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Zoo Jitsu Fighters is a new full-color independent comic series, created by martial arts fans for those who feel the same! “Successfully funded on Kickstarter, this action-packed series plunges readers into a dystopian future where genetically engineered animals are forced to battle in brutal combat. Follow the heroic journey of Tiago the Tiger as he fights for freedom and justice in a world of exploitation and cruelty.” Created by Patrick Wang (a 2nd-degree black belt himself), two issues have been released so far. What’s more, recently Patrick and crew released a new line of tie-in action figures as well!

image c. 2025 Icon Heroes

Furry True Crime is a genre

In 2024, the Fur and Loathing podcast came out with Guardian journalist Nicky Woolf and Dogpatch Press. The show investigated the Midwest Furfest 2014 chemical attack, based on previously unseen FBI documents and interviews across 4 states. Apple Podcasts gives it a 4.5 star rating, and it has 4.8 from critics, who call it “made with deep reverence and contribution from maligned, largely disenfranchised communities… I think Fur and Loathing is pretty much exactly what I want in true crime.” – Podcast Promise.

Those are results to keep in mind when expecting another Furry True Crime show on the way. They make 2 examples of this suddenly-a-genre (and there’s a third one coming later.) Other kinds of documentary may raise less eyebrows, but these examples aren’t fur-sploitation or salacious tragedy porn. Sorry, the mainstream already makes too much trashy stuff for weirdos who aren’t furries, go find it somewhere else…

Here you’ll find intensely curious investigations for smart people who care about problems and solutions. They feature experiences within the community, made with members, using pro resources to tell deeper stories than can be told without their combined forces. Socially responsible true crime media exists, and we’re already in it.

Streaming July 17, 2025 on AMC+, Sundance Now and SundanceTV (announcement)

The Furry Detectives: Unmasking a Monster is a docu-series about abuse that sometimes uses furry fandom as a cover. Any community can contain abuse, like schools, churches or Boy Scouts, because it’s part of society. Solving it can start with attention and resources that haven’t yet been applied.

The four-part series examines the 2018 Zoosadist Leaks, which exposed a horrifying conspiracy of animal abuse lurking beneath the fandom’s playful exterior. It follows citizen investigators and official police investigation as they confront abuse, fight for victims, and defend their community from the evil within.

One of few other documentaries in a similar vein is the 2019 Netflix series Don’t F*ck With Cats. It focused on identifying and solving crime by one person. This one introduces the organized group kind that makes a new form of cybercrime. It may educate the public about underreported zoosadism, a term that many people don’t even know. Why now? Look into the consequences there weren’t after the 2018 leaks.

The Furry Detectives: Unmasking a Monster is directed by Theo Love and produced by Alex Gibney’s Jigsaw Productions. Who are they?

When the mainstream media wants a look inside furry fandom and reaches out to this site, they’re judged by past work and intentions. These pros made an impression of top notch accomplishment and creative merit. Theo Love’s The Legend of Cocaine Island applies big-budget crime thriller style to an absurd story that stands out in its genre like documentary doesn’t usually do, with wit and heart. His Alabama Snake appraises a troubling character whose trial has him judged by his past, making a fable of sin and redemption. Story and character beat preconceptions in these movies. (Theo was happy to know they were seen by this reporter on first introduction.)

A truth this reveals about us all, from the bottom to the top of society

Crime stories can be accused of painting the community as bad. Transparency is good, actually. It says the problem is not the community members who work for solutions. It’s a problem with power.

Abuse can hide behind trust and respect, and the worst kind can come from the most respected people. Every community has powerful people inside, but it’s contextual while furries are used to being marginal without a lot of credit outside. Now let’s compare some people at the top of American society and how they treat animals.

Eric and Donald Trump Jr. proudly displayed the mutilated remains of animals they killed to corruptly impress other powerful people.

Kristi Noem was Governor of South Dakota and is United States Secretary of Homeland Security. She published a widely-condemned confession of executing a dog named Cricket because he wasn’t obedient enough, followed by killing a goat because she wanted to.

“Treating animal life as so disposable is a shocking repudiation of the kind of relationships that so many of us have experienced with animals.” – The truth Gov. Noem’s puppy-killing scandal reveals about us all (Humane World for Animals)

“She was apparently still in an uncontrollable rage… Noem got angry enough to kill a dog and decided she needed to kill again.” – Noem’s dog killing was bad, but to really understand her, consider the goat (South Dakota Searchlight.)

This is a clue about how Noem later regarded humans when she made “gross and cruel” prison photos to show her power.

Cruelty from the top of society gives perspective when it exists among us, to neither accept scapegoating from above or dismiss it within. Being in community means knowing we’re not immune, but not helpless. We can take charge by empowering each other with knowledge.

You will see this represented by The Furry Detectives: Unmasking a Monster.

The evil that furry PR can do by putting optics over solutions

Setting a crime documentary among furries isn’t an attack. It’s telling a vital story through the experiences of witnesses, instead of a detached essay, like the movie Spotlight features a community confronting abuse in a specific church.

There’s many stories about furries doing charity and making people happy, but saying to only tell good stories doesn’t help the community. It promotes helplessness and lets other people tell stories for you, giving the power to those who don’t know you, and won’t be respectful for talking about you.

The Furry Detectives: Unmasking a Monster owns the power to tell it from inside, collaborating with selected partners who have experience and resources we don’t have. However, no matter how top notch the production is, it’s likely to get some inside backlash that happens so often to the media. You may hear denial, accusation of glorifying, or broad-brush dismissal of true crime as a genre, with lack of media literacy about shows we’re already in.

(Examples withheld to not feed a drama cycle.)

These are common experiences with Furry PR, which can be evil the same way that all PR can be evil. PR is used to push bias and suppress criticism. “Bias” applies to everything, when fandom itself is a form of bias; and it’s not necessarily harmful until it makes warped priorities — as in suppressing priority on solutions and victims, and moving the priest instead.

That happens in furry fandom. It comes with selfish priorities like keeping parties safe for people with social power, while neglecting safety of others and driving away people who are mistreated. Insiders who do that are the real enemies of your community and image. Suppression with warped priorities has been a factor in many fandom stories, including the 2018 zoosadist leaks, while reporting for public interest.

The task of public interest reporting

Public interest reporting involves seeing and hearing those who are unseen. It wasn’t a task chosen by this site; the 2018 leaks were dropped on it by surprise. There was no pay for high labor, pitching for deals, or strategic boosting for hype — just a stream of tips without resources to do what paid pro news does while the issues are highly underreported.

That’s how you can get inside insight here that won’t come from mainstream sources. The coming documentary is like the tip of an iceberg. It wasn’t made to generate exclusive material, but there will be exclusive posts for the $5 subscription level on Patreon for Dogpatch Press. The modest support there helps with intense work behind the scenes.

Dogpatch Press will be at the theater premiere of The Furry Detectives: Unmasking a Monster on June 10, at the Tribeca festival in New York City.

Like the article? These take hard work. For more free furry news, follow on Twitter or support not-for-profit Dogpatch Press on Patreon. Want to get involved? Try these subreddits: r/furrydiscuss for news or r/waginheaven for the best of the community. Or send guest writing here. (Content Policy.)

So there I was standing on the back of a space whale, looking for stickers to put in my book, when all of a sudden some weird tar appeared on the back of the whale! I knew immediately I had to save her! Pilo and the Holobook was a delightful experience with dazzling visuals, good puzzles, and stickers around every corner, literally! I loved exploring the beautiful worlds looking for stickers to fill my holobook while at the same time investigating the mysterious story. It was a short adventure, I 100% the game right at 3 hours, but I really did enjoy the experience and felt like this game could also be a great game for parents and kids to play together (or kiddos who can do it themselves.)

TigerTails Radio Season 16 Episode 13. Join the Discord Chat: https://discord.gg/SQ5QuRf Join the Telegram Chat: https://t.me/+yold2C77m0I1MmM0 Visit the website at http://www.tigertailsradio.co.uk. See website for full breakdown of any song credits, which is usually updated shortly after the show. Credits: Opening music: Magic by Hedge Haiden (Double Hedge Studios) Character art: Fitzroy Fox - https://www.furaffinity.net/user/lunara-toons / https://bsky.app/profile/fitzroyfox.bsky.social Background art: Charleston Rat - https://www.furaffinity.net/user/charlestonrat / https://bsky.app/profile/charlestonrat.bsky.social If you like what we do and wish to throw some pennies our way to support us, please consider sending a little tip our way. https://streamlabs.com/tigertailsradio/tip * Please note, tips are made to support TigerTails Radio and are assumed as made with good faith, so are therefore non-refundable. Thank you for your support and understanding.

TigerTails Radio Season 16 Episode 14. Join the Discord Chat: https://discord.gg/SQ5QuRf Join the Telegram Chat: https://t.me/+yold2C77m0I1MmM0 Visit the website at http://www.tigertailsradio.co.uk. See website for full breakdown of any song credits, which is usually updated shortly after the show. Credits: Opening music: Magic by Hedge Haiden (Double Hedge Studios) Character art: Fitzroy Fox - https://www.furaffinity.net/user/lunara-toons / https://bsky.app/profile/fitzroyfox.bsky.social Background art: Charleston Rat - https://www.furaffinity.net/user/charlestonrat / https://bsky.app/profile/charlestonrat.bsky.social If you like what we do and wish to throw some pennies our way to support us, please consider sending a little tip our way. https://streamlabs.com/tigertailsradio/tip * Please note, tips are made to support TigerTails Radio and are assumed as made with good faith, so are therefore non-refundable. Thank you for your support and understanding.

More cool stuff from WonderCon. This one we’ve heard was upcoming, but we’ve been waiting for the official release. And here it is! Littoral Magic is a new fantasy novel by Aaron Mason and Leslie Ann Moore — the first in the All Oceans Aglow series. “For Ayana Outerbridge, a biracial fourteen-year-old girl, summer vacations on the evergreen Pacific Northwest coastline had once been a time of play and relaxation. But now her father is dead, and all that was bright is now dark. Until one day she finds a strange and startlingly beautiful seashell… Just offshore, the river otter Sleek has broken the Law. He has entered the forbidden Garden to retrieve a mind-elevating gift for his true love Gloss, headstrong daughter of the sea otter king. His trespass threatens to push both tribes closer to all-out war. But will Gloss follow her heart or the rules of her kin? The fates of Ayana, Sleek, and Gloss will soon converge — and when they do, the all oceans will shine with an otherworldly light.” Find it now over at Barnes & Noble.

image c. 2025 Norton Place Publishing

Quick and Flashy

A graveyard of rusted automatons, decorated in bright red grass. Hanging from the floating islands were gears, indistinguishable from stone. The area was called the Golem Gardens, a verdant ruin reclaimed by nature. Bushes and saplings grew from sentinels actively guarding the rubble. These machines, covered in detritus with the emblem of a vortex molded on their chassis, could easily kill careless Leapers. My best chance of surviving is to move, swiftly, find the openings to strike, and get away. Something I learned immediately after a sphere-shaped sentinel tried to hinder my paws with goo, was to never stop moving!

 Motion Twin’s next game is beautiful, bright, and fast! The world’s sundered and the floating islands orbit a raging vortex. Our role as Leapers, is to brave the hazardous vortex pulling all sky islands to it. Currently, these expeditions take us through 4 biomes, where we can unlock 17 different weapons, 14 unique trinkets, and recover 100 memories to augment all our abilities. The only way to traverse the broken landscape is to dash. In most games dashing carelessly makes you fall to your death, but not here. Every dash turns me into a beam of light that blinks from place to place. It’s responsive, and there’s nuance to be efficient. I could dash to avoid an enemy on your island, but there’s a short cooldown, if I blink to another elevation or small island neighboring mine, I can instantly dash again. I flash between platforms, evading attacks from aggressive enemies, and exploring secrets of a crumbling world.

 The weapons are immensely satisfying in my little Leaper’s arms! The Heavy Blade’s attacks are weighty and exceptional for smashing golems, Kunai are good opening weapons, applying a stacking curse condition that does tons of damage when detonated. My first weapon, a community favorite, the Fish Knife is a swift weapon with a simple three-hit combo that ends with a crit, making it the quickest weapon to trigger special attacks with my swapped weapon. Clearing islands and defeating enemies in every biome unlocks new weapons, like the Shrunken or Anchor Boom. As I progress the weapons I find become augmented with abilities, like burning enemies struck, covering them in goo, and doubling in size to outrageous proportions. To provide some auxiliary support, I’m given trinkets that could freeze enemies, blast enemies surrounding me, trap them in ooze, and more. The memories of past Leapers grant real power, I can cause shockwave blasts with every strike, absorb health for each enemy I kill, inflict extra damage to solo enemies, and gain bonus conditions that trigger my weapon’s ultimate Aether attack! Aether attacks are bombastic, signature strikes, that decimate foes and make me invulnerable during their animations.

Busting up machines and braving the vortex doesn’t have to be lonely. I’ve joined 2 other Leapers for expeditions, thinking fighting most Sentinels would be a breeze. You can trade aggro, share pools of potions, and trade items. However complacency invites mistakes, and eventually enemies get enhancements that could ruin us; elite mobs with shadow clones, made me withdraw and watch their moves. Some had orbiting lasers that burned my fur and punished me for mistakes, dashing. The loss of a Leaper used to put everyone in Sudden Death, where a single hit would’ve killed us; now it enrages the survivors, sending them into Revenge mode. We cause serious damage, but forgo self-defense, taking more damage and bloodlust makes us forget to use healing potions. Only when I’ve savaged enough enemies, covering my paws with blood and oil, do I leave Revenge mode. 

Though there’s a little story shared throughout the game, most of it’s passive, through enemy design, environments, and bosses. Early levels give the impression of an advanced civilization, fallen to ruin, with barely functional automation sentries. After the factory, my enemies aren’t hobbled machines, but healthy rat pirates, and later a map that reminded me there was a story this game wanted to tell, and it did so through enemy and map design. After you finish your first encounter with the final boss, and what it unlocks, it causes speculation, not about the vortex.

Windblown is still in early access, with new modes, maps, and more unlockables coming. They just finished a patch which added more story, and the Sanctuary biome, designed to make you question what you know about your home hub, the Ark. Twin Motion made a compelling world with map design, and character details, creating mysteries with barely a word, and the childishly innocent designs of this world are shattered as you mature in capability. Windblown is worth playing and following. Twin Motion is building something shocking at the eye of this storm, and I’m not changing course.

Though the Nintendo Switch 2 is just under two months away, Nintendo Switch 1 owners can rest easy knowing that the console is still getting a lot of love. In fact, a huge sale on digital games for Nintendo Switch is happening until 4/27!

Featuring a number of wonderful and acclaimed titles from third party developers. This is a good chance to grab one of your future favorites for a good price! Let’s check out some furry relevant highlights from this sale.

Recently we visited WonderCon in Anaheim, California. Lots to see, of course — and quite a few interesting furry things snuck in there, if you know where to look! The Council of Frogs is a new fantasy graphic novel by Matt Emmons, freshly released after a successful Kickstarter campaign. “Sent out by his ‘father’ – a kindly old swamp lich – one tiny frog must leave the safety of his home in order to deliver a message of grave importance to a warlock in order to save the entire Council of Frogs. Aided by many unconventional friends along the way, this little frog discovers the dangers of the world beyond his beloved swamp grove. But the world is a big, harsh place, and he may need more than his dandelion hat and a tiny sword to make it back home before it’s too late.” Find it now from Second At Best Press, and check out the review over at Comics Beat.

image c. 2025 Second At Best Press

Engaging storytelling devices paired with inventive spins on tried-and-true gameplay define Willow Guard, a new anthro character filled Medieval RPG by developer MiTale. You play as Ghweros, a badger “Willowguard” that is investigating a series of monster attacks on a remote village in the Northern Hinterlands. As you proceed through the game, you’ll build a deck of cards, a batch of clues, and a bunch of interpersonal relationships to try and help those in need that have been affected by the various afflictions that have arisen with the monsters’ arrival. The core of the gameplay is the ability to use skills within combat dungeon explorations, allowing you to hack, slash, spell cast, and defend your way through increasingly difficult situations and creatures. This gameplay loop of going between well-scripted, interactive investigative dialogue scenes of story content and then skillful isometric action segments is tightly constructed and easy to get wrapped up in; like an engrossing “Choose Your Own Adventure” book.

We are proud to have been nominated for an Ursa Major Award in the Best Magazine category for the year 2024! It has always been a goal of this site and its staff to be nominated for this award, and we are extremely honored to be considered among such incredible other magazine sites that were also nominated.

The Ursa Major Awards are presented annually for excellence in the furry arts. It is intended as Anthropomorphic (a.k.a. Furry) Fandom's equivalent of the Hugo Award® presented by the World Science Fiction Society, mystery fandom's Anthony Award, horror fandom's Bram Stoker Award, and so forth. Anyone may nominate and vote for candidates for the Awards. These Awards are decided entirely by the fans, not by the ALAA committee or a panel of judges.

Voting for the awards is open now and ends April 19th! Those interested in voting can do so at the voting page HERE! We hope you'll consider GAMING FUREVER as your #1 choice for the Magazine category!

Welcome to "Fresh Fur!" Our weekly installment going over the newest game releases, and which ones you can expect to find anthros/furries in!

Check the list below for all the games we could find with animal/anthro influences and characters.

Major New Releases for the Weeks of March 29 - April 11, 2025:

• Dollhouse: Behind the Broken Mirror (PS5, Xbox Series X|S, PC) - March 28
• Wildkeepers Rising (PC) - March 31
• Nif Nif (Switch, PC) - April 1
• Croc: Legend of the Gobbos (PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, Switch, PC) - April 2
• Elroy and the Aliens (PC) - April 2
• Steel Hunters (PC) - April 2
• Jin & Jan (PC) - April 3
• Peppered (PC) - April 4
• Cursed Dawn (PC) - April 7
• Armored Brigade 2 (PC) - April 8
• Burden of Command (PC) - April 8
• Locomoto (PC) - April 8
• South of Midnight (Xbox Series X|S, PC) - April 8
• Commandos: Origins (PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, PC) - April 9
• Driveloop (PC) - April 9
• Blue Prince (PS5, Xbox Series X|S, PC) - April 10
• Crashlands 2 (PC, iOS, Android) - April 10
• Monaco 2 (PC) - April 10
• Monster Energy Supercross 25 (PS5, Xbox Series X|S, PC) - April 10
• Promise Mascot Agency (PS5, Xbox Series X|S, Switch, PC) - April 10
• Willow Guard (PC) - April 10
• Traveler's Refrain (PC) - April 11

*Bolded games have furry/animal influences/characters

Furry & Animal Steam Game Finds:

These games were found in the New Releases section of Steam this week and will be updated as more come out throughout the week!

Welcome to Issue 23:  Griffins, Possums, and Unlikely Friends

Some of the best friendships are also the strangest.  Koko the gorilla and All-Ball the tailless tabby cat.  Fum the black cat and Gebra the barn owl.  And so, so, so many more delightful pairings of animals one wouldn’t usually expect to become friends.

Friendship is about enjoying another creature’s presence, but also, it’s about having empathy for someone other than yourself.  Furry fiction asks us to look through the eyes of other kinds of creatures, an act that helps us develop empathy.  There’s no better way to develop true, deep empathy for someone else than to listen to their stories, whether they’re a griffin, phoenix, possum, fox bard, penguin, or computer program.

* * *

To Their Rightful Owner by Reggie Kwok

Birds of Fortune by Kelsey Hutton

Fred and Frieda by Mary Jo Rabe

Little Joy by Jared Povanda

The Tale of the Penguin and the Puffin by Christina Hennemann

The City Above the City by Claude

* * *

Our most recent reading period was spectacularly successful, and we can’t wait to share the next year’s worth of issues with everyone, full of stories from so many different, extremely talented authors.  Also, since we changed our guidelines earlier this year, we’ll be able to begin publishing longer stories again, starting with the next issue.  For now, we are closed to submissions, but we plan to open again for the month of February, 2026.

As always, if you want to support Zooscape, check out our Patreon.  Also, you can pick up e-book or paperback volumes of our first 16 issues bundled into five anthologies, complete with an illustration for every story.  The fifth volume just came out today!

by Christina Hennemann

“The second she first spoke to him and heard his cackling laugh, Storm fell in love with Sunny.”

Once upon a time, a penguin lived on the vast, rugged wild west coast of Ireland. Nobody knew for sure how the penguin came to Ireland. It was a total mystery. The locals had many different theories: some said that the penguin lost its way in the endless ocean and was swept away by a massive thunderstorm. Others thought that maybe someone brought a penguin egg as a souvenir from the south pole. Some people believed that it could only be a miracle. Either way, people were very excited about the penguin, and newspapers all over Ireland wrote about it. The reporters interviewed the fishermen who had discovered the penguin and asked them many questions. The fishermen told the newspapers that they first spotted the penguin after a hurricane hit Ireland, which is why they called her Storm.

After a while, scientists became interested in Storm and wanted to populate Ireland with penguins to find out more about them. At the south pole, where penguins normally live, it is very cold, which makes it difficult to observe penguins, and the scientists thought it would be easier to study them in Ireland. So, one breeding season, they caught Storm and brought her to the zoo in Dublin. They hoped he would mate with one of the penguins there, but without success. Although there were many attractive penguins, Storm did not like any of them. The scientists did not understand why she would act like that. It was out of her nature, they said, because penguins were commonly known to fall in love quickly. When they examined Storm closer, they found that nothing was wrong with her. What the scientists couldn’t see, though, was that the famous penguin was already in love with someone else, and can you believe it? She was in love with no one else but a puffin.

During her first summer in Ireland, Storm met Sunny, a funny, cheerful puffin with the brightest beak of red and orange that Storm had ever seen. The second she first spoke to him and heard his cackling laugh, Storm fell in love with Sunny. Because Storm was the only penguin in Ireland and had never seen any other penguins, she thought that she was a puffin, just like Sunny and his flock. Sunny, the puffin, however, knew that Storm was different, but he liked her, too, and so they became friends. All summer long they played together, and caught plenty of fish with their clever hunting strategy: Storm dove and chased the fish to the water’s surface, and Sunny flew over the waves to catch the fish when they jumped up. The two of them always shared the fish they caught. In late summer, when the nights got colder in Ireland, they gently rubbed their beaks and feathers against each other to warm up, and often they just sat together in Storm’s nest to watch the beautiful orange sunset.

Storm was totally in love with Sunny. She thought of him day and night and missed him whenever he was spending time with the other puffins. As she couldn’t fly, she was all alone when Sunny went on his long spins across the sky. She watched from the ground, or the sea, and tried to find him amongst the flying flock of puffins. She always recognised him by his bright red beak, and by the black dot on his white chest. No other puffin had such a dot. Storm thought it was beautiful.

Sadly, Sunny did not want Storm to be his partner. He was trying to find a puffin partner. But no matter how many breeding seasons he spent in Ireland looking for a puffin partner, he never fell in love with any of them. He met so many wonderful puffins, but he didn’t like them as much as he liked Storm, and they didn’t make him laugh as hard as Storm. After a while, Sunny got very scared that he would always stay on his own, and that he might never have a partner and cute puffin chicks. He was very sad about his hopeless search. Storm comforted Sunny. She would always listen closely to his worries, and then she would gently pat his wing with her flipper and rub her beak against his chest. In moments like these, Storm thought to herself: “If only I could be your partner.”

One day, Storm took all her courage and told Sunny that she loved him. She said that she could be his partner, and that they could build a cosy nest to raise their chicks. That way, they would never be lonely. But Sunny only laughed loudly and asked her if she was crazy.

“You aren’t like me; you’re not a puffin!” he cackled.

Storm’s eyes filled up with tears.

“Oh, what am I then?” she whispered anxiously.

“You’re a penguin!” Sunny laughed. “Didn’t you know?”

Storm was in shock. She didn’t understand what a penguin was. Yes, she couldn’t fly, but Sunny couldn’t dive half as long as her. “Everybody is different!” she thought. She was very sad and hurt, but she tried hard to hide it. “Oh, of course I know that I am a penguin. I was only joking!” she lied. Then they both laughed out loud. After that, she never talked about being Sunny’s partner again.

Every autumn, the puffins left Ireland and only returned for the breeding season in spring. Storm was terribly lonely during these cold and dark months. She missed Sunny and counted the days until he would come back to her. Every autumn, Storm built a big and comfortable nest while Sunny was away to prepare for his return. She wanted him to have a cozy place beside her in the nest. Although Sunny had called her a penguin, Storm never really gave up hope that one day, Sunny would realise that she wasn’t so different from him after all, and that he could actually love her as she was.

Every spring Sunny returned with his flock of puffins, and every spring he came back without a puffin partner, but he would still not want to be more than friends with Storm, either. Often, Storm wished for her feelings to go away, but they didn’t. Storm knew her love for Sunny was meant to be. When penguins fall in love, it is forever. The same is true for puffins, but this particularly stubborn puffin never fell in love at all. “Lucky him,” the poor heartbroken Storm sometimes thought to herself, when she was secretly crying in her nest at night.

Finally, after many unsuccessful breeding seasons, Sunny gave up his search for a partner. He accepted that he was different from the other puffins and stopped looking for a puffin partner. He was very sad and disappointed, but he also felt a bit relieved that the stressful search was over. Storm comforted him and gently patted his wings with her flipper. Then she told Sunny about all the fantastic things they could do together.

“We wouldn’t see each other that often if you had a family!” Storm said dramatically.

Sunny nodded. “Yes, you’re right. I would miss you way too much!” he replied. Storm smiled, and her beak turned hot and orange.

The following weeks and months, the two of them spent more time together than ever and had so much fun working on their hunting skills, decorating Storm’s nest, and playing silly jokes on the other puffins.

That autumn, when the puffins left Ireland, Sunny decided to stay. He asked Storm if he could live with her during the winter. She was very happy and didn’t have to think twice before she said yes. Before Sunny could move in with her, however, they had to make Storm’s nest bigger so that the two of them would have enough space.

When winter came and it got very cold, the nest was ready. Storm wrapped her flippers around Sunny so that he would not freeze. He was not used to the cold, but Storm didn’t mind the cold and kept Sunny very warm. Storm and Sunny spent day and night together and were never lonely. Sunny often flew out to the sea to catch some fish when Storm was sleeping. He then surprised her with a nice breakfast when she woke up. The two made an excellent team. Despite the cold weather, Sunny enjoyed spending all year in Ireland. He never missed his flock, and he got so used to being with Storm that he never flew away in autumn again. Sometimes Sunny thought to himself: “If only Storm were a puffin. Then we could be partners and have a family.” Storm was very happy with Sunny. She knew that he still thought she was a penguin, but she felt as if Sunny was her partner already, so she never talked about it and just enjoyed being with him.

As long as they lived, Storm and Sunny were together. They spent years and years in happiness and shared the most finely decorated nest. Every now and then, scientists from all over the world came to observe the odd couple, but none of them could get close enough and make sense of what was going on. Sunny and Storm were too good at hiding from them.

Eventually, the scientists left for good and called the pair an ‘error of nature,’ and that was the end of their research. After a few years, however, an old Irish fisherman reported to the local newspaper that he had spotted flying penguin chicks with bright red-orange beaks on the coast. Never did he manage to photograph the miraculous animals, though. Every time he took out his camera, the chicks disappeared. The fisherman told the reporters that the chicks were playing hide-and-seek with him. Then the scientists came back and explored the area, but they saw no such flying penguins. Thus, nobody believed the fisherman’s story. People said he was a crazy old man, and that he was lonely and only looking for attention. After a while everybody forgot about his story. But the fisherman is still sure and swears to his children and grandchildren: if you’re lucky and observe patiently enough, you can see flying penguins on the west coast of Ireland. Just don’t bring your camera.

 

* * *

About the Author

Christina Hennemann is a poet and prose writer based in Ireland. Her debut poetry pamphlet “Illuminations at Nightfall” was published in 2022 by Sunday Mornings at the River. She won the Luain Press Poetry Competition, was shortlisted in the Anthology Poetry Award and longlisted in the Cranked Anvil Short Story Competition. Her work appears in Brigids Gate Press, The Moth, Ink Sweat & Tears, fifth wheel and elsewhere. She is currently seeking representation for her debut novel. Find her online: www.christinahennemann.com or @chr_writer on Twitter & @c.h_92 on Instagram.