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“You look ridiculous”. Lowdown was watching Rowdy, incredulous. Rowdy had been rolling and leaping in a heap of old Christmas decorations for over half an hour and now looked like a festive junkyard. He sat, his tongue lolling happily from the side of his mouth, his whole body twinkled and glittered and shone. “Come on, Low. Lighten up!” “You’re light enough for the two of us,” muttered Low, frowning at the twinkling fairy lights wrapped around Rowdy’s torso. “How are those even working?” “Christmas magic,” grinned Rowdy, wagging his tail, which was also tangled with

It was a warm summer’s day, and Cassandra Thatcher had decided that it was the perfect day for a picnic by the large river near the farm where she and her three tokotas – Izzy, Jack and Fall – lived. The river was the perfect spot: it was deep and cool, meaning that she and the tokotas could splash and swim and dive, and the breeze coming off it was cooling and fresh, so that when they lay beside it in the grass, the sun baking their skin never got too hot. She packed a bag and they set off, Cassie riding Jack – the largest of the three. The three tokotas were in high spirits but their thick coats meant that they wer

“Photo competition!” Cassie loved entering competitions, though her luck was never very good. This latest one to pop up in her newspaper asked for entrants to dress up in a “water themed” costume and a submit photograph for the chance to win a shopping spree at a famous costume supplier. Cassie knew immediately what she wanted to do. “Mermaids!” She beamed about at Izzy, Jack and Fall, the tokotas who now were basically the floor of her kitchen. She could already picture it: her on a rock with a beautiful glistening tail, Izzy beside her with flowing seaweed locks. Tridents for Fall and Jack. It would be

It was early morning. Cassandra Thatcher stumbled down the narrow stairs of her little wooden cottage, heading for the kitchen to make herself coffee and prepare breakfast for the three tokotas waiting for her there: Izzy, Jack, and Fall.   She had tried to set them up outside, with huge kennels for them to shelter from the weather and access to toys and the natural environment for enrichment, but her own softness had got the better of her and the three huge beasts had now been sleeping on her kitchen for almost as long as they had lived here with her. Though they all undoubtedly enjoyed roaming and playing in the great outdoors, they had lea

“Let’s go to the lake,” Cassandra Thatcher said one morning, slapping down her newspaper on the wooden kitchen table. Her three tokotas, who were taking up most of the small kitchen, all raised their heads to look at her. Izzy, the only female, gave a gentle bark and rose to her feet. The two males – Jack and Fall - stayed lying where they were, midway through chewing on bones – the leftovers of their breakfasts – but kept their eyes and ears focussed on their master. It was warm. Cassie had thrown open her windows and the back door to let in the breeze, but it wasn’t enough. A swim sounded like a go

It was a cool spring day, just before summer, and Cassandra Thatcher had decided to take a stroll along the coast with three of her tokotas. This Side of Paradise – Cassie now referred to her as Izzy  as she chatted fondly to her – was a slight, long maned female – the only female of the trio - who was trotting smartly beside her master, nose in the air and beautifully groomed tail held high, possibly to advertise her dominant status. Ahead of them ran two males. Glacier, sometimes called Jack, was the larger of the two males, with an attractive silver coat and long fur which bounced lightly as he ran smoothly along the wat

Cassandra Thatcher was becoming increasing confident traversing the network of caves that were part of the mountains near the farmhouse she inhabited. Her three tokotas – Tender is the Night, Yamaha and Rost – were not quite so sure. They were obviously much larger than Cassie so the caves were not all quite so comfortable for them to squeeze through, and though she always carried a torch and their eyes were quite well adjusted for night time vision, the darkness still worried them, especially Rost. And so it was that Cassie had decided that another jaunt in the caves were in order. She wanted to find some new caves to explore to

It looked like being a bright, sunny day and Cassandra Thatcher decided it was a good day for her and her three tokotas – Tender is the Night, Yamaha and Rost – to leave the house and go for a long walk. The mountains were her favourite haunt at the moment – there were always new places to explore and plenty of space for the tokotas to run and play – even Yamaha, who seemed to need more exercise than the other two combined. She packed a bag full of supplies for a day adventuring, and they set out. Cassie chose the swift Yamaha as her mount. The white and dun male could barely stand still long enough for his master to

Cassandra Thatcher woke up one morning to the sound of someone knocking on her front door and her three tokotas – Tender is the Night, Yamaha and Rost, clattering down the hall to investigate. Tender and Yamaha were barking excitedly as Cassie dragged on a dressing gown and hurried to see who was visiting so early. It was the postal worker. They started, wide eyed, at the three huge beasts surrounding Cassie as she opened the door, and held out a shaking hand to pass across a large, heavy package. Cassie took the package, and opened her mouth to thank the delivery person but they were already hurrying away. She shrugged, patted Tender

Cassandra Thatcher was reading the daily newspaper over her breakfast (scrambled eggs on toast) when a small advertisement caught her eye. “Looking for your five minutes of fame? Find us some MOULD and your story will be TOLD!” read the headline. Cassie blinked, frowned, then read on. “Our biologists are B-O-R-E-D! And they want some new gross things to look at under their microscopes! Find them a new type of mould to study and you could WIN BIG!” Cassie glossed over the technical details beneath until her green eyes found the interesting part: “PRIZES! Successful mould hunters will be eligible to win one of the