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  • Video Aug 13 2025, 9 43 16 AM.mov

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Good afternoonish, from the time zone of West Virginia!

I hope Konrad doesn't mind me making comics about him because he seems to do at least one comickable thing per day, so it's hard not to.

I thought he was just REALLY committing to the bit!

In Konrad's defense, he's lived all over the world, and there's a lot of different kinds of kale out there!

Here's an indulgent, punchline-free daily, just to share with you what my mornings are like.

Idk who was scritching Ollie through the fence, but they both stayed there a loooong time. I'm not sure which one was happier about it.

Here's the original art for that one! Type in DAILYSMILE50 at checkout to lower the price from $50 to $25, as always, for being a patron. :)

If you follow me on Instagram, you may have seen my post about this paper nest, which seems to have manifested overnight...

The Bald-Faced Hornets haven't bothered me at all, but they are kinda bro-y.

Here's the original art! (Don't forget your discount code!)

I've been keeping a big secret from y'all: the arrival of a new, soon-to-be recurring character.

Honestly, it was a nice parking lot, I was ready to squat. But Luke figured out how to get his credit card number from his bank and we managed to get out of the lot eventually.

So, here's Quetza, short for Quetzalcōātl!

He's a Xolo (short for Xoloitzcuintle), which is a breed of Mexican hairless! I'll make a comic soon about what it's like to hold a hairless dog, in case you've never touched one, because it was an... unexpected experience for me.

He's tiny right now, but will grow to be about 30 pounds... mercifully, because that means I can contribute to the dog-walking part without being smeared down the sidewalk.

He's got big puppy energy, but when he calms down, he's a total lap dog.

The cats have been... tolerant.

I'll attach the video this shot came from, so you can enjoy Quetza's adorable puppy sounds, and Ollie's authoritative hiss. I hope it works! (Tell me if it doesn't; when it comes to video files, I'm like a grandpa on Facebook.)

Do you have any questions for Quetza? Or general questions about xolos? Leave 'em in the comments, maybe I'll answer it in next week's dailies!

Hope you all come across something resplendent this weekend!

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Comments

Douglas Appelt

Can confirm the video works! Never heard of Xolos before. I thought he was a dark-skinned Egyptian sphinx at first.

Miranda Schubert

Aw he loves the kitties and wants to plaaaaaay. <3

allanfranta

Human's have messed with dog's DNA for soooo long! I've read about people using this breed for therapy dogs, I just wonder if they are more susceptible to skin cancer. Good luck with the puppy training! Bed, Sit, Stay and Here! They will figure out "Treats!"

Andy Ihnatko

If the hornets' partnership with you doesn't work out, their next move is to get on TikTok and become Lifestyle Content Creators.

Josh Smift

> Honestly, it was a nice parking lot, I was ready to squat. hahahaha oh my -- after the bit about Quetza peeing, I thought at first that you were talking about doing likewise.

Katelyn Sweigart

My mother's friend has two Xolos and I spent and entire dinner party just in a neurodivergent trance petting one.

Aubrey K

Quetza is completely unbothered by Ollie

Hannah K

What a little GUY.

Andy Ihnatko

I predict that after your first full month of taking Quetza for walks, you'll have your answers to the Five Questions People Always Ask About Him so locked down that you'll rattle them off without even thinking about them any more, like an actor who's done over 400 performances of the same play. (I was probably the first person in the county to ride around on an e-bike. "About forty miles on a full charge," "No, I still have to work the pedals. The motor just sort of 'amplifies' the amount of effort I'm putting in," "About as expensive as an old used car. But you can get them for as little as a _terrible_ used car…")

dcorsetto

Those are all excellent answers and thank you for asking two of my three questions. :)

dcorsetto

Oh shit THAT'S why I like touching him so much. :o

dcorsetto

Hah! Yeah, interesting choice of words, Past Danielle.

Hannah K

My only thought, and take this with a grain of salt since I'm a rando not involved with Quetza's actual care, but hopefully while he's initially a puppy, and maybe for a little while, having him be in one household versus going back and forth (since you and Luke live apart) _may_ make the little guy adjust to the newness better? BUT YMMV, IT'S ONLY A THOUGHT, AND YOU MAY HAVE ALREADY THOUGHT IT 🙃 BEST OF LUCK WITH PUP

William Cole

Love Quetza! And thanks for the weekend wishes. I'm wrapping up a week at the Jersey shore with family, which has, in fact been pretty resplendent!

Kier Salmon

I hope it’s being pronounced Keht-za. (And I had autocorrupt with a passion, took three tries to make the app accept my spelling.) I’ve never gotten over the narrator who said in one of my audio books, “Looks like there’s the first cu-etza of the season!” (Ewww….) As a native speaker of Spanish who’s heard a lot of Nahuatl, I love the name, when properly pronounced. Dear friends of mine had a xolo called Temilotzin. They taught him to bark for some reason. These dogs don’t do it naturally. Nothing eerier than seeing the entire pack at the Frida Kahlo museum race towards visitors without a sound.

Luke

The xolo breed has been around for 3000-ish years!

Luke

Yup! Totally pronounced like “Keht-za”!! There was a whole pack of xolos at the Kahlo museum?

Kier Salmon

Yes. But there are two museums. Not the one in Coyoacán, but the one out near Xochimilco… I think? It’s been ten years since I’ve been there. I don’t go back to Mexico often these days. It looks like a huge hacienda with extensive gardens. The dog pack has their own area which has a chain link fence to keep them away from the visitors.

dcorsetto

Shit. Maybe I SHOULD have the nest obliterated...

dcorsetto

Neeeeeat. Neither Luke nor I knew that they don't naturally bark!!

kaitou

Have the cats actually been tolerant or just confused? ("WTF is this thing? What should I do with it? Do I play with it, attack it, chase it away or just ignore it?")

Andy Ihnatko

"Know THIS, newcomer: you could become many things within this domain…but you will never be CAT."

Andy Ihnatko

What was the third? (And: I'm looking forward to the Daily Comic that's a montage of people asking you and Luke questions…)

dcorsetto

This is a good question and could be either!! I get the vibe that he & Ollie *could* become good playmates if they can keep their teeth & claws from being murderous!

dcorsetto

Oh I worded that completely wrong!! I meant to say that I knew the second fact, but the other two were exactly the questions I'd have asked. :)

Tim Pendergast

Not unreasonable airport parking rates. MHT, the regional airport 20 minutes from me is $6/hour while Logan in Boston is $10/hour. As for Quetza, I can totally hear Michael Moriarty yelling "Eat them! Eat them up!" in my head right now! :P

Ash

The White-Tailed Hornet lives in a balloon, that floats against the ceiling of the woodshed… My favorite Robert Frost poem, somehow. Dolichovespula maculata, is the science name for the same bug (white-tail, bald-face, bull wasp, blackjacket.) They have a lot of names. They’re kinda mean, but only around their nest.

Kier Salmon

My answer seems to have vanished into the bit-bucket. There are several museums with Frida’s work. I don’t mean the one in Coyoacán, that one is a small house. I mean a huge “hacienda” style building. I think it’s near Xochimilco. It has extensive gardens and a chain-link fenced run (very large) for the xolos. It’s been all of ten or twelve years since I was there. Does this one bark? I remember my friend dancing a can-can in front of the dog, Temilotzin... he'd jump up with the companion's kicks and the companion would sing, "Temilo relampagear..."   (Temillotl means men’s warrior’s head crest!) And eventually the dog began to bark while jumping. I seem to recall they told me it took about 6 weeks. On the other hand, I remember a standard sized pair that lived near Ciudad Universitaria, who had a balcony to run on and bark at the students. They were clearly trined as guard dogs and to bark ferociously. (They come in three sizes. The standards are as large as a smaller Doberman pinscher.)

Melissa Wilson

OMG yes! I want to rub those expressive little caricature ears.

Melissa Wilson

*swoon* This is me in instantly & hopelessly in love with Quetza. 3 of my nieces are extreme multi-allergy kids, but their parents were both dog people, so they had hairless terriers while the girls were growing up. There’s something oddly & inexplicably enchanting about petting them, with their play-doh texture. 🥰

Melissa Wilson

Yessss! At last, our valiant hero enters the arena.

Melissa Wilson

It’s totally what I always imagined Goopy Kitty felt like…

Dean Reilly

USD$10/hour in Melbourne, Australia. And the government has been promising a rail link 'real soon now' since the airport opened in the 1970s!

Tim Pendergast

Rail in America is mostly fantasy. Boston's airport is on the subway (what they call the T.) Meanwhile, I'm not even sure buses run to MHT.

Melissa Wilson

A naked pups’ skin is *absolutely* at risk for sunburn & other skin issues! Hairless critters are easier to care for in many ways, but it’s still a good idea to talk to a vet about the right choices to make for sunblock & other skin care, especially if your charming new little one has access to places to bask in the sun.

Melissa Wilson

😂 “To be great is to be misunderstood.”

Michael Rhode

Oddly enough, I just picked up a book on this breed in a Little Free Library for my daughter to look at and we put it in our LFL. Email me if you want me to see if it's still out there. Congrats! Mike

Pille

OMG, i have been in dog-love with those dogs for a while! So happy I can follow him through you now! Congrats with the new little no-fluffy friend! (That was a lot of !'s! I'm just thrilled! )

Chris W.

Huh, so Madeline L'Engle completely predicted e-bikes in the book *A Wrinkle in Time*, published back in the '60s. Cool!

dcorsetto

Totally fair point! Thus far it hasn't seemed to be an issue for him; his bigger issue (which is apparently common with the breed) is being left alone for periods of time. Which is both cute and annoying. ;)

dcorsetto

Hahaha absolutely. Followed by a size-up of Quetza compared to squirrels he's bested.

Becki Brothers

Quetza is adorable! I'm betting that Oliie just isn't used to big puppy energy.

dcorsetto

Ollie isn't used to "more energy than me" energy!

BrenaMarie

I have always wanted to be friends with a Xolo! Also occasionally, I get obsessed with either hating the idea of or desperately wanting a Sphinx cat. This obsession, much like that of finding my possible older half-sister, will recede into the back of my brain eventually to re-emerge when I'm not thinking about anything in particular. (Family stuff is *weird*.)