Heron Lake Plateau ashes against the grain

Quixote's tail swept some dirt around as he was attacked by most active ranks of the puppy horde -- yeah, they weren't perfectly behaved, as Owen's choice of location to pee proved.  At least now he felt much more confident dealing with them since that they weren't just little wiggly beans.  For the most part he just let them run amok and use him as a jungle gym -- but man, he really couldn't wait until they were a little bigger and he wasn't afraid that he'd hurt them or they wouldn't appreciate more rough and tumble play.  He tipped his head back to look at Raven sort of upside-down, Oh yeah.  We didn't, did we?  Uh.  I mean, she's calmed down a lot I think since she hasn't had Screech to hover over at least, so I'm glad for that at least.  Seriously, he'd been a bad influence on her even when he was completely out of it.  But he was gone now, huzzah!  And she's good friends with Towhee and stuff, right?  Do you think they'd do better as equals or maybe keep Niamh a step lower due to seniority or what?  He wasn't exactly a traditionalist, but Raven had almost certainly had more contact with both of them than he had recently since both came to help with the pups.