No More Tender Vittles

Kristin Devine

Kristin has humbly retired as Ordinary Times' friendly neighborhood political whipping girl to focus on culture and gender issues. She lives in a wildlife refuge in rural Washington state with too many children and way too many animals. There's also a blog which most people would very much disapprove of https://atomicfeminist.com/

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27 Responses

  1. DensityDuck says:

    The Modern Prometheus only kindled the fire which burns evermore, and Man is not Fire’s master. That was very well done! Thank you for sharing it with us.Report

  2. fillyjonk says:

    Yes, well done! Interesting moral questions there, especially about “do we kill these sentient beings in the interest of preventing the creation of more of them/finding those who are making them”

    and what would happen if the sentient beings REALIZED they were being hunted? I could imagine it leading to guerilla bands of large predators taking on the Animal Control folks at every turn, and offering “protection” (perhaps at a steep price) to the smaller creatures.Report

    • North in reply to fillyjonk says:

      I think it’d hinge on the intelligence being heritable. Presumably it isn’t (or at least so far) otherwise animal control would be overwhelmed.
      Agreed, a fine story.Report

    • In my head, this is set early on in the development of the technology. People are still trying to control the problem using fairly conventional means, the animals are just keeping their heads down and trying to fly under the radar. It would be interesting to think about what would happen over the course of time as things continued to spiral outward.Report

  3. bookdragon says:

    Wow. That is an outstanding short story, Kristin. Thanks for sharing it.Report

  4. Jaybird says:

    This was fun (and chewy)!

    Thank you!Report

  5. Road Scholar says:

    Wonderful! Fun story.Report

  6. fillyjonk says:

    I also have to say the title gave me a vivid sensory memory; the cat we had when I was a kid/young teen used to eat Tender Vittles. I can still *smell* them.Report

  7. Maribou says:

    Just adding to the chorus – I really enjoyed this for any number of reasons and most of ’em had to do with your skill as a writer.

    I’m sure it says as much about me as about the story, but I particularly appreciated that I found the animals as easy to empathize with as the humans. Everyone just doing what they needed to do to get by, on one level.Report

  8. James K says:

    I really enjoyed this Kristin.Report

  9. Mike Schilling says:

    Great story. And a really skillful job of blending in the exposition so it never interfered with the story’s flow.Report

  10. pillsy says:

    Just Nthing the “great story” comments.Report