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Runt of the Litter
by Sara Etgen-Baker I stepped off the back porch and approached Fritz’ house which was nestled beneath his favorite spot under the shade of my family’s sprawling pecan tree. Using our shared German language, I commanded Fritz to dinner: “Fritz! Kommen Sie hier—Abendessen!” Yet, Fritz didn’t come when called to dinner. I knelt down; peered inside his doghouse; caught a glimpse of his shiny dark little nose; and found him snuggled in the back corner of his doghouse, shivering
Sara Etgen-Baker
Sep 10
How Good It Is!
by Christopher Dąbrowski A starving bear crept into town. At the sight of him, people fled, screaming. "What a pity I'm not a teddy bear. They would not be afraid," murmured the disappointed predator. "I could eat them all." "But, would I feel like meat?" he mused, scratching his head. "I wouldn't have anything to digest." Suddenly, he saw an abandoned vegetable stall. Orange carrots caught his eye. He decided to try them. "How good they are!" he crunched them delighted. "
Christopher T. Dabrowski
Aug 27
Under the Bed
by Huina Zheng In our suburban home, the space beneath the bed was never quiet. Once, while my brother and I were napping, a green snake slid out from under it, and my father killed it with one swing of his hoe. Ants, spiders, and geckos crawled out from there; frogs and grasshoppers leapt out; mosquitoes and flies burst into the air. But all of them were nothing compared to the rats. They were huge as hens, the true rulers of the house. My mother hated them. They carried off
Huina Zheng
Jun 9
The Moon as Her Mother
by Hira Amir It all started the day when a team of doctors, wearing masks and lab coats, from the Institute of Animal Health came to their part of the village to announce the development of the new vaccine that fights various cattle diseases. All the village cows were to be injected immediately, the senior doctor said, no emotion behind his eyes; it is a government order. They had prepared in advance for the collective rebellion from the villagers. “We’re not letting these go
Hira Amir
Feb 26
Quit Horsing Around
by Susan Duffield-Lodge From the moment our eyes met I knew in my heart that he was the one. I’d never been a believer in love at first sight. Until now. Destiny can be funny like that; sneaking up on you when you least expect it—one of those magical, memorable moments when love gently taps you on the shoulder. I was immediately transfixed by the sheer beauty and magnificence of him as he began slowly ambling toward me. I found myself assessing his physical bearing from afar—
Susan Duffield-Lodge
Nov 25, 2025
Chaos Was A Blue Cat
by Irene Cunningham the woman I saw within her had pale blue hair with electric highlights. She could nestle in cloud under the moon… in fact it appeared sometimes there were great grey wings puffing around her, camouflaging her nakedness. No one knows what she got up to on those nights amongst rooftops and spires, and mornings after the short disappearances, she’d sit facing walls, tail wrapped around her paws probably re-living reckless raving—I should’ve called her Harpy.
Irene Cunningham
Oct 26, 2025
A Doggy Christmas
by Andrew McDonald “Sit pretty Max.” Mark smiled as the dog sat up on his haunches, front paws out as his long pink tongue dripped a bit...
Andrew McDonald
Sep 30, 2025
Surely Shorty
by AE Reiff Surely drove up and parked under the Bougainvillea. I wasn’t sure at first if she wasn’t he at first because of the tail...
AE Reiff
Sep 24, 2025
Chow, the Restaurant Dog
by Gary Engkent He was a mongrel. With rough, coarse coat of straggly hair not a thoroughbred. Everybody at the Panama Café called this...
Gary Engkent
Sep 17, 2025
Tom and Jerry
by Tony Warner Tom curled up lazily on his blanket. He stretched one forepaw, then the other. His whiskers had a little bit of old gravy...
Tony Warner
Sep 11, 2025
When They Arrive
by Summer Hammond The first moment they see her is a love story. They streak together across the yard, beautiful balls of light, meteors...
Summer Hammond
Sep 10, 2025
Mother, May I
by Karen Schauber He's peering up at me all honey-eyed, his stumpy little tail vibrating, waiting for me to pick him up. My eyes welling....
Karen Schauber
Sep 8, 2025
Pixel and the Witch
by Andrea Tillmanns Admittedly, it could have been worse. An ant, for example, would have been worse. Or a plant. Although—could plants...
Andrea Tillmanns
Sep 4, 2025
The Disappointed Cat
by Christopher Dabrowski The white cat looked eminently depressed, sitting paw to paw with head down. – What's up? You didn't get enough...
Christopher T. Dabrowski
Aug 12, 2025
Snake House
by Gautam Sen Arun Thapar and his family were nice enough people. His father looked like a film star past his prime, smoked cigars, and...
Gautam Sen
Jul 17, 2025
These Stupid People
by Christopher T. Dabrowski These people are ignorant—mused the cat. —Their king, Popiel, was eaten by mice. And how could he not...
Christopher T. Dabrowski
Jul 16, 2025
Squicky Couldn't Understand
by Christopher T. Dabrowski Squicky couldn't understand the world's cruelty. He once saw something called the Muppets in a big rectangle...
Christopher T. Dabrowski
Jun 25, 2025
A Scaredy-Cat
by Sreelekha Chatterjee Whenever a tomcat passes by my house, the fish in my aquarium gasp at the surface, swim frantically, crashing at...
Sreelekha Chatterjee
May 21, 2025
Cat's Concerns
by Krzysztof Dąbrowski The tomcat tittered restlessly on the stool, as if he had seen a ghost or acquired pinworms. - What's...
Krzysztof Dąbrowski
May 5, 2025
Sleep, Sleep, and Sleep Some More
by Krzysztof Dąbrowski People entered the room, waking up Purr. The sleepy tomcat wasn't pleased. Dumb humans – he thought...
Krzysztof Dąbrowski
Apr 22, 2025
Articles
The Morning It Started
by Elizabeta Žargi That summer I was travelling through Europe on an Interrail ticket — a month of trains and no fixed schedule beyond a language course waiting in Ljubljana. I had already spent a week in Malmö, made a delayed stop in Hamburg after sleeping through it once, then gone down to Geneva to visit Milena. Eventually I returned to Vienna, where I was staying with Gregor and Sandy. They were also planning to attend the course in Slovenia. I was meant to leave on the 2
Elizabeta Žargi
Apr 5
Dreaming of Kalbarri
by Meredith Stephens “Wake up! If we don’t get going now it will be too hot!” urged my fiance Alex. I couldn’t understand why we had to leave for Kalbarri National Park at 5:30am in darkness. Was it really going to get that hot? We quickly arose and headed to the car for the long drive. By the time we arrived, the day was breaking and we were among the first tourists to arrive at the famed Nature’s Window. We made our way along the trail to the window where international tour
Meredith Stephens
Nov 2, 2025
Between Two Skies: An Egyptian Heart in Albany
by Walid Abdallah When I first arrived in Albany, New York, in the winter of 2014, I felt as if I had stepped into a painting. The air...
Walid Abdallah
Oct 13, 2025
Reviews
Dead Teenagers Review
by Catalina Bonati 3.25/5 stars ★★★☆☆ Dead Teenagers by Jude Ellison S. Doyle and Caitlyn Yarsky (published March 2026) is the first comic in a five-comic installment. It centers on a group of four friends who go to prom in 1997, and are horrifically killed that night. This night resets at its end into a continuous loop of horrors in which the killings change every night and become increasingly gory. The friend group tries to figure out what is keeping them caged in this time
Catalina Bonati
7 hours ago
The Familiar Dark Book Review
by Catalina Bonati 3.5/5 stars ★★★⯪☆ The Familiar Dark by Amy Engel (2020) is a small-town winter thriller based in the Ozarks, which follows Eve Taggert as she sets on a quest to discover who murdered her twelve-year-old daughter Junie and her friend Izzy. Along the way, she makes friends, rediscovers old relationships, and begins to understand her estranged mother. This is a story about unconventional, socially unacceptable grief, especially in the limelight. At first, Ev
Catalina Bonati
2 days ago
Tatratea Book Review
by Catalina Bonati 3.5/5 stars ★★★⯪☆ Tatratea by Alex Woodroe (to be published October 2026) is a short ecohorror post-apocalyptic novella about Errata, a woman who has been trained by The Mothers to find the source of the mental insanity plague that has taken over the world and decimated the population. She arrives at an old wellness center named Tatratea and is quickly confronted by animate plants who wish to enlist her help in defeating an evil, blurring the boundaries b
Catalina Bonati
Oct 1
Short Stories
Back in the Day
by Robert Lowinger I was in the seventh grade, in 1969, living in a little town outside of Buffalo, New York when me and Danny Nissen, who was almost 15, threatened to beat the crap out of Larry McKoon for telling Danny that he wasn’t good at basketball, and he should get booted off the team. Well, Danny said, “Jimmy, you got to be a man and not let anyone diss your friends, certainly not a little prick like Larry,” and ever since Danny killed that cat with a knife behind the
Robert Lowinger
Sep 24
Ticket to Ride
by Sara Etgen-Baker "You gotta have a ticket to ride!” snapped the Carney. “Get a ticket or move outta da way, kid. You’re takin’ up space!” I stared motionless as the Ferris wheel cut through the heavy summer clouds. “Here’s her ticket, sir. We three are ridin’ together.” “Not happenin’ lady—only two per chair. One of youz has to ride by yerself.” “No problem! She’s the oldest; she’ll ride by herself.” “Whatever ya say, lady. She seems a bit scared to me though.” “Your broth
Sara Etgen-Baker
Sep 15
Intangible Ingredients
Sara Etgen-Baker After Granny died, Mother requested only one item from her mother’s possessions. “All I really want,” Mother told my uncle, “are her old recipe cards and antique file box.” Mother’s request puzzled me, for I knew Mother didn’t need the recipe cards and file box for any practical reason. She’d known for decades how to make Granny’s pumpernickel bread, sauerkraut, and her breakfast specialty—streusel kuchen. But when the file box arrived a few days later, Mothe
Sara Etgen-Baker
Sep 13
Poetry
Legend of the Cockle
by Deborah Spaulding In Loch Ness lore, upon its banks there came a lovely lad with golden hair and sparkling eye, in tartan he was clad. And with his mates he romped and played with nary such a care; their laughter could be heard as far as Inverness, they swear. They’d lay upon the sun-warmed sand and climb the rocks ashore and wade in pools left by the rain and scamper then some more. But never would they enter in, the Loch was ever banned. The kelpies there were legend but
Deborah Spaulding
1 day ago
The Riders
by Janette Schafer TW: Child sexual assault The first time I sat on his lap was to color in my Santa Fun Book at Christmas. I never stayed in the lines, threw my whole body into coloring, leaned on the table, elbows braced, plopped back down onto his legs, curled my calves under my knees, heels chocked on either side of his thighs. He cupped my 7-year-old hips in his palms, directed my movements in a way I was too young to understand. Did I hear distant hoofbeats of the shado
Janette Schafer
4 days ago
In Retracing a Memory
by Aleah Bantas there is a photograph of a girl in a white dress inside an album, kept only by a plastic rack I grew up remembering how to pick cotton, separate the seeds, each one, fruit in search of an embrace in the verses of Mahmoud Darwish, on a river dying of thirst. After class of halaqah, reading the Qur'an, a white face, eyes narrowed into a slit. Into the echo of a daughter singing. I do not mind being named after a flower, for it holds a thought of tenderness, the
Aleah Bantas
Sep 30
Art & Photography
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