Meet the Team! 

Tarro: 

I'm doing a back of house article on the people that make the whole project run and I'm doing mini interviews with all the mods. Do you mind if I ask you a couple questions?

 

Brass: 

Go ahead, my good raccoon!

 

Tarro: 

You're the person that's been a part of the mod team the longest. You're also a community staple at this point! What do you use to keep the rust off?

 

Brass:   

Rust? Simple, I'm made of brass not iron. I patina instead of rust.  But more seriously, could I get some clarification of what you mean?

 

Tarro:

Oh, just a joke to start things off! It's weird being the "old zoos" nowadays. I remember you and I both joining the community as spry young zoos, so eager to just try and touch a piece of this community to help. But now we're both so involved. How's that experience feel for you?

 

Brass:

It's been almost 4 years since I joined the community now and it simultaneously feels like I've been here forever and like I just joined last week. I've done things I figured were just unrealistic fantasies, like not only being on ZooTT, but hosting a couple of episodes. There are people who look up to me now and tell me that things I've done such as Z&M have affected them the same way ZooTT affected me and it's a little overwhelming. I'm so happy I've been able to make a positive impact on people, but it's weird to actually think about. I'm just some dude on the internet that makes dumb jokes and worries too damn much and somehow I'm making a difference.

 

Tarro:

Speaking of us working together for 4 years? What's the worst part of working with me?

 

Brass:

You don't play any good multiplayer games so we never hang out!

 

Tarro:

What's your favorite color on the zoo flag?

 

Brass:

I really like the blue.

 

Tarro:

There's a lot of work that goes into being a ZDPD mod. What's the thing that really keeps you going?

 

Brass:

It can be a lot of work, but it's also a fun group of people. Also, just like any work, the key to avoiding burnout is having some time to yourself to recharge and I feel like the number of mods we have allows for that

 

Tarro: 

Perfect, thanks!

 

Brass:

That's all of it?

 

Tarro:

Mhm! I'm doing separate interviews for all the mods so I wanna keep them tight.

 

Brass: 

Fair enough. Just shorter than I expected.

 

Tarro:

Did you have anything else you wanted to say?

 

Brass:

Kids, stay in school, don't do hard drugs, and stay away from League of Legends.

Tarro:

What do you think I could bench?

 

Madhu:

60% of your bodyweight; you play league so I flat out assume your wrists are made of broken glass and sound like cement mixers.

 

Tarro:

Hurtful but fair! If you had to describe your moderation style as a common pizza topping combination what would you say?

 

Madhu:

As barky I think ham and pineapple; fairly innocuous but absolutely haram especially to those that can't abide zoos. I'm pretty mean and domineering to antis that don't come correct but zoopat the zoos.

 

Tarro:

What about as the others?

 

Madhu:

Honestly do not pay attention to our mod styles that much. Vi is definitely olive, mushroom, and anchovy, however. Get hir in a mood and its a bottle of acid to the face.

 

Tarro:

What's the worst part about working with me?

 

Madhu:

I don't really have any complaints, you present as personable and open. I guess your inclusive attitude often has the mods talking you down from hugging cacti, as it were... No it's the league, that's the worst.

 

Tarro:

What's your favorite thing about being a ZDP mod?

 

Madhu:

It is absolutely exhausting at times, you see the very worst of humanity that discord has to offer sometimes. It does also feel emotionally rewarding to curate an actually nice corner of the internet, so many members wander in and find their people for the first time.

 

Tarro:

Yeah, definitely it's waaay more work than I think most people imagine, which is part of why I really wanted to highlight the mods and all the work they put in. Is there any one moment that stands out where you were like "Wow, we're actually really doing it."

 

Madhu:

Not any one moment, no. It's a fairly common occurrence but whenever someone chimes in regarding the anti to zoo pipeline how they used to be an anti. That's the stuff, right there.

 

Tarro:

Awesome. Thanks for your answers. Any last messages to leave the readers with?

 

Madhu:

Awoo~

Tarro:

Okay so Dogteeth, you've been called the "Cool aunt" of the Discord moderation team. If you were at a family get together and you had a nephew that was 18 and you caught the nephew sneaking into the kitchen trying to sneak a beer out of the fridge, what would you do?

 

Dogteeth:

To be fair I am probably also sneaking around in the kitchen as well trying to get some meat scraps to covertly pass along to whatever dogs are around at this family get together. I think I would just cut ahead of him to the fridge and chug all of the beer so he can’t have any but he just thinks it’s because I’m partying harder than him and not because he’s in trouble or anything, and then I would continue on with my dog agenda.

 

Tarro:

Wow that really is the cool aunt move! But now it's time to get real. Why the teeth?

 

Dogteeth:

Hehe so, at one point I was browsing Twitter, and someone was sharing a DM they had gotten from a concerned furry. The furry was like, “Hey man, you get lots of cool commissions, but you seem to have a really nasty attraction to canine teeth. You might want to tone that down if you don’t want to come across as a zoophile or zoophilia-adjacent.” And I thought that was really funny, and that Dogteeth would be a good name to use when I first made a Discord account to join ZDPD. It’s the same kind of energy behind why I sometimes make my pfp anti-zoo art. Like the one recently where someone at a furry convention was posting pictures bragging about removing the zeta from a LOVE YOUR ζELF sticker, which just resulted in it looking like it said LOVE YOUR ELF. I think me and about 1,000 other zoos saw that and immediately thought “oh my god 'love your elf' is so funny that NEEDS to be the newest zoo meme,” so I made the LOVE YOUR ELF picture my pfp and name for a few days, along with a status that said Pobody’s Nerfect. It’s that same kind of energy that made me pick Dogteeth as a name originally from that funny DM someone else had shared. And it works out that I actually ended up just liking it as a name too, ppl have called me Dogteeth and Teethdog irl and it’s like teehee it’s me I am the teeth of dog.

 

Tarro:

Something that happens pretty often in the ZDPD is that antis will join, and get absofuckinglutely roasted by the server members. That said, there's definitely too much of a good thing sometimes. What's your strategy for knowing when it's time to call it quits?

 

Dogteeth:

Anything that breaks Discord TOS, for one thing. Spamming ascii swastikas, using hard slurs against others, those are pretty quick ways to get booted without us having to talk about it. I also note our own server’s rules and if people are going over the line with regards to those, even after being reminded, “hey, whether you’re a regular or the new user, please stop x behavior, that is against rule y.”

Beyond that, I do just read the room and try to detect if we’re in the territory of “this is fun” and “this is constructive,” or if we’ve tipped over into the territory of “people are actually having a bad time with this now, this tone is not what we’re here for, let’s drop this and talk about cats instead everyone.” If I’m actively monitoring the conversation I like to jump in and course-correct before it’s actually gotten to that unpleasant point, but these days I’m a lot more involved in behind-the-scenes mod discussions rather than keeping up with 100% of the day-to-day directly, so, if you the reader have ever seen things get out of hand in the ZDPD that should’ve stopped earlier, I do apologize.

 

Tarro:

At this point the server has over 2500 members. If someone is looking to take their first steps into the community, that can seem very intimidating. Do you have any advice for someone looking to start making friends?

 

Dogteeth:

Have fun! I think memes and humor are a good way to get to know each other in a Discord server like ZDPD. Or you can hop in on article discussion if that’s more your thing, hop in on talking about tech stuff, hop in on sharing cute animal pics or telling others that their animal pics are cute. There’s a lot of ways to be part of the conversation on ZDPD :3

 

For ZDPD, I would also just really really really really want to highlight that it’s a pg-13 space, it is not a space for hitting on others, even in DMs that shit is hella cringe. Just don’t.

 

As far as the size of the server, I think having that many people around makes joining less intimidating, in a lot of ways. Particularly if you’re on an alt account. You can join, and then observe for a while without saying much at first, if you just want to get a feel for what the space is like and who’s cool there. Then, if and when you do want to actually hop in to a conversation, or leave a react on something, go for it :3

 

Tarro:

Paws or Maws?

 

Dogteeth:

maws maws maws maws maws maws maws maws maws

 

Tarro:

What's the worst part about working with me?

 

Dogteeth:

No dental.

 

Tarro:

I'm not sure if you've ever said before but have you ever had dog partners and loved them?

 

Dogteeth:

yes :3 it’s a secret fact that only I and the fellow mods know, so that we can identify each other in case any of our accounts get locked and we need to prove who we are on a new account. Anyone reading this, please don’t spread any rumors that Dogteeth has petted dogs and kissed dogs and said I love you to dogs, it’s a SECRET.

Tarro:

Okay so milk. 1%? 2%? 3%?

 

Milk:

Approx 35%

 

Tarro:

That's a lot of %! How do you manage that?

 

Milk:

Ever since I was a baby, I knew I had to stand out. And so here we are.

 

Tarro:

That makes sense! If I was a member of the Straw Hat Pirates, which member would I be?

 

Milk:

You would be Chopper. Small, furry, arguably opposable thumbs.

 

Tarro:

Honestly fair. Okay, let's get into the good stuff. Ampersand. What is he?

Milk: 

 

Officially he is a monster. The Deep Lore is actually that he’s mixed with my favorite dinosaur :) (ankylosaurus)

 

Tarro:

Ooh, what a scoop! So you've been tangentially involved in the zoo community possibly longer than anyone else I'm interviewing for this. Why?

 

Milk:

<— zoophile

Actual answer is random chance most people don’t assume there’s a community and so need to be introduced my introduction was just a little bit earlier (huzzah antis posting “dude the zoophiles are using zetas as a dog whistle in their bios” and then I instantly put a zeta in my bio). I had already been identifying as a zoophile for a few years prior too I just never thought about talking to people about it before that lol.

 

Tarro:

I think people that don't moderate zoophile spaces of 2500+ members really underestimate the amount of work that goes into it. What's the best and worst part of the job?

 

Milk:

I like being in super special secret club I do not like tough judgement calls. I want so desperately to just be mean all the time to protect the space, but that reflects badly on it to have zero flexibility with a pretty troubled group. Good luck formatting this btw I’ll die before I use grammar in my discord messages. (RACC'S NOTE: This is true, Milk did not use a single period.)

 

Tarro:

That's fine, grammar is for nerds and losers unlike us. (RACC'S NOTE AGAIN: Grammar is actually very cool.)

 

Milk:

You get it you get it.

 

Tarro:

Speaking of which, what's the worst part about working with me?

 

Milk:

I actually don’t have many complaints you’ve been getting a little stronger lately when my biggest issue before was how soft you were on people who are demonstrably dangerous.

I take that back my answer is that you play league of legends

 

Tarro:

That's been literally everyone's answer...

 

Milk:

LOL this is an intervention, Tarro. we’re doing this because we love you.

 

Tarro:

Okay, two more questions. First up, what's your favorite comic featuring a dramatic debate about zoosexuality played over a chess match?

 

Milk:

PLEASE NO LOL! I mean I actually did enjoy my time with Zeta Chronicles ZT Horse is pleasant to work with and the other artist on the project was actually quite the draftsperson. their staging completely destroys mine.

 

Tarro:

Last but not least, when is that Digimon: Is It Zooey? article finally coming out? The people are clamoring!

 

Milk:

You are the people it’s just you. Uh it’s coming! stay tuned!

Tarro:

Okay, so, the whole idea here is that it's generally a chill, easy, light hearted kinda thing. Just a handful of questions to show some personality from everyone. Sound good?

 

Fawnly:

Mhmm!

 

Tarro:

Okay perfect! First question, do you think it's possible to achieve world peace without some kind of overhanging nuclear deterrent?

 

Fawnly:

Yes, hostilities between people are not inevitable. We live in an internet age where you can have friends all over the globe and share lived experiences with them. As long as greed and ignorance are purged from the world we can get along and there can be enough resources for all of us. Mutually insured destruction is kind of crazy if implemented on a micro level, would you be able to concentrate on your life if you and your neighbor had bombs under their houses that would go if either of you broke into the other's house? We don't need weapons to achieve such prosperities and peace. Well atleast until the sun explodes then we might have bigger problems haha.

 

Tarro:

Is it pronounced gif or jif?

 

Fawnly:

GIF since G stands for Graphics, should inherit the sound.

 

Tarro:

What's the worst part about working with me?

 

Fawnly:

*narrows eyes* I thought these were supposed to be easy haha. Give me a moment I will think.

 

Tarro:

Everyone else has had one answer and it's pretty much the same.

 

Fawnly:

Honestly the worst part of working with you is you have so many good ideas it's hard to keep up with my end of trying to make them happen. Some of that is on how me and Lykon work but I still have your standards and vision in mind when trying to upskill for future projects we can all work on together. Im sure if you had a full time team you'd be running a state of the art propaganda mill!

 

Tarro:

Wow that is BY far the nicest answer. Most people just said "League of Legends".

 

Fawnly:

I said I'd play with you, got nothing against it. I'm annoyingly nice, what did you expect? 

 

Tarro:

Why do you think more people don't find deer hot?

 

Fawnly:

It might just be because they are talking to me but I actually run into ALOT of people who think deer are hot. But for a serious answer I think deer just don't have the same wide spread domesticated relationship with society many of the most popular zoo species have. Neither do they have a close relative of a domesticate species like Zebra, Big Cats and Wolves do. I think there will always be a key demographic of deer enjoyers out there who appreciate them for their grace and playful nature.

 

Tarro:

You've been around for a while at this point, what's been your favorite thing about being part of the zoo community?

 

Fawnly:

The kindness and consideration they show the animals in their lives. I can say alot of positive things about the zoos I have grown close with but the main thing I feel is truly remarkable about the community as a whole is the agency and care they show animals in general. Whether it's the high levels of veganism, animal rights activism, diet discussions, and ethical training practices, Zoos have proven to me to be the most likely people to put true thought into what they think will be best for our critter family members. I would trust no one more than a zoo friend to watch after an important animal to me. I would never have engaged and lowered my guard if Zoos had not proven they not only meet my standards but often excel beyond them.

 

Tarro:

Great answer! Last question, as a member of the tech team, can you explain how the internet works?

 

Fawnly:

Sure, so back before the internet there were all these separate networks in Colleges and Government facilities which needed to communicate with each other. They came up with something called DARPAnet that connected all these offices together by teaching them how to ask a central location where the location they are trying to find is. This later evolved into the public internet which uses these things called Top Level Domains which Internet Service Providers will ask where to route traffic using domain name resolution. When you try to interact with something over the internet, your traffic will jump around asking every jump what the shortest route to the location is, it's pretty cool how simple the logic actually is as it will learn the faster route and adapt in real time if required, What is sent between locations is called a packet and the first packets sent to eachother are trading secrets in order to create a trust connection in what is called a "handshake". And then as long as that connection remains trusted, packets are sent at hyper fast speeds, sharing information with eachother as request until whatever you want is sent to you piece by piece. If you are playing league of legends there's alot of corner cutting to help make as much of the logic and content locally created on your computer but multiple times a second the game server is checking in with your client, sending these packets, to try to negotiation what is happening in the game.

 

Tarro:

...Holy shit you actually did it.

 

Fawnly:

*bow*

Tarro:

Is it Gif or Jif?

 

Lykon:

I say gif, although the creator said it's supposed to be jif.

 

Tarro:

Would you consider yourself to be generally tuned in to modern technology?

 

Lykon:

Oh wait, this is the interview?! Just to make sure!

 

Tarro:

Yes!

 

Lykon:

Then yes, I'd say so. I've been tinkering with neural networks for a few months now. To me it's important though that technology has a purpose and can be used to actually improve people's lives. I don't like tech fads.

 

Tarro:

In that case, what's one piece of technology that you think could really improve people's lives that most people don't know about?

 

Lykon:

Federated and decentralized self-hosted applications.

While it's not really an obscure concept, I think that most don't really think too much about this unless they work in IT or are tech hobbyists. To put it briefly: decentralize everything, have people be in control of their own data, eliminate single-points of failure and eliminate corporate tech oligarchy. You can probably already tell it's something I'm passionate about.

 

Tarro:

What is/has been the worst part of bringing ZooBot to the people?

 

Lykon:

The best: definitely seeing the joy it brings people and also thinking about the endless possibilities regarding new features (or even sneaking in funny phrases and replies).

 

The worst: getting so much into it, that I struggle taking breaks or that I end up worrying too much about minor details.

 

Tarro:

What's the worst part about working with me?

 

Lykon:

Honestly, you've been so chill about everything that I always worry that you might be annoyed and just not telling me. So, I really can't complain!

 

Tarro:

Alright Lykon, real fans will know that you're actually the person that's been working with me on the magazine the longest. It was actually your idea in the first place! One of the coolest things about you is that you're always coming up with awesome ideas in general. Come up with an awesome idea right now.

 

Lykon:

Oh wow!! that's tricky... ok.. Clock's ticking... Something with you Tarro... something to do with ZDP... user engagement, comments... but that's not creative enough, is it? Oh, I think I know! A simple one, that's easy to implement and I actually hadn't thought about before, is a collaborative system for users to propose and discuss ideas for articles, allowing them to vote on topics or ideas that they are most interested in, propose sources of information for these article candidates or overall create a stream of topics which we as a community should be talking about.

 

(RACC'S NOTE: He came up with this in ~3 minutes)

 

Tarro:

Wow, that's a good idea! So, before getting into all this, I honestly had a very different picture of what web development even is. I've played around with site builders before and thought it was mostly just click this plugin and drag the thingy and what not. But having been doing this for a while, I get that it's infinitely more complicated than that, and I know how much time and effort you put into the community. What gives you that drive to do it?

 

Lykon:

For me there's nothing more frustrating than seeing good people being treated unfairly, harassed and persecuted. Conversely, there's nothing more satisfying than feeling that I can make a difference, and help protect and empower our community and their non-human companions.

Tarro:

What was your experience like writing for ZDP?

 

Jade:

Well, when I first got to the zdp I saw the writers and everyone cool with their fancy yellow role and I really wanted to find a way to be part of it. Eventually I finally got the courage to ask Tarro (you) about an idea I got, and it was great hearing that my idea was actually worthwhile to write. So I got all of those thoughts I had in my head, that story I wanted to tell, and put it into text for the first time, and it felt great to finally do that :3. Once I submitted it, it didn't take too long for them to get back to me and tell me what I needed to fix and turns out I was a much better writer than I thought, so that was fun to hear! And then after a few quick additions my work got posted and it was so nice being able to see that and now that I wrote it, that it's my story there.

...I realize that's probably waaaay more details than you were asking for ^^'

 

Tarro:

No, that's perfect! Did you have any experience writing before doing this?

 

Jade:

Only real expirence I had writing before this was throughout school, where I feel like I was usually able to get out good things for classes, essays and such. Although I did write the occasional story, which was really cool, I have a ton of ideas floating around my head of stories and fiction that I make up and such, so it's always nice to put it onto paper in some way.

 

Tarro:

If you had to pick one of the ZDP mods to fist fight, which one would you pick?

 

Jade:

Hard to say, maybe Milk? First thought that came to mind nothing personal. Definitely either Milk or Madhu.

 

Tarro:

How do you think as technology keeps progressing and AI becomes more and more prominent in our lives the role of writers in general is going to change, if at all?

 

Jade:

I think it's important that in the face of AI like this that we keep writing. We don't want everything to become ai generated slop.

 

Tarro:

How do we get more people to write?

 

Jade:

Make sure that everyone knows they can just come to you with their ideas and they don't have to be scared, that anyone can write if they want to.

 

Tarro:

Doing anything is effort. Life is complicated, especially right now. It can be hard to do anything outside our creature comforts sometimes. What makes you want to put your effort towards creating for the zoo community?

 

Jade: 

This place feels like a family and I wanna further our progress. We can't give up

 

Tarro:

And last but not least, when are we getting your next article?

 

Jade:

Whenever I come up with one!

Tarro:

Alissa, do you ever think about the fact that you're probably the person in all of history that's read the most zoo writing ever?

 

Alissa:

Oh my dog I don’t even think I’m in the top ten thousand. It seems like I’m constantly getting little glimpses into whole worlds of zoo writing that are gone to time, be it zines that are 30 years past being in circulation, old zoo websites with blogs and fiction that weren’t fully archived by Wayback in time, entire forums and stuff like that that are locked away now. Plus like, bluntly, there is more feral erotica out there than I could ever catch up on, I think you could fill an entire library up with shifter romance novels and feral smut alone. Someone’s mom in Idaho has read more of that than me, I’m sure.

 

But, as far as writing that’s contemporary, and that’s zooey with a capital ζ, a lot of it certainly does end up on my desk, whether that’s before publication for me to make red squiggles on, or whether it’s just for me as a consumer of interesting human+dog stuff. Maybe when I’m old and in a rocking chair and reading the 11th book of Konny’s zooey high fantasy novel series, I’ll finally suddenly get an achievement notification on the bottom of my HUD that I’m now the person in the world who has read the most zooey writing.

 

Tarro:

Why zooey writing, and not like.. Game of Thrones, or Twilight, or every Sci-Fi book ever written?

 

Alissa:

I was actually kind of talking about this just a couple days ago with Ganymede, someone I talk with a lot who is also very into the craft of writing. Ganymede is not a zoo, is it/its, is aromantic, is into sex and conversation and all kinds of fun stuff, and *really* doesn’t resonate with anything where the theme is “friendship is how we save the day!” We very frequently compare and contrast how our places on the LGBTQIA+ tapestry are similar and different. One thing we were both remarking on recently is how, a lot of mainstream media is *fine,* but we don’t really feel that compelled to check it out because it frankly doesn’t have the kinds of themes that we find interesting. If I’m looking at the clearance shelf in a used book store, and I see one story that’s about how a man and a woman want to get married but they can’t because the woman doesn’t think she’s pretty enough and the man doesn’t make enough money to impress the woman’s parents, but they want to get married more than anything else in the world because they are the ones for each other. And then next to that book, I see a book where a feral dog ends up nosing his way into being the newest member of a gay furry polycule. I am grabbing the dog book. Right now we have a lot of zoo writing in the world to keep my to-read list pretty well filled up, so, I am reading a lot of zoo stuff these days because that’s what’s most interesting to me. I’m invested in seeing what the community is expressing and what all of the latest is.

 

Tarro:

So you're an editor, and the power of editing can make or break writing. Do you think if you got the first draft of infamous fan fiction My Immortal you could have made it better, or is some art beyond the editorial process?

 

Alissa:

I couldn't have made My Immortal better because it is already the perfect version of My Immortal.

 

Tarro:

What's the worst part about working with me?

 

Alissa:

THE PERIODS AND COMMAS GO INSIDE OF THE CLOSING QUOTATION MARKS, TARRO.

 

Tarro:

What would you say to anyone thinking of writing an article but is scared they aren't a "good writer"?

 

Alissa:

Bad writing still got me friends on some furry sites back in the day. Shoot your shot!

    

Tarro:

And last question. Since you're both an interviewee and an editor, what do you think of this article?

 

Alissa:

I haven't read everyone else's interviews yet! But I think the idea is fun and cute. Send me this for sure so that I can read what everyone else had to say, and so that I can do some typo cleanup in my own answers. Lastly if I can just say one other thing, if a dog is asking you for something and nothing you guess like "hungry" or "thirsty" is what they want, maybe they're really bored and want you to go play outside with them!

 

Tarro:

Okay well I was going to do an "any last words to leave our readers with", but now it feels weird.. Should we edit that out?

 

Alissa:

Yeah we can make it like you asked :3

 

Tarro:

Okay sounds good!

 

Alissa:

I'll fix it l8r :3 Anyways do you wanna switch chairs, metaphorically, and do a few questions yourself? :3c

 

Tarro:

Sure!

 

Alissa:

How much more zooey content do you think there is to be milked out of League of Legends? Have the League articles we've already published pretty much covered most of it, or have we only scratched the surface here?

 

Tarro: 

Oh, there's at least 15 more I can think of right now off the top of my head. I just know they're some of our audience favorites so I try to make sure to spread them out to keep people coming back!

 

Alissa:

Based on the analytics that you've looked at, I think we both agree that Zooey Dot Pub's Discord server is the biggest zoo space out there right now, in terms of the size of the userbase and in terms of how much message activity there is each and every day. Do you ever see ZDPD expanding to other platforms, such as Telegram, Element, or IRC?

 

Tarro:

There's a world where it happens for sure, but it's not currently a priority. There are definitely a lot of zoos that don't use Discord and it would be cool to give them the same thing we're doing over there. It's just really complicated. One of the most important parts about big groups is the moderation team, and we've spent years getting the people we have now to rest at a healthy place. I just don't think that I've got the time in my schedule to make that happen again with a different group. That said, we do have some contingency plans for if the ZDPD ever gets banned, so that would be one way we would definitely expand. Or, if we start getting more guest writers so I have more time to do more expansion stuff. There are SO MANY things I'd love to do if someone suddenly invents another couple hours in the day.

 

Alissa:

Speaking of days, how did your tacos taste for Taco Tuesday! I saw the pics but I didn't hear exactly what you put on them or how they turned out, they looked good!

 

Tarro:

They were Korean inspired, based off an old recipe from my family kitchen! I've been trying really hard to be vegan, but we haven't made these in a long time and my boyfriend said please, so I ended up doing a beef bulgogi with red cabbage, and a homemade spicy mayo, topped with cilantro, lime, and a little gochujang paste. They ended up really spicy, but also super delicious. Plus, I ended up making mine after a lot of other people, and so I was starving looking at everyone elses tacos while I cooked!

 

Alissa:

Sounds like a really fun night! I crave lime all of the sudden. Lime and spicy. Anyways, if an agent came to you with a publishing contract ready to go with Penguin Random House because they've seen you prove your market potential with all of the Twitter engagement for a MAGAZINE of all things, and they want to get you into Barnes and Noble and on all of the daytime talk shows stat, what do you think your debut zoo book would be like? Is there a particular facet of zoosexuality that you'd want to focus on? What does the world need right now, if in a month's time a raccoon was on the Today show shedding light on zoosexual things?

 

Tarro:

Well, I think a press tour would be complicated, just given the anonymity thing. That said, it's an interesting question because I'd definitely be afraid of coming in *too* hot, y'know? I don't think the world is ready for a version Twilight where Jacob is just a wolf and Edward is a cat and they all smooch. But, in this scenario it's something I'd be publishing as Tarro, and therefore as a zoosexual, and so the biggest thing would just be to make sure it's really good. Something where people walk away talking about the great story, and the fact that it was made by a zoo is just a cherry on top. That said, it would definitely have some zooey elements. I'm a big fan of fantasy settings, and I love a dark story, maybe something with an environmental message? There can be a romantic lead positioned in the story, but it turns out that despite feeling like that's the path that the MC should go down, they realize that really they're much more in love with the horse that's been their companion from the start. Something like that! Maybe even have the horse talk to the main character telepathically so that the normies have some plausible deniability.

 

Alissa:

I think a cookbook would also have legs, but yes either of the two sounds good for sure. Any closing thoughts you want to leave us with here today?

 

Tarro:

Thanks everyone for coming along for this journey saying hello to the people that work to keep Zooey Dot Pub running! All of them are so incredible, and the fact that they give so much of their time to this little project of ours is so amazing of them. But, at the end of the day, we're all really here for the same reason. We all want to make the world a better place for all the zoos out there. And not to toot my own horn here at the end of a very self-serving article, but I hope that everyone that helps out with this project knows how many people they're helping. As the face of this thing in a lot of ways, I get the most attention, and I do my best to share the positivity with the team, but every piece of this whole wacky mess has touched people in really deep and meaningful ways, and I hope that everyone who puts their time into this knows just how much that can mean to someone. It certainly means a lot to me.

 

And, to the readers, your support is so important as well! As much as I'd probably still be doing this ranting into a void, seeing those positive reactions is like adding fuel to the fire. It's so nice knowing that people care about what we're doing, so thank you for reading, for chatting, for sending that nice DM, or just for being a part of this community. We've still got a long way to go, but as someone that's been around for a while now, it's amazing to see how far we've come, and that's all from people being brave enough to join in and add their voice to this cause. So thank you for that.

 

Tarro:

.. I just realized that I basically did the closing statement of the article in the final thoughts section..

 

Alissa:

We'll fix all of it in post 👍

 

Tarro:

Okay, sounds good. It would be awful to just leave the article ending with a random quote.