Letter from the Editors:

Dearest Readers,

Meow, woof, squeak! That’s just the animal way of saying wow we got a lot of great submissions. We could fill a zoo, but we wouldn’t because these stories shouldn’t be caged; they’re free-range!

Inside this issue you’ll find cats, deer, ducks, monkeys, chipmunks, fireflies, a whole assortment of birds, fish, dogs, and more! No(ah) one got more animals than us. Enjoy reading them to your own furry friends (animal or human).

Issue 12 is sure to bring surprises and maybe make you go, “Huh?” We’re moving from the extinct to the instinct, from what crawls under foot to what is afoot, from the family pet on a leash to crime-solving cats finding leads. It’s Mysteries!

Submit your mystery piece or pieces by February 28th (or will it be?). We look forward to solving them (or will we?).

Yours,
Deep Overstock Editors

(Cover art: Kezia Rasmussen & Zuriel van Belle)

AJD – Saved by Cats
Michael Baldwin – Golden Eyes; Blackberry Epiphany
Sarah Bartlett – The Cormorant; Or Was it Not a Koi
Arnold B. Cabdriver – The We Hate Animals Club; A Small Group of Fishermen; We May Never Remove Our Masks around the Monkeys
Roger Camp – Menagerie, shop window, Paris; Pig & Cat, gallery window, Paris 8˚; Horse Sculpture Window, Paris
Yuan Changming – Just Another Crow; Dytiscus Larvae: a Dramatic Scene; Frog Calls; Elegy to the Great Auk; Gongxifacai [묜毆랙꼿]: An Idiomatic Chinese Calendar
Mickey Collins – Cat for Cole
Desiree Ducharme – Forest of Arden; Rescue
Lynette G. Esposito – Leaving the Slaughterhouse; Black Birds in the Backyard; Early Evening
Esther Fishman – Day 5: Chipmunks
Heather Glover – Story of Sabi
Michal Goldstein – The Bone
John Grey – Cousin in Florida
Ariel Kusby – Black Bird
Kellye McBride – Hospital for Reanimated Pets
Walter Moon – The Temp
Fabrice Poussin – Keeper of the Realm; You Don’t Say; Nice Place
Bob Selcrosse – The Deer
G Michael Smith – Hummingbird
Eric Thralby – The Duck
Robert Torres – Traumatic Indoctrination
Jonathan van Belle – Kitty; Meow
Zuriel van Belle – Marport
Z.B. Wagman – Fireflies
George White – My Cat
Marlowe Whittenberg – Gharial: A Riddle Poem
Nick Yandell – The Golden Brown Dog

Editorial

Editors-In-Chief: Mickey Collins & Robert Eversmann
Managing Editors: Ariel Kusby, Michael Santiago & Z.B. Wagman
Poetry: Ariel Kusby & Jihye Shin
Prose: Michael Santiago & Z.B. Wagman, A.G. Angevine