Book: Red X Wolf
Author: Dakota Krout
Series: Damsels of Distress
Ranking: 5/5, will read again

Red X Wolf came out this month and it was an absolute delight to read. There aren't any fully anthro characters although Big Bad certainly has wolfish tendencies. It's also refreshing to have the main character as a woman who is confident in her own abilities and ambitious while obviously caring about the people around her. The author does a wonderful job of weaving various tales involving the Big Bad Wolf into the narrative of what's occurring on the island.

Specific Notes:

- LitRPG Style: In this case, it means that there's going to be sections specifically discussing skill sets and classes. It was a bit heavy in the beginning but it plays an important role in how Lily Red views the world. It also gives clues to what's going to happen soon.

- Romance: Refreshing to watch it grow over the course of the book. I especially love how the couple gets together. In fact, I re-read that part of the book the following day just because it made me happy. The series is noted to be a clean romantasy, so nothing hot and heavy in them.

- Beginning of a new series: they actually let you know pretty early on that there's something going on in their world that needs to be defeated. It's clear that there are more stories, but each story is self contained. Yes, they will have a Beauty X Beast.

Let me know if you read it. I'd love to know your thoughts!

Mika presses the white tea setting on her electric tea kettle. While waiting for the water to heat up, she hopes that she'll actually hear the beep from it this time while she scrolls through her work emails. The end of her tail flicks back and forth rapidly as the raccoon hopes that no one will ask her to respond to a question or call before she can get to her work desk.

She grumbles as she realizes she missed hearing the beep again. The tea water is poured directly onto Art of Tea's White Coconut Creme tea bag and into her special tea carafe. Mika smiles at the images of her face and those of her kits on the side of the carafe. She sets a timer for 3 minutes and takes time to breathe in the steam. The raccoon trills at the smooth scent of coconut.

The upcoming work day is full of expected, unexpected surprises. Mika expects to hear from at least one client about a rushed payment that needs to go out. That happens at least once a week with her current set. Then there's all the fun AI training she's doing to help her team figure out ways to use it in their group. The trainings aren't too bad... at least not the IBM one. She'd like to have some words with the Microsoft training designer...

The timer goes off. Time for work!

This happy raccoon has received a delightful amount of fountain pen inks during the holiday season. I picked up the Diamine inkvent calendar, so I received 25 various inks. Most of them are shiny. Lots of shinies @.@ I've found if I struggle using the ink in my fountain pens, they will usually work just fine in my paint markers.

My mate also bought me a bottle of Monteverde USA Canyon Rust. I used it right away on a letter to my grandma. Thankfully my practice writing with the glass calligraphy pen my sis-in-law gave me last year has paid off so it should be mostly easy to read.

I'm planning on writing more with my new inks this upcoming year or at least making art with them. I received a lemon lime ink that would be nearly impossible to read if I tried using it normally.

For those who watch my Mastodon (https://fuzzytacular.net/@MikaHatter), I have posted progress pictures of my peach rose cross-stitch project. I'm not sure why, but I could not find my black embroidery floss when I needed it for the tiny bumblebee on the pattern.

So began my hunt through various craft boxes.

There's one box I keep in Dattas' den for a bunch of my older kits. Some from my mom and others I picked up early in our marriage. Turns out I have three wolf patterns in there, so that was a delightful find. I thought I, maybe, had one.

I'm still on the hunt for the black embroidery floss, but, as Dattas suggested to me earlier, I can always go to Jo-Anns or Michaels.

The raccoon, wolf, and tanukis (or should I say dragon and unicorn now) mostly had a blast at AWU 2024 this past weekend. The unicorn was feeling overwhelmed by all the people, so we had her visit with family during part of the con. Dragon seemed to cope pretty well; it's the third con she has ever attended. She and the unicorn even had their own tails to wear around, much to their delight.

We attended a few panels this year. Dragon and I participated in the Pokemon TCG panel. I mostly advised her at the panel itself instead of playing, but I played a round with her back at our hotel room. It's going to be fun helping her to build a deck now that we know what we're doing. Dattas has played before, but so far Dragon hasn't convinced him to play yet.

I attended the fountain pen panel as well. My sis-in-law Cory got me a glass calligraphy pen for Christmas, so I've been learning more about fancy pens since then and collected a couple fountain pen inks. If you have a chance to attend Glenn's panel, I highly recommend it. It sounds like he has it every year. He gave out free fountain pens to attendees, so I finally have an easier pen to use. Glass calligraphy pens are lovely, but they hold very little ink. I'm constantly having to dip them into the 3D printed inkwells Dattas made for me.

I also just picked up a paint marker while grabbing a new notebook with thicker pages. Glenn told us about how they can be used with fountain pen ink too. I had a lot of fun trying it out. Dattas was amused to see it's similar to one of the painter markers he bought for something 3D printing related. My version is refillable though.

It seems like Mika's striped tail is in a perpetual state of poofed out given the insanity of the last days of school and the tanukis' best friends moving. Lots of planning with fellow moms, a couple scary hours of potentially watching over new neighborhood kits, and rearranging the freezers despite lacking Dattas' Tetris skills. The tea kettle is constantly on, this week's flavor being a Harney & Son's Paris blend. Mika makes sure to finish the last of the tea before the end of the evening so she doesn't have to remember to put the partially full tea carafe into the fridge. Memory is a fickle thing these days.

The raccoon has taken to keeping a detailed planner with her. This year, she decided to repurpose a sketchbook and create her own planner from scratch. It's filled with various Alice in Wonderland stickers from Happy Planner. Only half the pages have her weekly schedule, with the other page being left for whatever is needed. Several are simply lists of the 10-20 books her family checks out at every 1-3 weeks. Her eldest tanuki, Dragon, goes through books like candy. Her youngest tanuki, Unicorn, needs help with reading for now. Rumor has it that reading skills are going to be taught in her next year of school.

Big events receive their own special schedule pages. Mika already plans on getting a page or two set up for AWU this summer. Mika takes a sip of her tea before checking their webpage. Sadly no panel details are available yet, but she's sure Dattas wouldn't mind watching the tanukis while she attends one or two of them. Mika's very much looking forward to the Dealers Den as she knows at least one publishing company will be in attendance. Ahh...so my shiny books...

Greetings everyone!

I am trying to post more frequently on Mastodon, where I can be found here: https://fuzzytacular.net/@MikaHatter

Most of my personal posts are on my craft projects, but I re-toot art and photography. I've enjoyed my experiences on there so far =^^=

I hope you all are having a lovely day!

We wish everyone a happy and safe holiday season this year!

I actually remembered to celebrate Yule on the Winter Solstice this year! It was a fairly small celebration, and I'm happy with that. Dattas showed the tanukis the Santa tracker a couple times this Christmas Eve. It was fun explaining basic geography to Dragon. I did my traditional charcuterie tray for dinner, and my live-in brother-in-law is thankfully making dinner tomorrow night.

Our plans for Christmas include calls to extended family. We'll do a video call so the grandfurs can watch the tanukis open their gifts. It will be nice to relax at home. It's definitely ironic that the first Christmas we aren't going up to my in-laws is the first Christmas without lots of snow xD

Hello everyfur,

I hope you are doing well and keeping safe. Dattas and I are still spending most of our time away from others even as the restrictions ease up in our state. Dattas has worked from home since before the birth of our first tanuki kit, so his work hasn't changed much other than more coworkers asking him how he's done it all these years. As for me, I had worked more from home during my recent pregnancy. My first time in the office since February was earlier this week when I had to get a part replaced in my work laptop. The elder tanuki, who likes being called Dragon, has been back to daycare for nearly a month. Our newborn tanuki will hopefully start daycare in June.

Dragon and I have had a lot more tea together during the stressful times. We learned Dragon likes drinking tea when she was around 2-ish years old. Nowadays, I typically leave one of my teapots on our kitchen table for using whenever the urge to drink tea hits me. I can't remember the last time I made tea for myself in which Dragon did not specifically request I share with her. The current teapot is the lovely one made by Disney that Dattas gifted to me: https://castlekeepsakes.com/collect.....lavors-teabags

Of course, with drinking more tea, I need to replenish my tea stock. I shouldn't drink caffeinated tea after 2 PM. We noticed I can't sleep well when I do that. As such I am going to pick up a rooibos tea and maybe an oolong. Oolong doesn't have as much caffeine as black teas, and I haven't tested if it has enough caffeine to keep me awake.

I ordered three teas from Simpson & Vail: https://www.svtea.com/
* Blueberry cinnamon crumble rooibos
* Creamy toasted coconut oolong
* Pink passionfruit oolong

I'm excited to try these since they are all brand new to me but sound tasty.

So what about you furs? What kinds of drinks and treats have you been enjoying during this stressful time?

Hello everyfur!

2019 was a crazy year at the Moonchaser Den. Dattas' work decided they only need an IT team of one. I'm pregnant with our second kit and due in March 5th. The tanuki (or Batgirl as she prefers to be referred to) is growing into a sweet toddler that likes to help around the house and cheer us up when she sees her parents struggling.

Things we are looking forward to for 2020:
* Our second tanuki
* Making birdhouses for all the birds that come to our home (we've got feeders in front and back yards)
* Increased efficiencies in Dattas' 3D printing business
* Decreased work hours for me so I'm not as stressed this year
* Attending the local con with the tanukis

I'm wishing you all a better year this year!

Dattas, the tanuki, and I will be attending AWU this year. It's our first time but we've heard great things about it over the years. I could not resist the Sherlock Holmes theme. I've been a fan of the stories since college (before any of the 2000's movies and TV shows).

Sorry for the radio silence the past few months. We've had an exciting six months here at the Moonchaser Den.

Yes Den, not Treehouse. We moved from our condo to a lovely home. We're still in Utah County but not in the same city as before. We're excited about being able to release the Tanuki into a yard and park in our own garage every night. Tonight we actually walked around to meet some of the neighbors.

Another giant change - I made the shift from private accounting (in an accounting department) into public accounting at a local CPA firm. My new workplace is helping me go for my CPA license. So in between unpacking and helping Dattas with new home projects, I am studying.

Anywho, all three of us are doing well even though Dattas and I run around like our tails are on fire. Tanuki is still quite a happy little critter as well.

"Has she worn that hat all day?" Mika asks her mate as she closes the door to their treehouse.

"What? It's cute." Dattas says as he gives his wife a hug and they watch their tanuki wobble over to them. She's getting steadier with all the practice she's done in the past week.

Mika spreads out her arms, an action mirrored by the tanuki, and the raccoon lifts the little one into her arms. She inspects the Happy Birthday hat which the tanuki has surprisingly forgotten is on her head. It has several fake candles in the design and reminds her of a Burger King crown.

"True. Are you ready for your first cupcake kiddo?"

Dattas sets up the camera on a tripod as Mika pulls out the unused birthday candles. She lets the tanuki choose a color and waits for the wolf to take a picture of the pristine cupcake - rainbow funfetti from their favorite cupcakery. Funfetti cupcake with ice blue frosting and a sour candy rainbow on top. Mika sets the candle on the cupcake and lights it.

After Dattas turns on the video, Mika brings the lit cupcake close enough for the tanuki to see but not touch with her paws. "Make a wish!" Dattas calls before blowing out the candle for his little one.

Mika returns to the counter and cuts the cupcake into smaller pieces when Dattas reminds her to include frosting. The raccoon rolls her eyes but moves around the frosting so each piece gets a little bit of frosting on it. She's still slicing and smearing as Dattas takes the pieces to the tanuki.

Minutes go by and most of the cupcake makes it into the tanuki's muzzle. A few crumbs are on the floor but both parents sigh in relief that the whole thing didn't get knocked to the floor like in the YouTube videos. Still, at some point the tanuki does start smacking her paws against the remains of the cupcake, scattering globs of frosting on the floor.

Happy birthday little tanuki!

Mika leans back against the couch with her craft project in her lap. She finished the main part of the deer the other day and is currently working on the wolf. Eventually she will have the Little Red Riding Hood crib cover done for the tanuki. Maybe when she's two…

The raccoon winces when she stands up to grab more tea. Even though it's been a week since her minor surgery, she's still not feeling one-hundred percent better. Mika's glad she doesn't walk hunched over anymore though.

Dattas brings over the tanuki while Mika pours hot water into the teapot. "Hello sweetie," the raccoon calls to her little one. The tanuki responds with her usual smiles, making both parents chuckle. Dattas ushers her back to the couch and sets the tanuki down next to her mom.

The little one has been pretty good about not wiggling too much while sitting next to the recovering raccoon. Mika shakes a rattle in front of her face and giggles when the tanuki grabs it and shoves it in her muzzle. When Dattas brings her tea over, he gives Mika a quick kiss and a reminder to take it easy.

It's going to be a long six weeks

Mika sniffs and sinks back into the couch cushions. A pile of tissues along with a tea service sits on the nearby end table. The raccoon has not even bothered changing out of her business attire since returning to the tree house.

She enjoys watching her healthy and happy tanuki playing with Dattas. The little one has made some progress towards rolling although she can't quite do it on her own. Dattas is on the floor encouraging her and making silly faces when the little one lays still for a while.

Mika is very glad her cold has not interferred too much with her work. The raccoon had to create several new spreadsheets to keep track of all she had to do this month. Now that the month is winding down, she can take her time with the last few things due before month end and help out her overburdened boss.

Of course, she did spend more time heating up tea than usual today. With her nose constantly draining, the raccoon has to keep herself well hydrated, and she's found it easier to have warm instead of cold drinks. Mika has already placed some peach tea, rooibos tea, and mint black tea in her work bag along with a fresh mug.

Hopefully she will get over her cold completely before the delight of Halloween next week.

"Ahhhh, aaaarrrrggghhhh….. Aaauuuurrraaawwww…"

Mika lifts her head up from her book and peeks over at Dattas. The wolf has also looked up from his computer screen, but his eyes are turned toward their tanuki. The tanuki is busy talking to her favorite dragon plushie. She has brought the plushie up to her muzzle to talk to it while also trying to munch on the plushie's arm. Her tiny face scrunches up with frustration as she tries to figure out the best way to soothe her aching gums.

It warms Mika's heart to hear her little one talking even though she sounds frustrated. It warms her heart even more when she watches Dattas sit down next to their kit and talk with her. The tanuki pauses from her munching and chattering to grin up at her daddy. Surprisingly, the tanuki still manages to be somewhat cheerful during her teething. A fact both parents are thankful for.

Mika carefully placed the terrarium upon her desk. She frowned at it and leaned down so close that her nose almost touched the glass. She could see some tiny leaves poking out along the sides and a few bare stalks toward the back. The raccoon was a little nervous about bringing it in to work because of how different the lighting was at her desk. It was nothing like the UV light Dattas set up back at the treehouse. After confirming enough light would hit it, she ceased touching the glass jar and pulled out some papers from her inbox.

Although she looked up at her terrarium from time to time, Mika did not think much of this new addition to her desk. It was more of a brief escape between pulling all the reports she needed to file taxes. It was on her way back to her desk after printing those reports that she saw a bear hunched over her terrarium.

"So what do you have in here? Any fishes?" The bear's face is pressed close to the glass, fogging up the side.

"No fish, just plants." The raccoon squeezes past her to set her papers down on the other side of her computer before seating herself.

"Huh." Her coworker taps the glass with a jagged claw.

"It's a terrarium. A mini ecosystem with plants, soil, and water," Mika explains. "I only have to water it once every few weeks." The raccoon turns the jar around to confirm the water level is still good.

"That's cool," the bear says as she stands up straight. "You'll have to let me know how it goes."

The raccoon nods and turns back to her papers. She gets through one tax return before another coworker walks up and leans against her cubicle wall. Mika barely registers bright orange ears before the fox asks her "what you got in there?"

'Well, at least she didn't grab it,' Mika thinks as she turns over sensitive paperwork on her desk. "It's a terrarium. Several different plants in an enclosed ecosystem." Seeing the question on her face, she adds "no animals, unless a spider snuck in there."

"Looks like it could be a spider's paradise." The vixen shrugs. "Looks cool."

Mika considers if she needs to hide the terrarium in a corner of her desk, but there's no place for it to hide. Oh well, furs will ignore it soon enough.

Mika hears a soft rumbling from the little tanuki, but she's sure its not a growl. She rubs her cub's back and receive a wide grin. Although the little one smiles and chatters, she's still recovering from her first cold. Dattas makes sure she gets vapo rub and takes care of her boogies while Mika tries to keep eucalyptus going in the essential oil diffuser.

Hopefully the little tanuki will be completely better soon. In the meantime, her wolf and raccoon parents are working to keep safe from the cold menace.

I got a little stuck figuring out what to write this week. I was thinking of doing something matching the theme of BLFC but they haven't released that info yet. Do you have any favorite topics or scenes you would be interested in seeing me write?

Hattie double checks her pouch again. It contains five small satchels and one large vial, all empty. Her ruby eyes glance around her home before she places her gathering list, a small piece of charcoal, a few vials of healing infusions, and stones in her pouch.

Only the sentries and a few elders are within sight as she leaves her Douglas fir. The orange moon is a few hours away from setting. Hattie stands on her hindquarters and hums a few blessing lines to the moon, swaying slightly. She ends it with a chirp and swivels her ears fully to the moon. After a few minutes, Hattie passes out of the village and to the nearest stream.

The witches hat plans on obtaining the furthest ingredient, rose petals, first. One of the humans had left a bouquet of roses a few miles from her home and they had grown into a small rose garden. Hattie loves the scent, and the moon agreed it would be perfect for her spell. It saddens her that so few roses look healthy, but she finds enough to fill her first satchel. She leaves an aventurine stone at the base of the roses.

The next part of her journey requires following one of the streams. Hattie spends the first few minutes walking in the stream, the cool water soothing. She does not look forward to the heat of the day. Before moving inward, she drinks from the stream and fills up the vial in her satchel.

The cypress trees have drooping branches. Hattie presses her paws against several to transfer energy and gives the driest ones some water from her vial. The healthiest ones give her a few leaves. Thanking the cypresses, Hattie puts the leaves into her second satchel. The shroomkin pats the little trees and leaves a piece of coral before trotting away.

Her breakfast is blueberries. She wipes her muzzle with an inner piece of her shawl. Her eyes darted up to the moon and note it is barely above the western mountain peak.

The pines smell delicious. Hattie sings to them as she gathers many of the needles into her third satchel. Her ears perk up when one of the trees offers her sap. Her dainty paws grab it, roll it into a ball, and pop it into her muzzle, chewing delightedly. Hattie noses the bark and leaves a goldstone at it's base.

Hattie has to coax the juniper to give her leaves and berries. Her song of offering wasn't enough. The piece of abalone was accepted but still no leaves or berries drop. Hattie grumbles but starts dancing as she sings again. Her fur thankfully covers her blush. She doesn't know if she should feel even more embarrassed when one of the trees drops a full branch for her.

Morning dawns as she scampers towards Father Oak. She bows in greeting and chirps at him. His leaves are lit up and gorgeous. Hattie hesitates to ask him for leaves and some of the moss growing, but he knows why she is there. He drops leaves, moss, and a treasured acorn for her. Be at peace, little one. Be good. Hattie bows again, leaving a pearl for him.

Hattie prances into the village and is nearly run over by cubs. She barely refrains from scowling.

"Easy Hattie," calls Aggie who trots behind the cubs. "Did you find all you need for the festival tomorrow?"

"Yes Aggie. Here's the spring water I collected."

"Good, good. Morey! Leave your sister's ears alone!"

Hattie sneaks away to her Douglas fir. She pulls out each of the satchels. The witches hat sits upon her cushion and chants, her paws held out to encompass the satchels. She does not leave her cushion even though day passes into night and back into day again. She can feel when the materials for her potion are nearly vibrating with energy. With her mortar and pestle, she combines the rose, cypress, pine, juniper, and oak together into a fine powder. Hattie pours the powder into an especially adorned bowl.

Every shroomkin in the village stands around a bonfire as Hattie brings the bowl to the leader of the village. He calls out to the others and tosses the herbs into the bonfire. Everyone breathes in the scent with a sigh. "Let the Harvest Party begin!"




Originally posted on DeviantArt: http://mikahatter.deviantart.com/ar.....arty-630895408

Shroomkins originally created by  Herboreal

Furs are trickling into the office. Every so often a new one pads by, bags in hand, wishing everyone a good morning. A few grumble their mornings, but everyone treats them like true greetings.

Mika is one of the early furs. She's usually able to check her email, quickly make her breakfast, and return to working at least thirty minutes before the bulk of her coworkers arrive. Most of the time, she can get several tax returns, credit cards, invoices, and statements done with ease the first hour and a half.

Then there's days like today.

Although she made the drive safely into work and has a steady pace going, the raccoon yawns regularly. Her eyelids droop when she switches between one task and the next. Her breakfast did not provide enough of a sugar boost to jolt her awake.

After catching herself staring at her desktop tea collection for the third time, Mika finally remembers to grab her mug and heat up some water. Not the best water, in fact it earned the nickname "celery water", but it's the closest water available. While waiting for the silent microwave to stop cooking, Mika returns to her desk to get a little more work in.

Thankfully she sends off a document to the printer near the microwave because her hot water stopped cooking minutes before. The raccoon grabs her warm mug and papers and rushes back to her desk. The teabag sits on her desk, ready to go. Mika breathes in the scent, gives a happy sigh, and places the bag in the mug.

Her eyes dart between the mug and the clock in between transaction entries.

"Hello Mika! How are you?"

Mika blinks at her screen but catches sight of border collie ears above the cubicle wall. "Hi Demeter! I'm good, how are you?"

But the dog has already moved on to other greetings.

Her next stare at the clock lets her know the tea is ready, so she removes the tea bag and takes her first sip of tea.

Glorious.

Her tail swishes as she sneaks in a tiny tea break. Between sips of tea, she brings the mug close to her muzzle to inhale the sweet citrus scent.

The tea is soon gone, but her ears are standing straight up on her head. When the fox that sits next to her arrives, Mika jumps up with a "Good morning!"

"Don't do that!"

*Bounce bounce bounce*

Dattas bounces his tanuki daughter on his knee, tail swishing back and forth in time. The little one has her muzzle open and lets her tongue hang out before releasing a big yawn. She latches her eyes with her dad's and cooes at him. He looks up to see Mika pouring formula mix into the bottle.

"Awww, poor little lady. Momma's almost done."

She walks back with the bottle and accepts the little ball of fluff. Mika shifts around in her seat before finally leaning back, tanuki tucked into her elbow. The tanuki squirms before accepting the bottle and both parents smile at each other in relief.

It's been a rough couple of months, but they are getting into more of a rhythm. Dattas takes care of her at night with Mika taking the early morning shift. Mika reads anything and everything to the little tanuki that she can get her paws on, including the odd murder mystery. The wolf has more practice typing one pawed when he has to stay at his desk and the raccoon isn't available.

Mika had returned to work the previous week. At first, Ananke and Cory came down to watch over the tanuki while Dattas worked. They were able to find a daycare for the little tanuki and she started this week. Her doctor's visit went well this week too.

Our little family is doing well. Dattas and I are preparing for the little tanuki's arrival in a little under 3 months. We're hopefully getting started on the nursery this weekend. We're including Totoro, Gigi the black cat, Haku the dragon, and the little soot spirits from Studio Ghibli in the forest design. As for the tanuki herself, she is extremely active. I'm pretty sure I will have to chase her around a lot once she starts crawling.

She's moving around enough nowadays that she may manage to "kick" Bo bird when he sits on my abdomen. He's not heavy enough to add pressure so she knows where he is, but she could easily hit him on accident. Bo continues to cuddle with me as much as possible, usually when I am lounging with my footpaws up. He'll nestle in my hair and doze off for a couple hours at a time.

Since I'm not really sure what kind of information you would like to hear from me, I figured I would offer a TMI journal.

Please keep in mind I will not answer questions about my sex life - that's between me and my mate only

I'm getting more used to the fun stuff going on with the pregnancy. I'm somewhere around 18 or 19 weeks which means I'm about halfway done baking the little tanuki. I have more energy but the mental fluff kicked in hard this week. Thankfully I make a lot of checklists and track my productivity at work so it's not hard to remember what I am doing. Dattas keeps an eye on me at home to ensure I can remember what I'm doing here too.

I'm working on more projects, but I'm not sure how much creative writing I will do. So far it's mostly working on craft projects that don't require much focusing. The current project I am trying to finish is a cross-stitch pattern on a dishtowel for my mom and a dishcloth. I am writing but it's mostly baby stuff. We have a From Pea to Pumpkin baby journal and a spiritual pregnancy workbook I'm working on once a week.

Our green cheek conure Bo is still being a cuddle bird. He was very talkative yesterday, coming up with all kinds of noises. Dattas and I had to try to not laugh too hard at some of them. I've noticed he stops what he's doing and stares at me when I make high pitched kissie noises. I started prenatal yoga last weekend in the home and it confuses him. He loves sitting on me during the sitting poses, but not when I start moving around. Thankfully Dattas distracts him during most of the routine so Bo doesn't do something like land on my booty while I'm in downward dog.