become company policy, and for it to being common practice. We’ll just have to see.
Meanwhile, for the second time in two weeks a major earthquake has struck the Pacific “Ring of Fire.” Red Cross relief info for Japan can be found here.

Last week the maple tree across the street officially opened for business as a honey factory, with a swarm of bees making the most awful racket. It was incessant, and it kept Fenton and I up all day and night. It turns out that what we assumed to be an industrious, hard-working species was basically just a den of frat house debauchery, and the honey was a "byproduct" of their partying.
I went over to complain, and was rewarded with a dose of super-strength nectar that left me with a hangover the next morning. Tree tried to use her connection to the maple to turn down their music, to no avail.
Tree then made a misstep by calling a bear that simply wanted to kill the bees and take their honey. We don't want to go that far! For a few uncomfortable moments we wondered if the bear had gone through with it, but the bees had just become dormant due to the smoke from our outdoor grill.
I felt bad and began planting a flower garden as a goodwill gesture. We were visited by Cassiopeia, who is the hive Queen. She was visibly taken by our decision to plant flowers expressly for them, and vowed to let us sleep during the day. So far she's been as good as her word.
That's how things stand. The only main sore point now is with Tree, who detests flowers of all kinds.
What your favorite type of flora? (For non-herbivores, which do you think is the most attractive?)