"Mighty big shifts in weather ya'll been having," Beauregard commented as he bundled himself up again, though the jacket he had wasn't too much more than a windbreaker.
"Not every part of the country has average temperatures as high as Louisiana," Jill reminded him, "but... yeah... There can be some odd shifts in weather at times. A few weeks ago, it looked like spring would be coming and then boom... six more weeks of winter."
They walked along quietly from the front of the bookstore that Jill presently worked at in a bit of silence. Both Beauregard and Jill had a lot going through their minds with regards to what to do. To Jill, Beauregard had proved to be the perfect "Prince Charming" who had come to her rescue at a point where she had been seriously depressed over the fact that the men in Lyre didn't want to become Alligators. And in the course of their courtship, Beauregard had shown a bit more than just an admiration for the animal, but an admiration for Jill as a person.
Admittedly, for Beauregard, Jill was a potential ally. The American Alligator wasn't on the Endangered Species List anymore, BUT he'd walked in enough business circles to know that there would be some people who would try to wipe it out entirely. Animalia had seemed like the perfect opportunity to get some means to help with his own private cause, as they seemed to combine the best of both human and animal, which was something he'd been moving toward for years. However, he found Jill to not only be friendly but with a great personality and something that just seemed special. It wasn't something that he could easily measure, but all he knew was that Jill was precious, and more than worth the effort to make her happy.
"So... uh..." Beauregard said slowly as they walked along, moving toward a small parking lot.
"What now?" Jill finished for him, "Well... there are some options... We could go in to Horizon... and handle your conversion... or..."
"I think I'd rather save that for the honeymoon," Beauregard said slowly, "Make it special."
"Special," Jill breathed.
Beauregard nodded to that, "but that doesn't mean we can't have a good time while I'm in town."
"Well... Animalia will be celebrating Chinese New Year pretty soon," Jill commented, "including a sort of "dog show" given that it would be the year of the dog."
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
The celebrations for Chinese New Year actually went rather well, and to Beauregard's surprise that many Animalians, not just uplifted dogs had come to the competition. Obviously all the competitors were canines, but it seemed like many people from both Lyre and Animalia had come, regardless of their species. He guessed that that were probably a fair number of personal friendships with some of the competitors and that was what attracted as many people as it did. Of course, there were probably some that hoped that one of the females or the males would end up with a serious wardrobe malfunction, which could happen, as he'd heard about one set of Olympic Skaters having to deal with that, but he hadn't been able to see it.
The best selling point for the competition was that it was more than just highlighting the bodies of Animalians. In many ways, Animalia could do that, but it didn't. In fact the female Animalians as they went through the various obstacle courses and the various group centric tests were dressed more for an athletic competition than anything else. It showed that Animalians were more than what they physically looked like and that was in many ways a good thing.
"So, what do you think?" Beauregard asked to Jill as the competition began to reset to show the male division.
"On what?" Jill asked back, "I'm not a judge... and with many aspects of the competition weren't something that could be "judged." The two husky girls that took first and second in the sled race were in an actual race."
Beauregard nodded in some agreement that what they'd shown so far wasn't something that could be judged, which he held to be a good thing. However, that didn't mean that there wasn't any comparison that could be made or whether or not Jill had an opinion on the specifics in the competition.
"Well... it'd be mostly a sort of comparison, I suppose," Beauregard said a bit sheepishly, "would their be anything they did that you think you could do? Or would want to try? Or anything in the competition that they could do better... like lengthen the distance to race or increase the weights carried? That sort of thing."
"About the only thing they did that I think I could do would relate to the swimming and retrieval events," Jill said with a shake of her head, "after all, Alligators spend a lot of time in water... But some things, like the obstacle course... my tail wouldn't allow for it. I have a lot of strength there, but outside of water... raising it so that it doesn't drag on the ground isn't natural for Crocodilian of any kind. It's the Dinotopians that would have the muscle groupings to keep their tails elevated, even in a relaxed posture."
Beauregard managed an apologetic shrug, largely as he was looking for something to converse on while they were resetting things for the male side of the competition.
"As for changing the events... I really wouldn't know," Jill said slowly, "I think they actually talked with people who run actual dog shows and then adapt many of the events to then be more workable for an Animalian, which will be primarily bipedal... So I wouldn't know on anything with regards to making the events more competitive."
"Do you think they've been successful so far?" Beauregard wondered, "I think there might be more here than there was for the bachelor/bachelorette auction... but... I really can't say I'm an expert on Animalia's gatherings."
Jill gave a small smile and blinked before she answered by patting Beauregard's shoulder. It wasn't a hard blow by any means, and it didn't move her human fiancée, Jill could tell that by their honeymoon and Beauregard's conversion, there would be a lot of muscle growth there.
"The auction was to help those of us without a mate find a mate," Jill told him, "In many ways... I think that's really the main goal of many things Animalia does. It probably relates to an Animalian's high libido..." Jill's voice fell off for a moment before she blinked again and continued, "Anyway, there are lots of events that Animalia also does that doesn't relate mates and finding them. And many of those tends to attract more people... though they may be more with regard to local people..."
"Didn't Animalia have its version of the Summer Olympics last year?" Beauregard wondered.
"The IAC... yeah," Jill nodded.
"I saw on the news that it attracted a LOT of people," Beauregard commented.
Jill nodded, "It did... but I'd think that the celebrations for the year of the dog is not going to be as big for Animalia as the IAC was..."
Beauregard shrugged. He'd seen plenty of regular news reports on Animalia and its efforts to show there really weren't the sort of differences that truly mattered between Animalia and the rest of the country. And to him, Jill was a symbol of that, but that didn't mean that what he'd been able to see showed everything. And while Animalia's web show could show more, his work schedule often made following that a bit difficult. That was why he'd had some of those questions. He was about to ask on what Jill thought they would do when the year of the dragon came around again, though he wasn't sure on when that was going to be, but by that time the events were reset for the male's part in the competition.