Sun Mote Copse vine energy

Towhee stashed her child elsewhere today before dropping by @Niamh's den. She wanted to ask her sister-in-law an important question. As she slowly crept up to the little doorway, orange eyes squinted against the interior gloom, she saw one of the twins squirming in this direction. She smiled, a quick inhale identifying her and prompting a, -"Hey there, Quetzal,"- even though Towhee knew perfectly well the puppy could neither see nor hear her.

As she watched her "chibling" (the term she had come up with to describe the pups who were simultaneously her children and niblings) bumble, Towhee licked her lips. She was so tiny. That made her think of the question she wanted to ask or, rather, the statement she needed to make. As much as she loved the idea of bunking with the whole family in theory, the reality was that Meerkat was a toddler now who liked to explore her world largely by biting and hitting it.

Towhee let out a soft sigh through her nostrils, then reclined into a sphinx-like position with her paw reaching into the den. Only a few weeks separated the two litters but they were at very different life stages right now. Meerkat could easily hurt her little "couslings" (another made-up term) on accident. She would be old enough to live at the rendezvous site in a few weeks anyway, so it was definitely more practical not to relocate her here after all. The Regent strongly suspected Niamh would concur.