What has science done?
I can already feel the electromagnetic stimulation from the cattle prod burning a hole in my buns, so that means it must finally be Friday! It’s time to open up the wishing well again and pull out another long distance dedication for this week’s Prompt the Squirrel post! We’re still stuck on 17 prompts for this year’s run of PTS2, and that’s just not right. Now it’s time for me to whip out the bovine taser and politely remind you all that EVERYONE who reads my blog is entitled to send in one prompt, and there’s no reason my entire readership shouldn’t be on this list somewhere! Go here, submit an idea, then feel good about yourself for doing your duty and have a drink on me…
Better yet, let my sister get that for you…
This week’s prompt comes from one of the handful of talented amigurumists I follow, Dragonsashes! I’m not 100% sure if that’s ‘Dragon’s Ashes” or “Dragon Sashes,” but either way the name of her blog is The Dragon’s Cave… and as you might expect, she has a particular fascination with those fire breathing cuties. She’s also working on a zodiac series that already has the most adorable head-butting little ram you will ever see. So, what did our dragon tamer ask of this meek little squirrel….?
Create a hybrid creature/new mythical creature. 😛
Been there, done that, still have the scorched walls and frightened neighbors from it…
A couple years ago, I took my three most unique characters and combined them together into a three headed monstrosity for a drawing challenge. That would be halitosis fire breath Buster, sharp toothed Rainbow Donkey, and beatnik bearded Pigladillo from left to right, super glued together onto a dragon’s body. As you saw in yesterday’s comic, I don’t necessarily buy into the assumption that unicorns should always be happy and magical beasts… RD looks like he’s ready to have some poor, hapless knight in shining armor for lunch.
Beware of Unicorn
I’m not going to wimp out on this challenge by just changing the date on an old assignment and handing it back in, though. We’re going to create something even more mixed up and bizarre today… a real tribute to the fact that there is no such thing as a “pure blooded” critter in this world, and that the thorough mixing of the gene pool has been going on for millennia upon millennia and is a totally awesome thing!
Unless you’re a big fan of incest…
To create our super hybrid, let’s consider all of the favorite species we have frolicking about The Nest and let’s find the most identifiable part of them to put on our finished misfit of science.
Squirrels!
To give our new critter a cute, angelic personality.
Of course, any six million dollar critter we create here at The Nest would have to have some squirrel DNA within it! With squirrels, there’s nothing that stands out more than those big and fluffy tails! So, we’ll just snip one of those off (OUCH!) and move on to…
Skunks!
We want a photogenic little critter to take baby pictures of, after all…
Our creation would have to be a little skunky… and no, we’re not going to take the most obvious trait from our little stinkers. How about that absolutely handsome black coat of fur with the telltale white stripe? Yep, we’re going to do a Penelope Pussycat job on our new creature and give it a skunk’s markings. Now let’s consider…
Raccoons!
Oh, don’t be afraid, Robbie. Whatever we take off of you won’t hurt a bit, I promise…
No authentic mash-up of favorite critters would be complete without a spoonful of raccoon juice. We’ve already given the tail to the squirrels, so that trademark dark mask around the eyes is what we’ll borrow from our trash thieves! And on we go on this biology project from hell to…
Cats!
We want our new animal to nap all day.
Since The Nest has real and unreal cats, we’ve got to find a way to work a little of the feline touch into our zoological Frankenstein. One thing I uniquely draw on cats as opposed to my other short-snouted critters is a triangular, light colored nose. So we’ll cut off one of my kitty’s noses to spite their face, and then try to work in…
Dogs!
Sit, Skanki, Sit! Good dog!
Though dogs only make up a few minor characters in The Nest’s world, canines were such a big part in its creation that our new critter has to have some pooch hardwired in it. Nobody’s claimed the ears yet, so we’ll give our science project some flappable ears that are always fun to fold back on and annoy a dog. And as a bonus, I’ll even accessorize this fauna remix with a cute little collar and tag! Now, how about those….
Possums!
What lucky critter wouldn’t want a little possum in them?
Our most popular marsupial species would be impossible to leave out of this experiment gone mad. And while there are many uniquely possums parts to choose from, the one detail that truly gives Buster away (besides the spilled intestines) is his rat tail. Hey, we’re building a make believe hybrid here, so why can’t I give it two different tails? It would only be seven short of being a kitsune. And speaking of mythical creatures…
Unicorns!
Why would any fantasy critter want to look like an ugly unicorn?
We can’t possibly leave out the overwhelming influence of unicorns given their lofty status on my blog in both Rainbow Donkey and my Bronylike fascination with the MLP gang. Yeah, it’s gonna be that horn… you probably guessed it. Critters with unicorn horns are always more awesome than critters without unicorn horns. And just to complete the original triumvirate of creatures that went into the Piglapossumcorn…
Pigladillos… er, Armadillos!
Damn right…
While the Pigladillo has a hybrid name, he’s actually all adorable little, leprosy ravaged armadillo at heart. So why don’t we up the challenge by giving our superbeast a hard shell to tote around on its back!
Now, to fast forward through the never ending series of awkward breeding sessions you’d never be able to unsee to create this mythical hybrid….
Oh, come on! It’s no worse than the boobs they put in National Geographic. This is for science!
And ladies and gentlemen…. the result of our eight-species genetic experiment!!!
It’s alive!
I guess I was feeling a bit fanboyish, so I made our mythical creature into a warrior princess… and in honor of this week’s prompter who helped make this all happen, I gave her a cool little dragon as a faithful companion. That’s only the second time I’ve EVER tried to draw a dragon (and first time in almost 8 years), so I’m giving myself an A+ for that effort… especially since it took me years to…. oh hell, I still can’t draw horses. Our squirrel/skunk/raccoon/cat/dog/possum/unicorn/armadillo lady needs a name. Anyone got any suggestions?
Yeah I got one… quit sciencing before you end up breaking the universe!
And so, the curtain falls on yet another Friday prompt that gave life to a bizarre creature Mother Nature never intended to have around. Many thanks to Dragonsashes for inspiring the worst biology lab mess since Buster accidentally wound up on the dissection table! I’ll tackle another prompt of mythical proportions from those who aid and abet me next week!
Evil Squirrel's Nest 
hmmmm…. I wouldn’t add the possum to the super dragon…. that’s a little bad karma…. or maybe it is the reason that the dragons died out?
Of all of the animals we no longer have with us, somehow, the possum survives. They must breed like rabbits!
Wow, that’s quite an impressive conglomeration! Maybe it’s the red eyes but she’s quite formidable looking. I think warrior was definitely the way to go with her. Before now, I’ve never considered how dangerous it could be to have a cat with a unicorn horn. Scooby would have stabbed my eyes out years ago with all his kissing on my face while I’m sleeping.
A cat with a unicorn horn would be downright lethal! That would be even worse than catching one of their stray claws when I pick them up…
Love this. And I do dig the Dillo!
I wish that phrase would make sense outside of the context of my blog, because it would make an awesome T-shirt design!
How about a squnkooncograssudillo? Or Marge.
Marge, Warrior Princess. Something tells me she’d be laughed at by all of her enemies… though that would be the perfect time to strike while they’re helpless!
Precisely… it’s all part of her cunning plan. A lady with two tails is a fearsome creature, indeed!
ody & biskit…….takin de furst two; frum all inn volved; we hope we dinna forgetz one:
squnarcarapodosk….N make that MISS…pleez 🙂
yur dad did an awesum job on her and de dragon !!!! grate suggestionz by Dragonsashes !!!
heerz two a tiger shovelnose catfish kinda week oh end ♥♥♥
I think she would just go by Miss S. with that name! A tiger shovelnose catfish sounds kinda cool as well..
That’s some….conglomeration you have there. I’m trying to think of a name but all I come up with is Fugly….hahaha! 😉
Well, at least that’s the first suggestion that would fit on a business card! And I wouldn’t be the one to call her that!
Oh, I wouldn’t like to call her that either. It’s just what goes through my mind. ha!
Well, these critters all live in the south, so how about something country like LouAnneDeeBelleBritney?
OMG! You have unicorns in the south!?!? Cool!!!
LOL! Of course we do, magic is everywhere.
My, my! There’s a mad scientist inside you after all. What a creation.
It’s probably best for everyone that I procrastinate on these prompts and didn’t have a whole lot of excess time or I may not have stopped adding even more critters to the cauldron…
God has given us this beautiful…um…thing? Which I think should be called Squnky Racat Dopicornarmy, or Bob!
Well, at least now we have something we could shorten to a monogram. Alas, the world has too many Bobs in it now…
Heidi!!!
Well, that’s short and sweet! I wonder what she would name the dragon?
Mosh Pit! Or, to steal one from Draliman — “Drake Blaxonfest!” That’s Sir Drake, to you.
Nintendo had a video game back in my day with a warrior angel named Pit, but I know of nobody with the name Mosh. Sir Drake may have been the knight who got eaten by my vicious unicorn…
I don’t know but I wouldn’t want to run into one. Great drawing!
Thanks! Don’t worry, the dragon might even let you pet it…
That was so much fun. Interesting point about “purebred” critters. Profound actually. I love the dragon. It reminds me of the breed or type of dragon Saint Martha is said to have tamed. My suggestion for a name is “Princess” she is a tamer, not a murderer. (unless heaviy provoked) 😀
Princess Princess, and her faithful dragon Dragon. I hope they don’t run into the villain Villain!
LOL! Sounds very aussie. “g’day I am Princess and this is me dragon, Dragon. Youse villains are in deep trouble”
That’s quite the creation. I think ’twill forever be known as the mysterious “That Which Has No Name”. (Yes, that’s right, I couldn’t think of one.)
I had a great idea for your prompt series but I forgot it. I’m hoping it will come back to me!
The greatest ideas in the history of man were probably all forgotten before they could be implemented. This is why aliens are so much more advanced than we are… better memory!
I expected more hideousness
Expect the unexpected when you mess with science…
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I’d call her Betty.