Biff Spork

This is good. It's hard to like Tyler, but if you've ever experienced peer pressure, you can sympathize with the turmoil he's going through.

I'm getting that "Template Bug Error" notice on my index page and all chapter pages. I usually compose in libreoffice. Then I copy and paste into a text editor (Notepad+) that usually strips all formatting. Then I paste it from there into GA and add italics where needed.

@SummerabbacatI wish such events were only dreams. Unfortunately they are becoming more common, and extreme weather events are likely to continue to increase in number and severity. The climate crisis is not a fantasy or some future event — it's happening now and will only get worse unless we act, unless we, as individuals, do whatever we can.

@SummerabbacatThanks for your thoughtful comment. I confess it was intentional to make readers sad at the demise of the prairie dogs. It's how I feel about the extinction of so many species of animals and the endangered classification of so many others, and I hoped in this story to share that feeling with readers. I have exercised some restraint — in early drafts of the story, both boys died in the flood too. In subsequent re-writes, only Marcus died, but I finally settled on a happier ending where both boys survive. (I hate to have characters die - I weep when I write and during every edit and re-write.) Thanks for your comments on chapters throughout the story. You have been very inspiring.

@AlexLittelThanks very much for your kind words. I'm happy to hear you enjoyed the story.

@VBlewThanks for your kind words. And thanks for letting me know you enjoyed the story. @Quinton Brock I happy to hear you enjoyed the story as it unfolded, and I'm glad that you found the characters believable. Thanks for your comment.

Local Boys Rescued from Freak Flash Flood Early this morning a Search and Rescue helicopter picked up two boys who were marooned on a hillside on the vast Mason Estate. The boys have been identified as Marcus Mason, whom readers may remember as the ‘Billionaire Boy’, and a friend, Gerald Kelly, both 13 years old. “We thought we’d lost them,” said Jack Strong, member of the S & R team that rescued the boys. “Their vital signs were so low they hardly registered, but we bundle

@VBlew Thanks for your comment. The final chapter will be along soon.

Oh, where have you been, my blue-eyed son? Oh, where have you been, my darling young one? I’ve stumbled on the side of twelve misty mountains I’ve walked and I’ve crawled on six crooked highways I’ve stepped in the middle of seven sad forests I’ve been out in front of a dozen dead oceans I’ve been ten thousand miles in the mouth of a graveyard And it’s a hard, and it’s a hard, it’s a hard, and it’s a hard And it’s a hard rain’s a-gonna fall

@VBlewThanks for your comment. I'm glad you found the discussion of cross-dressing interesting. As well as exemplifying the 'total sincerity/full disclosure' phase of their love affair, I wanted to distance the boys from the gender dysphoria discussion. They don't dress as girls because they view themselves as girls trapped in boys' bodies. They're perfectly happy being boys. Dressing up as girls is just one of many ways they excite themselves sexually. When the boys wake up to how they stopped thinking about the climate crisis, I was mostly thinking about how the COVID pandemic suddenly put the climate crisis on the back burner for most of us, but now that the pandemic has diminished somewhat, we need to tackle that larger problem. The climate crisis is even more pressing now than it was two or three years ago. @Summerabbacat Thanks for your thoughts about Marcus. I suspect many young people feel like he does. Some time ago I read a distressing article about a group of teenagers who meet regularly to plan how they are going to cope with the end of a functioning planet, when conditions become so bad that all our complex systems break down. Their discussions are not how to prevent the crisis from worsening, but how to deal with the fact that adults are not going to do anything to prevent disaster. They were well-informed kids and it was difficult to counter their conclusions. Marcus and Bumper occasionally dip into that level of despair, but in general, they are hopeful, more hopeful than you or I, perhaps. Thanks for your kind words about my writing.

@SummerabbacatYes, Marcus and Bumper, like most boys, have a natural capacity to enjoy themselves. In western civilization we have the idea that the teenage years are fraught more with difficulties than with delight. I think that says more about our culture than it does about the innate nature of youth. I suspect the boys' study of the prairie dogs will continue to influence they way they look at the animal kingdom in later life, though they may not become animal behaviorists. Thanks for thinking about these boys and imagining them along with me.

@Summerabbacat Thanks for your comment and your ongoing enthusiasm for this story. The soap digression is not really important to the story — mostly I wanted to show the boys attempting to escape the pervasive reach of marketing/advertising. They're trying to think "outside the box." Bassey's ill-advised leap — Prairie dog claws are not the claws of a predator but those of a digger — though long and sharp, they are not designed to fasten on soft tissue like a cat's claws. However, I'm sure we are in agreement that, in general, one's crotch is an unsuitable location for animals of any kind.

@SummerabbacatThanks for your comment. Frankly, when I was writing this story, I feared I would be unable to engage readers' interest in or sympathy for animals as insignificant as prairie dogs. Yet on other sites where this story has been posted, I have often received messages from readers expressing their affection for Big Mama and The Boss. That wasn't the aim of this story but is certainly a happy side effect.

LONDON, 23 April, 2021 - The world’s most authoritative global forecasters have soberly confirmed conclusions first outlined in January. The year 2020, the year of Covid-19, of planet-wide economic slowdown, did almost nothing to damp global heating, which is why the UN says 2021 must be a “year of action”. Even at a point in the natural weather cycle in which tropical conditions should have been cooler, it was hotter: one of the three warmest years on record. The decade 2011-2

@VBlewThanks for your comment. The prairie dog ventilation system is well-known and I thought it would be a nice touch to let Marcus re-discover it. The boys are not using soap, and you're right — because they haven't given up bathing, they're not smelling bad. A daily shower or swim will keep anyone clean - particularly if they're eating a healthy diet. I once went without soap for a year, but I was able to shower every day and change my clothes often. Soap marketers have been very successful in convincing us we naturally smell bad. We don't.

The Pronghorn (Antilocapra americana) is a species of artiodactyl (even-toed, hoofed) mammal indigenous to interior western and central North America. Though not an antelope, it is often known colloquially in North America as the American antelope because it closely resembles the true antelopes of the Old World and fills a similar ecological niche due to parallel evolution. It is the only surviving member of the family Antilocapridae. Pronghorns have distinct white fur on their rumps, s

LONDON, 11 May, 2021—Natural hazards—most of them driven by climate change—have forced an estimated 288 million people from their homes since 2008. That is three times the numbers displaced by war and conflict. These people have become, however briefly, climate refugees. And the number will grow. A new study has found that for every 1°C rise in global average temperatures, the chance of displacement from river flooding alone will rise by 50%. And that calculation is based on population numbers r

@VBlewThanks for your kind comment. I'm happy to hear you continue to read and enjoy the antics of Marcus and Bumper now that they've moved out onto the prairie and started to get to know the other residents, as well as each other.

Thank you @Summerabbacat for your comment. I'm happy to hear that you are still enjoying the story. I was afraid I might begin to lose readers when the boys focused on the prairie dogs. I'm proud if there is a David Attenboroughesque tone from time to time - I suspect that's me channeling him - I'm a great fan and have seen everything he's done for the last couple of decades. He's a giant.

Thank you @Summerabbacat, for your kind comment. I'm happy to have introduced you to prairie dogs, charming little creatures. Bumper and Marcus - they're at that stage in a relationship when 'full disclosure' is the rule. Sometimes that means you get information you don't really want. You can bet they would be unlikely let a fart pass unremarked.

The climate crisis is the defining challenge of our generation. Scientists are clear about the reality of climate change and we should be too. And with devastating storms, dangerous floods, melting glaciers, and rising seas becoming increasingly regular facts of life, it’s more critical than ever that we face reality and get working on solutions together. ( https://www.climaterealityproject.org/blog/ten-key-facts-know-about-climate-crisis ) We slept through the night as if we w

The American Bison (Bison bison) is the largest surviving terrestrial animal in North America. They are typical artiodactyl (cloven hooved) ungulates, and are similar in appearance to other bovines such as cattle and true buffalo. They are broad and muscular with shaggy coats of long hair. Adults grow up to 6 feet 7 inches in height and 11 ft 6 in in length. American bison can weigh from 880 to 2,800 pounds. Bison are nomadic grazers and travel in herds. The bulls leave the herds of females at t

@SummerabbacatThanks for your kind words. I'm happy you are still enjoying Bumper and Marcus.

Prairie dogs (genus Cynomys) are herbivorous burrowing rodents native to the grasslands of North America. On average, these stout-bodied rodents will grow to be between 12 and 16 in long, including the short tail, and weigh between 1 and 3 lb. Highly social, prairie dogs live in large colonies or "towns" and collections of prairie dog families can span hundreds of acres. The prairie dog family groups are the most basic units of its society. The prairie dog is well adapted to predators. Using its

@VBlewThat's a good question, whether Marcus was being followed. I assume you meant followed by his own security detail to make sure he was safe. I have to say no, for the simple reason that the logistics are too difficult. He's often off-road on his little cart so the only way he could be followed was if there was another cart behind him. Also, he's out at night, so drone surveillance would be pretty useless in the dark. However, there are ways security could track him — a gps beacon on his cart and a dash cam with a satellite link. His grandfather knew about the cart and his activities at night. I suspect he allowed it, to give Marcus a sense of freedom and adventure with a limited risk. Boys that age are always hungry for excitement. Finally, given that what he was doing was secret and took place under cover of darkness, he probably wasn't in danger from a kidnapping attack, so the only real fear was that he would be apprehended by the police, and they had lawyers lined up to take care of that possibility. During the day, his security might have been more comprehensive - like when he was at the mall and thrift store with Bumper. It would have been fairly easy for a bodyguard to keep the boys under observation without being obvious. In general I have not explored the likelihood that the boys were always under surveillance (like when they are nude at the swimmin' hole). If they are being watched, the watchers are friendly eyes. They're not there to judge or control Marcus' behavior; they are only concerned with his safety and maintaining his privacy.